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Reader Mail
Jan 13, 2008

Get used to lower domestic sales

The Jan. 8 article " '07 vehicle sales lowest in 35 years" indicates that Japan is finally waking up to reality. Domestic sales in Japan will decline in nearly every sector. Fewer people mean lower sales. There is no cure but immigration, and that will never happen on the scale needed to produce results...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 13, 2008

Soybean farming's rich harvest of exercise

Called hatake no gyuniku (beef from the fields), soybeans are known for the healthy, high-protein punch they pack and their contribution to lowering cholesterol. In Japan, consumers are lucky enough to receive their benefits in many forms, including tofu, miso and natto.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 13, 2008

Shimmying to fitness in South Seas style

Their hips swathed in tight, colorful skirts, and their shoulders bare above tight tube tops, about 30 women shimmy and shake sexily to fast, powerful drum rhythms and the cheerful melody of Tahitian banjo.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 13, 2008

Preferring to show and not to tell

AKIRA KUROSAWA: Interviews, edited by Burt Cardullo. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008, 196 pp., $20 (paper) Once, when I asked Akira Kurosawa about the meaning of one of his films he answered: "If I could have said it in words, I would have — then I wouldn't have needed to make the picture."...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Jan 13, 2008

Ranking Japan's most scenic skylines

Mountaintop vistas and an absence of patrol cars make for a slice of motoring heaven.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 13, 2008

Media pundits ponder Japan's prospects for year ahead

With the yearend summaries behind us and the stockpile of New Years' TV variety specials exhausted, the media turns its attention to the business of looking at Japan's future. It's an annual ritual that rarely results in anything edifying, but 2008 may turn out to be a watershed year.
Reader Mail
Jan 13, 2008

A defense against impostors

I have no objection to being fingerprinted at airports when re-entering Japan because I and other foreigners in Okayama suspect that we are being stalked by yet another foreigner who may have a double identity, and it could be that only fingerprinting can establish that person's true identity.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 13, 2008

Puff your way to health through a pipe

If you are looking for a fitness activity that combines the tranquillity of Japanese archery and the thrill of blood-curdling ninja — along with the fun of playing darts — then fukiya (blowpipe darts) is maybe for you.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2008

Bill's passage lets Japan save face

Friday's enactment of a new special law that will let the Maritime Self-Defense Force resume multilateral refueling operations in the Indian Ocean will also allow Japan to save face and avoid jeopardizing its relations with the U.S., analysts said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2008

Ward plans disaster maps for commuters' walk home

A magnitude-7 earthquake on a workday in the capital would strand an estimated 6.5 million commuters due to the ensuing transportation paralysis.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2008

Lower House rams through antiterrorism bill

For the first time in half a century, the Lower House on Friday overrode the Upper, ramming a bill through the Diet to resume the Maritime Self-Defense Force refueling duty in the Indian Ocean.
EDITORIALS
Jan 12, 2008

Scandal demands deeper probe

An Upper House panel has questioned a senior executive of a defense-related group in the scandal involving Yamada Corp., a defense equipment trading house. Mr. Naoki Akiyama, executive director of the Japan-U.S. Center for Peace and Cultural Exchange, gave unsworn testimony to the panel Tuesday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 12, 2008

Vote of confidence kiss of death for Allardyce with Magpies

LONDON — Sam Allardyce probably knew the end was in sight when Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley and chairman Chris Mort said it wasn't. Ashley's stock reply to speculation about his manager's future was to tell people not to listen to rumors.
EDITORIALS
Jan 12, 2008

Clear and present road 'danger'

In August 2006 a car driven on a bridge by a then employee of the Fukuoka Municipal Government rear-ended a sport utility vehicle carrying a couple and their three children. The SUV plunged into Hakata Bay and the three children perished. In the trial of the former municipal worker, public prosecutors...
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Jan 12, 2008

Language partners turn life partners

Information-technology engineer Rodion Moiseev was alone when he traveled from Moscow to England at the age of 14 to attend high school, and he believes those early experiences in a new land made him open to foreign cultures. It may well be one of the reasons for his interest in Japanese culture, particularly...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 12, 2008

Therapist brings healing through hypnosis

Karen Mattison is counting me down — down into a hypnotic state. It's weird. Feeling as if I could open my eyes if I chose to, but choosing (I think) not to, because for one thing it's so comfortable and reassuring, this slide down into relaxation and being.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes