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COMMENTARY
Feb 5, 2011

The Arab world's '1989'?

LONDON — It was the Egyptian Army's statement that brought it all back: "To the great people of Egypt, your armed forces, acknowledging the legitimate rights of the people . . . have not and will not use force against the Egyptian people." In other words, go ahead and overthrow President Hosni Mubarak....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 4, 2011

Tadasu Takamine shocks us, yet again

In their endless efforts to make us see things in new ways and generally mess with our minds, contemporary conceptual artists such as Tadasu Takamine may often do more to distort their own view of the world than change the way the wider public sees it. This would explain why, in 2004, Takamine attempted...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 23, 2011

Mystery at a crossroads of continents

By the time I reached the small town of Palmyra, way out in the middle of the Syrian desert, I had become somewhat accustomed to the ways of the locals.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jan 18, 2011

Mind the gap, get over it: readers' views

Following are are a selection of readers' responses to "Mind the gap, get over it" by Charles Lewis (Zeit Gist, Dec. 28):
Reader Mail
Jan 16, 2011

Excluding the best from exchange

Regarding the Jan. 8 Kyodo article "Language teachers to go to U.S. for exchanges": I don't understand the rationale behind most language exchange programs. This latest idea is, again, nothing more than a youth exchange. And this obsession with having young people teach language is absurd.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2011

Woman makes it a ritual to sleep under stars in Tokyo

Chiaki Kato has slept outdoors about three times a month for the last decade, regardless of the season or weather.
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):
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jan 10, 2011

Pair uses skills to promote streetball

Initial greetings out of the way, an exhausted Grayson Boucher fell into a chair in a nondescript classroom near the Tent Dome in Toyosu on one of the final few warm, sunny days of 2010. Boucher had just finished putting 44 youngsters through the paces in a basketball ball handling clinic and the man...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 7, 2011

Buzz overseas spells success at home

For Japanese music acts, success abroad has traditionally been the reserve of noise-rock bands such as Boredoms and Melt-Banana, for whom potential barriers like language or cultural disparities do little to hinder their pursuit of abstraction. More conventional Japanese indie bands have traditionally...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Jan 4, 2011

Hooked on U.S., Japan risks going down with it

Dear Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara:
EDITORIALS
Jan 4, 2011

Budget with stop-gap funding

The Kan administration has endorsed a general account budget that is a record-high ¥92.41 trillion for fiscal 2011 — the second budget to be formed under the Democratic Party of Japan government. The budget includes several measures that show the characteristics of the DPJ's policy orientation. But...
EDITORIALS
Jan 1, 2011

Overcoming a disappointing year

The past year was one of political disappointment in Japan as the government failed to make breakthroughs in resolving crucial economic and diplomatic problems. Prime Minister Naoto Kan and the Democratic Party of Japan should reflect on what went wrong, set clear goals that will capture the minds of...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2011

Setting a new democratic agenda for Russia

MOSCOW — When Russian President Dmitry Medvedev delivered his annual address to the Federal Assembly, I was struck by the fact that his speech seemed intended for an advanced, prosperous country, not the real Russia of today.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 30, 2010

Mad knitters take to Tokyo's streets

This November, people strolling through a park in Ebisu, Tokyo, were baffled: Several benches there had been covered with colorful knitwear, many wildly curling around the wooden poles of backrests and armrests. Next to the benches, more wondrous knitted entities were hanging from the branches of a tree....
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2010

Piyasvasti battles Thai Airways' beasts

LIFE / Digital
Dec 29, 2010

Living in Japan: There's an app for that

As 2010 draws to a close, smartphone use in Japan has risen to an all-time high, accounting for around 50 percent of all handset sales here. Yet it shames this columnist to admit that I'm still rockin' an old Windows 6.1 phone — insofar as a Windows 6.1 phone can be rocked at all — because as someone...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 24, 2010

Why not spend New Year's Eve totally soba?

The yearend period, called shiwasu, is a really hectic time in Japan. Think of it as spring cleaning, Thanksgiving and the usual end-of-year activities all rolled into one.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 23, 2010

Part-time salesman/cleaner Seiji Date

Seiji Date, 60, is a part-time clothing salesman and a part-time cleaner. He has 38 years of experience in the fashion business, but six months ago, the economic slump forced his employer to retire him at the company's mandatory retirement age of 60. Having spent 27 years with the same retailer, where...
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2010

Moderation is for losers

NEW YORK — "Given his druthers (U.S. President Barack) Obama will pursue the most left-leaning course he can get away with."
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Dec 19, 2010

Cheap imitations from Osaka, Communists arrested, Japan resumes own air defense, young becoming selfish

100 YEARS AGOFriday, Dec. 16, 1910
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 18, 2010

A giant salamander sermon

Japan has the world's longest life span. Even their animals live to be elderly. Japan' oldest giant salamander, who lived in Okayama, passed away in August this year — at 100 years old.
COMMUNITY
Dec 18, 2010

Well-traveled chef gives Kamakura the spice of life

Krishna Murthy Vijayan, 57, has authentic taste — literally. Cooking in the traditions of southern India as head chef for T-Side, a popular Indian restaurant in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, he makes it a priority to keep his tastes authentic.
Japan Times
JAPAN / RESETTLEMENT
Dec 16, 2010

Critics slam settlement program's lack of vision

Lawyers and supporters of asylum-seekers in Japan have cast a critical eye on the start of the government's third-country refugee resettlement program.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2010

Setbacks in Indonesia's antigraft policy

PADANG, West Sumatra — Transparency International publishes the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) every year. Based on 13 different expert and business surveys, the CPI measures and ranks public sector corruption in 180 nations.
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 10, 2010

Class of 2010: Japan's playwrights head west

Japan's young dramatists are increasingly shrugging off their medium's long-standing, self-imposed national isolation and are setting sail in search of new audiences, and critical praise, overseas.

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