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Reader Mail
Nov 2, 2008

Nuclear warning to all nations

The views expressed by Brad Glosserman and Bates Gill in their Oct. 29 article, "Bush's nuclear deal with India: bigger consequences to consider," are well articulated, albeit with a few gaps. India is not just a rising economic power; it is seen as a major threat by economies that have failed for various...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 2, 2008

Looking back at previous Giants-Lions battles in the Japan Series

The current Japan Series matchup pitting the Yomiuri Giants against the Saitama Seibu Lions is installment No. 6 since the Seibu Railways bought the Pacific League team and moved it to the Tokyo area almost 30 years ago.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2008

U.S. candidates vow to 're-engage' Japan

OSAKA — Eight years ago, on the eve of the 2000 U.S. presidential election, a bipartisan group of Washington experts released the Armitage Report, named after Richard Armitage, one of the main authors and an eventual deputy secretary of state under President George W. Bush.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2008

Japan extends claim to undersea territory

Japan will file a request with a U.N. commission to claim rights to continental shelves in the Pacific Ocean beyond its Exclusive Economic Zone in hopes of tapping into greater undersea natural resources, a government panel on ocean policies said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Oct 31, 2008

A warning to Syria and Iran

By launching armed attacks in Syria last weekend, the United States sent another warning to governments that refuse to stop terrorists who operate on their territory. U.S. President George W. Bush has made it clear that he will not stand idly by as terrorists target American troops, and some scholars...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 30, 2008

Tokyo film competition rewards tantalizing tales

When I was at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea a few weeks ago, I discussed the Tokyo International Film Festival with some journalists, who disagreed with my assertion that TIFF's Competition section was a dumping ground for movies that couldn't make it at other film festivals. They...
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Oct 30, 2008

Poof! goes the art work as taboos broken

The skies above the Hiroshima Peace Memorial were perfectly clear last Tuesday morning — until a small plane appeared and started writing in smoke a Japanese word that could be translated as "Bang!"
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2008

Bush's nuclear deal with India: bigger consequences to consider

HONOLULU/STOCKHOLM — The U.S.-India civilian nuclear agreement was signed into law this month after two years of negotiations and bitter debates. The final deal sharply divides arms control and nonproliferation specialists. The focus of an often-emotional debate revolves around a simple question: Is...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 29, 2008

Devoted to the game: Looking back at Oh's career

First in a three-part series
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Oct 28, 2008

DPJ leadership after Ozawa

At an extraordinary convention of the Democratic Party of Japan in Tokyo on Sept. 21, DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa surprised party members by declaring that the upcoming Lower House election will be his last opportunity to lead a nationwide political campaign.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 28, 2008

WWII forced labor issue dogs Aso, Japanese firms

After evading the issue for more than two years, Taro Aso conceded to foreign reporters on the eve of becoming prime minister that Allied POWs worked at his family's coal mine in Kyushu during World War II.
COMMENTARY
Oct 27, 2008

West ganging up on Russia

Western reports say Russia is in deep trouble because foreigners are fleeing its stock market following the recent conflict in Georgia. Maybe so. But none of this was very visible to me on a recent Moscow visit.
Reader Mail
Oct 26, 2008

Organic food looking better

The Oct. 22 article "Melamine-tainted dough spurs Saizeriya to give pizza refunds" stated that the restaurant chain served thousands of pizzas during the eight-day period (Sept. 25 to Oct. 2) for which pizza dough made in China may have been contaminated with "very small amounts" of the industrial chemical...
Reader Mail
Oct 26, 2008

Indian vs. Chinese progress

Regarding Brahma Chellaney's Oct. 23 article, "Remember the China lesson": Some questions remain unanswered in the author's comparison of the economic progress made by China and that made by India.
Reader Mail
Oct 26, 2008

Typical reaction of the vested

Regarding the Oct. 24 article "Aso gets riled when quizzed over swanky wining, dining": Isn't this how it goes? As long as the folks at the top have enough money to wine and dine in exclusive restaurants, why should they worry about "ordinary" people who have to check for special discounts and look for...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 26, 2008

