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SOCCER / J. League
Jun 29, 2008

Ota's 84th-minute tally propels Reysol to hard-earned win over Reds

A late goal from Keisuke Ota gave Kashiwa Reysol a well-deserved 2-1 win over Urawa Reds on Saturday as the J. League returned from its summer break in explosive style.
Reader Mail
Jun 29, 2008

Charge builders for noise and dust

An environmental issue particular to Japan is the "demolish and build" model in the construction industry. This is something that the government recognizes needs reform. As with motoring, different environmental issues affect people differently depending on where they live. In addition to the regional...
Japan Times
Rugby
Jun 29, 2008

Strong 2nd half carries Maori past Japan in Pacific Nations Cup

NAPIER, New Zealand — John Kirwan's squad gave an unexpected first-half scare to the New Zealand Maori at McLean Park on Saturday, as the two teams finished off their Pacific Nations Cup encounter with a final 65-22 victory for the home team.
Reader Mail
Jun 29, 2008

Damaging public demonstration

Regarding the June 18 article "Death sentences on the increase": With the hanging of serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki covered in the international press, a large number of Westerners have become aware of the fact that Japan is the only highly developed industrial country to practice capital punishment...
Reader Mail
Jun 29, 2008

An incentive for sociopaths?

The hangings of three convicted murderers on June 17 could not have been more badly timed. Coming so soon after the deadly rampage in Tokyo's Akihabara district, Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama clearly intended to send a defiant message that he will not flinch from using the gallows to, as he put it,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 29, 2008

Christine Flint Sato: Inking her own mark

For Christine Flint Sato, the key to understanding her adopted homeland has been through the world of sumi-e, a Chinese style of water-ink painting adopted in Japan in the 14th century.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 29, 2008

Akihabara killer followed plot mapped by the media

After serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki was hanged on June 17, some death-penalty opponents wondered out loud if Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama had signed the execution order as a response to the indiscriminate murders of seven people on the streets of Akihabara nine days earlier. Of course, Hatoyama didn't...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 29, 2008

Getting high and then horizontal in Langkawi

Ask any question you want in Langkawi and you will get a friendly response. But you may not get an answer. Take the following exchange I had with a musician who was leaving the Beach Garden restaurant as I was strolling in there in search of a late supper on my first night in the hot spot of Pantai Cenang:...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 29, 2008

286 reasons to reflect on a Japan long gone, but worthy of reflection

I recently gave a talk on Japanese culture to a group of foreign students at Tokyo Institute of Technology. They hailed from a variety of places, including Scandinavia, the United States and Asian countries. I began by asking them to give me a keyword or two that they thought characterized Japanese life...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 29, 2008

David Bull: In the wake of Hokusai

From behind his shaggy beard, affable British-born Canadian woodblock printmaker David Bull ended our interview at his studio in western Tokyo with what sounded like a challenge.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 29, 2008

Hiroshige's colorful world of Edo

HIROSHIGE: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, by Melanie Trede and Lorenz Bichler. Taschen (ISBN978-4-88783-357-9), 294 pp., 2008, ¥15,750 (paper, with presentation box)
TENNIS
Jun 29, 2008

Gimelstob's comments cause stir

WIMBLEDON, England — Justin Gimelstob's disparaging comments about Anna Kournikova have created a stir at Wimbledon, where World Team Tennis teammate Serena Williams denounced the remarks as unprofessional.
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 2008

Japanese keeping score on a weighty matter

LOS ANGELES — The overweight citizen has been taking a pounding of late. But it may be that the issue is being blown out of all proportion. For starters, both Japan and the United States have been in the news on the issue of citizens who are pulling too much of their own weight around town.
Reader Mail
Jun 29, 2008

Theory full of logical fallacies

I was quite surprised to see John Spiri's June 17 Zeit Gist article, "Lawmaker takes 9/11 doubts global," because, despite Yukihisa Fujita's credentials as a Diet member, he is simply repeating the tired intonations of completely discredited theories regarding the events of 9/11.
Reader Mail
Jun 29, 2008

Less sympathy for Greenpeace

As an activist who marched in support of a ban on whaling in 1977, I find it curious that I have recently had a limited change of heart. I am now reasonably sympathetic to the concept of small-scale whaling. There are two reasons why: The first is that a limited catch of certain whale species is clearly...
EDITORIALS
Jun 29, 2008

Subtle change in the Middle East

It did not take long before the ceasefire that went into effect on June 19 between Israel and Hamas was tested. The launch of rocket attacks last week from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory prompted Tel Aviv to launch an armed incursion, leaving the truce tattered, but not yet terminated. Peace must...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 29, 2008

Foreigners flourish in the realm of Japanese arts

Japan has come a long way since the era of Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), arguably the world's most famous and certainly the first Western Japanophile. Before Hearn, a Greek-Irishman who married the daughter of a local samurai in remote and rural Shimane Prefecture, and also took on Japanese citizenship,...
Reader Mail
Jun 29, 2008

Give caregivers room to choose

There has been quite a lot of debate of late about the use of immigrant labor from other Asian countries in medical jobs in Japan. The Japanese government hopes that an influx of foreign medical workers will at least partially offset this country's desperate shortage of qualified people in the medical...

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