search

 
 
Reader Mail
Feb 3, 2008

Ex-Nova teachers stuck in limbo

I am happy that the government is helping out students who lost so much money after the chain of Nova language schools closed last fall. But I have seen few signs of the government caring for the teachers who were left out in the cold.
Reader Mail
Feb 3, 2008

First things first in Japanese

I have experience as a volunteer teaching Japanese to foreigners in my community. Those who come to the Japanese class are very eager to master Japanese so that they can live here happily. Though the local government gives some assistance toward class management, there are hurdles in running the class,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 3, 2008

Documentary on abandoned children, chocolate travel special

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), there are presently 2.2 billion human beings in the world under the age of 18, 300 million of whom do not exist in any sort of official capacity.
Reader Mail
Feb 3, 2008

Too magnificent to slaughter

I am getting tired of reading pro-whaling arguments. And of reading that whaling proponents just can't understand what anti-whalers object to. So I am going to make this very simple: Whales are magnificent, intelligent animals and should not be killed. They are not fish! The "debate" has nothing to...
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2008

Late response to food poisoning

News that more than a thousand people have suffered food poisoning after eating insecticide-tainted gyoza meat and vegetable dumplings imported from China has set off alarms about food safety. Traces of the organo-phosphate methamidophos were found in the frozen gyoza. This chemical is so lethal that...
COMMENTARY
Feb 2, 2008

Tet offensive's long shadow

LONDON — Forty years ago this week, the American public realized that the United States was not going to win the Vietnam war. Lulled by assurances that "progress" was being made in the fight against the insurgents, Americans had patiently borne five years of growing military casualties in Vietnam,...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 2, 2008

Capello in tough spot when it came to decision on Beckham

LONDON — Fabio Capello was always going to be damned if he picked David Beckham and damned if he dropped him for his first game as England manager against Switzerland on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2008

Gaza's past holds lessons for the future

PRAGUE — When the Gaza Strip was plunged into darkness last week as a result of the Israeli fuel blockade, many people around the world were surprised. But the optimism produced by the Annapolis peace process, which included U.S. President George W. Bush's promise of an agreement in 2008 to create...
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2008

Radio contact lost with trans-Pacific balloonist

Japanese and U.S. authorities launched a search Friday after radio contact was lost early in the morning with a hot-air balloonist attempting to cross the Pacific Ocean from Tochigi Prefecture to North America, one of his supporters said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2008

Trucking exec hits continued high fuel tax

As crude oil prices surge, the provisional tax rates on gasoline and other fuels should be eased, especially those on pricey diesel oil burdening the land transportation industry, according to Akio Yajima, managing director of the Japan Trucking Association.
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2008

Konica Minolta net profit soars 39%

Konica Minolta net profit r earlier to ¥55.71 billion in the nine months through December on brisk sales, the yen's weakness against the euro and cost-cutting.
EDITORIALS
Feb 2, 2008

Making an impact on tourism

The government plans to inaugurate a Tourism Agency in October as an extra-ministerial bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The new agency will be aimed at attracting overseas visitors to Japan as their tourist destination and to make tourism an important industry of the nation....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 2, 2008

A classroom with altitude

When I taught English at a Japanese university, I struggled with how to get the students to think outside the classroom. Inside the classroom, they would speak perfect English, yet once they went out into the real world, they froze up and couldn't speak at all. Now I know why.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2008

Gas levy vital for maintaining rural roads

Provisional higher tax rates for gasoline and cars are now the main bone of contention in the divided Diet. The Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc has submitted a bill to extend the rates, due to expire March 31, for another 10 years. Revenues from the levies are used to build and repair...
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2008

Condemned trio sent to the gallows

Three condemned convicts were hanged Friday and the government released their names and other details in line with the disclosure policy introduced by Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama with his Dec. 7 approval of three other executions.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 2, 2008

The changing Japanese face and the eye of the beholder

"The camera doesn't lie," says my friend, a professional photographer with long years in Japan.

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