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LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 28, 2009

Be careful not to bend your gender in Japanese

One of the biggest omissions in Japanese textbooks, classes and one-on-one lessons is gendered language. Ignore it and at some point you will wind up sounding like a little Japanese girl — or a guy — when you didn't intend too.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Oct 28, 2009

Nelson has Warriors poised for failure again

NEW YORK — Every so often over the past few decades, I've been unable to fight off the urge to poke fun at Don Nelson for two basic reasons:
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2009

Mr. Hatoyama states his politics

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama made his first keynote address to the Diet on Monday. He should be commended for summing up his "politics of fraternity" in his own words — thus dumping the practice of pasting together sentences written by bureaucrats from various ministries.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2009

Free expression under fire

GUATEMALA CITY — Freedom of expression is one of the most important cornerstones of a free and open society. Guarantees of freedom of expression allow citizens to learn about mistakes of the powerful and help reveal corruption at all levels.
BUSINESS
Oct 28, 2009

JAL downfall not just its own doing

With Cabinet ministers indicating Japan Airlines Corp. may get an injection of public funds, a transport ministry task force is in the final stages of compiling a rehabilitation plan for the struggling carrier.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 28, 2009

Be careful not to bend your gender in Japanese

One of the biggest omissions in Japanese textbooks, classes and one-on-one lessons is gendered language. Ignore it and at some point you will wind up sounding like a little Japanese girl — or a guy — when you didn't intend too.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 28, 2009

Hatoyama pushing economy 'backward,' Takenaka says

Heizo Takenaka, the architect of policy changes credited with securing Japan's longest postwar economic expansion, blasted the Democratic Party of Japan-led government for undermining prospects for recovery.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 27, 2009

Immigration showing signs of ninjo

Last month, I was asked to take part in a public panel discussion on the recently released Harrison Ford blockbuster "Crossing Over." In the film, Ford plays an L.A. Immigration and Customs officer with a conscience, increasingly disturbed by the human consequences of his job.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2009

Painful past must be put to rest for good

PARIS — A nation's relationship with its past is crucial to its present and its future, to its ability to "move on" with its life, or to learn from its past errors so as not to repeat them. This includes the past that isn't dead and buried — "in fact, it is not even past," as William Faulkner famously...
Reader Mail
Oct 25, 2009

ASDF people excelled in Iraq

Regarding the Oct. 15 editorial "Full military disclosure": While I can appreciate the constraints placed on Japan's Air-Self Defense Force mission in Iraq, many people seem to have forgotten that Iraq was a very dangerous place for much of the period from March 2004 to December 2008.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 25, 2009

Kafkaesque tale for the new porn era

THE APPRENTICESHIP OF BIG TOE P, by Rieko Matsuura. Kodansha International, 2009, 448 pp., ¥2,730 (hardcover) As Kazumi Mano awoke one morning from a troubled dream, she found her big toe transformed into a monstrous penis. So it starts — Kafkaesque but oh so Japanese. First published in 1993 as "Oyayubi...
Reader Mail
Oct 25, 2009

The health insurance obstacle

Regarding the Oct. 22 letter "Avoiding an all-around nightmare" (from the anonymous hospital worker): I would like to point out that people with private foreign health insurance do not expect each clinic in Japan "to have fully staffed English-speaking insurance and billing experts." Foreigners in Japan,...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 24, 2009

Standing army still the prize peace-breaker

NEW YORK — The news that President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize immediately brought to mind comparisons with former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who received the same prize back in 1973. In the outpourings of sharply divided reactions that ensued, a great many, it turned...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Oct 23, 2009

Bento packaged for the global spotlight

Boxed lunches have been around for centuries in Japan, but now the rest of the world is seeing the beauty and economic good sense of bento.
JAPAN / Q&A
Oct 23, 2009

Lowdown on H1N1 vaccinations

With swine flu inoculations now under way for medical workers, other people may be anxious about when it will be their turn. As cooler weather sets in, and with it higher risks of contracting the new H1N1 virus, the government is administering vaccinations on a priority basis, with healthy working-age...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 23, 2009

Pusan fest revels in all films Asian

South Korea's biggest box-office hit of the year is the disaster movie "Haeundae," which has been seen by 11.3 million Koreans. The title refers to the beach-resort area of Pusan, where from Oct. 8-16 the 14th annual Pusan International Film Festival took place. In fact, most of the festival is held...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 23, 2009

Asagaya Jazz Streets

Asagaya Jazz Streets, one of the best-loved jazz festivals in Tokyo, turns 15 this year. For two days, Oct. 23-24, neighborhood venues and concert halls are commandeered to host a who's who of Tokyo jazz players. The event began as humble neighborhood promotion, but now 20 local clubs are in on the festivities,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 23, 2009

A detour through the artist's mind

A scarlet fish head, the silhouette of a tree and a burned-out hole surrounded by scribbled thoughts may at first sight appear to inhabit different worlds.
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2009

A base Okinawans can live with

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa in Tokyo this week. The two sides failed to resolve differences over the relocation of a U.S. military base on Okinawa Island. Under a 2006 bilateral agreement,...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years