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JAPAN
Nov 11, 2007

Nakasone-Reagan summit venue now memorial hall

in Tokyo on Saturday where he and then U.S. President Ronald Reagan once held summit talks. The memorial house used to be his private mountain retreat when he was prime minister. KYODO PHOTO
Reader Mail
Nov 11, 2007

Education, business don't mix

Regarding the Nov. 4 editorial "Nova burns out": While it's tempting to believe that what happened to students and teachers in the Nova fiasco is an aberration, the truth is that as long as education is run as a business similar disasters will occur. That's because entrepreneurs are interested solely...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 11, 2007

Trapped between borders

Frontier Mosaic: Voices of Burma from the Lands In Between, by Richard Humphries. Orchid Press, 2007, 180 pp., $29.95 (paper) "A man on a motorbike comes by and we then follow him through the streets of Mae Sot." So begins one of the narrative vignettes from "Frontier Mosaic." Based on extensive travel...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 11, 2007

Cambodia's jungle treasure still stuns the senses

These days any number of people will delight in ruefully declaring how such and such a place has been ruined — overrun by tourists and commercialism — and, as if to rub salt into the wound, they'll tell you that if you'd only visited it when they first did, you too could have savored Paradise.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2007

Should we study race-intelligence links?

PRINCETON, New Jersey — The intersection of genetics and intelligence is an intellectual minefield. Harvard's former President Larry Summers touched off one explosion in 2005 when he tentatively suggested a genetic explanation for the difficulty his university had in recruiting female professors in...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 11, 2007

Kroon's agent pessimistic over BayStars contract negotiations

You read here a couple of days ago what the Yokohama BayStars have to say about contract negotiations with ace closer Marc Kroon. Now, here's a word from the other side: Kroon's agent, Tony Cabral, says it is not looking good for the fire-balling right-hander to remain with the Central League club.
Reader Mail
Nov 11, 2007

Look for Ozawa to clean house

Regarding the Nov. 7 (early edition) editorial, "Bizarre offer to quit": I think that Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader Ichiro Ozawa's offer to resign was a brilliant political maneuver. Ozawa knew that his resignation would send the DPJ into a state of frenzy as there is no one in the party capable...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 11, 2007

Employment issues special, weight loss special, Vermeer art special

Japan's employment situation is discussed in depth on "Nippon no Shukuzu: Sennin ni Kiku Haken no Honne (Japan in a Nutshell: A Thousand People Tell Their Real Feelings About Contract Work)" (NHK-G, Monday, 10 p.m.). About one-third of all workers in Japan are either part-timers, contract employees or...
BASKETBALL
Nov 11, 2007

Newton sparks unbeaten Evessa

Center Jeff Newton scored 32 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the host Osaka Evessa to an 88-76 victory over the Takamatsu Five Arrows in their home opener.
Reader Mail
Nov 11, 2007

Why exempt Korean residents?

According to Jun Hongo's Nov. 8 article, "Will entry checks cross the line?," The new law requiring non-Japanese to submit to fingerprinting and photographing upon entering the country exempts "special permanent residents of Korean and Taiwanese descent" from this humiliating procedure.
Reader Mail
Nov 11, 2007

Logic behind Estrada's pardon

Regarding the Oct. 31 editorial, "A deal in Manila": The Embassy of the Philippines would like to stress that serving the national interest -- not political expediency -- guided President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's decision to grant executive clemency to former President Joseph Estrada.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 11, 2007

Why trust the self-serving United States anymore?

I began by asking myself the question linked inevitably to the survival of the United States as a trusted nation in the 21st century: Why can't America admit defeat?
Reader Mail
Nov 11, 2007

Accept getting ID'd or get out

Regarding the recent complaints about Japan's plan to photograph and fingerprint all arriving foreign visitors from Nov. 20: When the U.S. government forced open the harbors of Japan in the 1850s under the poorly veiled threat of war, we had the same attitude -- our rights.
SOCCER
Nov 11, 2007

Rooney injures ankle

YARM, England (AP) England coach Steve McClaren is hoping David Beckham's experience can help lead his team to the European Championship.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 11, 2007

Dragons reach final

After looking nothing like the team that won the Japan Series a little over a week ago, the Chunichi Dragons got back on track in a big way on Saturday afternoon.
EDITORIALS
Nov 11, 2007

Mr. Musharraf's misrule

In a move reminiscent of the Vietnam-era logic that justified destroying a village to save it from communism, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has suspended his country's constitution for the sake of saving its democracy. That decision is only the latest in a series of missteps that have undermined...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 11, 2007

The poetry of women's emotions

Japanese Women Poets: An Anthology, translated and with an introduction by Hiroaki Sato. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2007, 548 pp., with photos, chronology, bibliography and index, $34.95 (paper) About lyric poetry, Wordsworth said that it was "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings."...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Nov 11, 2007

'Mad Max' loose on the streets of Tokyo

KITT, the talking Pontiac Trans Am in David Hasselhoff's "Knight Rider" TV series, doesn't get a mention. Steve McQueen's Mustang from the movie "Bullit" barely rates a response. And what about all those Aston Martins that James Bond drove? Not a whisper. Confessed car nut Yoshinao Hirata of Chofu, in...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 11, 2007

Japan's savior of Khmer silk

Kikuo Morimoto, 59, is a passionate man who radiates an aura of serenity. He has almost single-handedly saved the silk-weaving industry of Cambodia, a tradition that was nearly lost during three decades of war and neglect.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 11, 2007

Boy band's effort to recharge battery in solar debate falls flat

In the fall of 2003, the boy band TOKIO embarked from Tokyo on a journey to cover the entire coastline of Japan in a 1997 Daihatsu Hijet minivan that they had refit themselves with a solar roof-panel and a battery-powered engine. Driving in shifts of two, the five members have, as of the most recent...
Reader Mail
Nov 11, 2007

Appalling conditions at zoo

We live in Canada and vacation in Japan often -- my wife is Japanese. I am greatly impressed by Japan -- the culture, the people, the technology and the high standard of living. But as with any other country, not everything is perfect.

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’