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Reader Mail
Oct 14, 2007

There is no push-button growth

Gregory Clark contrasts former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's economic policies with those of China: "Meanwhile, China, with an even larger bank bad-loan problem, solved it simply by continued economic expansion. It also greatly enhanced its Asian status at Japan's expense as a result."
Reader Mail
Oct 14, 2007

Society must de-commercialize

David Howell's Oct. 9 article, "The vanity in 'green' virtues," was good to read: Japan has made a beginning. But cleaning up one's own space and throwing the garbage outside a neighbor's door will not help society as whole.
Reader Mail
Oct 14, 2007

Tired myth of uniqueness

In her Oct. 7 book review of Alan Macfarlane's "Japan Through the Looking Glass," Mariko Kato writes "It is fully known that Japan -- despite being the world's second-largest economy and a hyperproductive civilization -- is utterly different from the West."
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / 2007 NPB PLAYOFFS
Oct 14, 2007

Dragons dominate Tigers

NAGOYA — The formula was simple, and it worked.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 14, 2007

Will CL champion Giants be rusty after 15-day layoff?

The Yomiuri Giants will host the winner of the on-going Stage 1 of the Central League Climax Series when Stage 2 of the CLCS begins Oct. 18 at Tokyo Dome.
Reader Mail
Oct 14, 2007

Worldviews and movie reviews

It seems quite the norm for Japan Times film critic Giovanni Fazio to tell his readers that some movies (such as "United 97" and "300") are propaganda tools and not worth the price of admission, while writing glowing reviews for movies like "The Assassination of a President" or "Sicko," simply because...
Reader Mail
Oct 14, 2007

A typhoon by any other name

Jun Hongo's Sept. 18 article, "Typhoons more predictable but still deadly," states that Japan and 13 other Asian countries use a list with some 140 names to name typhoons. I found one mistake: The writer wrote that "Damrey" means "elephant" in the Thai language. That's wrong. Damrey means elephant in...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 14, 2007

Nagai Kafu's geisha: expurgated, revised, then finally fully exposed

Rivalry: A Geisha's Tale, translated by Stephen Snyder. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007, 166 pp., $24.95 (cloth) Komayo, widowed young, resumes her life as a geisha, taking up with a former patron who wants to redeem her. She, however, falls in love with a young actor specializing in female...
Reader Mail
Oct 14, 2007

Hazy educational standards

Regarding the Sept. 20 article "Education spending renders Japan second to last in OECD": Japan has few clear national education standards for teacher education requirements, teacher certification and re-certification standards, student subject-matter learning standards, or student subject-matter testing...
EDITORIALS
Oct 14, 2007

Framed by the police

In a retrial of a man who had been found guilty of rape, the Takaoka branch of the Toyama District Court acquitted him Wednesday. Noting that his pretrial oral statements on which investigators had based their case against him were not trustworthy, the court ruled that the man is not the perpetrator....
Reader Mail
Oct 14, 2007

Language schools need regulation

In all of the reporting about Nova, I have noticed that no one has talked to Nova management or anyone else who might truly have inside information! What we're left with is a mish-mash of mostly what various English-speaking foreigners think might be happening.
Reader Mail
Oct 14, 2007

Koizumi deserves more credit

Regarding Gregory Clark's Oct. 8 article, "Getting Japan's politics wrong": Clark makes some good points and he may well be right that the press consistently misrepresents the true character of Japanese prime ministers. But he is more than a little unfair to former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi....
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / 2007 NPB PLAYOFFS
Oct 14, 2007

Darvish fires Fighters to win

SAPPORO — On a day when the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters came up with all the big hits, the Chiba Lotte Marines still couldn't find an answer for Yu Darvish.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 14, 2007

Obscure family drama, prefecture identities, national food issues

Idol-actress Aya Ueto does a serious number on her image in the new drama series "Abarenbo Mama" (Rowdy Mama; Fuji, Tuesday, 9 p.m.). Ueto plays Ayu, a tomboy from the countryside who speaks like a man and lacks feminine wiles. However, she falls for hairdresser Tetsu (Yo Oizumi), who's 12 years her...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 14, 2007

To embrace political renewal or cling to continuity

Every four years Americans want to believe they can reinvent themselves. Elections for the presidency offer them the opportunity, as they faithfully see it, to renounce the past and "get this country moving again."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Oct 14, 2007

Yaki-imo: A hot potato for Japan's traffic authorities

As the cicadas of summer finally go silent, a well-known autumn vocalist is bursting into song — and, fingers crossed, nothing else.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 14, 2007

Illustrating Japan's top cover star

For more than 30 years, Masamichi Oikawa has drawn the cover art for Pia magazine, reports staff writer Edan Corkill

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’