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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 9, 2008

Surely it's time for Japanese to stop being so parochial

Second of two parts
Reader Mail
Mar 9, 2008

An activist's means to an end

Regarding Debito Arudou's March 4 article, "Dusting off the A-word": In reading through this latest bit of self-promoting preaching, I tried hard to keep from laughing out loud at some of the lofty claims. Arudou claims to be "doing what other fellow Japanese (however few), working within the law and...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 9, 2008

Picture-perfect sending off of a wartime Shanghai

FAREWELL, SHANGHAI, by Angel Wagenstein, translated by Elizabeth Frank and Deliana Simeonova. New York: Handsel Books, 384 pp., 2007, $24.95 (cloth) The adjective "cinematic," when applied to a novel, is usually meant to suggest that the book describes bounces from one action-crammed scene to the next...
Reader Mail
Mar 9, 2008

Negative rhetoric defeats everyone

Local and central government officials such as Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda have made blanket statements about the discipline of members of the U.S. military. If they would just take the time to research the statistics available through the Japanese Justice Department,...
EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2008

A contest for new leadership

The Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama competition has gripped the attention of the world. And for good reason. The result is likely to affect the future course of global politics. A clear victor is not yet decided, but whoever ultimately wins, the shift in consciousness both candidates embody is important...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 9, 2008

Crown Prince could lead the way in effort for mutt emancipation

Next month, the environment ministry and the health ministry will jointly implement a new law that provides subsidies to local government health centers for the feeding of abandoned or captured dogs and cats. The money is designed to make it possible for these centers to take care of the animals an extra...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Mar 9, 2008

World's carmakers head back to school

International car manufacturers know that the automobile as a symbol has lost some of its gloss for the younger generation. Today's young people want to take transportation in new directions. They have a more ecological, environmentally sustainable vision of transportation, and often it's so idealistic...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 9, 2008

The art of Frances Blakemore: a love affair with Japan

AN AMERICAN ARTIST IN TOKYO: Frances Blakemore — 1906-1997, by Michiyo Morioka. Seattle: The Blakemore Foundation/University of Washington Press, 2007, 200 pp., profusely illustrated, $35 (cloth) Living more than 50 years of her life in Japan, artist Frances Blakemore was a close and sympathetic observer...
Japan Times
LIFE / COSPLAY CULTURE
Mar 9, 2008

Business booms as Japanese subculture soars

The last two decades have seen kosupure ("cosplay," or "costume play") blossoming from being a local Japanese subculture to a thriving worldwide trend — and business.
Reader Mail
Mar 9, 2008

No need for 'ethnic groups'

In his March 2 Counterpoint column, "Will Japan's insular mind-set ever be inclusive of others," Roger Pulvers claims that "gaikokujin . . . includes an enormous number of resident, nonethnic Japanese, primarily Koreans and Chinese."
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 9, 2008

F. Marinos shock Reds in 2008 opener

YOKOHAMA — Yokohama F. Marinos handed Urawa Reds an opening day shock on Saturday with a 1-0 win that made sure Reds started the 2008 J. League season as badly as they finished 2007.
Reader Mail
Mar 9, 2008

First Japanese in North America

With respect to the March 4 article "John Manjiro's U.S. home to become museum" and the claim that Manjiro (Manjiro Nakahama) may have been the first Japanese to visit North America, I would offer that he was perhaps more than 200 years late. The first encounters by Japanese with what would become U.S....
Japan Times
LIFE / COSPLAY CULTURE
Mar 9, 2008

School offers costume-play way to 'cool' English

Learning a foreign language is never easy, and for many it can even be a painful process.
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 9, 2008

Learn how to look the part — at a hefty price

For successful kosupure ("cosplay," or "costume play") it is not enough to know your "Bleach" from your "Basara." You also need to be able to make your plats stand on end like Itsuki (from the manga "Basara"), give yourself an extra jaw like Grimmjow Jeagerjaques (from the manga "Bleach") — and as...
Reader Mail
Mar 9, 2008

Where is the 'Japanese Dream'?

With regard to the article from Sentaku magazine that ran in The Japan Times on Feb. 27, "Wanted: world's best minds": It seems that only foreigners who work for Japanese branches of foreign companies can make a good life in Japan. Those working directly for Japanese organizations and businesses face...
LIFE / COSPLAY CULTURE
Mar 9, 2008

All aboard for 'world of manga'

With everyone pulling roller suitcases, it seemed appropriate that we were heading for the Harumi Passenger Terminal built on land reclaimed from Tokyo Bay in the city's central Chuo Ward.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan