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Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 27, 2008

Exploring Antarctica for key climate clues

The steamy hot days of summer make it very tempting to imagine an escape to the snow and ice of Antarctica, though few of us will ever have that chance. Shin Sugiyama, 39, a glaciologist at Hokkaido University, is one of the exceptions.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2008

Japan defends steps to end discrimination

OSAKA — In a new report to the United Nations, the government outlines the situation of ethnic minorities and foreign residents in Japan, claiming it has made "every conceivable" effort over the past several years to eliminate racial discrimination.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 26, 2008

Coming out of the shadows

"We judge that it will be best for the child that the (parent) pray from the shadows for his healthy upbringing. If worried about the child, ask about him through others, secretly watch him from behind a wall, and be satisfied with what is heard about the way he is growing up. Acting in accordance with...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2008

China showed the world that it's out of sync

I cannot recall the opening ceremonies at the Athens or Sydney Olympics, maybe because I am a little ambivalent about sports in the first place. But the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympic Games did get my attention — and everyone else's. Given all the hype, the least anyone could do was to tune...
Reader Mail
Aug 24, 2008

Name for what Filipinos speak

Regarding the Aug. 20 article "Kawasaki's Filipinos form support base," I would like to clarify that the appropriate term for the language spoken by Filipinos is Filipino, per se, and not Tagalog. Tagalog pertains only to the original language of the people from the Tagalog region on the island of Luzon....
CULTURE / Books
Aug 24, 2008

A tensely wrought tale of true believers

PROMENADE OF THE GODS by Koji Suzuki, translated by Takami Nieda. New York: Vertical Inc., 2008, 320 pp., $24.95 (cloth) Late one night, cram school operator Shirow Murakami is awakened by a cryptic phone call from an old school chum, Kunio Matsuoka, requesting that he move Matsuoka's car. Murakami is...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 24, 2008

'Nation of copycats' maligns Japan's fine science and technology

One of the most commonly discussed issues of national character in Japan revolves around the question of personal creativity. Put simply, it is this: Are the Japanese lacking in the DNA of originality?
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2008

Horie resumes blog after long cybersilence

Former Internet venture star Takafumi Horie is staging a comeback, but quietly, and with far less attention than he sought during his high-tech heyday a few years ago.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2008

Foreigners fear for haven

Lake Nojiri, a renowned summer resort in the town of Shinano, northern Nagano Prefecture, has long been a spiritual home to foreigners in Japan.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 22, 2008

Champion 'turntablist' Kentaro gets mixed up

It's been a busy few years since DJ Kentaro won the 2002 DMC World DJ Championship and became the first Japanese to bring back the prize — a golden pair of Technics record decks (the turntable of choice in clubs around the world) — to the land where they were made.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 22, 2008

Between Sword and Spear in the Japanese Alps

I opened my eyes: clouds broke against the ridgeline, sending their tendrils skyward in the eastern updraft, high above the vertiginous vista that stretched away to distant, snow-touched mountains. I was taking a breather on a narrow ledge close to the pinnacle of Tsurugi-dake — Sword Peak — the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2008

'Tokyo!'

Like any other big city, Tokyo does things to you. The three directors in the omnibus movie "Tokyo!" however, inflict their penetrating stare upon the city and don't flinch when the city gazes right back — they all give as good as they get. They know that what happens here is both unique and ubiquitous...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 22, 2008

Lasenkan to stage 'Dejima'

Lasenkan Theater is a Japanese drama group based in Berlin. Since 2002, it has spent two-thirds of every year in the German capital, presenting works by author Yoko Tawada, a resident of Germany.
Japan Times
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 21, 2008

China taking small steps to baseball success

BEIJING — Baseball is experiencing growing pains in China. In order to take a big step forward, China needs time to establish a foundation for the future.
Reader Mail
Aug 21, 2008

Food crisis born of distribution

I am puzzled that The Japan Times would have an economist comment on agricultural science and the natural environment, as in Takamitsu Sawa's Aug. 18 article, "Natural enemy of warming." Sawa argues that drought in Australia, spiraling food prices, biofuels and their consequences are driving companies...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2008

New 'Tang' Dynasty for rapidly rising China?

PRAGUE — On Aug. 8 the world watched with awe the amazing spectacle of the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing. We saw the electronic unrolling of Chinese scrolls replete with great historic symbols and were mesmerized by dancers creating "harmony," using their bodies as ink brushes. Two thousand...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 21, 2008

Betting on Beijing

In late April this year, two Tokyo galleries set up shop in Beijing just in time for the Olympic fervor, believing that Beijing, rather than Tokyo, was the place to bring contemporary Japanese art to an international audience. Sueo Mitsuma of Mizuma Gallery in Nakameguro opened Mizuma & One and Yumie...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 21, 2008

Christian Bale: a peek behind the Dark Knight's mask

EDITORIALS
Aug 21, 2008

ODA and bribery

The special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has arrested a former president of Pacific Consultants International, a Tokyo-based consultancy for overseas construction projects, and three others on suspicion of bribery in connection with a project in Vietnam financed...
Reader Mail
Aug 21, 2008

Helping those closest to us

Regarding Roger Pulvers' Aug. 17 article, "There's a lot to learn from the life and times of Beate Sirota Gordon": Thank you for an inspiring article! I had read about Beate Sirota Gordon in her book, "The Only Woman in the Room," which moved me to actually read the full Japanese Constitution in English...

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