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SOCCER / J. League
May 16, 2008

Okada unveils Kirin Cup squad

Japan manager Takeshi Okada called up Celtic playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura for the first time Thursday as he prepares for June's do-or-die World Cup qualifying matches with two friendly matches later this month.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 16, 2008

Sex slaves struggle to keep plight in focus

SEOUL — They're the dwindling survivors of a war crime who have fought 17 years for justice. Now amid a gathering revisionist movement in Japan, they live out their final days in the South Korean countryside with the worst fear of all: that the world will forget what happened to them.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
May 16, 2008

Into the Land of the Dead

Second of two parts
EDITORIALS
May 16, 2008

Misguided use of space

The Diet is expected to enact soon a bill establishing a basic law on space. The bill, passed by the Lower House in a plenary session, represents a drastic departure from Japan's traditional "peaceful purposes only" space policy and could lead to extensive use of space for military purposes. Regrettably,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 16, 2008

R&B queen Double adds jewel to crown

Staying at the top of the game after 10 years is no mean feat in Japan's fickle music business. As one of the first artists to bring American-style R&B to these shores, Double's achievements are doubly impressive. And now she's celebrating her first decade with an album of collaborations with Japanese...
JAPAN
May 15, 2008

Clark, Fukuda concur on all but agriculture

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda agreed Wednesday to cooperate on global warming, security and other areas but failed to make progress on signing a free-trade agreement, according to a joint statement issued after their summit in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 15, 2008

School reborn as museum to help kids learn the joy of low-tech toys

A defunct 100-year-old elementary school in Tokyo that boasted 1,000 pupils in its heyday has been reborn as a museum that hopes to revive the passion of playing with toys that don't require batteries.
BUSINESS
May 15, 2008

Wholesale prices rose 3.7% in April

Wholesale prices rose at close to their fastest pace in almost three decades in April, prompting companies to pass higher costs onto clients or absorb them by sacrificing profits, the Bank of Japan said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
May 14, 2008

Protectionism won't solve crisis

LONDON — The devastating cyclone that hit lower Burma (Myanmar) has caused horrific loss of life and largely destroyed what was once the rice bowl of Asia. There is an urgent need for food, clean water and shelter for those affected, but the Burmese authorities would apparently rather maintain their...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 14, 2008

Space defense no reason to ax gentler projects

For a country with a constitution "forever renouncing war" (Article 9), Japan spends an awful lot of money on its military. In 2005 it was the fifth largest military spender in the world. And now there is the unsettling news that Japan is expanding its powerful self-defense capability into space.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 13, 2008

Brex upgrade roster in busy offseason

Just as the team name reveals, the Link Tochigi Brex are trying to do everything to make themselves successful in their first season in the JBL's top league.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 13, 2008

Landlords, support, auto advice

Reader BJ is having trouble communicating with his landlord.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 11, 2008

Veteran Nakamura says move to bj-league the right decision for ex-JBL club

Kazuo Nakamura never minces his words. And this characteristic doesn't change, even on a formal, introductory occasion.
Reader Mail
May 11, 2008

Ignorance of foreign knowledge

Walt Gardner's May 4 letter, "Naming and shaming doesn't help," makes a significant prescription: "Japan is not Finland. But that's no reason to reject out of hand lessons learned from the other side of the globe." As an education consultant and business English instructor in Japan for 17 years, I have...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 9, 2008

South Korean punk band Gumx regroups after military service

"Gumx is back!!" proclaimed the T-shirt for Seoul punk band Gumx's short Japan jaunt in late February. The band's first foreign gigs in more than three years, it had good reason to be excited about returning to the live circuit in its biggest market.
JAPAN
May 6, 2008

Article 9 conference calls for spread of pacifism in Asia

CHIBA — The spirit of the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution should not only be protected but also extended to other Asian countries, panelists at a symposium said Monday.
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2008

Thou shalt not steal . . . books

On the surface, Japan appears to be a relatively crime-free and comparatively safe society. One crime, though, is on the rise — shoplifting. A recent survey by the Japan Book Publishers Association for Information Infrastructure Development found that nearly ¥4 billion in books are stolen every year,...
JAPAN
May 3, 2008

China warms to emissions goals

China is expected to express support for Japan's sector-by-sector approach to setting goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2008

Rule of law comes under fire

The government's reactions to the Nagoya High Court's April 17 decision that Japanese operations in Iraq are unconstitutional, raise profoundly disturbing questions about the rule of law and the democratic separation of powers in Japan.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic