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Reader Mail
Dec 7, 2008

'Civilian control' misinterpreted

Regarding the Nov. 28 article "SDF's rise in '90s behind Tamogami's challenge": I'd like to point out that "civilian control" has been wrongly interpreted — by the media, government bureaucrats, politicians and the like in Japan — ever since the end of World War II to curtail the freedom of speech...
Reader Mail
Dec 7, 2008

Beware a nuclear boondoggle

Regarding the Nov. 27 article "Rokkasho plant too dangerous, costly: expert": I was surprised to read in the article that "On Oct. 16, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency announced plans to increase the share of nuclear power to 53 percent of (Japan's) total electricity supply by 2100 from the current 30...
Reader Mail
Dec 7, 2008

A notion dangerous at the core

Paul de Vries' attempt to defend group accountability behavior is rather bleak and ridiculous. Perhaps de Vries did not read The Japan Times enough, as he surely would've seen that quite a few men, both foreign and domestic, ridicule the women-only train cars. I also stand against the policy, as it hardly...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2008

One man's theory, another's laugh

Conspiracy theories, occultism, UFOs and pseudoscience. Society abounds with the conjectures of people thinking far, far outside the box.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 6, 2008

Packaged tight with care

In the old days, Christmas used to come every few months.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 5, 2008

Indie's new black

A little over a year ago, no one knew Black Kids, a dance-pop quintet from Jacksonville, Florida, who many people mistake for being British. Now anyone with a passing interest in popular music has at least heard of them. They are the latest indie band to have become famous even before they released a...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 5, 2008

Restaurant & Wine Cellar Davis: What delicacies hide in Takanawa

When Shoko Davis first opened her Wine Cellar more than 10 years ago, it felt like the ultimate neighborhood restaurant. Not just because it ticked all the boxes in terms of food, drink and ambience, but also because it was so far off most people's radar.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 2008

Alternate visions of island paradise

In our global information age, when all of us are exposed to more data than we can perhaps adequately manage, the appeal of cliches has never been stronger. By a process of reduction and crude characterization, that which is complex, ambiguous, and difficult-to- know becomes simple, and is summed up...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 4, 2008

Pink thrills: Japanese sex movies go global

As the last wave of vengeful female ghosts inspired by "Ring' "s Sadako fade from cinema screens worldwide, either in their original J-horror manifestations or the obligatory Hollywood remakes, more adventurous foreign-film fans have begun turning their heads Eastward in search of a new frisson. Their...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2008

Mumbai terrorist attacks are a wakeup call

LONDON — India was a victim of terrorism long before the twin towers in New York collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001. But as the global "war on terror" continues, India has experienced increasingly lethal terrorism. The sheer scale, scope and audacity of the latest attacks in Mumbai put them in a different...
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2008

North nuke verification must be in writing: Saiki

Negotiators on North Korea's denuclearization confirmed Wednesday that they will press Pyongyang during next week's six-party talks to agree to verify its nuclear disarmament in writing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 3, 2008

Preholiday offerings speak of sensibility

Ahead to basics: Pentel is not ready to write the eulogy for the humble pen. Rather than killing off the ages-old device, it is intent on bringing it into the digital age. Its latest effort is the airpenMini digital pen.
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Dec 3, 2008

Hiiragi-nanten (Mahonia)

BUSINESS
Dec 3, 2008

Toyota trims managers' bonuses

Toyota Motor Corp. cut winter bonuses for the first time for about 8,700 managers as a global recession cripples car demand, the automaker said Tuesday.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Dec 2, 2008

Hailing the tail end of Bush

Regarding Barack Obama's election as U.S. president, I welcome the groundswell of hope. It's about time. The past eight years have been, well, awkward for Americans overseas.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 2, 2008

Back to the baths: Otaru revisited

The story is familiar to regular readers of Zeit Gist. Debito Arudou, a naturalized Japanese citizen, originally from America, was living in Sapporo, Hokkaido, and had heard of the Yunohana public bath's policy of denying entry to foreigners. In 1999, media in tow, he decided to put that onsen's policy...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 2, 2008

Bras, bros and other borrowings into Japanese

There is a misunderstanding commonly voiced around the world that languages borrow words from other languages when they lack a native word for something in their own vocabulary. This is, actually, only one reason, and not the primary one, for the existence of direct loan words.
COMMENTARY
Dec 1, 2008

Lessons for India after three days of terror

WATERLOO, Ontario — Mumbai is remarkably resilient in bouncing back to a semblance of normalcy within days. We've been here before — in 1993 and again in 2006 — when terrorists killed more than 200 people each time. Each time the government expresses shock, promises resolute action against the...
EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 2008

Calmer tack with Russia

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is pushing a proposal for a Euro-Atlantic security pact. This has apparently been prompted by the NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, formerly Russia's sphere of influence; the U.S. plan to use sites in the Czech Republic and Poland for missile defense; and Russia's...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2008

Hedge funds troll for Japan's wealthiest

The city of Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, has been home to the nation's industrial titans since samurai ruled the land more than a century ago. Now it is a feeding ground for hedge funds tapping the wealth of new multimillionaires like Kunihisa Sagami.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 1, 2008

Oda wins to cap return

Nobunari Oda capped a successful return to competitive skating on Sunday with a victory at the NHK Trophy.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes