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SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jun 15, 2008

Swim fed made right call on suits

It's been a strange year in the pool. The swimsuit has created more headlines than the swimmer.
Reader Mail
Jun 15, 2008

Remembering the source of food

The other day I watched an instructive TV program, "Inochi no Kusa no Kabuwake (Multiplying the Roots of Life)" on NHK. Sidama people in the southern part of Ethiopia live on ensete, banana-shaped plants. One ensete plant provides enough food for a family of five for a month. When a Sidama...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jun 15, 2008

Big first inning propels Marines to win over Tigers

CHIBA — Tsuyoshi Nishioka sent ozeki Chiyotaikai an emphatic message in the third inning of the Chiba Lotte Marines' game against the Hanshin Tigers. The sumo star got the message loud and clear. So did the Tigers.
Reader Mail
Jun 15, 2008

Time for Europe to go its own way

It's high time for Europe (France included) to play a role on its own. Europe has more and better educated inhabitants than the United States and industries that can make everything, space technology included. On top of all this is a currency that is the stablest and hardest in the world. A Europe going...
EDITORIALS
Jun 15, 2008

Australia-Japan partnership

In their first meeting last week, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd sidestepped a sensitive issue that could harm bilateral relations. Instead, in their joint statement, they confirmed the two countries' "commitment to strengthening further the comprehensive strategic,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 15, 2008

Nuggets of 'wisdom' can speak volumes beyond what's said

"Biting Comments, Curious Statements and Famous Misstatements" is the headline on the lead article in the June 5 issue of the popular Japanese weekly magazine Bungei Shunju. It features dramatic ejaculations of famous politicians, sports figures and entertainers, among others.
Reader Mail
Jun 15, 2008

Good pronunciation comes first

In a few years, we hear that English will be taught in the third or fourth grade at elementary schools. The biggest problem, I think, is who will teach the foreign language. I hear now that, at most schools, homeroom teachers teach English. We know not all of them are good English speakers. As everyone...
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2008

Millennium Goals in danger, Oxfam warns

OSAKA — In a report sharply critical of the Group of Eight major powers, Oxfam International has warned that the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, which aim to halve global poverty by 2015, are in danger of not being met.
EDITORIALS
Jun 15, 2008

From fantasy to nightmare

The nightmare in Akihabara last week, when a knife-wielding man drove a truck into a Sunday crowd, leaped out and started stabbing people at random, has continued to shock the country. As the victims' families grieve, the injured recuperate and witnesses struggle to recover, the attack has become even...
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2008

Oil, food inflation being triggered mostly by fundamentals: Paulson

OSAKA — U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Saturday that despite the tough times, especially in the housing market, the United States economy will be fundamentally sound over the long term.
Reader Mail
Jun 15, 2008

Knife ban won't stop a killer

Trying to control knives is useless. A hand holds the knife and there's a mind behind the hand. If there had been no knives available, a screwdriver or any other tool could have been used. How to address the bigger problem is the 21st-century challenge. Loneliness leads to despair, and the more we possess...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 15, 2008

War and propaganda: a Japanese narrative

CERTAIN VICTORY: Images of World War II in the Japanese Media, by David C. Earhart. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe Inc., 2008, 552 pp., with photographs, maps, illustrations, $74.95 (cloth) One way to induce people to kill other people is to dehumanize "the enemy." And one of the ways to do this is through propaganda....
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 15, 2008

Graman just one of many leaders for resurgent Lions

The Seibu Lions "sugoi dasen" (spectacular hitting lineup) is getting most of the ink and most of the credit for the team's surge from an also-ran "B Class" standing in 2007 to compiling the best record in the Pacific League, as we approach the halfway point in the 2008 Japan pro baseball season.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 15, 2008

Stopping North Korea going nuclear

THE PENINSULA QUESTION: A Chronicle of the Second Korean Nuclear Crisis, by Yoichi Funabashi. Washington: Brookings Institution, 2007, 592 pp., $36.95 (cloth) NORTH KOREA ON THE BRINK: Struggle for Survival, by Glyn Ford with Soyoung Kwon. London: Pluto Press, 2008, 249 pp., £18.99 (cloth)
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Jun 15, 2008

