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Japan Times
BASEBALL
Jan 24, 2010

Valentine's philosophy brought Marines glory, money

Second in a four-part series
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 24, 2010

Saving the planet through its trees

Negotiators at the COP15 conference in Copenhagen didn't see eye to eye on much last month, but almost everyone agreed on one thing: To protect the planet we need to save its forests.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 20, 2010

Imperial Palace resides in otherworldly expanse

Like a nature reserve surrounded by Tokyo's concrete jungle, the Imperial Palace, or Kokyo, home to the Emperor and Empress, is a moated, otherworldly forested expanse where once stood a castle.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2010

Fliers saw bankruptcy coming, weigh options

Travelers and businesspeople reacted calmly Tuesday to Japan Airlines Corp.'s filing for bankruptcy and restructuring.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2010

Limits on 'Allah' amid paradise's blessings

HONG KONG — An ad shown on the BBC and CNN channels portrays a Caucasian couple frolicking in a paradise on Earth, enjoying jungle greens filtered through dancing sunlight, scantily clad on a pristine golden beach undisturbed except by turtle tracks, snorkeling through vivid clear blue underwater life,...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jan 17, 2010

Clandestine campaign led to Valentine's demise

First in a four-part series
TENNIS
Jan 16, 2010

Agassi's book disappoints Sampras

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) Pete Sampras would like a sit-down with longtime American rival Andre Agassi away from the tennis court to discuss Agassi's harsh words about the 14-time Grand Slam champion in his recent autobiography, "Open."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 16, 2010

How about a gaijin circus in gazelle land?

The other day, my husband bought a shirt at Uniqlo. "Wow, the sleeves are long enough!" he marveled. Clothes in Japan are getting bigger and even now foreigners can almost wear them. But there was still a problem. The arms of the shirt were too tight. This confirms a suspicion I have long had about the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 15, 2010

Days of being wild

HOLLYWOOD — 'I think 'Where the Wild Things Are' is a fantastic book," says writer-director Spike Jonze.
COMMENTARY
Jan 11, 2010

Incredible shrinking media

SEATTLE — As you flip through a range of channels on your TV or browse through a stack of newspapers and magazines at a newsstand, you may feel lucky to live in a world where such a plethora of viewpoints is available. It might also seem that the apparent increase in media choices also increases the...
COMMENTARY
Jan 10, 2010

Why not search body cavities?

LONDON — It is the duty of all public officials to "do something" whenever a new threat appears, even if there is nothing sensible to be done. If they don't make a show of solving the problem, the media will punish them severely. So we have had a vigorous U.S. government response to the recent apprehension...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jan 10, 2010

Evessa star says merger best bet for hoops in Japan

Osaka Evessa power forward Lynn Washington brings a strong presence to the basketball court, using his full array of skills to consistently earn praise as one of the elite players in Japan.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Jan 6, 2010

Hatsu 2010 — time to rise and shine for Koto, Kise and Go

With holiday decorations now back in the box and vacations ending for most people, the 700 men active in sumo are once again warming up the muscles, stretching the limbs and preparing for combat.
COMMENTARY
Jan 6, 2010

China wants it both ways

China is a schizophrenic power, a developing country on select international issues but a rising superpower that sees itself in the same league as the United States in other matters, with its new muscular confidence on open display. At the recent Copenhagen climate-change summit meeting, China was the...
BUSINESS
Jan 6, 2010

Department stores fight clunker image

Once upon a time, department stores were magnets for shoppers hungry for fashion and big-ticket luxury brand goods.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Jan 5, 2010

Old, new NPB stars set to make impact on 2010 season

Now that the calendar has flipped to 2010, Japanese baseball teams will soon begin preparing for the upcoming season.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE MONTH
Jan 1, 2010

Golden King star Newton recognized for superior defensive skills

Quietly and confidently, Jeff Newton remains the anchor of the defending bj-league champion Ryukyu Golden Kings.
COMMENTARY
Dec 30, 2009

A decade of Western losses and Asian gains

Decades don't usually have the courtesy to begin and end on the right year. The social and cultural revolution that Western countries think of when they talk of the " '60s" only got under way in 1962-63, and didn't end until the Middle East war and oil embargo of 1973-74.
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2009

The past year of newness

The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation's annual kanji of the year for 2009 is, appropriately, " " (shin), meaning "new." This kanji, chosen by national ballot and announced in December at Kyoto's Kiyomizu temple, reflects the win of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which ended a half-century...
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Dec 29, 2009

From two worlds apart they found one

American Leza Lowitz was ready to leave Japan when she met her future husband, Shogo Oketani, at a Yokohama jazz club.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 29, 2009

New Year's: Communing with family, the gods

In the West, people count down the seconds to midnight Dec. 31 and in many cases keep partying into the wee hours, then sleep in. Once the clock strikes 12 in Japan, many people head to temples and shrines, then proceed to make New Year's Day a family occasion.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 27, 2009

Wendy's decision triggers memories of a unique pre-game tradition

A brief news article on Page 1 of the Dec. 12 edition of The Japan Times reminded me of former Yakult Swallows and Rakuten Eagles pitcher Kevin Hodges. "Wendy's pulling out of Japan by end of month," read the headline above the story about the U.S. hamburger chain ending its operations in this country....
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Dec 27, 2009

Usual conformist cliches about the Japanese

NEW YORK — So Roger Cohen, a relatively new columnist with The New York Times, concluded after a brief stay in Tokyo earlier this month that Japan is a society laid low by "a tremendous conformity" and trivialized by "otaku" ("Japanese Obsessions," Dec. 14).
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 27, 2009

Thank God the year's over

History has seen worse years than 2009. All the same, this Year of the Ox has been more than most of us born after World War II in the relatively privileged regions of the Earth were conditioned to cope with.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Dec 25, 2009

Legendary, dirty samurai gets makeover

Singer and actor Masaharu Fukuyama hit the nail on the head when he said that Sakamoto Ryoma is the kind of person onto whom anyone can project themselves.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 23, 2009

Yappa! Abbreviated Japanese ain't all that bad

"Ain't" ain't a word. My high school English teachers pounded that into my head. And they were right — "ain't" is not proper English. On the other hand, it is used colloquially by people all over the English-speaking world. Language is not just limited to those words found in reference books and textbooks....
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Dec 22, 2009

No surprise to see Apache in sorry state after offseason upheaval

Losing can breed disgust or apathy, and the Tokyo Apache have fallen on hard times in the bj-league's fifth season.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years