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COMMENTARY
May 29, 2007

World's 'best' health care fatally flawed

NEW YORK — One of the most contentious issues of the U.S. presidential campaign will be how to fix what many agree is a malfunctioning health-care system. Adding fuel to the fire is a recent study detailing the shortcomings of the U.S. health-care system compared with those of Australia, Canada, Germany,...
BUSINESS
May 29, 2007

Food prices rise as more crops go into producing biofuels

The increasing demand for biofuel, which is derived from biomass — usually plants — has taken a bite out of supplies of crops and other farm products worldwide. The redirection of crops from mouths to fuel tanks is reflected in the rise of prices of ordinary food items in Japan.
MORE SPORTS
May 28, 2007

Vodka knocks out Derby competition

She's strong stuff, that Vodka! Incredulous fans were reeling Sunday as a filly named Vodka delivered a knockout punch to capture the Nippon Derby by a jaw-dropping 3 lengths. Putting the boys firmly in their place, Vodka, the first filly to run in the Derby in 11 years, became the first filly in 64...
JAPAN
May 28, 2007

Media, NGOs help China become environmentally aware

The media and nongovernmental organizations are beginning to play a role in shaping China's environment protection policies as awareness of the costs of its rapid growth spreads among policymakers as well as the public, a group of Chinese journalists told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
May 28, 2007

Apathetic clouds of smoke

Two years after the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) took effect, many countries are coordinating efforts to curb tobacco use.
Reader Mail
May 27, 2007

Short shrift to victims' claims

Hisahiko Okazaki adds insult to injury when he refers to the Imperial Japanese Army's forcing 200,000 women into sexual servitude during World War II as "a fantastic story" ("Abe steering Japan adeptly on 'comfort women' issue," May 21). Outside of Japan, this matter is not in doubt. The United Nations...
Reader Mail
May 27, 2007

Constructive mayor will be missed

Misawa Mayor Shigeyoshi Suzuki passed away on May 1 at age 66. I was shocked to hear this, having met him in my previous capacity as director of the Status of U.S. Forces Agreement Division of the Foreign Ministry.
Reader Mail
May 27, 2007

Are defibrillators worth it?

I read with interest Alice Gordenker's column about the legal change that permits laypeople in Japan to operate the automated external defibrillator (AED), and the installation of AEDs in public places ("So what the heck is that?" April 17).
CULTURE / Books
May 27, 2007

Ethnic cop caught between cultures

CHINATOWN BEAT by Henry Chang. New York: SOHO Press, 2006, 214 pages, $22 (cloth) Well before Sax Rohmer created his sinister villain Dr. Fu-Manchu in 1911, Chinatowns figured prominently in British and American popular fiction. These are chronicled by such scholarly works as William Wu's "The Yellow...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 26, 2007

Treatment of Liverpool fans result of actions back home

LONDON — The police baton-charged "blameless" fans who could not gain entry to the stadium despite having valid tickets, while many inside the ground were allowed in with forgeries.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 26, 2007

Japan urged to lead on Africa aid

Japan should take the lead in developing an agenda for the international community for giving aid to Africa when the country hosts the Group of Eight summit next year and the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, according to the vice president of the U.N. International Fund for...
COMMENTARY
May 26, 2007

Gordon Brown too arrogant?

LONDON — The new tenant of Number 10 Downing Street is now all set to move in. With remarkable ease the new British prime minister, Gordon Brown, replaces the old one, Tony Blair, and life goes on in Britain as before.
Japan Times
SOCCER
May 25, 2007

Ancelotti overjoyed with victory

ATHENS — AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti hailed the Italians' victory over Liverpool in Wednesday's final as "the greatest victory we have ever had."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 25, 2007

Rapper Madlib's mad assortment

Sometimes you wonder how Otis Jackson Jr. even finds time to sleep. The Californian hip-hop producer and rapper, better known as Madlib, churns records out at a rate so furious, that even dedicated beat heads struggle to keep up. His discography on the Stones Throw Records label Web site lists over 50...
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2007

Appeasing Serbia hurts EU

This month has been a bad one for the cause of human rights in Europe, as Serbia was allowed to begin its six-month presidency of the Council of Europe, the Continent's oldest political body.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2007

Nonlife insurers take revenue hit

Six major domestic nonlife insurers on Wednesday reported mixed financial results for the business year to March 31 as earnings were affected by revelations of an industrywide failure to pay legitimate claims and payouts for typhoon damage.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 24, 2007

Products from other dimensions

At the Sanja Matsuri festival last weekend in Asakusa, the residents of that old Tokyo town were re-enacting community-building rituals that they have enjoyed since the Edo Period (1603-1867). Meanwhile, across town in Nakaochiai, two artists who met in San Francisco, Crust and Dirt, were creating their...
COMMENTARY
May 24, 2007

Baltic cyberwar nothing but a squabble

LONDON — Estonia is one of the most wired countries in the world — people even vote online — but for the past three weeks the country has been under a massive cyber-attack that has disabled the Web sites of government ministries, political parties, newspapers, banks and private companies. Estonian...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 24, 2007

Tale of treason

In 1582, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98), a man of humble origins, became Japan's taiko (prime minister) after the death of the warlord Oda Nobunaga. But the taiko in "Ehon Taikoki (Records of the Taiko)," a bunraku (traditional Japanese puppet) play written by Chikamatsu Yanagi and collaborators in 1799,...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
May 23, 2007

Van Gundy has history of twisting words

NEW YORK — The Houston Chronicle makes it appear Jeff Van Gundy got shafted by messenger Daryl Morey, claiming the only just installed GM knew all along the Rockets' exiled coach wanted to continue for at least another season.
Reader Mail
May 23, 2007

The American failure to speak out

Ted Rall's May 6 article, "George Tenet's worst ever career choice," certainly hits the nail on the head. Why didn't former CIA Director Tenet speak up and admit that the White House was deceiving us? Why didn't so many other politicians and bureaucrats speak up? And why did it take the majority of...
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2007

How Japan fuels financial instability

NEW YORK — Over the past several years, much attention has focused on the role of China's trade surplus in creating today's global financial imbalances. But too little attention has been paid to the role of Japan's policy of near-zero interest rates in contributing to these imbalances. As global financial...

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