Space modules for the space-challenged

According to the latest Japanese government statistics (from 2003), the average Tokyo apartment that is home to a four-person family allows them a measly 36.5 sq. meters to live in. That's just a bit more than a large shipping container.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 15, 2008

Medical variety show, 'surprising' news stories, women's boxing

There's no cure for growing old, but you can slow down the aging process in a fairly painless manner. On this week's edition of the medical variety show "Shujii ga Mitsukaru Shinyojo (The Clinic Where You Can Find a Family Doctor) (TV Tokyo, Monday, 7 p.m.), guest physicians explain how rejuvenation...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Jun 15, 2008

Women vie for the lead in motor racing

Hollywood's finest scriptwriters couldn't have come up with a better story line. A 92-year-old American car race where the winners celebrate with milk rather than champagne; where female drivers are more popular than their male counterparts; and where all V8 engines, supplied by Honda, run on renewable...
Reader Mail
Jun 15, 2008

Fed up with commute interruptions

Again, after a lightening strike on the main signal box at Mitaka, all of the Chuo Line came to a halt early last week. A few months ago, a fire at the same Mitaka signal box caused a suspension of Chuo Line operations for more than seven hours, making it nearly impossible for many people living near...
Reader Mail
Jun 15, 2008

Eliminate tuition for kindergarten

Due to the fall in the economy, price increases on daily products and the high costs of schooling for kids, young people are thinking twice before deciding to have kids.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 15, 2008

Nationality ruling could affect Japanese who don't 'exist'

After the Supreme Court ruled on June 4 that 10 children born to Filipino women had the right to be granted Japanese nationality, every media outlet in the country called the verdict "epoch-making" because the court declared a provision of the Nationality Law unconstitutional.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 15, 2008

Trio release music that's all bottled up

One recent night at Note Cafe, a small coffee shop tucked away on a side street off a shopping arcade in the Jujo district of northern Tokyo, two women and a man sat round a table together. They took out a dozen glass bottles of various sizes, shapes and colors, and placed them on the table.
COMMENTARY
Jun 15, 2008

Dose of humility overcomes a world of hurt

LOS ANGELES — It is precisely during economic and political tension that more frequent and fervent expressions of sincere humility might serve to smooth over some tough spots. After all, being truly humble can serve to downsize egos that otherwise tend to mushroom minor molehills into major mountain...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / WEEK 3
Jun 15, 2008

Get into golf's virtual swing

Considering that people can be prosecuted for driving a car under the influence of alcohol, what about those who go hitting golf balls while imbibing? Perhaps it's just a matter of time before "drink-driving" by golfers becomes the latest buzzword on the greens and fairways in safety-conscious Japan....
Reader Mail
Jun 15, 2008

Get wise and lose the ties

Regarding the June 7 article "Cool biz Fukuda goes past tieless": The history of the necktie is a long and convoluted one. Some commentators suggest that its precursors hail from the Han Dynasty in China and Imperial Rome, where its function was to protect against the cold. During the Thirty Years War...
BUSINESS
Jun 15, 2008

G8 finance chiefs target inflation

OSAKA — The Group of Eight finance chiefs pledged Saturday to tackle the economic risks posed by soaring oil and food prices that are threatening global growth, which is already being hampered by the U.S. subprime mortgage loan crisis.
Reader Mail
Jun 15, 2008

When not to get on an elevator

Regarding Michael Hoffman's June 8 summary ("Dumb men better than dirty 'old' men") of a June 3 Spa! article: From a 57-something guy, I totally agree. If a bunch of guys, especially in suits, get in an elevator, I don't get on. What is it, do guys live in their suits and wash like once a year? Their...
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2008

Japan brings North back to bargaining table

In-mid April, a senior Foreign Ministry official in charge of Asian affairs looked confident. Although bilateral talks with North Korea had been suspended for more than half a year, the official predicted Pyongyang would have no choice but to come back to the bargaining table to discuss the abduction...

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