A Japanese poet who found his true nature through nature itself

On Sept. 21 on this page, in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the death of the poet, scientist and religious thinker Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933), I turned to him for inspired insight into the Japanese view of nature.
Reader Mail
Oct 26, 2008

Filmmakers' reality is legitimate

The Washington Post article by Andrew Klavan, "Myths about Tinseltown liberals," which ran in The Japan Times on Oct. 19, presents critical observations of leftwing filmmakers. In my "leftwing" view, Sen. Joe McCarthy did not serve the interests of the United States with his blunderbuss approach to ferreting...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / LIQUID CULTURE
Oct 24, 2008

Stir up memories in bars of yore

In hard times such as these you can always find solace in a drink; just make it one that reminds you of better days. Here are eight great Tokyo bars that ooze nostalgia. Some serve classic cocktails, some survived the war, and most of them seem to have served author Yukio Mishima.
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2008

A more self-reliant Japan

Regarding Robert Dujarric's Oct. 18 article, "Japan in a post-U.S. world,": I agree that Japan needs to chart a more self-reliant path. The financial decline of the United States has been hyped a bit too much and too much of the U.S. gains in southwest Asia have been ignored by left-friendly reporters....
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2008

Circumstances of bribe-taking

Regarding the Oct. 15 article "Moriya asks for leniency over bribes": I find it hard to understand why former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya believes he should receive a suspended sentence. He didn't seem to have any problem taking millions of yen in kickbacks from a defense equipment trader in...
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2008

Changing worldview a good thing

Reading the first lines of the article "Japan in a post-U.S. world," I really wonder if the author seriously means this. What the United States is doing is trying to force everybody into the mind-set that it has. This can be seen in Japan.
COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2008

Deterioration of public health in Zimbabwe

NEW YORK — Zimbabwe is a problematic state. Once the breadbasket of Africa, the country's population is now suffering the consequences of government policies that have seriously harmed their health and quality of life.
COMMUNITY
Oct 21, 2008

I 'abducted' my daughters

Following is a reader's response to Michael Hassett's Aug. 26 "Zeit Gist" article on parental abduction to Japan (" Coming out of the shadows.")
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Oct 20, 2008

Aso's curtailed prospects

Although Taro Aso won a landslide victory in the presidential election of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Sept. 22 and was elected prime minister two days later, his administration could conceivably become the shortest in history, shorter even than the record 54 days of Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni,...
COMMENTARY
Oct 20, 2008

North Korea: settling for half a loaf

The conventional wisdom is that the Bush administration, in its never-ending face-off with North Korea over its nuclear ambitions, has once again been the first to blink. President George W. Bush has been severely criticized for removing North Korea from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List prior to...
Reader Mail
Oct 19, 2008

Mothers are never 'abductors'

Regarding the Oct. 15 article " 'Institutional racism' lets Japan spouses abduct kids": I am in a similar situation. My wife left me and took our child secretly to Japan; there was a divorce and she remained in Japan.
Reader Mail
Oct 19, 2008

Lucky millennium celebration

The three articles Oct. 12 on the "1,000 years of 'Genji' " by Eriko Arita are absorbing and delightful. I've read Waley's, Seidensticker's, McCullough's and Tyler's versions -- the latter I don't know how many times. I've yet to tackle the very first version, and those by Jakucho Setouchi and Donald...
Reader Mail
Oct 19, 2008

The burden of bad choices

This past summer the campaign against smoking became a hot topic, and a recent article mentioned proposals to raise cigarette taxes in Japan. The average price for a pack of cigarettes is ¥300, but there is a movement to raise that to ¥1,000 yen. The reasoning behind this is that if tobacco were expensive,...
Reader Mail
Oct 19, 2008

A suspicious use of power

I'm not surprised by the contents of the Oct. 12 Associated Press article "Alaska inquiry finds Palin abused power." More than a decade ago, when U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was a mayor, she asked the city librarian if the librarian would be open to the suggestion that certain...

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?