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BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 20, 2008

62 foreign players signed by Japanese teams for 2008 season

This column, identifying the foreign players signed by the 12 Japan pro baseball teams, normally gets written in mid-to-late February. That's about the time the clubs have usually announced most of their non-Japanese acquisitions for the coming season.
Reader Mail
Jan 20, 2008

Health-care accusations over the top

Regarding Shawn White's Jan. 17 letter, "Health care closer to U.S. system": I share the writer's disquiet about recent changes in the Japanese health-care system, but his accusations go way too far.
Reader Mail
Jan 20, 2008

To eat and to be eaten

I am delighted with Misao Nakayama's question of why we must treat whales as special creatures in his Dec. 27 letter, "Human existence demands sacrifice," although I disagree with the editor's choice of a headline.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 20, 2008

People keep their eyes on the TV screen — well, at least one eye

When home-appliance manufacturer Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. announced earlier this month that it was renaming itself Panasonic Corp., the company said it was doing so in order to unify its various brand names, which, in addition to Panasonic, included Matsushita and National. This strategy would...
Reader Mail
Jan 20, 2008

No need to speed our own extinction

I have been following recent incidents regarding whaling protesters. I have also read the information regarding the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources with specific note of the role that whales play in the marine ecosystem.
Reader Mail
Jan 20, 2008

Protests have become farcical

Regarding the Jan. 17 article "Sea Shepherd 'hostages' pawns, pirates?": Is there a bigger farce than the annual "whaling protests" by groups like Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd society? Last week we had a couple of men engage in what some called an act of piracy, while Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson...
Reader Mail
Jan 20, 2008

Committed teachers shunted aside

Kanako Takahara's Jan. 5 article, "Assistant language teachers in trying times" -- on the problems faced by ALTs in Japan -- was excellent, though it only mentioned a few of the issues we face.
Reader Mail
Jan 20, 2008

Quest for justice at university

Regarding Sajjad Haidar's Jan. 17 letter, "Treatment of foreign students": I was a postdoctoral fellow at Akita Prefectural University for 9½ years. I had four Chinese and three Philippine colleagues, and I never experienced or saw any kind of physical assaults. Not even heated words.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 20, 2008

A solitary shark hunts in Shinjuku's dark side

SHINJUKU SHARK by Arimasa Osawa, translated by Andrew Clare. New York: Vertical, Inc., 285 pp., $14.95 (paper) Looking for a terse page-turner about a hard-boiled detective on the trail of a psychotic cop-killer? With plenty of tough guys, druggies, sleazy cross-dressers, rock musicians and other various...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 20, 2008

Showa nostalgia documentary, baseball star interviewed, optical illusions

The Showa boom has yet to run its course. Appropriating the street address used in the title of the hit Showa Period movie series "Always: Sanchome no Yuhi," TV Tokyo pumps up the nostalgia on "Sanchome no Post: Natsukashii Rankingu SP (Sanchome Mailbox: Nostalgic Rankings Special)" (Monday, 7 p.m.)....
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 20, 2008

Fancy an on-screen romance with a cherry on top?

"I'm looking to sate my filthy fantasies. My sexual desire is off the scale! My husband goes on what he says are business trips, but I'm sure he's taking his mistress, so I want to have an affair too!" — Yoshimi
Reader Mail
Jan 20, 2008

Fitting into a society called 'home'

As Kathleen Morikawa pointed out in her Jan. 8 Zeit Gist article "Following in our fingerprints," the opinions of foreigners tend to be separated into two groups: those who are here long term vs. those who are here temporarily.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Jan 20, 2008

A home away from home: How we really think about the car

Is there a relationship between cars and houses? And, if there is, what commonalities are there between what we search for in an automobile and a home?
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 20, 2008

Savor the sensation of being a 'princess'

My handsome butler, resplendent in his smart black waistcoat and bow tie, greets me at the door. "Hello princess," he softly intones as he manfully leads me to a rose-strewn alcove.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 20, 2008

'Three ecologies' pioneer fought Japan's rape of nature

Second of two parts
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 20, 2008

The Utagawa brand name

COMPETITION AND COLLABORATION: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School, by Laura J. Mueller, with essays by Fujisawa Akane, Kobayashi Tadashi, and Ellis Tinios. Leiden/Boston: Hotei Publishing, 2007, 232 pp., 200 illustrations, $120 (cloth) The Utagawa school, founded in the 18th century and active throughout...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 20, 2008

Hitting hairdressing's highs the flat-top way

Wielding a hair dryer in one hand, a comb in the other, and with another comb held between his teeth, hairdresser Hideki Sato, 34, tackles the jet-black locks of a male model.
EDITORIALS
Jan 20, 2008

Some good ideas, but can he do it?

In his second policy speech before the Diet, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda made clear that his administration has abandoned the basic policy line of his predecessor, Mr. Shinzo Abe, who called for a "departure from the postwar regime" and constitutional revisions. Symbolically, Mr. Fukuda did not use the...
Reader Mail
Jan 20, 2008

Don't cross oceans to kill whales

I love Japan and its people. I have always been impressed by all the Japanese people I have ever met and worked with. But I am so sad that Japan sends its ships to our ocean to kill our whales. We Australians see whales as very intelligent creatures who nurture their young in family groups, and who have...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jan 20, 2008

Nakanishi making most of second career

Tokyo Apache forward Shoji Nakanishi owned one of the bj-league's most obscure names as the calendar flipped from 2007 to 2008.
BASEBALL
Jan 20, 2008

Whiting pays tribute to Boyer, Halberstam

In an exclusive piece, best-selling author Robert Whiting reminisces about two men, Clete Boyer and David Halberstam, both of whom died in 2007, who had a profound impact on his distinguished career.

Longform

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