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COMMENTARY
Nov 7, 2011

Asian leader receives coveted American award

They honored the controversial, though increasingly appreciated, Asian statesman Lee Kuan Yew at the historic Ford Theater in Washington recently, and I wish I had been there.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Oct 18, 2011

Sexless marriages, ineffective police

Some readers' responses to Debito Arudou's Sept. 6 Just Be Cause column, " 'Sexlessness' wrecks marriages, threatens nation's future":
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 9, 2011

Conditions are ripe for the volcano of Japan's betrayed to erupt again

Second of two parts
Reader Mail
Sep 25, 2011

Grateful acceptance of spiders

Regarding Marco Gessler's Sept. 18 letter, "Kill the jokes about spiders" (which was a response to Amy Chavez's Sept. 10 Japan Lite column, "The power of spiders in rural Japan"): First of all, I sincerely sympathize with Gessler and his family in Mexico over the the death of his daughter from a spider....
Reader Mail
Sep 18, 2011

Kill the jokes about spiders

Regarding Amy Chavez's Sept. 10 Japan Lite column, "The power of spiders in rural Japan": In July 2003, a spider killed my 7-year-old daughter, Ana. Now, I don't just hate spiders; I've sworn to exterminate them from the face of Earth.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 10, 2011

A guide to fortunetellers

Japan is a fortunetelling nation and so, to start, here is Truman Capote's famous line about fortunetellers . . .
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2011

Medicine for the 'second great contraction'

Why is everyone still referring to the recent financial crisis as the "Great Recession"?
CULTURE / Books
Jul 31, 2011

Literary sludge insults child abduction issue

IN APPROPRIATE: A Novel of Culture, Kidnapping, and Revenge in Modern Japan, by Debito Arudou. Lulu Enterprises, 2011, $10, 149 pp., (paper) That prickly gadfly of gaikokujins, Debito Arudou, has done it again, diminishing a worthy topic — in this case, international child abduction — into dross...
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jul 21, 2011

Marinos look to hold on after scratching five-year itch

The J. League has a new leader, and after more than five years away from the summit, Yokohama F. Marinos are not likely to give up first place without a fight.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jul 5, 2011

Lives such as Daniel's deserve to be honored in these pages

I had a shock in May with the death of a close friend, Daniel, a long-term Japan resident in his sixties who had been in bad health. We were close and I'll miss him.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 10, 2011

'The Disappearance of Alice Creed' / 'The Tempest'

It couldn't have been more than five minutes into "The Disappearance of Alice Creed" when my girlfriend leaned over and asked: "What kind of a movie did you say this is?" It was just at the point where Gemma Arterton was tied spread-eagled to a bed with a ball-gag in her mouth, and her burly kidnappers...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 31, 2011

English magazines run gamut from poetry to prose, Kanto to Chubu

We received several additional English-magazine suggestions in response to our May 17 column, "Print is suffering, but English readers have never had it so good."
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
May 29, 2011

Evessa's Washington is greatest player in bj-league history

Six years is a long, long time in professional sports. In a word, it's an era.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 22, 2011

Recalling fond memories of Killebrew

It is always sad to hear about the death of a ballplayer who, as a youth, you admired.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 23, 2011

Coming to proper terms

"You think you've got it rough?" says my wife. "How about me?"
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Apr 22, 2011

Japanese music fans need the shows to go on

Last month I wrote a hastily conceived piece for this column documenting the immediate reaction of the music scene in Tokyo to the Great East Japan Earthquake. It was a difficult article to write because the situation was still unfolding and so much was unresolved; however, a month later, a picture of...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 13, 2011

Start learning the golden rules about kin and kane

Television broadcasts of last February's political upheaval in Egypt were regularly interspersed with scenes of the pyramids at Giza. Seeing them, I was reminded that the word for pyramid in Japanese is 金字塔 (kinjitō, "a tower in the shape of the character kin [金]"). (Note the similarity, if...
Reader Mail
Apr 7, 2011

Uncertain future of Japan tourism

Regarding Amy Chavez's April 2 column, "This earthquake still felt all over Japan": As a Frenchman married to a Japanese and as a one-year resident of Japan, I usually read Chavez's articles with great pleasure and enjoy the wit in her writing. This article is no exception as it gives us the usual insight...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Apr 5, 2011

'Charisma Men' and temps: readers' views

Some readers' responses to last month's Just Be Cause column by Debito Arudou, headlined " Charisma Men, unite against the identity enforcers" (March 1):
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Apr 3, 2011

Every day ought to be Earth Day

I usually avoid large gatherings of people, even though it has become my job to give lectures and to attend seminars and meetings and such. However, you would never see me anywhere near a rock concert or a rugby, soccer or baseball match.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 19, 2011

When the big one hit

When the big one hit — at 2:46 p.m. on March 11 — I was trying to be funny.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 26, 2011

The new foreigner in my 'hood

The new foreigner in my neighborhood is . . . me.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 6, 2011

A window on our woods

When I'm sitting at my desk working in my study, I can look up through a large window and enjoy the view of some woods with a meadow beyond. Except that I'm not too happy with the woods, that is, because they belong to a neighbor who has left the trees untended and neglected for all of the 30 years I've...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 29, 2011

Gray-Keys scandal filled with irony on many fronts

LONDON — Hypocrisy is not as offensive as sexism and fortunately for those guilty of failing to practice what they preach it is not as obvious to the public.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 23, 2011

An inside look at selection for Japan's Hall of Fame

When Hiromitsu Ochiai is inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame this coming summer, it will be a very convenient situation. As manager of the defending Central League champion Chunichi Dragons, Ochiai will also pilot the 2011 CL All-Star team, and the HOF induction ceremony will take place...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jan 13, 2011

Ground control, we have a fashionable lift-off

Jean-Paul Gaultier's space
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jan 11, 2011

Dual citizens, tokenism, Futenma, the case against rants: responses

A right to dual citizenship Re: "Japan loses, rest of the world gains from 'one citizenship fits all' policy" by Glenn Newman (Hotline to Nagatacho, Dec. 9):
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 29, 2010

Time for Jordan to man up on Bobcats' plight

NEW YORK — A failure to approach, much less reach expectations, however impractical they may be, is bound to get authority figures fired sooner than later, which is precisely why Larry Brown again is on relocation and Kurt Rambis has a job for life.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?