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Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2013

Japan Times, New York Times announce publishing agreement

Subscribers to two-section product, coming out Oct. 16, will also enjoy benefits in the digital domain.
PRESS / Corporate Trends
Mar 25, 2013

The Japan Times, New York Times announce publishing agreement for Japan

TOKYO — The Japan Times and The New York Times Company today announce a publishing agreement that will see the International New York Times packaged with The Japan Times in the Japan market. The combined product, which will be distributed Monday through Saturday, will be known as The Japan Times /...
SPORTS / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 22, 2013

Montenegro a challenge for England

It is a moment Jonathan Pearce will never forget.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Mar 8, 2013

Veteran coach Nash has Toyama poised for playoff run

Stable leadership is as important to a team's success as hard-working players.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 8, 2013

'Arekara (Since Then)'

It's rare indeed that I ever wished a new Japanese film were longer — and I am not the only one. "This could be shorter by (name your number) minutes" is such a cliche of Japanese film reviewing and commentary that I inwardly groan every time I read or hear it; and yet more often than not, it's right....
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Mar 4, 2013

Werner, Jets salvage series split against Cinq Reves

Standing at the free-throw line, Chiba Jets big man Joe Werner appeared relaxed and confident during Sunday's game against the host Tokyo Cinq Reves. After all, it's a familiar place for him to be.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 2, 2013

China's televised death march of foreign killers sparks debate

In an unusual action that quickly sparked debate online, Chinese authorities showed a live broadcast Friday of four foreign drug smugglers in their last hours before execution for killing 13 fishermen.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Feb 27, 2013

Glass may look geeky, but you have to applaud Google's vision

A few weeks ago, the chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, spent four days in Cambridge as the Humanitas visiting professor in the university's Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, where I work. Afterward, one of the questions I was most frequently asked by people who hadn't been...
Reader Mail
Feb 24, 2013

Common sense toward China

With regard to Hisahiko Okazaki's Feb. 20 commentary titled "Japan's step toward normalcy," I'd like to add my two pence worth.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Feb 23, 2013

Akiko Kuno's strength as a woman stretches back through generations

Akiko Kuno, 72, believes her destiny is tied with a red string to the United States. So she says as she speaks of her and her family's life at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo, where as a child she first tasted Coca-Cola and a hamburger.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 19, 2013

Sewing words for thought

Some words can evoke powerful images, values and stereotypes that have crept into our subconsciousness to sometimes dictate the way we think or behave. For Ruri Clarkson, this is something that needs to be challenged in Japan, and which she does herself with art.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 14, 2013

'JR: Could Art Change the World?'

A self-described "photograffeur," French artist JR's artwork is based on flyposting giant photographic images in public spaces to offer a form of social commentary. In "Portrait of a Generation" (2006), he brought attention to the community in Montfermeil, France, by flyposting portraits of teens and...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 13, 2013

Faith in renewed growth is an ill-advised policy

Americans are treating the present economy as if the bubbly growth from 2000 to 2007 will return. It may simply be time to learn how to live with less.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2013

Soul of GOP depends on immigration reform

U.S. Republicans have an existential reason to support immigration reform. The last thing Barack Obama should do now is give them cause to oppose it.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Feb 4, 2013

Puppy Bowl grows in leaps, bounds

When reporters from The New Yorker, "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams," "Good Morning America," The Associated Press and The Washington Post, have all converged upon one event, it must be important. An appearance by the president. A press conference about dignified matters, with plenty of throat-clearing...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 28, 2013

Blame it on the hara: harassment vocabulary makes us all victims

Japan has a new hara. No, the nice couple down the hall didn't just have a baby; according to recent news, yet another form of harassment is supposedly becoming a social problem.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 28, 2013

The first family: ordinary yet extraordinary

As President Barack Obama took the stage to deliver his acceptance speech on the night of his re-election, his younger daughter nudged his arm. He bent down to listen to 11-year-old Sasha. "Behind you," she mouthed. The president nodded and promptly turned to wave to the supporters at his back. Sasha...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jan 27, 2013

Time to stop nonsense on import rule, expand to 48-minute game

Formed as a six-team breakaway circuit from the old-guard JBL, the bj-league aimed to usher in a new era of pro basketball in Japan in 2005.
Reader Mail
Jan 26, 2013

When 'patriotism' is a liability

I don't have an opinion about the legitimacy of NHK dismissing French employee Emmanuelle Bodin after she fled the country following the March 11, 2011, earthquake and subsequent nuclear plant disaster. (She is now suing the broadcaster over her dismissal.) But I do have an opinion about how the dismissal...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Dec 30, 2012

The wonderful worlds of 100 waka

The scene: England, Boxing Day 2012. The archetypical Carters are relaxing after a cold turkey lunch (with bread sauce) and are watching the Royal Family's latest sonnets being read on the goggle-box. Time for a game!
COMMENTARY
Dec 26, 2012

Abe's ascent provides China with a chance to improve ties

Shinzo Abe, widely viewed as a rightwing nationalist, assumes office Wednesday as prime minister of Japan, the seventh time the country's leadership has changed hands in six years and his second turn at the helm since 2007.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2012

To live with a nuclear Iran or to make war on it?

One of the greatest challenges that U.S. President Barack Obama will face in his second term is Iran's pursuit of advanced nuclear technologies.
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2012

Will the second time be a charm for the Fed?

It was big news last week when the Federal Reserve announced that it wants to maintain its current low-interest rate policy until unemployment, now 7.7 percent, drops to at least 6.5 percent. The Fed was correctly portrayed as favoring job creation over fighting inflation, though it also set an inflation...
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 17, 2012

Nippon Ishin falls short, readies for next race

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) picked up only 54 seats in the Lower House election, a far cry from the hundreds of seats party leaders had hoped for.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 16, 2012

Mount Fuji's lacustrine Gang of Five

Among Japan's many physical features, none comes even close to matching the manner in which its loftiest peak has carved out the fondest niche in the national psyche. The Mount Fuji name and image are evident practically everywhere in Japan today — as they have been one way or another over the centuries....
CULTURE / Books
Dec 9, 2012

Globe-trotting acrobat left a mark on Japan

PROFESSOR RISLEY AND THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE TROUPE: How an American Acrobat Introduced Circus to Japan — and Japan to the West, by Frederik L. Schodt. Stone Bridge Press, 2012, 336 pp., $35 (hardcover) When a storyteller wields a scholar's pen, history truly comes alive. When that history crosses the...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 7, 2012

Ishibashi steering Brave Warriors in the right direction

Takatoshi "Big Bashi" Ishibashi served as the Shinshu Brave Warriors' capable assistant coach during the team's inaugural season under Motofumi Aoki, the 2006-07 bj-league Coach of the Year.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami