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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 13, 2007

'What is Hollywood anyway?'

Ken Watanabe's latest film opens with an image of a polar bear resurfacing into the brilliant spring sunlight after months living underground. It's tempting to see the scene as a metaphor for a career that has alternated between stretches of intense, highly acclaimed work and long periods of hibernation....
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2007

Mizuho to set up Saudi bank

Mizuho Financial Group Inc. plans to set up an investment bank in Saudi Arabia, home to the world's best-performing stock market this quarter.
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2007

HSBC to open seven branches in Japan, hire 270 people

HSBC Holdings PLC said Wednesday it plans to open seven branches and hire 270 people in Japan by the end of 2008.
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2007

Sharp sues Samsung in Seoul over LCD patents

Sharp Corp. sued Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea on Wednesday, alleging patent violations for liquid crystal displays. It demanded damages and a halt to manufacturing and sales of affected TVs and display panels.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 13, 2007

Freed by the war

Nationalism — especially in the Japanese context — routinely gets a bad press.
BASKETBALL
Dec 12, 2007

89ers' Whearty earns accolade

Sendai 89ers center Patrick Whearty, who guided his first-place team to a pair of wins last weekend, is the Circle K Sunkus Player of the Week, the bj-league announced on Tuesday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Dec 12, 2007

Guts' salary to be same in '08

Yomiuri Giants third baseman Michihiro "Guts" Ogasawara re-signed with the Central League club on Tuesday for an estimated annual salary of ¥380 million unchanged from this year. The signing was for the second year of his four-year contract after Ogasawara became the first player in Japanese baseball...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 12, 2007

Knicks, Bobcats, Kings bid for Varejao

NEW YORK — The Knicks were among three teams who made infertile sign-and-trade proposals to the Cavaliers regarding Anderson Varejao in the dreary days leading up to the Brazilian Bouncer inking a 3-year, $17.35 million offer sheet with the Bobcats, which Cleveland promptly matched.
COMMENTARY
Dec 12, 2007

Protection and punishment

WATERLOO, Ontario — Dec. 9 and 10 marked the anniversaries of the Genocide Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Both were an acknowledgment of the dark side of European history and embodied the determination to ban vices that had been let loose with terrible consequences...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 12, 2007

How do chimps top us in a brain test?

"We are 98.77 percent chimpanzee," Tetsuro Matsuzawa told me last week. "We are their evolutionary neighbors."
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Dec 12, 2007

Asashoryu Akinori — the people's champion?

The 2007 sumo season has drawn to a close, and no sumo fan in his or her right right mind would want to see a repeat of it.
Japan Times
JAPAN / READERS' FUND
Dec 12, 2007

Kyoto NGO works to boost Afghan women's lot, literacy

This is the first in a series on how contributions to The Japan Times Readers' Fund last year — the 52nd since the campaign started — are being put to use. Readers donated ¥1,191,888 in 2006, which has gone to six groups helping needy people across Asia.
BUSINESS
Dec 12, 2007

Toshiba boasts battery that recharges 90% in five minutes

Toshiba will begin shipping in March a quick-charging new battery for forklifts, construction machinery and other industrial use, the electronics maker said Tuesday.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’