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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 4, 2007

Taking liberties? Readers respond

The Community Page received an unprecedented number of responses to the "Taking Liberties" series that ran in this section last month. Following are some examples.
SOCCER
Dec 1, 2007

Becks, Gamba set to play in inaugural Pan-Pacific tourney

HONOLULU (AP) David Beckham and the Los Angeles Galaxy will lead a four-team field for the inaugural Pan-Pacific Championship exhibition tournament in Hawaii in February.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Dec 1, 2007

Bond forged in Nepal still going strong

Praveen Lama and Kazuko Tanikawa have lived in a bustling shopping street in Tokyo's Kita Ward since July 2003, when the Nepalese married his Japanese wife after a long-distance love affair that lasted several years through e-mails and phone calls.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 30, 2007

'Hannari — Geisha Modern'

Over the years, many people have asked me why I bother to review Japanese films, when so few non-Japanese-speaking foreigners can fully appreciate them.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 30, 2007

'The Nativity Story'

Motherhood is a rum thing to begin with but motherhood in the mid-teens, in superconservative ancient Nazareth, engaged to a man you've never met and who is definitely not the father of the baby — well, then it would be time to hit the panic button, if only such a thing had existed.
COMMENTARY
Nov 28, 2007

Hello to the euro, goodbye to the dollar

LONDON — It's just straws in the wind so far. India's Ministry of Culture announces that foreign tourists can no longer pay in dollars when visiting the Taj Mahal and other heritage sites; they have to pay in good, hard rupees. Iran and Venezuela call for a joint OPEC statement on the weak dollar,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 27, 2007

Prints rejected, scribe accepted

T he center of the little monitor — I'd guess about 20 cm from the looks of it — flashed the word "Yokoso" (welcome). Its colored border was festooned with a collage of images near and dear to visiting tourists' hearts: "torii" gates, the shinkansen, Zen gardens, Mount Fuji . . .
Reader Mail
Nov 27, 2007

Reasons to appreciate the U.S.

Regarding Helen Array's Nov. 18 letter, "Overweening pride that baffles": I would like to say that Array is the ignorant one when she declares that Americans are slandering other countries. Recently on CNN I saw a Myanmar citizen begging for America's help. Watch Roberto Benigni's "La Vita E Bella (Life...
Reader Mail
Nov 25, 2007

Just more work for immigration

In his Nov. 20 letter, "Common protection and control," Hideo Kaito certainly knows how to stir up a hornet's nest with his remarks supporting the introduction of fingerprinting, etc., for non-Japanese arriving at ports of entry.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Nov 23, 2007

Newcomer St. Preux helps Sendai bolt to 5-1 start

It may be too early to call the Sendai 89ers a title contender, but it's time to pay attention to what they've accomplished through six games.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Nov 21, 2007

Biodiversity to take your breath away

I promised that I would write more about my recent visit to South America, and as the first snows are now regularly dusting the mountains on view from my window here in Hokkaido — and even coating my balcony — it's hard not to reflect on times spent in warmer climes.
COMMENTARY
Nov 19, 2007

Feasible cuts in emissions

Debate is raging over the pros and cons of the proposed target of halving global greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. The goal, initially proposed last June by then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders at the Group of Eight summit at Heiligendamm,...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2007

New Rumsfeld of Europe

PRAGUE — Russia's Duma elections this December are almost certain to cement the power of forces loyal to Vladimir Putin. That outcome is likely to confirm Russia's emergence as the most divisive issue in the European Union since former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld split the continent into...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Nov 18, 2007

Roadside profits and the parking lottery

For my stationary sins, I have been slapped with parking tickets from Los Angeles to London, and I used to think all fines were basically the same. Eagle-eyed traffic wardens pinpoint infringers and litter windscreens with $100 fines before you can say "Gimme a break!" Then you either pay up in person...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 18, 2007

Up, up and away

Imagine an oblong balloon that's longer than a Boeing 747 jumbo jet and has a small glass bowl of a passenger compartment dangling precariously from its underbelly. Despite the slogan "Fly with me" emblazoned along its length, the Zeppelin NT didn't look like the most reassuring vehicle in which to entrust...
COMMENTARY
Nov 17, 2007

Is the democracy image losing its glow?

BALI, Indonesia — There's no guarantee that an intellectual counter-revolution will last any longer than a major monsoon. But there is in the works in this region growing disenchantment with the views of what one might call democracy fundamentalists. These are the people who insist that the democratic...
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Nov 16, 2007

Tokyo couple share humor, love of rock-climbing

To provide more coverage of topics closely related to non-Japanese residents, The Japan Times is launching the series "Mixed Matches" about international couples.
Japan Times
CULTURE / OTAKOOL
Nov 15, 2007

Remix this: anime gets hijacked

Tim Park sits at home in his one-man studio in Ontario, Canada surrounded by piles of anime DVDs and a ton of tech.
BUSINESS
Nov 14, 2007

GDP logs surprise increase of 2.6%

The economy expanded at a faster pace than expected in the July-September period, thanks to strong exports to other parts of Asia and an unexpected increase in consumer spending, the government said in a preliminary report released Tuesday.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 11, 2007

Trapped between borders

Frontier Mosaic: Voices of Burma from the Lands In Between, by Richard Humphries. Orchid Press, 2007, 180 pp., $29.95 (paper) "A man on a motorbike comes by and we then follow him through the streets of Mae Sot." So begins one of the narrative vignettes from "Frontier Mosaic." Based on extensive travel...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 9, 2007

New York chefs taste authentic Japanese cuisine

Top New York chefs were given a rare treat recently when master chefs from Kyoto traveled to the Big Apple to give a master class.
Reader Mail
Nov 8, 2007

Review of NHK's offerings

Encouraged by timely letters Oct. 30, may this resident of over 50 years register his rage at some of the recent behavior of NHK with the hope of some kind of rectification?
Reader Mail
Nov 8, 2007

Nagasaki open and friendly

Regarding the Oct. 28 letter "Ebb and flow of discrimination": I was surprised to read that anti-American sentiment is prevalent in Nagasaki. I have been living in Nagayo, Nagasaki, for five years and can honestly say that I have never suffered from any discriminatory remarks or rude behavior, other...
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Nov 6, 2007

"The Bomb," "Bunker 10"

"The Bomb" Theodore Taylor, Harcourt; 2007; 195pp.
Japan Times
LIFE / CLOSE-UP
Nov 4, 2007

Sue Palmer: The kids are not OK, top educator warns

To a growing legion of educated, enlightened and empowered mothers in Japan and abroad, Sue Palmer's advice on how to bring up children might sound — if not heard in context — too old-fashioned, too alarmist or even maybe too naive to prepare their loved ones for the rapidly changing, fiercely competitive...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 4, 2007

Rural living of an old man who does as he pleases

Late Poems Of Lu You, The Old Man Who Does As He Pleases: New Translations by Burton Watson. Burlington, Ontario: Ahadada Books, 2007, 74 pp., $12, ¥2,000 (paper) Lu You (Yu) (1125-1210), often referred to by his literary name of Lu Fangweng ("The Old Man Who Does as He Pleases"), is one of China's...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Nov 3, 2007

International group helps shed light on shadows of injustice

Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, you can pretty much expect to find Akiko Mera in the second-floor Oxfam office in a gray, nondescript building in Ueno, Tokyo, surrounded by a half-dozen desks piled high with papers, pamphlets and books. It looks very much like many other decades-old offices, where the daily...

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell