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Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 20, 2008

Soccer that's played the wheely way

I like soccer. I like to watch it. I even tried to play it a few times when I was a kid, though I was not good at sports that didn't require me to use my hands, so I switched to tennis and basketball. But I can imagine how skillful you have to be to play football well, and how much fun and how exciting...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 19, 2008

A disturbing sign of wildlife

When I first came to Japan, I thought "Where is all the wildlife?" You know, everyday urban-adapted wildlife like we have in the United States such as squirrels, raccoons, and chipmunks. . . Such animals and small rodents can be found living in almost any city or city park in the U.S., but in Japan,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2008

Industry chiefs to G8: Forge fair emissions goals

Business leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations called on G8 member nations Thursday to create a post-Kyoto Protocol framework that is fair and impartial to all major emitters.
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2008

Raw-materials cost rise putting economy at risk

Economic growth in Japan is at risk as soaring costs of raw materials squeeze profits, forcing companies to cut spending and wages, economists said.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Apr 16, 2008

Change sweeping North Korea

Drastic changes appear to be taking place in North Korea as its Korean Workers' Party (KWP) further strengthens its grip and its strongman Kim Jong Il tackles three major tasks: to pave the way for announcing his successor, to minimize whatever damage may result from the birth of a new conservative government...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 15, 2008

Pecha Kucha! Ping! Monozukuri gets hot!

Good things come from small packagers, according to new online design magazine PingMag MAKE.
EDITORIALS
Apr 15, 2008

Funding for U.S. military facilities

The Lower House passed a new special-measures agreement for financial burden-sharing to maintain U.S. military facilities in Japan and sent it to the opposition-controlled Upper House on April 3. Even if the Upper House does not pass the agreement, it will become effective 30 days after the Lower House...
Reader Mail
Apr 13, 2008

Left unaddressed, issue will fester

Regarding the April 8 article "Official defends 'Yasukuni' screening for lawmakers": Japan is already so notorious for its obsession with censoring anything that might sully the illusion that it has created about itself in its own eyes that its previous prime minister made the activity a central pillar...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 13, 2008

Hailing the sensual night crawler

EAST WIND MELTS THE ICE: A Memoir through the Seasons, by Liza Dalby. University of California Press, 2007, 346 pp., $24.95 (cloth) "Earthworms twist" — "Prunella flourishes" — "Load up fertilizers" — "Moss glows green." What are these?
Reader Mail
Apr 13, 2008

Tough to read new weather forecast

I have subscribed to The Japan Times for over 18 years but this is the first time that I've felt the need to write. My concern is the new format for the weather forecast. What happened to the instructional weather map, the percentage chance of rain and the "Today's Weather" description? Is The Japan...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 12, 2008

Galaxies beyond on the Hamanasu

Have you ever taken a ferry in Japan? The English word feri (ferry) is used in Japan only for boats carrying vehicles. Passenger ferries are just called fune (boats). There are many long-distance ferries passengers can board, however. Traveling by ferry is for those who prefer to travel around Japan...
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2008

Hospital doctors feeling the strain

Whenever Naoshi Tamura is on a night shift at Ota Hospital in Tokyo, the surgeon works 36 consecutive hours with little sleep, seeing patients during the daytime and treating those transported to the emergency room at night.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
Apr 11, 2008

Dreams of the 'One-Eyed Dragon'

As usual, I check into the Sendai City Hotel on Bansui Dori, one of the best deals in town: It sits on the edge of the Kokubuncho entertainment district, has a Christian church opposite for easy penance if things get out of hand, and newly-refurbished single rooms start from a comfortable ¥3,500. The...
EDITORIALS
Apr 11, 2008

At long last, a new BOJ governor

To the belated, if only partial, relief of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and financial market players, the position of the governor of the Bank of Japan, which had been empty since former BOJ chief Toshihiko Fukui's tenure ended on March 19, has finally been filled.
Reader Mail
Apr 10, 2008

Increase in ill-behaved Americans?

I was an American soldier stationed in Japan in the early 1970s. I traveled to all of Japan's main islands and visited many historical sites. I was invited into many Japanese homes and was treated very well. The only incident that I can recall that was unpleasant was when a cowardly Japanese man made...
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2008

Shirakawa humbled at taking BOJ helm

Voted in as expected Wednesday by the Diet as the 30th Bank of Japan governor, Masaaki Shirakawa was quick to take a middle-of-the-road stance and note that instead of being a professor of monetary policy he is now in the position of setting it.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2008

Rudd pencils in Tokyo visit

SYDNEY — After much grief in Canberra, Kevin Rudd has set a date to meet with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in Tokyo. True, it's a bit late and the timing comes a poor second to his talks with other world leaders. But at least it's on and tempers may now cool.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 8, 2008

National holidays trace roots to China, ancients, harvests

Golden Week is approaching, covering four national holidays from late April to early May.
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2008

Official defends 'Yasukuni' screening for lawmakers

Defending the government's involvement in giving lawmakers an advance screening of a documentary on Yasukuni Shrine, a senior Cultural Affairs Agency official argued Monday it was appropriate to show Diet members a film partially funded by taxpayers' money.
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Apr 7, 2008

Ono quietly reviving career with VfL Bochum in Bundesliga

While Urawa Reds storm up the J. League table after a disastrous start to the season, one former player is quietly rebuilding his own reputation abroad with slightly less fanfare.
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2008

G8, emerging donors start development talks in Tokyo

Ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized countries dealing with development issues kicked off a discussion Saturday in Tokyo to seek cooperation from emerging donors such as China, India and Brazil at a time when conventional donor countries are struggling to boost their aid.
EDITORIALS
Apr 6, 2008

Freedom-of-expression gantlet

Four movie theaters in Tokyo and one in Osaka have decided not to screen "Yasukuni," a documentary on Japan's war shrine. Rightist groups protested against the planned screenings with vehicle-mounted loudspeakers and harassing telephone calls. Most movie theaters cited possible inconveniences to the...
Reader Mail
Apr 6, 2008

Are sanctions really working?

The expiration day of the Japanese government's tough sanctions against North Korea is drawing near again. Japan imposed a package of sanctions as punishment for North Korea's nuclear test in October 2006 and has renewed them two times since then. There have been no traces of any North Korean products...
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Apr 5, 2008

Home is where the family is for Japanese-German couple

Annette and Ken Uematsu met in 1981 while attending a party for people in Japan learning German. They started dating, moved in together and decided to marry.

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