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BASKETBALL
Oct 5, 2013

Aomori collects victory in bj-league debut; Nara falls to Osaka

The Aomori Wat's and Bambitious Nara, the bj-league's expansion teams for the 2013-14 season, experienced mixed results on Saturday.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Oct 5, 2013

Kabaya looks past glory of title team, forward to new season

Masayuki Kabaya played a starring role in leading the Yokohama B-Corsairs to a championship in their second season in the bj-league.
EDITORIALS
Oct 5, 2013

Japanese language diplomacy

An expert panel has proposed increasing the number of Japanese teachers sent abroad to teach the Japanese language as a way of improving relations with Southeast Asian nations.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Oct 5, 2013

Has business blackballed the yakuza? Don't bank on it

The Financial Services Agency (FSA) publicly spanked Mizuho Bank last month by slapping it with a "business improvement order" for letting Japan's organized crime groups use its facilities. At least $2 million in illegal transactions were cited.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 5, 2013

Trouble is brewing on tracks up north

Last week the Fuji TV variety show "Real Scope" covered Japanese railroads. Most of the celebrities in the studio were densha otaku (train geeks), so it was one big love-in for railways and the people who operate them. However, the entire two-hour program focused on only two systems: the super express...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Oct 4, 2013

Beatlemania: 'The screamers' and other tales of fandom

The first time Scottish concert promoter Andi Lothian booked the Beatles, in the frozen January of 1963, only 15 people showed up. The next time he brought them north of the border, to Glasgow Odeon on Oct. 5, they had scored a No. 1 album and three No. 1 singles, and it was as if a hurricane had blown...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2013

U.S.' endless budget battle

The privilege of issuing the global reserve currency lowers the interest rates that the U.S. government and Americans pay. An unforced debt default could weaken this advantage.
EDITORIALS
Oct 4, 2013

U.S. government on Cruz control

To starve the feared 'Obamacare' of funding, a hard core of America's Republican right seems prepared to paralyze the U.S. government and cripple its creditworthiness.
BUSINESS
Oct 4, 2013

U.S. regulators offer look at banks' 'living wills' for unwinding in crises

In the event of a catastrophic market meltdown or a plain-old company collapse, Wall Street's titans say they are prepared and won't need to turn to taxpayers for help.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 4, 2013

Hart a major concern for England

He is out of form to the extent of becoming a liability, his mistakes are too frequent and costly, while his goal probably seems like the Grand Canyon, but Joe Hart will play for England in the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against Montenegro and Poland that will decide its 2014 fate.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2013

'R100'

The world premiere of Hitoshi Matsumoto's "R100" in the Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness section must be frustrating for all those Japanese auteurs out there who got rejection letters from North America's most important festival.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 2, 2013

The Towada Art Center expands its landscape

Ever since the Towada Art Center opened five years ago, the city in Aomori Prefecture has seen its prospects dramatically alter. Not only by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, but by the subsequent devastation of neighboring areas, all of which compounded the dwindling prosperity of Towada....
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Oct 2, 2013

True tradition would be preferable to an 'Idolympics' in 2020

Ten-thousand Kumamons doing an elaborate Busby Berkeley-style dance routine to Kyu Sakamoto's international 1963 hit "Sukiyaki"? A 100-meter Hatsune Miku towering over the stadium while 80,000 spectators crane their necks for a glimpse up her skirt? Newly elected Prime Minister Pamyu Pamyu speeding up...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 2, 2013

IT startup barters its way into niche

At around noon on a recent weekday, the Roppongi branch of Shamrock by Abbot Choice, a Tokyo-based Irish-style pub chain, had a bustling lunchtime crowd.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 2, 2013

Where there's a will: Attitudes toward inheritance change

Japanese baby boomers are facing up to the responsibilities of dying.

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