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BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 7, 2007

Pivotal seasons for Alex Ramirez & Marc Kroon

Neither of their teams made the Central League Climax Series, but the 2007 season has been a pivotal one for Yakult Swallows slugger Alex Ramirez and Yokohama BayStars reliever Marc Kroon. The contracts of both expire at the end of the current dragging out season, and there is doubt whether either club...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 7, 2007

Stepping into the alternate world of Japan

JAPAN THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: Shaman to Shinto, by Alan Macfarlane. Profile Books Ltd., 2007, 256 pp., £16.99 (cloth) Reviewed by MARIKO KATO "In many ways I was like Alice, that very assured and middle-class English girl, when she walked through the looking glass."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Oct 7, 2007

A Golden Age everywhere but at home

More high-profile new cars are hitting the market than have been seen for nearly 20 years, creating buzz everywhere but Japan.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2007

Ministry snubs meeting with foes of dolphin kill

U.S. activists waging a high-profile campaign against Japan's annual dolphin slaughter and sale of mercury-tainted dolphin meat were snubbed by government officials Friday in Tokyo when they tried to hand over a petition of protest they claim bears 50,000 signatures.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 6, 2007

Jumping mullets, it's the season for fire prevention!

Ahh, autumn on Shiraishi Island when I wake up to quacking ducks paddling around in the port in front of my house waiting for me to open the Duck Cafe.
EDITORIALS
Oct 5, 2007

Improvised roads through kanji

A poll conducted by the Agency of Cultural Affairs in February and March on various issues related to the Japanese language offers interesting insight into people's attitude toward kanji — the Chinese characters that are an indispensable part of Japan's linguistic culture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 5, 2007

'Air Guitar Nation'

What is it that makes a man, in the heat of the moment of an Yngwie Malmsteen or Iron Maiden guitar solo, grimace, thrust their crotch, and place hands on an imaginary guitar? "Air Guitar Nation" — is a documentary that seeks to answer that burning question.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / DECENTRALIZATION SYMPOSIUM
Oct 3, 2007

Bureaucracy resists change, fights to retain its power

Public support for the "doshu-sei" system will depend on whether people can realize the benefits of ongoing efforts at decentralizing the nation's administrative powers, but the efforts have so far been hampered by the strong resistance of the central bureaucracy, panelists told the Sept. 18 symposium....
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Oct 3, 2007

'Stoopid ninja' keeps on learning

T he first time I ever heard cicadas was in 1963, during my very first summer in Japan. I was wandering through a small mixed woodland where some small boys were flitting from tree to tree, playing ninja. I, as a strange young foreigner passing through, became their target for assassination. Being just...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 2, 2007

Kanji, kana trip search engines

Like the rest of the world, people in Japan rely on search engines every day to tap the ocean of information that is the World Wide Web.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 30, 2007

Fighters clinch PL by routing Marines

Trey Hillman is sure making his last run memorable.
COMMENTARY
Sep 30, 2007

China might still the hands of the junta

BANGKOK — In 1989 Chinese troops, on orders of the government, mowed down demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. It was a sad spectacle that China is still living down, though memory fades with every year of spectacular economic development — and with the nation's steady prideful movement toward...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Sep 30, 2007

Asashoryu fiasco illustrates incompetence of sumo's leaders

Enough already.
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2007

Yasukuni issue kept me out of '06 presidential race: Fukuda

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Friday that he decided not to run for president of the Liberal Democratic Party last September because he didn't want to make Yasukuni Shrine the focus of the race.
EDITORIALS
Sep 27, 2007

Bracing against the opposition

The lineup of the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership and the Cabinet under new Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda testifies to Mr. Fukuda's eagerness to create a whole-party setup that can overcome the offensive from the opposition forces, which now control the Upper House.
COMMENTARY
Sep 27, 2007

Crunch: a question of trust

LONDON — Financial markets all round the world, from New York to London to Tokyo, have been rattled by the recent squeeze on credit and lending, which originated in the United States. All kinds of lessons have been drawn from the experience, many of which boil down to the simple adage that dubious...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 25, 2007

Running circles round the Emperor

Some people run it, some cycle it, some simply walk it. Any way you do it, the route around the Imperial Palace has become Tokyo's best-known track.
COMMUNITY
Sep 25, 2007

Advice for teachers

Union support "The general union and Nambu decided on a policy that that we won't take new members if Nova goes bankrupt. What we will have is a question-and-answer site — we'll give all the information necessary to employees to get the government subsidy for unpaid wages, and we'll hold a one-time...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2007

Russia and the Kosovo card

TBILISI — Look before you leap is as sound a principle in foreign policy as it is in life. Yet, once again, the Bush administration is preparing to leap into the unknown. Even though lack of foresight is universally viewed as a leading cause of its Iraq debacle, the United States (with British backing...
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2007

More mysteries in Russia

The appointment of Mr. Viktor Zubkov, an obscure official, as the new prime minister of Russia has many analysts yearning for the old days of Kremlinology. Then, at least, it was possible to figure out how powerful someone was by their relative position on the seating chart or the dais.
Reader Mail
Sep 23, 2007

A yak herder knows happiness

Regarding the statements about Bhutan made in Santi Ram Poudel's Sept. 12 letter, "Realities belie national boast": Can yak herders in the mountains not have happiness and contentment when they own their livestock and have rights to productive pastures? It is this very notion that happiness is always...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Sep 23, 2007

Cellphone bards hit bestseller lists

Like many other young Japanese, Rin, 21, punches her mobile phone keys very quickly. Holding her phone with two hands, and moving her thumbs deftly and smoothly, she quickly generates sentences on the small screen.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Sep 23, 2007

Japanese: A language in a state of flux

Languages are never static. They change and evolve with people over time. They also interact with other languages, and through an endless cycle of loaning and borrowing of words, ideas and concepts are shared, exchanged and nurtured across national and cultural boundaries.
EDITORIALS
Sep 22, 2007

Aiming for the moon

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the "Kaguya" (Shining Princess) lunar exploration probe Sept. 14. It is now on its way to the moon, 380,000 km away. Kaguya marks the biggest moon mission since the 1969-72 U.S. Apollo flights. It is hoped that the probe, launched by an H-IIA rocket,...

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