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SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 11, 2008

China, U.S. matchup shows game's growth

BEIJING — Has there ever been a greater home-court advantage in basketball history?
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Aug 11, 2008

New justice minister has no problem with capital punishment

New Justice Minister Okiharu Yasuoka believes most Japanese approve of capital punishment because, he said, the country has a cultural background in which death is considered "gracious" for criminals.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 10, 2008

Sharing Japanese poetry with the rest of the world

THE RABBIT IN THE MOON/TSUKI NO USAGI by Kayoko Hashimoto. Kadokawa-shoten, 2007, 260 pp., ¥2,667 (cloth) EARTH PILGRIMAGE/PELLEGRINO TERRESTRE/CHIKYU JUNREI by Ban'ya Natsuishi, English translations by the author and Jim Kacian, Italian by Luca Toma. Milan, Italy: Albalibre, 2007, 146 pp., 10.00 euro...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 10, 2008

Nanjing now: philosophy, history and Jacuzzis

Nanjing is a bustling city of 7 million, about six times its population before the Japanese rampage of 1937, and looks like many of the other modern, gleaming urbanscapes that have mushroomed up across China.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 9, 2008

'Hyakunin' translations capture commission prize

In the same way that few British people have read all of Shakespeare's sonnets but many can quote at least a few lines of the lyric tradition, any adult who has gone through the Japanese school system is familiar with the Ogura "Hyakunin Isshu."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 8, 2008

'Bottle Shock' leaves a nasty aftertaste for the organizer of the Judgment of Paris

Due to be released in American theaters this month is "Bottle Shock," a new wine movie based on the story of the Judgment of Paris. The wine event, which was organized by Steven Spurrier back in 1976, upset the received wisdom of the wine community at the time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2008

'It's a Free World'

In the world of U.K. filmmaker Ken Loach ("Raining Stones," "Sweet Sixteen," "The Wind That Shakes the Barley") the working class have dignity; they speak and act with principle, even when these happen to be misguided. They may be bogged down by poverty, lack of schooling, recessions and unemployment,...
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2008

Insurer Dai-ichi Mutual hedges with hedge funds

Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co., with more than ¥30 trillion in assets, will parcel out more money to hedge funds to safeguard returns as financial markets falter, a senior company official said.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 6, 2008

City gone wild

In June this year I took a group of Japanese friends and members of our Afan Woodland Trust up here in the Nagano hills on a trip to Britain. We went on an All Nippon Airways tour designed for people with an interest in ecology and nature restoration, and we visited our "twin" forest, the Afan Argoed...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Aug 6, 2008

Make a splash with your music

Pool jam:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Aug 5, 2008

What aspects of other cultures would you like to see Japan adopt?

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 3, 2008

Lest we forget, it's a story that cries out for telling and retelling

What can be more chilling than the statistics of war? Tens of thousands dying in a single day on the Western Front in World War I. Millions perishing in World War II. India. Pakistan. Korea. Kenya. Vietnam. Cambodia. Rwanda. Iraq. And where next?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2008

'Love in the Time of Cholera'

It's easy to fall in love with a novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but certain obstacles stand in the way of loving his characters. As time goes by and one becomes increasingly mired in the concerns of the 21st century — "Should I buy an iPhone?" "How many minutes do I have left on this exercise machine?"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 31, 2008

Who are you calling 'Mummy's boy'?

'This is some screwy way for an adult to be spending his career, right?" laughs Brendan Fraser.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jul 28, 2008

The U.S. Supreme Court's risible reasoning

Laws are subject to interpretations, courts are official interpreters, and the Supreme Court has the last word. That is a fact of life, though it is also a fact of life that you sometimes wonder if there is anything "supreme" about the Supreme Court. Yes, you know that individual justices come with individual...
EDITORIALS
Jul 24, 2008

Happy birthday, Mr. Mandela

Mr. Nelson Mandela turned 90 last week. The former political prisoner turned world leader is a hero and an icon — one of the few people who truly deserves those labels in an age of hyperbole and superficiality. Mr. Mandela has "retired from retirement," settling down to a quiet life with his wife and...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 23, 2008

There's still hope — despite our milquetoast* leaders

In the runup to the Group of Eight summit held this month in a stupendously policed corner of Japan's most remote northern island, there was widespread expectation that little would be achieved on the environmental agenda.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 20, 2008

Temporary arrangements

Akio Watanabe knows what a dead end feels like.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2008

The rising middle classes want their wheels

BEIJING — W hat becomes immediately apparent on entering the 10th annual Beijing car show is the emotional intensity with which China has thrown itself into its greatest consumerist passion to date: the first throes of an affair with the car. The entire nation, it turns out, is in love with them, is...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2008

Are young people ready, willing to be adults at 18?

Kids just don't wanna grow up.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jul 16, 2008

Glasses make movies a personal experience

Eyes front: Video may have killed the radio star, as the song says, but television has only bruised the movie screen, despite 70 years of trying to offer an experience to rival the cinema experience. Now cell phones and other mobile devices are competing with television.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Jul 12, 2008

Shy Belgian boy falls for worldly Japanese girl

Marc Van Cauteren and Reiko Shinozaki met in Tokyo in 1993 after mutual friends encouraged him to call her during a business trip to Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jul 11, 2008

Sympathy for the Maries

All the boys are in their birthday suits and beautiful long-haired Ryohei Shima is mincing up toward me. Just think of a naked Mick Jagger — a 26-year-old one, that is — entering stage right on the set of a gay porn flick and you'll get the picture. Ryohei theatrically swivels his hips upon approach,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 11, 2008

The rapid way to escape stress

Ahhhh! — that's the sound an overheated urbanite makes after cooling off in midsummer at Japan's finest whitewater rafting location, Tokushima Prefecture's Yoshino River. Its two gorges, the Oboke and Koboke, draw day-tripping beginners as well as more experienced enthusiasts, with their long stretches...
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
Jul 10, 2008

G8 handcuffed by economy

TOYAKO, Hokkaido — With global inflation and an economic slowdown looming over their heads, the Group of Eight industrialized nations ended their three-day summit Wednesday by exposing their inability to take effective action against soaring oil and food prices and the weak dollar.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2008

Thickheadedness on African debt

ACCRA, Ghana — In the runup to the Group of Eight meeting in Japan last week, activists of all stripes were working hard to ensure that their issue would be on the agenda. While the agenda changes from year to year, one item has become a mainstay: debt relief. The fact that this issue repeatedly resurfaces...
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Jul 7, 2008

As Europe's barriers rise, Japan's decline

The eyes of the world will be focused on Japan this week as the Group of Eight Summit finally kicks off at Toyako, Hokkaido. The agenda is long and topped by how to deal with climate change. But there is one item that will not be highlighted, although it is of crucial importance to every G8 member —...

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo