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Reader Mail
May 20, 2007

Japanese links with India, Russia

It is evident from the economic investments in China and general posture toward China that current Japanese leaders seek arrangements that enable it to avoid becoming an adversary of China while helping it become a militarily powerful nation.
Reader Mail
May 20, 2007

The toughest job in town

I just read an article in The Japan Times about the nation's record-low birthrate. I am one of the angry people who have four children in this country -- I am German and my husband is Japanese. If anybody would like to know why there are so few children, I would like to show them how hard it is to have...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
May 20, 2007

Caring team helps retie life's loose ends

We have all had one or two unforgettably heartfelt encounters in our lives, whether long-lost first loves or more distant crushes whose intensity it is still possible, years later, to reconjure with ease.
CULTURE / Books
May 20, 2007

Listening to history's creaking bones

ORACLE BONES: A Journey Between China's Past and Present, by Peter Hessler. HarperCollins, 2006, 491 pp., $26.95 (cloth) Beside their obvious antiquity, why should heaps of cattle shoulder-blades and turtle shells dating from the 13th and 14th centuries B.C. be of such immense importance to today's...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 20, 2007

An exemplar of where the war-crimes buck stops

Over the coming months in this column, I will return a few times to a film titled "Ashita e no Yuigon (Best Wishes for Tomorrow)." I have been very fortunate to be able to write the script for this together with its director, Takashi Koizumi, whose last film, "Hakase no Aishita Sushiki (The Professor...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 20, 2007

It is in the places in between that cultures truly merge

THE PLACES IN BETWEEN by Rory Stewart. New York: Harcourt Books. 300 pp., with 26 photos and numerous drawings, 2006, $14.00 (paper) In 2002 Rory Stewart, author and former British diplomat, walked across Afghanistan. The country had been at war for 25 years, its government in place for just two weeks,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
May 20, 2007

Non-profit organization special, Ken Watanabe drama special and family mini-series

Up until the time he was arrested, Livedoor President Takafumi Horie was considered the standard-bearer for the new spirit of entrepreneurship in Japan. Since the arrest and the attendant media scrutiny, the idea of venture businesses has changed.
BASKETBALL
May 19, 2007

Golden Kings name Planells coach

The Ryukyu Golden Kings, one of the bj-league's two expansion teams for the 2007-08 season, named Hernando Planells Jr. as its first head coach, the Okinawa-based club announced Friday. The 30-year-old Planells, whose father is Spanish and has lived in Japan, was at the helm of the Wyoming Golden Eagles...
SUMO / Basho reports
May 19, 2007

Asashoryu, Hakuho retain share of lead

Mongolian Hakuho took another step toward promotion to yokozuna on Friday with a win over compatriot Ama at the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament.
JAPAN
May 19, 2007

'Delivery education' wins the hearts of young students

was quick to embrace delivery education; the fast-food giant began to support education on proper eating habits and nutritional balance across the country two years ago. At Naze Elementary School in Amami, Kagoshima Prefecture, for example, children learned from a "teacher" sent by the firm how to make...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 19, 2007

Mourinho's criticism of Ronaldo for diving is laughable

LONDON — If the Wembley gods are looking down on the first F.A. Cup final back at the rebuilt national stadium, they will decree that Manchester United takes an early lead against Chelsea.
EDITORIALS
May 19, 2007

Last recourse for parents

A Catholic hospital in Kumamoto disclosed a plan in November to set up a "baby hatch" in which women or parents could anonymously leave newborn babies. The hospital was especially thinking of women in desperate situations. The Kumamoto municipal government approved Jikei Hospital's plan in early April....
EDITORIALS
May 19, 2007

ASDF's role in Iraq

The Lower House has passed a bill to extend by two years the July 2003 ad hoc law to deploy the Self-Defense Forces for noncombat activities in Iraq. The specific aim of the bill is to extend the operations of the Air Self-Defense Force in Iraq since the law expires at the end of July.
JAPAN
May 19, 2007

Abe's panel on examining collective defense kicks off

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on Friday the first meeting of a government panel tasked with debating how far Japan should be allowed to go in defending allies who come under attack, amid rising tension over security, including North Korea's nuclear programs.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 19, 2007

A reflection on harmonious cohabitation

It seems the insects arrive every year during Golden Week. Is it possible that even the insects are on this Japanese work schedule with set travel times? Or maybe it's insect tenkin. Transfer or travel, during Golden Week we are all on the same migration pattern. Face it, we're all just really large...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 19, 2007

Farm concession said key to U.S. FTA

Opening up Japan's politically sensitive agriculture market is the key to establishing a free-trade agreement between Japan and the United States, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's vice president for Asia.

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