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BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 25, 2013

Eagles upbeat before Japan Series opener against Giants

Rain kept the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles indoors on Friday, but hasn't dampened the enthusiasm ahead of their first Japan Series appearance, which comes against the storied Yomiuri Giants.
WORLD / Society / FOCUS
Oct 25, 2013

Americans' debt growing faster than retirement savings, report warns

A majority of Americans with 401(k)-type savings accounts are accumulating debt faster than they are setting aside money for retirement, further undermining the nation's troubled system for old age saving, a new report has found.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 24, 2013

Opposition disparity: No end in sight

The opposition camp is rife with disunity and unable to exert any political say against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party-led government, now that the LDP controls about 60 percent of the Diet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2013

'Now You See Me'

So many directors these days seem to want to be Christopher Nolan: There's Zack Snyder aiming for "Dark Knight" portentousness with "Man of Steel" and Danny Boyle aping the false-reality trickiness of "Inception" with "Trance" to name but two. The latest wannabe is French director-gone-Hollywood Louis...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 23, 2013

Fraught reunions

Her long-term boyfriend's death spurs concert pianist Charlotte into visiting her eldest daughter Eva, from whom she's been estranged for seven years. At Eva's house she also meets Helena, her severely disabled other daughter whom she had confined to a hospital for life, but whose care Eva has taken...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 23, 2013

Passions and pathos

Back in 1751, the haunting power and harrowing sadness of a new five-act bunraku (puppet) play by Namiki Sosuke titled "Ichi-no-tani Futaba Gunki" (Chronicle of the Battle of Ichi-no-tani)" made it such a hit among the masses that, within a year, a kabuki version was being staged in Osaka and Edo (present-day...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 23, 2013

Hamamatsu boss Higashino shakes up lineup early, gets results

It only took two games for Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix bench boss Tomoya "Coach Crusher" Higashino to decide that personnel changes needed to be made.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 23, 2013

U.S. drawdown in Afghanistan sees world's biggest garage sale

The armored trucks, televisions, ice cream scoops and nearly everything else shipped to Afghanistan for the U.S. war against the Taliban are now part of the world's biggest garage sale: Every week, as the American troop drawdown accelerates, the U.S. is selling 5.4 million to 6.4 million kg of its equipment...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 22, 2013

Japan's 'helplessness' crisis

The biggest crisis in Japan's democracy today is that people know the prime minister is telling lies — intentionally or not — but they've given up even imagining alternative ways of politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2013

Cruz emerges emboldened from GOP debacle

The political consensus among many U.S. Republicans is that tea party members in the House have done grievous harm to their brand. But that's not how grassroot activists see it.
CULTURE
Oct 22, 2013

Birth-control pills work well — except when they don't

I used the pill for a decade before I began having children in my early 30s. It seemed like a foolproof method of birth control.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2013

All-English science contest gives young researchers way to connect

When University of Tokyo student Mugiko Komatsuda appeared on stage at a science contest in Tokyo last week, she dazzled the crowd with her self-confidence, resonant voice and radiant smile.
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2013

No. 1 water woes laid to Tepco's ineptitude

Two and a half years after the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant experienced its three reactor-core meltdowns, the effort to clean up what remains of the complex is turning into another kind of disaster.
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Oct 21, 2013

Lower seeds face stacked deck during NPB's Climax Series

When the Hiroshima Carp lost Game 1 of the Central League Climax Series Final Stage, they found themselves trailing 2-0 in the six-game series. Ditto for the Chiba Lotte Marines in the Pacific League.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2013

For the GOP to survive, the tea party must die

Tea party supporters think they are fighting for America's Republican soul. If they win, they will drive the party so far from the middle that a GOP president will become unimaginable.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 21, 2013

Thatcher-esque disparities a reality under Abe

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe evokes the late Margaret Thatcher as he repeats 'there is no alternative' to his platform of economic change. One of the byproducts: prospects for a Thatcher-type division of wealth.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 21, 2013

How much did the shutdown cost? Billions

Shutdowns aren't cheap. This year's closure, which ended Thursday, has probably cost the government and the economy billions of dollars, according to economists and policy analysts.
Japan Times
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Oct 20, 2013

JAL rehab a lesson for possible Tepco failure?

Since the start of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant crisis, debate has raged over whether the government should have Tokyo Electric Power Co. go bankrupt.
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Oct 20, 2013

Taichō, daijōbu na-no?

Today, we will introduce the proper use of u3060u3044u3058u3087u3046u3076, which is frequently heard in daily conversation. u3060u3044u3058u3087u3046u3076 means 'all right' or 'no problem,' and is used to express one's physical and mental condition. u3060u3044u3058u3087 u3046u3076 can be used to express the condition of things such as machines, buildings or the weather.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 20, 2013

Former member of military police battalion takes up the case of a missing statue

Lifelines was recently contacted by Jack Marquardt, who served with the United States Army's 720th Military Police Battalion in Tokyo from 1946-48. Jack, who still calls Tokyo home, is trying to locate a statue of significance to the battalion and its veterans. He shared the story of the battalion's...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2013

Taiwan opposition leery of China trade accord

The opposition DPP generally understands the economic realities facing Taiwan, but it is apprehensive of the political perils of a closer trade and services partnership with China.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2013

Banish the notion of a military solution in Syria

Some people now warn of a 'Lebanonization' of Syria — its partition into quasi-independent regions — which could call the entire post-World War I Middle Eastern state system.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 20, 2013

Georgian PM's clout unlikely to fade after polls

Georgia's billionaire prime minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili, looks surprised at the suggestion that he might be a touch sensitive to criticism.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 20, 2013

U.S. Navy rocked by bribery scandal

The U.S. Navy is rocked by a bribery scandal reaching high into the officer corps over prostitutes, cash and other kickbacks in return for insider information.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 19, 2013

Crossing the Mediterranean 'cemetery'

Italians don't want the economic and political migrants crossing the 'Mediterranean cemetery' in flimsy boats to drown, but they don't want them to stay in Italy either.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 19, 2013

Craft Beer in Japan

As most beer-drinkers in Japan know, there's beer and then there's real beer. Mark Meli's "Craft Beer in Japan" makes this distinction in the very first sentence, before setting out, in a little over 200 pages, to comprehensively look at Japan's craft beer industry.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Oct 19, 2013

Ian Philip Tozer: 'Like good wine, age helps'

If you want to create something with longevity in my business (which I do), you have to balance creative inspiration with reliable and constant back-of-the-house grunt work.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person