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BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Mar 25, 2007

Dragons primed for another title run

March 30 is Opening Day for Japan's Central League, and there is a new anticipation as the CL enters its first year with postseason playoffs on the docket.
EDITORIALS
Mar 25, 2007

Ambassadors manga and anime

Walk into any bookstore around the world and you will find a new, large section for one of Japan's best-known representatives -- manga. Likewise, in DVD stores, drama, comedy and action have been pushed aside for Japanese anime. All around the world, people of all ages are pouring over translations of...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 25, 2007

Traveling light at heart, heavy in mind

JAPANESE FOR TRAVELLERS: A Journey Through Modern Japan, by Katie Kitamura. Penguin, 258 pp., 2006, £7.99 (paper) When Katie Kitamura's parents left Japan for the United States they left behind three different generations: Katie's cousins, her aunts and uncles, and her grandparents. In "Japanese for...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 24, 2007

Chandru G. Advani

This is the India Year in Japan 2007 and the Japan Year in India 2007. It is a significant time for every enterprise interested in the flow of information, goods and people between the two countries.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 22, 2007

After Horie's fall, Nikko case seen smacking of favoritism

Japan has been abuzz with the unusually harsh prison term handed to former Internet mogul Takafumi Horie -- and the slap on the wrist given to scandal-tainted brokerage Nikko Cordial in another high-profile case of accounting fraud that, in monetary terms, was some eight times greater than Horie's firm....
EDITORIALS
Mar 22, 2007

Looking forward to the future

When The Japan Times was launched 110 years ago today, its first editorial, titled "Our Raison d'Etre," said, "His Majesty's subjects and the foreign residents remain to this day virtually strangers to each other." This was partly because of the system of extraterritoriality the great powers imposed...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 20, 2007

Tragedy swirls around Tamiflu

On Feb. 4, 2004, on a cold, snowy day in Gero, Gifu Prefecture, Haruhiko Nokiba's 17-year-old son fell sick. The fevered teen visited a local doctor, tested negative for a flu virus but was prescribed an antiviral drug called Symmetrel. He took a capsule that evening and another the following morning,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / INNOCENT VICTIMS
Mar 20, 2007

Kids' group home a safe respite

Despite the understaffing and overcrowding, the atmosphere at the Kibo no Ie (House of Hope) residential home for children lives up to its name: It is a place of optimism, a place of warmth.
JAPAN / INNOCENT VICTIMS
Mar 19, 2007

Rising child-abuse deaths draw national scrutiny

It is a routine feature on television news: Another child has been strangled, starved, beaten or otherwise fatally abused-- at the hands of the parents.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2007

Abe should be looking forward, not back

HONOLULU -- What was he thinking? That is the question most Japan-watchers grappled with following Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo's fumbled questions about the imperial Japanese government's role in recruiting "comfort women" during World War II. His responses came close to undoing the progress he...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Mar 18, 2007

Hawks poised to give Oh pennant

The 2007 Pacific League season opens March 24, and it promises to be another exciting campaign leading to the loop's "Climax Series" of postseason playoffs involving the top three finishers in October.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 18, 2007

Joking aside, the recovery offers a lifetime opportunity

The Japanese Money Tree: How Investors Can Prosper from Japan's Economic Rebirth, by Andrew Shipley. Pearson Education, 2006, 245 pp., $24.99 (cloth) Derided during the 1990s by foreign fund managers as "the sick man of Asia," Japan's weak growth performance after the economic bubble burst made it the...
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2007

Statute used to overturn slave labor redress

responsibilities of the government and major companies," said Yuzuru Tamura, a law professor at Matsuyama University and an expert on the forced labor issue. "I believe the court forgot that it is the final fort to protect the victims' rights." According to a Foreign Ministry report, about 39,000 Chinese...
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2007

Foreign labor need exposes dearth of rights

OSAKA -- As the debate intensifies over allowing more foreign workers into Japan to make up for the coming labor shortage, human rights groups have recently stepped up efforts to push for a law against discrimination.
EDITORIALS
Mar 15, 2007

Expanding security ties south

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Australian counterpart Mr. John Howard have signed a joint declaration to expand security cooperation between Japan and Australia. It has been unheard of up to now for Japan to issue a joint declaration on security matters with a country other than the United States....
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Mar 11, 2007

Signing of Matsuzaka likely helping interest in Japanese baseball grow overseas

I thought there was going to be an increased interest in Japanese baseball in other countries, particularly in North America, after Hideo Nomo made it big with the Los Angeles Dodgers 12 years ago in 1995.
EDITORIALS
Mar 11, 2007

To persevere with little hope

Japan and North Korea last week ended two days of talks in Hanoi without progress toward normalizing diplomatic relations between them. They could not set a date for the next round and merely agreed to continue consultations. Although little optimism is warranted, Japan needs to pursue the talks with...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Mar 11, 2007

What happens when blog bullies get hot under the collar

In April last year, Jiji Press technology reporter Tsuruaki Yukawa felt as if he had enemies all around him.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 11, 2007

Searching for responsibility in starting and losing a war

Who Was Responsible? From Marco Polo Bridge to Pearl Harbor, edited by James E. Auer, The Yomiuri Shimbun, 2006, 410 pp., 4,000 yen (cloth) Yomiuri journalists worked for 14 months investigating: "Who was responsible for starting the Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, why they did so and why the...
BASKETBALL
Mar 8, 2007

Assistant coach Boettcher hopes to find more like Nakayama

Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series on Utah Valley State's connection to Japanese basketball. The Wolverines' season concluded Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2007

U.N. special rapporteur challenges Ibuki's 'homogenous' claim

The U.N. special rapporteur on racism countered Education Minister Bunmei Ibuki's claim over the weekend that Japan is a homogenous country.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 27, 2007

JET set Go MAD globally to help children in need

It was late on Christmas night when the meditation finished. The energy from the hourlong dancing and Sanskrit chanting flowed into charged silence and was now dissipating into the darkness.
COMMENTARY
Feb 26, 2007

Sounding off on realignment

I appreciated the critical remarks that Japanese Cabinet ministers recently made about U.S. policy in Iraq, feeling that high-level Japanese officials had finally begun to express their honest opinions. But I was disappointed when the government scrambled to coordinate its views to eliminate any impressions...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2007

Telling the truth at Yasukuni

Since last summer, I have been engaged in the process of modifying exhibits at Yasukuni Shrine's Yushukan history museum. The project is expected to be completed in July.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2007

Mag on foreigner crimes not racist: editor

"Now!! Bad foreigners are devouring Japan," screams the warning, surrounded by gruesome caricatures of foreigners who look like savages, with blood red eyes and evil faces.
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2007

Reaffirming a commitment

Nothing dramatic happened -- no new demands or agreements -- during U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's meetings with Japanese leaders this week. His visit should be interpreted as a U.S. effort to reaffirm its close ties with Japan and thus help enhance its image as a world leader as it faces difficult...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2007

SDF deploys perky mascot to boast cuddly image

Perky cartoon character Prince Pickles -- with saucer eyes, big dimples and tiny, booted feet -- poses in front of tanks, rappels from helicopters and shakes hands with smiling Iraqis.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji