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SOCCER
Sep 25, 2008

Reds cruise past Al Qadsia to set up ACL semifinal date with Gamba

SAITAMA — Defending champion Urawa Reds set up an all-Japanese Asian Champions League semifinal clash against Gamba Osaka with a comfortable 2-0 win over Kuwait's Al Qadsia on Wednesday night.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2008

Misuse of the inaction argument

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — One commonly repeated argument for doing something about climate change sounds compelling, but turns out to be almost fraudulent. It is based on comparing the cost of action with the cost of inaction, and almost every major politician in the world uses it.
COMMENTARY
Sep 25, 2008

Bright side of the U.S. financial meltdown

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Rather than curse the current financial darkness, let us try to light candles. Without blowing our credibility entirely, let us see if we can illuminate the brighter side of this global meltdown. Here is a trio of pluses to try on for size.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2008

Untapped energy source fuels a paradox

SINGAPORE — Ice that burns? It sounds like a magician's trick. So do some of the exotic names given to gas hydrate — "flammable sorbet," "crystal gas" and "burning ice." But recent scientific surveys and test drilling in Asia and elsewhere have proven that this substance exists in massive, potentially...
Reader Mail
Sep 25, 2008

Nomura made a valuable haul

It comes as no surprise that the power house Nomura Holdings Inc. has stepped in to snap up the Asian operations of Lehman Brothers and its "significant asset base." Many people might be left scratching their heads in light of current market conditions, but for someone in the recruiting business in Japan...
Reader Mail
Sep 25, 2008

Right to life has priority

Three cheers for Barbara Smith's insightful commentary on feminism and what a real feminist is versus the now worn-out Gloria Steinem type ("New face of American feminism," Sept. 18 letter). It is not too much to say that Sarah Palin in many ways models this new feminism, which sees women not in some...
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2008

Aso gets quick start, names new Cabinet

Hawkish Liberal Democratic Party President Taro Aso was elected prime minister Wednesday and immediately formed his new Cabinet.
Reader Mail
Sep 25, 2008

Pressure on Japan to re-arm

I want to thank Kiroku Hanai for his Sept. 22 article, "The road to Yasukuni's survival." I visited Yasukuni Shrine in 2004 to do research for a film about hibakusha (atomic bomb victims). My answer to the question posed in the article ("Is Washington now inclined to allow a resurgence of militarism...
Reader Mail
Sep 25, 2008

Overboard on nuclear carrier

As an ex-U.S. Navy medical officer, I must respond to the Sept. 22 editorial "A nuclear-powered presence." It is an over-sensitive reaction to the presence of a nuclear-powered carrier at Yokosuka, where I was stationed in 1952.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2008

Young mom the star of Aso's old-boy team

Prime Minister Taro Aso probably found it hard not to include Yuko Obuchi in his Cabinet lineup. Not only does the popular female representative bring youth to the group, she inherits a solid constituency from her late father, former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, who died after suffering a stroke at the...
Reader Mail
Sep 25, 2008

Support your local farmer

The Sept. 20 article "Tainted rice scandal swallows Ota" highlights a few things: • Either regulations cost too much to implement, or company officials really don't care about humanity. • Government food safety and inspection officials are getting paid to do nothing. With Japan's bureaucracy, taxpayers...
Reader Mail
Sep 25, 2008

Generalization doesn't work

Comments by Wyndham Miles in his Sept. 21 letter, "Shameful response to gropers," are based on a misunderstanding of Sumire Shigehara's Sept. 14 letter ("Women-only train cars are shameful"). Shigehara was not implying that molested women are dishonest or that Japanese people ignore gropers. Her point...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2008

Sri Lanka: isle of earthy delights

Although Sri Lanka has been long-renowned for its natural beauty, the art of the island seems to have been far less celebrated — or even studied — than that of other South Asian countries that share Theravada Buddhist culture, such as Burma or Cambodia. Though Sri Lanka was obviously greatly influenced...
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2008

Kowa, Teva to form generic drug venture

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the world's biggest maker of generic drugs, and Kowa Co. have agreed to form a joint venture to gain a share of the growing market for cheaper medicines in Japan.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2008

Aso team likened to school classroom

Prime Minister Taro Aso's Cabinet lineup may look a bit subdued, but there's good reason for that: He deliberately picked low-profile politicians instead of factional bigwigs so he can lead them around like a "school teacher," experts said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 25, 2008

Lindsay Kemp's Virgin Queen comes to Japan

It was a scorching day in July and the air in Tokyo's concrete jungle was shimmering in the heat. But on a visit here prior to next month's opening of his voluptuous production "Elizabeth I: the Last Dance" at Theatre Cocoon, avant-garde performance-art icon Lindsay Kemp — a self-described "stranger...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 25, 2008

An incomprehensible answer for modernity

Check the film listings and you'll find Akira Emoto cast in at least 10 movies playing this autumn. Since winning the Japan Academy Awards prize for supporting actor in 1983 and '97 and for leading actor in '98 — for his role in "Kanzo Sensei (Dr. Liver)" — Emoto has become one of Japan's most well...
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Sep 25, 2008

Papers big players in the canvas game

Japan's largest Pablo Picasso exhibition ever opens in Tokyo next month. It's so big it occupies not one but two venues — the National Art Center, Tokyo, and the Suntory Museum of Art in Roppongi.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2008

Nakasone, Hamada face tough issues right away

Prime Minister Taro Aso filled the key foreign and defense portfolios with hereditary Diet members, perhaps in the hope their prominent family names will serve the Liberal Democratic Party well in the looming Lower House election.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2008

Aso policies seen as short-term fix

Prime Minister Taro Aso's choices for finance and economic ministers failed to impress economists Wednesday, who said they are not likely to take bold measures to shore up an economy threatened by the global economic downturn.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2008

Manufacturer sentiment stays near four-year low

Confidence among manufacturers has remained near a four-year low as the global financial crisis threatens to smother demand in Japan's export markets and higher raw materials costs erode profits.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years