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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 28, 2010

Behind the facade of family law

Last in a two-part series In mid-April, 12-year-old Michiko Watanabe, as she was now being called, found herself in a precarious situation. Earlier, her mother had clearly let her child know that she would no longer consider herself Michiko's mother if Michiko ever attempted to return to her father....
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2010

Metamorphosis in Britain reveals empathizing pope

HONG KONG — Pope Benedict XVI is the antithesis of a pop star, elderly, shy, set in his ways, even finding it hard to hold a note. Yet in the United Kingdom the week before last, he received massive pop-starlike adulation, with successive crowds of 120,000 lining the streets of Edinburgh merely to...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 26, 2010

Home truths: To buy or not to buy?

During a recent sojourn in the United States, I talked with friends and relatives about the housing situation, specifically the value of their homes in the wake of the subprime fiasco of 2007-08. Those who bought high just before the bubble burst are feeling queasy now that property values have descended...
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Sep 25, 2010

Ichiro's achievement testament to his drive

Baseball is the ultimate numbers game. Always has been, always will be.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 24, 2010

No need to feel sorry for the Incubator babies

Will the fail of the Incubator Bank have a chilling effect on 'high risk-high return' investments? Care to make a wager?
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2010

Balancing act Down Under

Australia's incumbent prime minister, Ms. Julia Gillard, has avoided humiliation by cobbling together a coalition government. Narrowly avoiding defeat only months after taking office, she presides over the first minority government in Australia in 70 years. It promises to be a difficult balancing act,...
BUSINESS / JAPAN-U.S. SEMINAR
Sep 24, 2010

New vision of Japan-U.S. ties needed at key turning point

Japan-U.S. relations are at a turning point and the Futenma base dispute — which has strained bilateral ties since the Democratic Party of Japan took power a year ago — is also symbolic of the broader and longer-term changes that affect the alliance, American experts said at a recent seminar in Tokyo....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 24, 2010

Band A to headline Fukuoka club crawl

Fukuoka recently ranked 14th in U.K. magazine Monocle's annual "Most Livable Cities Index." Alt-rock duo Band A are unsurprised their city fared so well.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 24, 2010

'Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole'

A few months back I was at a screening when the first preview for this fall's big animated fantasy, "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole," was shown. With its portentous baritone narration ("Legend tells of a band of warriors . . . "), heroic attempts to lip-synch bird beaks to human dialogue,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2010

Universities looking to go global

Fostering global human resources seems all the rage these days and several Japanese universities are jumping in, opening their doors to foreign students who aren't proficient in Japanese in a bid to snatch top-class talent from around the world.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 23, 2010

Language teacher Kae Minami

Kae Minami, 32, is a bilingual language teacher. For the past seven years, she has had an outstanding record as a top Japanese juku sensei (prep school teacher). Her foreign students start out with virtually no knowledge of Japanese and almost all of them pass their Japanese university entrance exams,...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 21, 2010

Inquest bodies give public a voice

Political observers say one of the reasons Ichiro Ozawa lost the Democratic Party of Japan's presidential election Sept. 14 was the negative image of his alleged involvement in false financial reporting by his political fund-management body, Rikuzankai.
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2010

Kan not up to economic challenge: experts

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has survived an internal power struggle and reshuffled his Cabinet, but some economists wonder if he will be able to successfully lead Japan through the economic challenges ahead of it.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2010

Kan taps Okada for party's No. 2 post

Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Thursday tapped Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada as the party's secretary general, in what amounts to a test of whether Kan can achieve party unity after Tuesday's presidential election.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2010

Medical care shoppers bet on diagnosis, benign bugs

HONG KONG — The reception area is welcoming, open and airy with tropical green trees and plants. The rooms have sofas, tables and chairs, well-chosen paintings, as well as the bed. Menus are prepared by international chefs who compete for the privilege of being chosen for a month at a time. But you...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
Sep 17, 2010

Anpo: Art X War

Director: Linda Hoaglund
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 17, 2010

New exhibition anticipates a design museum for Japan

In March, with the opening of the Design Museum Holon, Israel added its name to a long list of countries that have at least one full-fledged museum dedicated to design. Japan, despite its reputation as a design powerhouse — hard-earned during the 20th century by innovative work such as Sony's Walkman,...
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2010

Beijing testing Japan-U.S. relationship, Armitage warns

Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Wednesday in Tokyo that China is testing Japan over the "chill" in its ties with the U.S. by creating mischief in the East China Sea, particularly last week's collisions between a Chinese trawler and Japan Coast Guard vessels.
EDITORIALS
Sep 16, 2010

Mr. Kan keeps his job

Prime Minister Naoto Kan saved his job by beating Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, former secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, in Tuesday's election of the DPJ president. In a big win, he got 721 points from DPJ Diet lawmakers, local assembly members, and registered party members and supporters against...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Sep 16, 2010

Laundry logic

Dear Alice,
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Sep 15, 2010

Race may be over but plenty of daunting challenges remain

Despite his re-election as president of the ruling party, Prime Minister Naoto Kan maintained a serious face immediately following his victory Tuesday afternoon over Ichiro Ozawa.
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Sep 15, 2010

Best move for Eagles to collect on Iwakuma while they can

Hisashi Iwakuma, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles' best pitcher, is ready to see just how greener the grass is in Major League Baseball.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Sep 15, 2010

Petition project lets Web surfers make their mark

As of Tuesday, 84,512 people were united in their call for laws banning restrictions on manga / anime content, at least 8,984 people had endorsed same-sex marriage, and 1,609 individuals wanted Panasonic to keep a speech aid for the physically impaired on the market.
OLYMPICS
Sep 12, 2010

Old thinking and alliances endanger G20

MADRID — The world financial crisis has served as a quick and efficient catalyst for the Group of 20 economies. The first three G20 summits of chiefs of state — in Washington, London and Pittsburgh — will be remembered for advancing multilateralism and coordinated global action.
BASKETBALL
Sep 11, 2010

Broncos, Lions to hold fan event

The bj-league's Saitama Broncos will hold a fan event for Tokorozawa citizens at the Seibu Dome public space before the Seibu Lions baseball game against the Chiba Lotte Marines on Sunday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 11, 2010

Flower designer's success blossomed under rising sun

The Nicolai Bergmann brand radiates upscale elegance, taking flower fashion to a new level. In addition to his famous floral designs — he revolutionized Tokyo's flower world in 2000 with his original Flower Boxes, a best-selling trend that landed his name in more than 500 publications in Japanese,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2010

'Eat Pray Love'

My grandmother had a standard line when any of us bothered her with an unforgivable statement or question ("Can I have ¥10,000 to get to Nagoya to see a heavy metal grunge punk band no one's ever heard of?"), which was: "By talking like that, you just hacked off several years from my life span!"

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan