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Reader Mail
Mar 15, 2009

'Anime' needs new business model

The March 4 article "Future of 'anime' industry in doubt" highlighted many of my own growing frustrations. I moved to Japan from the United States as an English teacher a little more than two years ago. I was a casual anime fan who had just completed a degree in literature and film studies, including...
Japan Times
SPORTS / HIT AND RUN
Mar 15, 2009

Group linked to Valentine explored buying BayStars

Like a batter with three strikes, Bobby Valentine is promising to go down swinging.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Mar 15, 2009

Sniffle, sneeze — and why's all that cedar pollen still in the air?

For more than 3 million Tokyo residents who seasonally suffer from sniffly, sneezy kafunsho (pollen allergy), the sight of Gov. Shintaro Ishihara applying an ax to the trunk of a pollen-producing cedar back in 2006 was enough to bring tears of joy to their already itchy eyes.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Mar 15, 2009

Fire devastates Hakodate, Dalai Lama on the run, leftists protest Narita airport expansion

YEARS AGO
MORE SPORTS
Mar 15, 2009

Rabbits earn series-tying victory

Kiyoshi Fujita and Daisuke Obara scored second-period goals to lift the Seibu Prince Rabbits to a 3-2 victory over the Nippon Paper Cranes on Saturday in Game 2 of the Asia League Ice Hockey finals at DyDo Drinco Ice Arena.
Reader Mail
Mar 15, 2009

Antidrug program has its flaws

In his March 8 letter, "Middle way to drug policy reform," Robert Sharpe claims that Switzerland's heroin maintenance program is a big success. In fact, it's a failure because the drug addicts regularly take other drugs.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WEEK 3
Mar 15, 2009

Slow Life ambassador tickets hasty hordes

At a busy crossing in front of Tokyo Station, Bruno Contigiani, president of L'Arte del Vivere con Lentezza (The Art of Slow Living), an organization he founded in his native Italy, approached office workers one after another urging "Yuru yuru, shiawase" ("Go slowly, be happy").
Reader Mail
Mar 15, 2009

South Africa ready for World Cup

I was disappointed to read The Observer article "Little feel-good for Africa's World Cup," published Feb. 12 on The Japan Times' Focus page. The writer's pessimistic and nit-picking assessment of the preparations for, and expectations of, the 2010 FIFA World Cup to be held in my country, South Africa,...
COMMENTARY
Mar 15, 2009

Planets like Earth appear to be out there

LONDON — The real wonder of our age is this. You can go on the Web, type in PlanetQuest New Worlds Atlas, or Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia, or NASA Star and Exoplanet Database, and directly access the data on 340 new planets that have been discovered in the past five years.
EDITORIALS
Mar 15, 2009

Blossoms amid the gloom

The cherry blossom season will soon arrive, and with it the reflections and lessons that go with the yearly event. As Japan begins the season of enjoying the cherry blossoms, the differences from last year start to appear as well. Part of the excitement of spring comes from never quite knowing exactly...
Reader Mail
Mar 15, 2009

Source of much honor for Japan

The Feb. 26 editorial "Kudos to filmmakers" was a pleasure to read. This year's Oscar honor is one of many that Japanese filmmakers have given the country over the years. In 1951, Akira Kurosawa opened up Japanese cinema to worldwide interest with "Rashomon." In 1954, "Gate of Hell" was honored, followed...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 15, 2009

Now that the Celtic tiger's turned tail, whither the Emerald Isle?

Irish patriot, poet and eminent surgeon Oliver St. John Gogarty (1878-1957) once played a wily prank on a drunken acquaintance. He stuffed the poor chap, who was catatonic, into a sack and sold him to The Royal College of Surgeons strictly, one would assume, in the interests of medical science. His friend...
Reader Mail
Mar 15, 2009

Same attacks against Israel likely

Regarding the March 10 editorial, "Durban II in danger": When I lived in Japan in 1984-1985, a popular foreign title was the fabricated conspiracy theory "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." So it is heartening to read an editorial on the critical issues that are already undermining the second Durban...
Reader Mail
Mar 15, 2009

Language and culture training

Regarding the March 10 Hotline to Nagatacho letter, "Please teach us how to fit in": I find it odd that the writer, Mike Mullins, would propose putting the onus for providing culture and language training on the Japanese government, since he was among the "visitors" being hosted here at considerable...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 15, 2009

From Japan's heart of darkness

A hundred years ago, a young scholar named Kunio Yanagita traveled to remote Iwate Prefecture in search of stories that reflected people's lives. Yanagita was born at an epochal time when Japan was flinging off its feudal past and embracing modernity. He wanted to capture the vanishing ways in which...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 15, 2009

Icy white 'blossoms' and a flourish of deep pink

Each day last week I strapped on cross-country skis to patrol some trails quartering the primeval, 2,050-hectare Nopporo Forest adjoining Sapporo.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Mar 15, 2009

45s at 60 just keep groovin' on their 7-inch way

It was 60 years ago this month when a country crooner from the South released the first-ever single to spin at 45 rpm.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2009

France's aims with NATO

PARIS — What will be the consequences of France's return — announced by President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday — to the integrated military structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization?
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Mar 15, 2009

Asian round of WBC produced some interesting notes

Japan and South Korea join Cuba and Mexico in Round 2, Pool 1, of the 2009 World Baseball Classic beginning Sunday in San Diego. As expected, the Asian rivals advanced after finishing as the winner (Korea) and runnerup (Japan) in the Asia Round completed at Tokyo Dome on March 9.
BASKETBALL
Mar 15, 2009

Peppers nails game-winning 3 in 89ers debut

Josh Peppers nailed a 3-pointer with 1 second remaining to give the Sendai 89ers an 89-86 win over the visiting Osaka Evessa on Saturday.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo