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COMMENTARY
Apr 22, 2009

A violent warning for Thailand's urban elites

Until recently (before all the rioting, violence and assassination plotting) Thailand would not have appeared to be a deeply troubled society. Generally speaking, Thais were, as endlessly advertised, scintillatingly smiley, and the country as a whole — vast rolling expanses of poverty notwithstanding...
Reader Mail
Apr 19, 2009

Kids can acquire the four skills

Tim Chambers ("The younger, the better," April 12) is correct in suggesting children's brains at the elementary level are like sponges. This period prior to the onset of puberty when children's brains are capable of easily absorbing quite a lot is known in second language acquisition theory as the "critical...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 19, 2009

A rip and a burp and the land is ours

It's that time of year when Japan's media are meticulously monitoring the iconic cherry-blossom front as it passes up through the archipelago in a wave of warming temperatures and bursting buds.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 17, 2009

Celebrating the work of artist Dick Bruna

Illustrations by Dick Bruna, creator of picture books featuring the rabbit Miffy, and other animals, are now on show at the Museum of Modern Art in Saitama. As a firm family favorite, this exhibition is sure to be popular with parents during Golden Week.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 17, 2009

Celebrating the work of artist Dick Bruna

Illustrations by Dick Bruna, creator of picture books featuring the rabbit Miffy, and other animals, are now on show at the Museum of Modern Art in Saitama. As a firm family favorite, this exhibition is sure to be popular with parents during Golden Week.
Reader Mail
Apr 12, 2009

Less work, more people

If the author of the article "Women, know your place" is being extremely sarcastic, then fine, but if she is being serious, she must be kidding. Japan faces a huge dilemma, with its aging and declining population and its low birthrate. If Japan does not act now, then the country as we know it will cease...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 12, 2009

Dark thoughts and macabre tales

As a boy, Edogawa Rampo was, as he relates in one of the essays included in this collection, a devotee of popular fiction. Entering the fantastic twists and turns of his stories we are soon lost in them just as, when boys and girls ourselves, we became the characters in the romances and adventures we...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 10, 2009

Age knows no boundaries for flutist

He celebrated his 80th birthday in January, but Swiss flutist Peter- Lukas Graf — who is still active as a performer, conductor and teacher — is touring Japan.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 10, 2009

Age knows no boundaries for flutist

He celebrated his 80th birthday in January, but Swiss flutist Peter- Lukas Graf — who is still active as a performer, conductor and teacher — is touring Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2009

Sarkozy pushing the limits of Bonapartism

PARIS — After four decades, France has returned to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's unified military command. At a stroke, President Nicolas Sarkozy overturned one of the pillars of French policy — and of the legacy of Charles de Gaulle, the founder of Sarkozy's own political party.
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2009

North said in driver's seat after 'triumph'

Sunday's launch of what Pyongyang called a satellite — but many others around the world saw as a ballistic missile test — is a "triumph for North Korea," analysts said, because it gives the reclusive state plenty of diplomatic leverage as it pursues its nuclear program and handles the succession...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2009

Rebalancing Asia's economies

MANILA — Today's global economic crisis is the worst since the Great Depression, and developing Asia is being hit much harder than initially thought. It's now time — in fact it is an opportunity — to rebalance our recent rapid economic growth to help protect us from future external shocks and to...
Reader Mail
Apr 5, 2009

Put 'Terminator' back in the box

The article "Programmed for combat or for pleasure" is so sad. The author has written quite an article on robots, in praise of an American-authored book. But one can find overt, if not pompous, references to how America has used robotic technology to further its military interests. Littered throughout...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 5, 2009

Two decades past Poland's 'compromise'

WARSAW — "Poland — ten years, Hungary — ten months, East Germany — ten weeks, Czechoslovakia — ten days."
CULTURE / Books
Apr 5, 2009

Looking at history: the argument for facts over theory

Positivism in historiography means an emphasis on facts over theory, documentary evidence over deductions from premises. It may also be called "nitty-gritticism," George Akita suggests in "Evaluating Evidence," a book that recounts the author's dealing with primary sources and the problems he has come...
COMMENTARY
Apr 1, 2009

China versus the Dalai Lama

On the 60th anniversary of his escape to India, the exiled 14th Dalai Lama stands as a bigger challenge than ever for China, as underscored by Beijing's stepped-up vilification campaign against him and its admission that it is now locked in a "life and death struggle" over Tibet.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Mar 31, 2009

Look overseas to address Japan's lag in English ability

Dear education ministry,
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Mar 29, 2009

Carp skipper Brown excited about team's chances

Hiroshima Carp manager Marty Brown says he expects his team to be much improved this season and does not feel any pressure to get the club into the Central League Climax Series.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 29, 2009

Between modernism and modanizumu

When reading William J. Tyler's anthology, "Modanizumu: Modernist Fiction from Japan, 1913-1938," one realizes that "modanizumu" (modernism) is a very broad term. It seems to mean, for Tyler anyway, any work produced during the years he designates that is not absolutely reactionary in its style or concerns....
CULTURE / Books
Mar 29, 2009

Between modernism and modanizumu

MODANIZUMU: Modernist Fiction From Japan, 1913-1938, compiled and edited by William J. Tyler. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2008, 605 pp., $47 (cloth). When reading William J. Tyler's anthology, "Modanizumu: Modernist Fiction from Japan, 1913-1938," one realizes that "modanizumu" (modernism)...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 28, 2009

From a shady past to helping others

Kabukicho is Tokyo's infamous entertainment district and suburb of sleaze. A heavily populated square of sleepless activity northeast of Shinjuku Station, it is home to a haphazard mix of movie theaters, hostess bars, strip clubs, and seedy nightclubs. An illicit atmosphere permeates the air.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 27, 2009

Duffy savors fruits of success

"Half of my quarter of a century belongs to music, so I never belonged to anything else," says Welsh songstress Duffy. "I feel very able and ready!"
CULTURE / Music
Mar 27, 2009

Duffy savors fruits of success

"Half of my quarter of a century belongs to music, so I never belonged to anything else," says Welsh songstress Duffy. "I feel very able and ready!"
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2009

When push comes to shove, can Japan shoot down missile?

First of two parts
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2009

Japanese whiskey talk of town

Toru Itakura sipped whiskey from plastic cups as showgirls cavorted, bagpipes played and a little bit of Scotland came to Tokyo at a sampling for connoisseurs.
LIFE / Digital
Mar 25, 2009

Programmed for combat or for pleasure

While Japan is a technological powerhouse, it is usually a follower and not a pioneer.
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 2009

Barring the people needed

The Calderon affair — the expulsion of a Filipino couple who entered Japan illegally but whose Japanese-fluent daughter was born and raised in Japan — is seen as an indictment of Japan's confused immigration policies. And rightly.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 22, 2009

Tale of a fallen woman and other intrigues

Since his literary debut in 1992, Vincent "Vinnie" Calvino, an expat Italian-Jewish attorney from New York, has been pursuing investigations on behalf of mostly foreign clients in Bangkok.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 22, 2009

Raising bilingual children takes time, huge effort — and lotsa money

An American friend recently asked me a difficult question: How do you bring up a bilingual child?

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight