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EDITORIALS
Feb 19, 2007

A viable farming sector

This year will be important for Japan in developing policy for creating a viable agricultural sector without inviting criticism of protectionism from abroad. Among the reasons for tackling this issue is that, although the Doha Round of World Trade Organization negotiations has stalled, the liberalization...
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2007

Local leaders undaunted by tough greenhouse goals

KYOTO -- Think globally and act locally may be a cliche. But as the ambitious goals set by participants of the Kyoto Conference on Climate Change demonstrated, local governments worldwide are feeling the effects of global warming and believe they can no longer wait on national leaders to do something...
COMMENTARY
Feb 19, 2007

Nuclear uncertainties linger

For the people of Japan, the world's only country to suffer atomic-bomb attacks, the existence of nuclear weapons in any form is unacceptable. Regrettably, however, nuclear proliferation is continuing outside the framework of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 19, 2007

Abe must not neglect Japan-U.S. ties

Since coming to power four months ago, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has successfully mended fences with China and South Korea, reinforced diplomatic and economic foundations in Europe, and built bridges in Southeast Asia. But he has not visited his closest ally, U.S. President George W. Bush, although Abe...
Japan Times
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 19, 2007

Goals remain the same, but Hammies have changed

Success hasn't changed Trey Hillman, or his Japan Series championship team.
BASKETBALL
Feb 18, 2007

High-scoring Apache top 89ers

Jo Kurino enjoyed a successful debut game with the Tokyo Apache, scoring a season-high 12 points in a 109-95 victory over the Sendai 89ers on Saturday at Ariake Colosseum.
BASKETBALL
Feb 18, 2007

Joho to appear on Fuji show

Osaka Evessa shooting guard Masashi Joho traveled to Tokyo on Feb. 6 for an interview with "Communication In Sports," a Fuji Channel 8 program.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 18, 2007

Tuffy and Nori: Will they be comeback players of the year?

Former teammates Tuffy Rhodes and Norihiro Nakamura are trying out with Japanese baseball clubs in an effort to extend their careers, and the spring camps of the Orix Buffaloes and Chunichi Dragons have become more interesting with focus on their comeback attempts.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2007

Author of book on Masako slams Kodansha for backing out

The author of a book on Crown Princess Masako criticized a Japanese publishing house Saturday for its decision to cancel a translation of his biography following protests by the government, calling the step a "blatant attack on freedom of speech."
Reader Mail
Feb 18, 2007

A little late for the critics

One Japanese politician, Foreign Minister Taro Aso, has suggested that U.S. President George W. Bush has been "naive." Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma has said Bush was "wrong," and now the opposition party (Democratic Party of Japan) leader Ichiro Ozawa enters the Bush-bashing fray by saying the war in...
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2007

Leftist group claims Camp Zama explosions

. It admitted launching two projectiles at Camp Zama at around 11 p.m. Monday and said the launch was "an attack to prevent" realignment of the U.S. military in Japan and U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's three-day visit to Japan starting Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2007

Local leaders OK post-Kyoto plan

KYOTO -- More than 100 local government leaders from 26 nations agreed Saturday to an ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
Reader Mail
Feb 18, 2007

Far more offensive remarks

Japan's hapless health minister, Hakuo Yanagisawa, has drawn the ire of Japanese women with his comment on "baby-making machines." Strangely, the far more offensive comments of Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, as reported in the Feb. 10 article "Trash Constitution, face China threat: Ishihara," do nothing...
Reader Mail
Feb 18, 2007

High-stakes test stress unavoidable

Regarding the Feb. 11 editorial, "Exam system put to the test": Japan's use of high-stakes tests is the unavoidable outcome of its system of differentiation in education. While the anxiety surrounding these tests is unfortunate, it is unavoidable as long as students have to be sorted out.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 18, 2007

Poet takes on the triads

A Case of Two Cities: An Inspector Chen Novel by Qiu Xiaolong. New York: St. Martin's Minotaur, 2006, 320 pp., $24.95 (cloth) In U.S. paperback fiction, the arrival of an American detective, or spy, in East Asia unleashes a predictable train of events. He will inevitably lock horns with a rich and powerful...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Feb 18, 2007

TIRED OR EMOTIONAL: A space robot knows

Office meetings occasionally flit between two extremes. Either they're so tedious that you want to sleep, or they take an interesting turn when someone gets hot under the collar and starts ranting without listening to anyone else.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 18, 2007

Yoshu Chikanobu: the neglected master of Japanese prints

Chikanobu: Modernity and Nostalgia in Japanese Prints, by Bruce A. Coats, with essays by Allen Hockley, Kyoko Kurita and Joshua S. Mostow. Leiden: Hotei/Brill Publishing, 2006, 208 pp., 280 color illustrations, $99 (cloth) This is the first monograph in English on the Meiji Era print-maker Yoshu Chikanobu...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 18, 2007

'Africans in Japan' . . . not from the quill of Ishihara, thank God

Last week, The Japan Times ran a Bloomberg interview with Shintaro Ishihara in which the proudly provocative Tokyo governor followed up his contention that foreigners were behind the city's rising crime rate. He challenged his interviewers to go to Roppongi and see for themselves. "Africans -- and I...
Reader Mail
Feb 18, 2007

Why accommodate Cheney?

Regarding the Feb. 12 article "U.S. nixes talks with Cheney, Kyuma": If U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney doesn't want to meet with Japanese Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma because of Kyuma's open criticism of the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, why let Cheney meet with the officers under Kyuma's command...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight