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Japan Times
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 25, 2008

Morozov blames agent for breakup with Takahashi

When you have been in the business as long as I have, you develop a kind of sixth sense about when something is not right.
COMMENTARY
May 23, 2008

Asia's rise befalls the West

HONG KONG — "When many Western observers look at China," the former Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani writes in his latest book, "The New Asian Hemisphere," "they cannot see beyond the lack of a democratic political system. They miss the massive democratization of the human spirit that is taking...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 23, 2008

Descending into the somber history of a once-glittering prize

It's a balmy spring day in Shimane Prefecture, but one step into the newly reopened Okubo Shaft of the Iwami silver mine and your body is enveloped by the darkness and the cold. In these eerie surroundings, it's not hard to imagine encountering the ghosts of the miners whose labor helped reshape Japan...
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2008

Remember the black swans

The great global economic establishment is once again divided as to what is going to happen next. Half say we are lurching toward a new bout of world inflation. Half say the danger is deflation and world recession, even depression.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 22, 2008

A life on the streets

'I'm not always a stray dog. Sometimes I'm a cat," says Daido Moriyama. "Or an insect."
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2008

If there is a god, then why is there suffering?

Do we live in a world that was created by a god who is all-powerful, all-knowing and all good?
COMMENTARY
May 14, 2008

Protectionism won't solve crisis

LONDON — The devastating cyclone that hit lower Burma (Myanmar) has caused horrific loss of life and largely destroyed what was once the rice bowl of Asia. There is an urgent need for food, clean water and shelter for those affected, but the Burmese authorities would apparently rather maintain their...
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2008

How to intervene militarily

OXFORD, England — Because peacekeeping initiatives in postconflict countries are expensive and complex, and because the war in Iraq has undermined rich nations' belief in their likely success, a dispassionate look at the use of military intervention is timely.
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2008

Food crisis endangering millions

BRUSSELS — The World Trade Organization (WTO) is in the last throes of its Doha Development Round negotiations, the European Union is currently undertaking a "health check" on its Common Agricultural Policy and the whole world is opening biofuel plants as a technological fix to curb CO2 emissions and...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2008

A failure to influence Bush

HONG KONG — Five years after the toppling of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the United States has precious little to show for its $3 trillion war, except for more than 4,000 American military dead (1,000 more than perished in the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11), 150,000 Iraqis killed, 1.5 million...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 22, 2008

Summit wicked this way comes

You've probably heard about July's G8 Summit in Toyako, in my home prefecture of Hokkaido. In case you're unfamiliar with the event, here's a primer from the Foreign Affairs Ministry:
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2008

The international community is betraying Afghanistan

HONG KONG — It is a magnificent land, a high plateau, landlocked, bitterly windswept and freezing in winter; sweltering, parched and dry in summer. It has a proud stiff-necked people who reflect the tough climate, rugged, stubborn, fiercely tribal, traditionally loyal but with a tenaciously vicious...
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2008

Donors agree to cooperate on aid

Group of Eight development ministers and emerging donors such as China and South Korea acknowledged Sunday in Tokyo the importance of cooperating on assistance to developing countries.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2008

U.S. debt isn't the bargain it used to be

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — As the world's financial leaders meet in Washington this month at the World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meeting, perhaps they should be glad there is no clear alternative to the dollar as the global currency standard.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Apr 6, 2008

Japan's most jam-packed year at the track

Atitan in the field of car manufacturing, Japan has also long been a magnet for international-level motor racing.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 30, 2008

The big mysteries behind small things

THE ART OF SMALL THINGS by John Mack. London: British Museum Press, 2007, 224 pp., with 200 color illustrations, £19.99 (cloth) Here is a splendid catalog of the world made small — miniature works in the collection of the British Museum: Elizabethan rings, Benin masks, Netherlandish rosary beads,...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2008

Scary signs in BOJ debacle

HONG KONG — Even Google couldn't believe it. Asked to supply its best information about Koji Tanami, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's second "best available" candidate to be governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), the search engine instantly responded, "Do you mean Bank of Japan tsunami?"
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 26, 2008

Can three experts all be wrong on looming disaster?

If you ask British scientist James Lovelock about the future of humanity, be prepared for a shock.
COMMENTARY
Mar 20, 2008

Brace for the Arctic oil rush

LONDON — For decades the world's major oil companies and their engineering experts have been eyeing the Arctic region and wondering how to get at the oil and gas deposits that are said to lie, in almost legendary quantities, beneath the vast expanses of ice. With the price of crude oil now well above...
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Mar 15, 2008

Brazilian players changing countries not good for game

The news this week that Kawasaki Frontale's Brazilian striker Juninho hopes to gain Japanese citizenship and play for the national team will not have been music to FIFA president Sepp Blatter's ears.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2008

The global economic party has ended

MUNICH — With the United States teetering into recession, the global economic boom has ended. The boom was unusually long and persistent, with four years of roughly 5 percent growth — a period of sustained economic dynamism not seen since around 1970.
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2008

Will 'rebirth' of China level the field?

HONG KONG — At precisely eight minutes past 8 p.m. on Aug. 8 — the eighth day of the eighth month of the year 2008 — the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, this year's summer Olympics, will officially open in Beijing. It is widely seen as China's debut party after an eclipse of a couple of centuries....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 1, 2008

Champion starts racing season with Nissan

Benoit Treluyer was just age 4 when he obtained his first set of motorized wheels.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 27, 2008

Even oceans can only take so much

N ow that the wider world has finally recognized the extent to which human activities are altering the Earth's climate, maybe we can also begin to grasp the fact that our oceans, too, are in dire straits.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 23, 2008

Japan swimmers at home in Flagstaff

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, far from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo's hyper daily pace, Japanese swimmers enjoy a haven of privacy and a world-class training center as they prepare for the imposing challenge of competing for Olympic medals.
COMMENTARY
Feb 22, 2008

Beware Kosovo's offspring

Last Sunday, Kosovo formally declared independence to the accompaniment of festive celebrations by the good citizens of the world's newest country. We can but wish them well as they chart a new course inside a new Europe free of the distracting conflicts that had ravaged the continent until the middle...
COMMENTARY
Feb 15, 2008

McCain's stubbornness raises questions

LOS ANGELES — One of my all-time favorite Chinese proverbs goes like this: "To listen well is as powerful a means to influence as to talk well, and it is essential to all true conversations."
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2008

Breaking the monopoly on econ theory

WASHINGTON — For 25 years, the so-called Washington Consensus — comprising measures aimed at expanding the role of markets and constraining the role of the state — has dominated economic development policy. As John Williamson, who coined the term, put it in 2002, these measures "are motherhood...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji