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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 13, 2008

When it's not quite convenient to protect the planet

"They work all day but still can't pay the price of gasoline and meat / Alas! Their lives are incomplete — Warren Zevon.
Reader Mail
Jul 13, 2008

Treated better than the natives

I don't get it. Do I live in a different part of the galaxy from professional victims like Debito Arudou and others who whine about alleged discrimination in Japan? Certainly, Japanese suffer from narrow perspectives, stereotypes and ethnocentrism -- like people the world over, but no worse.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 13, 2008

Beauty of the beasts: mythological and real

A BRUSH WITH ANIMALS: Japanese Paintings 1700-1950, by Robert Schaap, with essays by Willem van Gulik, Henk Herwig, Arendie Herwig-Kempers, Daniel McKee and Andrew Thompson. Leiden: Society of Japanese Arts (distributed by Hotei/Brill), 2007, 206 pp. with 275 color illustrations, $117 (cloth), $81 (paper) This...
EDITORIALS
Jul 13, 2008

The price of ramen

When the price of a bowl of ramen goes up in Japan, people take notice. Rising costs for the wheat that makes the noodles, and the energy that keeps the soup bubbling, have started to appear at the register. When even this most Japanese of meals comes under pressure from larger economic forces, the world...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 12, 2008

Aoki makes big impact

For the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, who have made substantial changes to their roster over the past year or two, Norichika Aoki serves as a stabilizer on and off the field.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 12, 2008

Climbing Mount Misen

I recently took a group of tourists on a sail through the Seto Inland Sea for three days. Our destination was Miyajima, home of the Great Torii Gate and Itsukushima Shrine (built in A.D. 593), a World Heritage site since 1996.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 11, 2008

Some South Asian food for thought

Aline of banana leaves topped with plastic rice and vegetables of the sort found outside Japanese restaurants trails across the room. Painted footprints rest in front of each one.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jul 11, 2008

Sympathy for the Maries

All the boys are in their birthday suits and beautiful long-haired Ryohei Shima is mincing up toward me. Just think of a naked Mick Jagger — a 26-year-old one, that is — entering stage right on the set of a gay porn flick and you'll get the picture. Ryohei theatrically swivels his hips upon approach,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 11, 2008

Picking a wine for the picnic spread

The smell of freshly mowed lawns and of gunpowder in the air signifies one thing: summer is now in full swing. Whether you're a peaceful soul who likes to spread out a plastic picnic mat in the local park under the tranquil shade of a decent-size tree, or a matsuri festival maniac heading down to the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2008

'Horton Hears A Who'

I'm sorry, but when it comes to Dr. Seuss, I'm definitely a purist. It couldn't be any other way having grown up with so many great childhood memories of reading his books — or having them read to me — over and over.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jul 11, 2008

Sake in Osaka, cruising in Yokohama

Seafaring adventure in Yokohama The Pan Pacific Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu has prepared a special accommodation plan for families for summer vacation, providing children the rare opportunity to explore the bridge of a cruise boat.
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
Jul 10, 2008

Lack of concrete promises disappoints NGOs

TOYAKO, Hokkaido — Various nongovernmental organizations expressed deep disappointment Wednesday over the G8 summit, which ended without any concrete goals or commitments and left much unfinished business for next year's meeting in Italy.
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
Jul 10, 2008

G8 couldn't push emitters to set targets

TOYAKO, Hokkaido — The three-day Group of Eight summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, concluded Wednesday as the major industrialized powers and key emerging economies agreed to jointly fight global warming but failed to set any quantitative goals to substantiate their pledge.
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2008

Power utilities under pressure to clean up their act

In March, a report compiled by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on greenhouse gas emissions of about 9,000 companies rocked the electric power industry.
COMMENTARY
Jul 9, 2008

After a century has passed, Young Turks at a crossroads

The Ottoman Empire had already been in retreat for over a century when the Young Turk revolution broke out in July, 1908. Some of the Young Turks hoped to save the whole empire; others wanted to abandon the empire and rescue an independent Turkey from the wreckage. The latter group won the argument,...
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 9, 2008

Ice goby

Japanese name: Shiro-uo
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
Jul 9, 2008

G8 nations reaffirm Africa aid pledges

TOYAKO, Hokkaido — Faced with criticism for long delays in delivering promised aid to Africa, member nations of the Group of Eight pledged Tuesday to follow through on commitments made at the 2005 Gleneagles, Scotland, summit.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2008

Thickheadedness on African debt

ACCRA, Ghana — In the runup to the Group of Eight meeting in Japan last week, activists of all stripes were working hard to ensure that their issue would be on the agenda. While the agenda changes from year to year, one item has become a mainstay: debt relief. The fact that this issue repeatedly resurfaces...
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
Jul 8, 2008

Food crisis, Africa aid at center stage

TOYAKO, Hokkaido — The three-day Group of Eight summit kicked off Monday in Toyako with Japan's leadership of the G8 being tested by a raft of new global challenges.

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