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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Sep 14, 2010

Is racism coloring debate on Japanese whaling?

Following is a selection of readers' responses to the Aug. 17 Zeit Gist columns headlined "Racist undercurrents taint whaling rhetoric" by Dougal McNeill and "Appeals to culture, tradition ignore the historical facts" by Chris Burgess:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Sep 10, 2010

'Look at Me'

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Sep 3, 2010

Hill, Apache set to open training camp in Texas

Before a single shot is taken in the season's first game, every team knows the following:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 27, 2010

'About Elly'

"About Elly" is the kind of ensemble film that recalls Robert Altman ("Pret a Porter," "Gosford Park") or an early Kenneth Branagh ("Peter's Friends"). A group of characters come together on screen, casual conversation is tossed about, relationships are forged or renewed or become strained — and with...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 22, 2010

Rakuten's English- only policy endures close media scrutiny

Learn to speak English, or else!
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Aug 15, 2010

Silent but deadly in the RAW ring

There is a saying among pro-wrestlers that your true opponent is not the person facing you in the ring, but everyone outside the ring — in other words, the spectators in the stadium and, for some bouts, the millions watching on television.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 13, 2010

Contemporary art helps revive a city

For theater, dance and art fans in Japan, an unprecedented gourmet selection of performances and exhibitions — the inaugural Aichi Triennale 2010 — will kick off in Nagoya on Aug. 21, running until Oct. 31. Promoting cutting-edge and cross-genre concepts with an emphasis on performance-based works,...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 25, 2010

Wartime confessions

Donald Keene, the foremost scholar of Japanese literature, mines the wartime diaries kept by some of the most prominent writers and intellectuals of the day in a book brimming with insights. Readers discover a gold mine of personal observations that deepen our understanding of what life was like when...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jul 23, 2010

Players spread gospel in summertime

Players hone their skills on basketball courts near and far in summer months. They also lend a helping hand to youngsters who are learning the game.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jul 21, 2010

Ustream goes mainstream

From high atop the summit of Mount Fuji last summer, despite miserable weather and poor visibility, 32-year-old tech enthusiast Joseph Tame sent video coverage of a spectacular solar eclipse live to the Internet from an impromptu mobile-broadcasting studio. With little more than a laptop and a Web connection,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Jul 8, 2010

A party for Tsumori Chisato, big bling, premium denim and good old gents

MISHA JANETTE and PAUL McINNES Staying young at heart
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2010

The G20's expensive party

HONG KONG — Leaders of the world's most powerful nations and a few less powerful hangers-on, like Canada and Italy, have just spent a few more billions of their taxpayers' money as they failed to devise a rescue plan for a world economy that is still perilously close to the cliff edge of disaster....
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2010

Korean peace still elusive, six decades on

HONOLULU, EAST-WEST WIRE — The tragic Korean War, which began 60 years ago, resulted from the post-World War II division of Korea by the United States and the Soviet Union — intended to be temporary — and from the political struggle that developed between Seoul and Pyongyang. After the division,...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 12, 2010

Okada top Japanese in bj-league

First in a two-part series
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jun 11, 2010

Pierce, Tennichi still on outside looking in

In the hours after Tuesday's bj-league draft, former Shiga Lakestars coach Bob Pierce spoke to Akita Northern Happinets officials about the expansion team's coaching vacancy, The Japan Times has learned.
JAPAN / Media
Jun 6, 2010

The timing behind yakuza crackdown

The media has been filled with revelations of ties between professional sumo and organized crime. Since late May, the tabloids and gossipy "wide shows" on TV have made a huge flap over Sehei Kimura and one other stable master for allowing senior gang members to obtain box-seat tickets to the Nagoya Grand...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 4, 2010

'Survival of the Dead'

Director George A. Romero kicked off the zombie genre in 1968 with his "Night of the Living Dead," and from the outset he used the undead menace to channel contemporary fears.
COMMENTARY
May 25, 2010

China won't hear suggestions that it's a disarmament slacker

SINGAPORE — As the only country to have been attacked with atomic bombs, Japan has been a leader in the campaign for nuclear disarmament since the end of the Second World War.
CULTURE / Books
May 23, 2010

An epic slog through history

This doorstopper of a book focuses on American and Soviet rivalry in post-World War II Asia while providing an overview of dramatic developments in 14 nations across Asia over the past century or so. This is an ambitious agenda, one that proves too much for the author and, one might add, any weary reader...
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
May 21, 2010

Time for league to adopt real playoff system

Nobody wants their business referred to as a "Mickey Mouse operation," unless, of course, they happen to work for the Walt Disney Company.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
May 13, 2010

From Ginza glitz to street 'n' surf styles

MISHA JANETTE and PAUL McINNES Pearls of fashion If Holly Golightly had been in Ginza instead of New York on a given morning, she might have been beside herself with jewelry lust in front of Japanese brand Tasaki's new flagship instead of that other T-named place.
CULTURE / Books
May 9, 2010

From a public toilet to outer space, sliding in filth all the way

In his 1989 essay "Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast" Tom Wolfe argues: "It was realism that created the 'absorbing' or 'gripping' quality that is peculiar to the novel, the quality that makes the reader feel that he has been pulled not only into the setting of the story but also into the minds and central...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 7, 2010

Tiebreaker could be needed in tight West

It's possible for the Osaka Evessa, Rizing Fukuoka and Ryukyu Golden Kings to all finish with identical 32-20 records.
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2010

Democratic sidebar to U.K. polls

Britain is on the brink of its biggest political upheaval in a century. The general election that takes place this week has become an unofficial referendum on the electoral system itself. Britain's first-past-the-post (FPTP) system discriminates against small parties, wastes votes and encourages politicians...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 30, 2010

'Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire'

"Precious" is a "woman's movie" — it speaks to women, rubs them rightly or wrongly, touches a few raw nerves. Male viewers may find it hard to stomach. The scene in the screening room after the lights came on reflected this. The distributors were grouped around the entrance doors, collecting the critics'...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 25, 2010

Will arrogance and ignorance doom our biosphere?

This year, 2010, is the United Nations' International Year of Biodiversity — which is a very good thing. But why this critically important global concern gets just one year is seriously worth debating.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 20, 2010

Not showing at a family court near you

I have seen the secret Japanese video. No, not the one where you die within a week of watching it, the other one — the one about how traumatic divorce and parental separation are for children.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 18, 2010

NPB boxscores now available in English

The question is often raised by fans in Japan and in other countries, relatives and friends of foreign players in Japan, major league team scouts and player agents: Where can I get box scores of Japanese professional baseball games in English?
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 9, 2010

Kings face uphill fight to retain title

The Ryukyu Golden Kings have faced plenty of adversity this season. Losing shooting guard Shigeyuki Kinjo and big man Jeff Newton, the league's regular-season and playoff MVP last season, for significant chunks of time, has tested the team's resilience and competitive spirit.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Apr 4, 2010

70 times safer than the roads themselves

NEW YORK — The Toyota saga, though quiet for the moment, will continue. "Lawyers Vie for Lead Roles in Toyota Lawsuits," said a headline in The Wall Street Journal (March 15). The company's "legal bill for unintended-acceleration cases will be in the billions," predicted Jeremy Anwyl of Edmunds.com,...

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