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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.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 9, 2010

Caregiving not the unemployment panacea the government hoped for

Premiums for Long-term Care Insurance could be raised again in 2012. Question is, will this translate to higher salaries for low-paid caregivers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2010

Sudan decision day looms: minister

The fate of Sudan will be decided in a referendum expected in January to let the strife-torn south determine whether to stay in the country or become independent.
EDITORIALS
Dec 3, 2010

Bizarre publication effort

The Tokyo District Court on Monday issued a provisional injunction halting the publication and sale of a book consisting of all 114 documents linked to international terrorism investigations. Most of them are believed to have been written by the Metropolitan Police Department's Third Foreign Affairs...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2010

North Korea evokes pity and condemnation

UNITED NATIONS — Amid severe food shortages affecting up to a quarter of the population, horrific human rights abuses, and an expanding and costly nuclear weapons program, the United Nations has tried to respond to North Korea with a combination of carrots and sticks.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 3, 2010

Higashi gets melodramatic (but not too much)

Born in Wakayama Prefecture in 1934, Yoichi Higashi graduated from Waseda University's Department of Literature in 1958 and entered Iwanami Film Production, a documentary and educational film company. After making his feature debut with "Okinawa Retto (Okinawa Archipelago)" in 1969, he won the Directors...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Nov 30, 2010

High praise for piazzas; Japan not so clean, friendly

A must for societal well-being I read your article on public space ("Plans for public space need public's input," Hotline to Nagatacho, Oct. 26), and I couldn't agree more.
COMMUNITY
Nov 27, 2010

Expat peace group studies embattled Okinawa ecology

At first glance, the group of 15 young Japanese and foreigners gathered together in the arrival lounge at Naha airport look like just another package tour for a week of fun on Okinawa's tropical beaches.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 26, 2010

Radcliffe, Watson prepare to graduate from Hogwarts

HOLLYWOOD, California — W hen asked about longtime "Harry Potter" costar Emma Watson, with whom he stars in the penultimate film of the blockbuster movie franchise, actor Daniel Radcliffe says: "She's great. She'll go far, professionally and educationally."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Nov 22, 2010

They've got a Twitter bot for that

Japan is clearly in the throes of Twittermania, but bots should be given credit for generating a good chunk of the traffic.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2010

Recalling the foundation of modern tyranny

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Eighty years ago, in the autumn of 1930, Josef Stalin enforced a policy that changed the course of history, and led to tens of millions of deaths across the decades and around the world. In a violent and massive campaign of "collectivization," he brought Soviet agriculture under...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2010

Hundreds decry 'unprincipled' liberalization

YOKOHAMA — Hundreds of people staged a rally Saturday in central Yokohama to voice their opposition to Japan and other Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum members taking steps to accelerate "unprincipled" trade liberalization, saying the measures would destroy people's livelihoods and devastate...
Japan Times
JAPAN / ORGAN TRANSPLANTS
Nov 12, 2010

Brain death in kids complicates transplant issue

On Dec. 16, 2005, a pediatrician told Akemi Nakamura that her 2-year-old daughter was brain dead.
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 12, 2010

Theater with a hint of human truth

Yumi Suzuki co-founded the Jitensha Kinqureat theater company with friends at Nihon Joshi Daigaku (Japan Women's University) in 1982, and it was not long before the Tokyo troupe gained a prominent reputation and a keen following for its true-to-life plays in colloquial language about the lives of young...
CULTURE / Music
Nov 12, 2010

Preaching to the converted

Nicky Wire is reminiscing. For the self-professed "nerdy historian" of Manic Street Preachers, the wistfulness is not misplaced. New album "Postcards From a Young Man" is Manic Street Preachers' 10th: a landmark under any criterion, but Wire is keen to accentuate what a milestone it is for a group of...

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear