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Reader Mail
Jan 30, 2011

Cultural generalizations dangerous

Anyone reading James Hicks' Jan. 20 review ("Speak out for 'universal' standards") of the recent exchange of letters between him and me, and who had not read all the letters, might assume that I was an obsequious cultural relativist who was trying to justify the video rape game that Mark Soni of Maryland...
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Jan 30, 2011

Miyazaki's Shimizu enjoying leading new team in his hometown

The Japan Times features periodical interviews with players in the bj-league. Taishiro Shimizu of the Miyazaki Shining Suns is the subject of this week's profile.
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2011

Confrontation continues

Question-and-answer sessions have started in the Diet as Japan faces such serious problems as economic stagnation, deteriorating state finances and worries about the social welfare system's sustainability. But the mood of Diet is no closer to holding meaningful discussions. Opposition parties, especially...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 30, 2011

Murin-an Garden: an ode to water

Surprisingly, as modernization swept through Japan in the Meiji Era (1868-1912), the number of traditional gardens increased. The clients, though, were now of a different order. Instead of the shoguns, their court aristocracy and feudal lords, the new patrons of these meticulously crafted sites of reflection,...
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2011

New avian flu threat

Avian influenza is spreading in Japan. Apparently wild birds that migrated to this country have triggered the spread of the flu. In December, avian flu was confirmed in a poultry farm in Yasugi, Shimane Prefecture. Then it was found in swans in Yonago, Tottori Prefecture, and Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture,...
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Jan 30, 2011

Kozuka striving to improve despite recent success

It is amazing how fast an athlete can go from being overshadowed to casting a shadow.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 29, 2011

Kaiten-zushi chains gird for battle

You got your exclusive high-grade sushi, and you've got your bargain sushi, good for the whole family.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2011

U.N. envoy vows to press North on abductions

A special rapporteur for the United Nations on human rights in North Korea urged Pyongyang on Friday to resolve the long-standing abduction issue and deal with wider matters relating to humanitarian and human rights regarding its people.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 29, 2011

O-soji in the year of the dust bunnies

Why is it that we always clean our houses before guests come to visit? If you're like me, it takes guests to prompt me to give things a shine. It just goes to show how low our standards for ourselves really are.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 29, 2011

New Yorker finds success within himself in Kyoto

American restaurateur Charles Roche, 62, credits his love of feting others to having grown up in the warm and noisy embrace of an extended Italian-American family in the Bronx. As part of a food-loving clan he jokingly refers to as "the Sopranos without the crime," he remembers splitting chestnuts and...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 28, 2011

Kyoto ace Abdul-Rauf staves off Father Time

OSAKA — Kyoto Hannaryz guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf participated in the 3-Point Shootout during Sunday's All-Star festivities, providing a thrill for the enthusiastic crowd at Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium.
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2011

Toyota cut global output last month

Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday its worldwide production of vehicles fell for the fourth straight month in December, dented by falling output in Japan after subsidies for green cars expired.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 28, 2011

With sake rice, nothing goes to waste

Although sake is often described as "rice wine" to Westerners, sake is actually a fermented-grain beverage akin to beer, and unlike wine made from grapes it does not age well. So the winter months, when shinshu (freshly made new sake) is available, are the best time to enjoy this quintessentially Japanese...
COMMENTARY
Jan 28, 2011

China, charmer and bully

LONDON — Hu Jintao, given a head-of-state welcome in Washington, tried to show a friendly face toward America. He brought gifts in the form of contracts to buy American products, although most of these contracts had been closed earlier and some at least involve the purchase of American technology that...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CAREER-SEARCH CRISIS
Jan 28, 2011

Window of opportunity peephole?

The job-recruiting process requires an overhaul if the government seriously hopes to ease the pressure on struggling students seeking work after they graduate, according to University of Tokyo professor Yuki Honda.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 28, 2011

Local, foreign songwriters camp it up

Early in the band's career, Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham is reputed to have locked Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in a room and told them not to come out until they'd written their first song.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2011

Two abductees 'alive' in '06

KAGOSHIMA (Kyodo) Two Japanese abducted by North Korea were reported alive there as of 2006, despite Pyongyang's claim they died decades earlier, a relative of one of them claimed Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 28, 2011

Hirayama: Paying simple tribute to the Silk Road

Recently Stephen Fry's BBC comedy quiz show "QI," was in trouble over panelist's comments regarding Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a survivor of both atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Amid generally admiring chit chat about Yamaguchi, panelists treated the bombings with a degree of levity typical of the show, prompting...
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2011

Poll to precede any tax hike

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Wednesday he has no plans to dissolve the Lower House for a snap election anytime soon but will do so before the government raises the consumption tax.
EDITORIALS
Jan 27, 2011

Mr. Hu's successful visit

It is not even one month into 2011 and relations between the United States and China are picking up in intensity. Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made a long-awaited trip to China to restart stalled military to military dialogue. That ice-breaking visit was followed by a state...
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2011

Inpex has debt-cost advantage over China

Japan, surpassed by China as the world's second-largest economy, has one advantage in competing with its neighbor for natural resources: lower borrowing costs.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past