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Rugby
Feb 26, 2007

Coaches go out in style as Toshiba takes title

Head coaches Masahiro Kunda and Eiji Kutsuki finished their Top League careers at Sunday's All Japan Finals, where the Toshiba Brave Lupus won the title with a 19-10 victory over the Toyota Verblitz.
BASKETBALL
Feb 26, 2007

Evessa complete sweep of Niigata

OSAKA -- Championship teams usually share one common trait: They raise their level of play in the most critical stages of games.
BASKETBALL
Feb 26, 2007

Ellis' onslaught lifts HeatDevils

Andy Ellis scored 40 points to lead the visiting Oita HeatDevils to a 92-89 victory over the Sendai 89ers in bj-league action on Sunday.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2007

Household assets hold key: Fukui

financial assets play an efficient role, that could well boost the economic growth rate," Fukui said in a Tokyo lecture. His remarks came after the central bank raised its key short-term interest rate to 0.5 percent from 0.25 percent Wednesday to reflect the stable economy, the first rate increase since...
EDITORIALS
Feb 26, 2007

Baby-making brains

The "baby-making machine" comment by a senior politician continues to reverberate through Japanese society. One might forgive a slip of the tongue, yet whenever the age-old misunderstanding between men and women re-emerges, it always exposes more ironies and issues than, simply, whose turn it is to get...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 26, 2007

Push market integration in expanding East Asia

As robust economic expansion continues worldwide, emerging economic powers like the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and other Asian countries are riding a wave of globalization to achieve rapid growth.
COMMENTARY
Feb 26, 2007

Sounding off on realignment

I appreciated the critical remarks that Japanese Cabinet ministers recently made about U.S. policy in Iraq, feeling that high-level Japanese officials had finally begun to express their honest opinions. But I was disappointed when the government scrambled to coordinate its views to eliminate any impressions...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Feb 26, 2007

Eastwood didn't idealize Kuribayashi

NEW YORK -- Isn't the Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Clint Eastwood's film "Letters From Iwo Jima" idealized? That was a question my poet friend Geoffrey O'Brien asked on New Year's Eve. A dedicated student of film, O'Brien had remembered a poem about the general that I translated three decades ago. Written...
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2007

Defense chiefs reaffirm need for close ties

Joint efforts by Japan and South Korea to resolve North Korea's missile and nuclear crises that led to this month's denuclearization agreement illustrate the importance of bilateral cooperation on defense matters, the two countries' defense chiefs said Sunday.
BASKETBALL
Feb 25, 2007

Osaka outlasts Niigata in OT

In a rematch of last season's inaugural bj-league title game, the host Osaka Evessa topped the Niigata Albirex BB 85-84 in overtime on Saturday night.
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 25, 2007

Gamba trounces Reds in Xerox Cup

Brazilian striker Magno Alves masterminded Urawa Reds' downfall with a hat trick as Gamba Osaka thrashed the J. League champions 4-0 in the Xerox Super Cup on Saturday.
Reader Mail
Feb 25, 2007

Lifting the stigma of depression

Regarding the Feb. 15 article "Masako book author spurns call to apologize": I agree with Australian author Ben Hills that the protest he received from the Japanese government over his depiction of the Imperial family in his biography of Crown Princess Masako is offensive, but perhaps for different reasons....
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Feb 25, 2007

Suzuki takes pride in heady play

The Japan Times will be featuring periodic interviews with players in the bj-league -- Japan's first professional basketball circuit -- which is in its second season. Yukinori Suzuki of the Oita HeatDevils is the subject of this week's profile.
Reader Mail
Feb 25, 2007

Apologies without conviction?

Regarding the Feb. 16 article "Former 'comfort women' tell Congress of ordeal": It is absolutely amazing that the "comfort women" issue is still being reported on in 2007. Then again, perhaps not -- when a Japan Times article runs comments such as: "Japan reckons its leaders have repeatedly apologized."...
Reader Mail
Feb 25, 2007

Freedom to dislike anything

Regarding the Feb. 17 article "NBA sanctions ex-star Hardaway following anti-gay tirade": The recent trouble that American basketball player Hardaway has found himself in gives us lots to consider. First, since when does a single sentence ("I hate gay people") amount to a "tirade"? By definition, a tirade...
BUSINESS
Feb 25, 2007

Yamaha helped METI craft export rules

SHIZUOKA (Kyodo) Yamaha Motor Co. helped the trade ministry in 2005 formulate stricter export controls on unmanned helicopters, investigative sources said Saturday.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji