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Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2008

Marunouchi flower show enlivens downtown Tokyo

While the cherry blossoms have already come and gone in Tokyo, another flowery extravaganza is now blooming in Tokyo's Marunouchi district — Marunouchi Flower Weeks 2008.
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2008

Yang visits Yokohama, holds pre-Hu meetings

YOKOHAMA — Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi visited a Chinese school in Yokohama and met the mayor and the governor of Kanagawa Prefecture on Saturday in an attempt to smoothen bilateral ties ahead of the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao next month.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 20, 2008

Helping newcomers settle in Japan

HANDBOOK FOR NEWCOMERS, MIGRANTS AND IMMIGRANTS TO JAPAN, by Arudou Debito and Higuchi Akira, 2008, 376 pp. ¥2,300 (paper) In this important and necessary book the authors address migrants and immigrants to Japan in saying that "we believe that your life in Japan should be under as much of your control...
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Apr 20, 2008

Cheap car shows poorer nations won't accept role as the First World's 'factory'

Two or three hundred journalists from around the world rushed to the stage, pushing and shoving each other to get a glimpse. Although the car had been announced more than three years earlier, such was the excitement.
Reader Mail
Apr 20, 2008

Lunatic fringe runs rampant

Regarding the controversy over the "Yasukuni" documentary by Li Ying, why must the theaters cancel screenings of the film -- and their freedom of speech rights -- because rightwing sound trucks will "inconvenience" their neighbors? Surely it is the responsibility of the police to prevent this inconvenience....
Reader Mail
Apr 20, 2008

Actions matter more than words

Japan is not alone in wanting to instill patriotism in its young people ("No place for politics in education," April 10). All countries around the globe consider that goal to be important. The debate, therefore, is over the proper means to achieve that justifiable end. Attitudes, however, are caught...
Reader Mail
Apr 20, 2008

Pets deserve better food

Regarding the April 4 article "Be wary: It's a dog-eat-dog food world out there:" This article on pet food indicated that in previous years pets such as dogs and cats were fed on scrap food. As a result of being fed on remnant food, pets live relatively short lives. But scientists have since developed...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 20, 2008

Music talk show, lawyer melodrama, mystery thriller

It used to be that music shows were mostly music, but since the early 1990s they've generally been talking about music. "The M" (Nihon TV, Tuesday, 9 p.m.), a new show that premieres this week, attempts to give the music-talk format a few twists.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 20, 2008

Dining out with a box of fine fare

Tasty, healthy and wasting nothing; traditional Japanese cuisine served on a hakozen table distills many of the country's dying cultures.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 20, 2008

The challenges of an aging society

POPULATION DECLINE AND AGEING IN JAPAN: THE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES by Florian Coulmas. Routledge: London, 2007, 167 pp., $150 (cloth) Florian Coulmas, a longtime contributor to the Japan Times and director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo, packs a lot of information and insights into...
Reader Mail
Apr 20, 2008

Loosen Net restrictions in China

The April 6 article "China allows access to English Wikipedia" mentions that the Chinese government has finally allowed people to access the English version of Wikipedia. On the other hand, there are still great numbers of Web sites that remain blocked.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 20, 2008

A Tibetan terror rules the waves

THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. New York: Warner Books, 2007, 388 pp., $25.99 (cloth) Tales of suspense that incorporate obscure aspects of the supernatural from ancient civilizations have long enjoyed a popular following. Take William Peter Blatty's "The Exorcist" (1971), a...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 20, 2008

Belly-laughs boffin puts mirth to the test

When people laugh, it is often their cheery sounds or the wrinkles around their eyes that mark out their mirth. Yoji Kimura believes, however, that the key to determining the nature of laughter lies in the diaphragm.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 20, 2008

Soccer that's played the wheely way

I like soccer. I like to watch it. I even tried to play it a few times when I was a kid, though I was not good at sports that didn't require me to use my hands, so I switched to tennis and basketball. But I can imagine how skillful you have to be to play football well, and how much fun and how exciting...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 20, 2008

Notes on 'Later Term Elderly People Medical Treatment' joke

Stop me if you've heard this one. A bunch of elderly people are sitting in the waiting room of a doctor's office, catching up on neighborhood gossip and their own health woes. As Mrs. Sato goes on about her lumbago, Mr. Kobayashi interrupts. "Where's Suzuki-san?" he says. "He's usually here by now."...
Reader Mail
Apr 20, 2008

What's in a name?

The April 9 article "NATO meeting sends dangerous signals" portrays Greece as the aggressor and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) as the victim. The provisional name of FYROM was not selected by Greece, as the author states, but was part of an interim agreement suggested by others...
Reader Mail
Apr 20, 2008

Long wait at immigration

On April 7 I had two business colleagues arrive at KIX Osaka at around 5 p.m. -- they were confronted with an immigration line that was so long it went all the way back to the escalator bringing arriving people to the immigration hall! It took them 1 hour and 27 minutes to be processed by KIX immigration....
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Apr 20, 2008

Sojourner promoting game on and off court

There are professional athletes in all sports who fit this bill: They are outgoing, passionate about their chosen profession and more than willing to speak their mind about what they think the powers that be can do to improve the sport on levels.
BASKETBALL
Apr 19, 2008

Toshiba's Kita, Orihara retire

The Toshiba Brave Thunders announced the retirements of two of their veteran players, guard Takuya Kita and forward Yuki Orihara, on Friday. Kita, the 35-year-old former Japan national, joined the Kawasaki-based team in 1995. He was chosen for the JBL's first team five times, selected the regular-season...
BASKETBALL
Apr 19, 2008

Pierce hired to coach LakeStars

The Shiga LakeStars will be the name of one of next season's expansion teams, the bj-league announced on Thursday. The club will begin play in the 2008-09 season along with the Hamamatsu Phoenix (tentative name), formerly the OSG Phoenix of the JBL. The LakeStars also introduced Robert Pierce as their...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Apr 19, 2008

Kobe Bryant has Apache poised for title run

Joe Bryant and his famous son, Kobe, have made remarkable turnarounds with their respective basketball teams.
BASKETBALL
Apr 19, 2008

bj-league reveals Best 5 team

Ryukyu Golden Kings point guard Naoto Takushi, Osaka Evessa shooting guard Mikey Marshall, Takamatsu Five Arrows forward Reggie Warren, Oita Heat Devils power forward Andy Ellis and Sendai 89ers center Patrick Whearty comprise the 2007-08 Best Five Team, the bj-league announced. Voting was done by commissioner...

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