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EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2008

Focus in U.S. campaign narrows

The U.S. presidential campaign sharpened last week with the withdrawals of Mr. Rudy Giuliani and Mr. John Edwards. Now, two main candidates dominate each race and will battle head to head in "Super Tuesday" this week and to their nominating conventions later this year. Voters in both parties now have...
COMMENTARY
Feb 3, 2008

Election should settle the war question

LOS ANGELES — The current race for the White House might just prove to be a great clarifier on the Iraq war. This is undoubtedly the high-profile foreign-policy problem that the world would like our electoral system to resolve decisively.
Reader Mail
Feb 3, 2008

Facebook adds to the isolation

Thank you for the editorial on the keitai culture. But it may be a case of too late. As the keitai culture has now "blossomed" into Facebook culture, we truly are on the road to further isolation. Weren't increasing advancements in technology meant to keep us closer together? anthony kimbley
Reader Mail
Feb 3, 2008

Whaling dates back centuries

In response to Lindsay Caffin's Jan. 27 letter, "If we're talking about tradition" (with regard to whaling), I would like to suggest doing research via a simple tool like the Internet. Records such as the Kojiki, Japan's oldest written document, state that whaling goes back to the eighth century, meaning...
Reader Mail
Feb 3, 2008

Policies discourage childbearing

Moving the birthrate up from its presently pitiful levels is a task for which every member and segment of Japan government, community, business has some degree of responsibility. From the point of view of the business world, it would be helpful if pricing policies made the participation of families in...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 3, 2008

Teams open training camp, begin countdown to start of season

Sounds of baseballs popping into gloves and the crack of bat against ball are ringing out in Okinawa, south Kyushu and Shikoku as the 12 Central and Pacific League teams began spring training Feb. 1 in preparation for what promises to be an exciting Japan pro ball season that begins in just 46 days with...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 3, 2008

'Lest We Forget' — what?

There may be no more potent expression of our consciousness of historical tragedy than the three words "Lest We Forget."
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2008

Putting the pieces back together

The Social Insurance Agency on Dec. 17 started sending notices about pension premium payment records to people with the expectation that the notices would help them remember details of past pension premium payments and partially solve the problem of 50.95 million hard-to-identify payment records.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 3, 2008

Journal of an uncommon traveler

WINDOWS ON JAPAN: A Walk Through Place and Perception, by Bruce Roscoe. Algora Publishing, 2007, 308 pp., $31.95 (paper) On the premise that speed blunts the mind, New Zealander Bruce Roscoe decided to make his journey on foot, following a route across the waist of Japan, from the port city of Niigata...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 3, 2008

'Pimp' my road — For bureaucrats, it's business as usual

It's that time of year again, when the highways and byways of Japan are suddenly filled with construction crews tearing up asphalt for repair and maintenance work. That's because the annual budgets of the crews' public-sector employers must be used up before the end of the fiscal year in March, regardless...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Feb 3, 2008

Nano's low price comes at a cost

It's hardly surprising that Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata chose the theme from the film "2001: A Space Odyssey" as the soundtrack to his unveiling of the Nano mini-car. Simply put, this car is epoch-making. It is the Ford Model T of India.
Reader Mail
Feb 3, 2008

Whither the 'keitai' culture?

It was refreshing to read the Jan. 27 editorial, "The 'keitai' generation." With Japanese youth already ostracized and socially strangled, the keitai culture adds fuel to the fire. Kids need physical playgrounds not video games, social interactions not text messaging, more human interactions not keitai....
Reader Mail
Feb 3, 2008

Feeding on the fear of failure

Regarding the Jan. 25 article "Cram school in public junior high gets metro nod": Just like the defunct Nova language-instruction chain, juku organizations are private businesses that specialize in academic instruction primarily for money. If people think that paying more is better and decide to spend...

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