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JAPAN
Dec 27, 2009

Hatoyama to seek progress on Russia-held isles

Obama," he said. On the dispute over the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture, Hatoyama said people might be worried that the issue may affect future bilateral relations.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 26, 2009

Takahashi leads at nationals

OSAKA — Daisuke Takahashi finished first in the short program at the Japan National Figure Skating Championships on Friday, moving a step closer to earning a spot for the Vancouver Olympics.
COMMENTARY
Dec 25, 2009

Ever-widening pay gaps

LONDON — According to recent reports, chief executives of top British companies are now paid 81 times more than the average British worker. The pay gap has nearly doubled in the past decade. There is no justification for this trend.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 25, 2009

Temples, shrines offer New Year traditions

If you want to enjoy the traditional way of spending New Year's holidays in Japan, your best option would be to visit a temple or shrine.
Reader Mail
Dec 24, 2009

Copenhagen dissenters silenced

Regarding the Dec. 19 article "China, India snag emissions deal": In the Readers' Form of Dec. 13 I commended The Japan Times for standing up for freedom of expression in the case of a Buddhist monk whose rights had been trampled on by the police and Supreme Court. I also suggested that people are apathetic...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2009

Isuzu seeks talks with GM with eye to exiting joint engine plant

Isuzu Motors Ltd. is seeking talks with General Motors Co. to review a joint engine-making factory in the U.S. that may operate at 30 percent capacity next year.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2009

Recognizing confident India as indispensable

PARIS — "Do not forget India." That warning made sense 10 or 15 years ago; not any longer. India is now impossible to ignore, much less forget, owing not only to its rapid economic growth but also to the country's increasing geopolitical stature.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 21, 2009

You too can be Hatoyama!

Why bequeath tomorrow when you can help out your kids today? To help the housing market out of the doldrums, the DPJ might even sweeten the exemption.
Reader Mail
Dec 20, 2009

Best customer service in the world

Regarding Amy Chavez's Dec. 12 article, "Is service with a smile too much to ask for?": My wife recently flew back from the United States (on an American airline). My wife is an American and we have been living in Japan for 1Łyears now.
Reader Mail
Dec 20, 2009

Shameful failure in self-defense

The U.S. bases on Okinawa are white elephants — extravagant and dangerous ones at that — as far as the Japanese people are concerned. It has been 20 years since the Soviet empire, the erstwhile archenemy of America, collapsed and the half-century-long Cold War ended.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 20, 2009

Zimbalist says Matsui's key impact for Angels will be on the field

Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and Daisuke Matsuzaka all helped open up markets and bring new streams of revenue to their respective teams when they made their major league debuts.
Reader Mail
Dec 20, 2009

No outlet for youthful aggression

Regarding the Dec. 13 editorial, "An education in violence": It doesn't take a Harvard economist to know that the peak of physical strength begins in middle school and much of this has no outlet for release. A highly regimented society like Japan only forces everyone to come out like straitjacketed...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 20, 2009

David Burleigh: Best books of 2009

"The road of excess," said the English poet William Blake, "leads to the palace of wisdom," which might serve as an epigraph for this skillfully assembled, sharp and witty book about the drug-fueled quest of certain American poets for enlightenment in India in the 1960s. The sweetness of the whole experience...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 20, 2009

Mark Schreiber: Best books of 2009

Arimasa Osawa's hard-boiled tale follows police and gangsters in a race to track down a Taiwanese super-assassin who has been leaving bodies all over Shinjuku. This, the second in the "Shinjuku Shark" saga to appear in English, was originally published as "Dokuzaru" in 1991, when the bubble economy had...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 20, 2009

Jeff Kingston: Best books of 2009

Maybe not a comfortable read for the holidays, but this is a poignant reminder about the human consequences of aerial bombing. The authors in this collection of essays demonstrate that such bombing does not win wars but does devastate, and it is civilians who suffer disproportionately. It appears that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 20, 2009

Anthony Fensom: Best books of 2009

The best expose of Japan's organized crime scene since Robert Whiting's "Tokyo Underworld." Former Yomiuri Shimbun journalist Jake Adelstein takes readers on a gripping tour of his 12-year stint on the Tokyo police beat and into a dark world closed to most non-Japanese. Part Philip Marlowe and part Clark...
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2009

An abuse of intelligence

The U.K. government has been under pressure for some years to hold an inquiry into British participation in the Iraq war and on the events that led up to the decision to go to war. The various previous inquiries were seen by many as inadequate or whitewash. The government eventually conceded that once...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 19, 2009

Restaurateur's passion is aiding others

Christmas is a time of prayers, dreams and wishes, of children waiting for a gift from their parents and for an appearance by Santa Claus. But about 150 poor children on Smoky Mountain in Manila have a special Santa to wait for.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 18, 2009

Last call for Wendy's

It was only AFTER Wendy's declared defeat in the face of McDonald's dominance in Japan that the hamburgers started flying on the grill.

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