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Reader Mail
Nov 13, 2008

A repugnant anachronism

Regarding T. Mamoru Hanami's Nov. 6 letter, "The right to express oneself": Perhaps Hanami is unaware of the long and sordid history of lynching in America. Literally hundreds, if not thousands, of African-Americans were brutally beaten, hanged and burned during the post-Civil War Era in the United States....
BUSINESS
Nov 13, 2008

Not all firms hurting in hard times

While the yen's surge and the recession may be battering the sales and profits of the country's blue-chip firms, others are making headway through the storm, posting record half-year profits even as the global financial turmoil hammers financial firms and export-driven manufacturers such as Sony Corp....
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ASEAN JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Nov 13, 2008

Asia must act as one to ride out global crisis

East Asia needs to work more closely together as the region tries to cope with the global financial crisis, journalists from Southeast Asian countries told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 13, 2008

Yes we can . . . what, Mr. Obama?

KYOTO — America appears to have been swept up in a feel-good moment. But as much as U.S. President-elect Barack Obama appeals to me as a public speaker and wordsmith, as much as I appreciate his candid, inclusive style as an antidote to everything redolent of President George W. Bush, as thrilled as...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ASEAN JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Nov 13, 2008

Japan's help sought to protect environment from development

Rapid growth and urbanization have caused serious environmental and energy problems in some Southeast Asian economies, and expectations are high for Japan to provide models and technologies to support sustainable development at affordable costs, the journalists told the Oct. 30 symposium.
BUSINESS
Nov 13, 2008

Consumer sentiment falls to record low as economy worsens

Consumer confidence fell to its lowest level in at least 26 years, making it unlikely shoppers will spend to support an economy weakened by slower global demand and falling stock prices, the Cabinet Office said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Nov 13, 2008

Ruling bloc OKs ¥2 trillion boost

The government and Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc officially adopted a ¥2 trillion cash handout program Wednesday, but officials said they don't know yet if foreign residents will get a piece of the pie.
EDITORIALS
Nov 12, 2008

Financial crisis hits home

The global financial crisis is hitting Japanese companies hard. Symbolic is Toyota Motor Co.'s prediction of its own business performance for the full year to March 2009. The rise of the yen's value and the slowing down of the world economy as seen in decreased auto sales in the United States and Europe...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2008

End of WWI remembered, 90 years on

KOBE — A small ceremony was held Tuesday morning at the Kobe Municipal Foreign Cemetery to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the end of the World War I.
EDITORIALS
Nov 11, 2008

Historic visit to Taiwan

The Taiwan Strait continues to narrow. Last week witnessed the highest-level contacts between Taiwan and mainland China since the 1949 civil war. The visit of Mr. Chen Yunlin to Taipei continues the bridge-building between the two sides and is a step forward in the eyes of all who seek peace and stability...
COMMENTARY
Nov 11, 2008

Laissez faire has taken a powder

In the wee hours of Oct. 11 Tokyo time, finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of Seven industrialized countries met in Washington to discuss how to resolve the global financial crisis and agreed to protect all depositors and inject public funds to rescue financial institutions.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2008

In tough economic times, tourism boss finds visitor boost a tall order

Japan's ailing regional economies can be revitalized by tapping the sightseeing potential of growing Asian countries, according to Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Yoshiaki Hompo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 11, 2008

Nova refugees: Where are they now?

'All the schools are closed.'
BUSINESS
Nov 11, 2008

Truffle auctioned for 'mere' $30,000

The collapse of the price of white truffles signals more than the wealthy, along with the rest of us, are feeling the pinch in these times of global financial upheaval. As the rich pare back on luxuries, it means fewer crumbs for charities.
Reader Mail
Nov 9, 2008

Shadow support for views

The firing of Tamogami casts serious doubts on the sincerity of the Japanese government to make amends for Japan's aggressive role in World War II. One does not get to be the ASDF chief without strong political support, so it is only fair to assume that the general benefited from the strong backing of...
Reader Mail
Nov 9, 2008

American stereotype broken

About a month ago, I exercised my right to vote in the U.S. presidential election as an absentee expat. I voted for Barack Obama because of the vision of the future he has inspired in us after eight long years of political and economic divisiveness.
Reader Mail
Nov 9, 2008

U.S. encourages rightwingers

Tamogami must be condemned for his distorted view of history, but he represents only the tip of an iceberg in the reactionary trend of political and military thinking in Japan that favors the revision of the war-renouncing Constitution so that Japan can exercise the right to collective self-defense with...
COMMENTARY
Nov 9, 2008

McCain's heart wasn't really in it

LOS ANGELES — History's losers can emerge later as history's winners, especially in U.S. politics. John F. Kennedy lost his bid to become the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1956, but his televised concession speech helped to propel him into the White House four years later.
Reader Mail
Nov 9, 2008

Friendlier sports may kill sumo

Regarding the Nov. 2 article "God forbid if sumo goes the way of pro wrestling": I doubt that sumo will ever be legally listed as an entertainment, because I think it's on the up and up most of the time. As for yaocho (match-fixing) and dekiyama (predetermined...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 9, 2008

Life in Burma: an expatriate's point of view

BURMA CHRONICLES by Guy Delisle. Quebec, Canada: Drawn and Quarterly, 2008, 208 pp., $19.95 (cloth) Over the past 20 years Burma has sunk ever further into an abyss of political oppression and economic malaise under a brutal military junta that shot monks on the streets of Yangon during the Saffron Revolution...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Nov 9, 2008

Wrestling with a guilty verdict

Kazuhiko Togo, a retired career official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and former Ambassador to the Netherlands, is the grandson of Shigenori Togo, Japan's foreign minister at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Nov 9, 2008

From heroes to zero, and lasting scars

Nov. 12 marks the 60th anniversary of the end of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), commonly known as the Tokyo Trial, which in terms of judicial procedures is now widely regarded as having been fundamentally flawed and biased against the defendants.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2008

'Freeter' marchers get leg up online

Thwarted in the real world in their attempt to glimpse Prime Minister Taro Aso's famously grand Tokyo mansion, a group of young people is finding better success at getting their message out in cyberspace.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 8, 2008

What's all the shouting about?

I boarded the shinkansen the other day and couldn't believe what I saw: everything! Yes, things I never used to see in the shinkansen are now extremely visible, in your face, in big, bold letters making it very hard to avoid reading them. The aisle and seat numbers were all in much larger fonts. Even...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 8, 2008

Wenger won't compromise beliefs despite struggles

LONDON — If Arsenal loses to Manchester United on Saturday the Gunners can forget about winning the Premier League.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 8, 2008

Translating in the spirit of samurai

Iehiro Tokugawa arrives at the publishing house Kobunsha, for which he works on occasion as a translator, accompanied by his Vietnamese wife. He is all in black; she is in blue jeans with a waterfall of shining hair down her back, and very lovely too. Speaking in fluent English, he extends his hand to...
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2008

H&M new darling of Tokyo fashion scene

Hennes & Mauritz, which drew long lines with its first Japan store, is hoping to repeat that success by opening a second shop Saturday with collaborative designs from fashion icon Rei Kawakubo.

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