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Reader Mail
Jan 21, 2007

Too much ink spilled over old milk

Another big food-safety scandal has made news media headlines and worried millions of consumers. This time a cake factory has committed the unforgivable crime of using 60 liters of milk that had passed its expiration date by one day.
SOCCER
Jan 21, 2007

Feyenoord booted from UEFA Cup

NYON, Switzerland (AP) Feyenoord was expelled from the UEFA Cup on Friday over crowd disturbances.
Reader Mail
Jan 21, 2007

Grabbing the golden chance

Ethiopia, in addition to heeding the call of the legitimate Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia for support, was facing a clear danger from UIC forces. UIC has repeatedly declared jihad against us, fomented instability by allowing in destabilizing forces from Eritrea, assisted anti-peace...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 21, 2007

Burying the liberation myth

Asian Labor in the Wartime Japanese Empire: Unknown Histories, edited by Paul Kratoksa. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2006, 440 pp., $35 (paper) The Japanese and Chinese governments have announced plans to come up with a mutually acceptable shared history. Prime Minister Shintaro Abe recognizes...
Reader Mail
Jan 21, 2007

Ironic comparison of insurgencies

How should one deal with the mistakes, nonsense and non sequiturs in Barry Ward's Jan. 7 letter, "U.S. seems unable to learn"? First, I am not a citizen of the United States, as Ward wrongly assumes. Nor did I offer any view, let alone an "adolescent" one, on "Middle East politics," per se, in my Dec....
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 21, 2007

A most convenient way to play table tennis

Despite the popularity of the player Ai Fukuhara, and a series of world champions in both men's and women's singles in the 1950s and '60s, table tennis has long been considered a minor sport in Japan. Often, it is simply associated with hot-spring goers playing in the lounge while clad in yukata and...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 21, 2007

An old way for modern business

Japan's Business Renaissance: How the World's Greatest Economy Revived, Renewed, and Reinvented Itself, by John C. Beck and Mark B. Fuller. McGraw-Hill, 2006, 226 pp., $27.95 (cloth) There was a time when you couldn't walk past a bookstore without seeing scores of books preaching Japanese business knowhow....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 21, 2007

Sex in the Forbidden City

Rene Leys, by Victor Segalen, translated and with an introduction by J.A. Underwood, preface by Ian Buruma. New York: New York Review of Books, 2003, 210 pp. $14 (paper) "Who is this lad, this Belgian youth, who forbids Manchu princes possession of their future concubines? . . . . Who . . . has attained...
EDITORIALS
Jan 21, 2007

Holding off on a rate hike

The Bank of Japan's Policy Board has decided to maintain the overnight call rate, the key short-term interest rate, at 0.25 percent -- the rate it adopted last July when it scrapped its zero interest rate policy. The final conclusion of the Policy Board's discussions last week departs somewhat from BOJ...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 21, 2007

Ah, those good old bad old '80s days

W hen did Japan begin to change and enter its present phase of burgeoning nationalism? (I hesitate to call it "new" nationalism, because it's actually just a rehashing of old myths for 21st-century consumption.)
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 21, 2007

Personal style gurus for common people

When Japan's star pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka inked a $52 million deal to play for the Boston Red Sox in mid-December, one of the most memorable comments he made in a packed news conference on his return from the United States was that he was frustrated with having to go through an agent in the negotiations....
Reader Mail
Jan 21, 2007

English is tested the wrong way

In his Dec. 30 article "English should be an elective," Gregory Clark's claim that Japanese "careers usually do not depend on foreign-language ability" ignores the fact that more and more Japanese corporations require TOEIC for promotion and hiring. His argument that "At that [post-secondary] level...
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jan 21, 2007

IBL looking to become part of basketball boom in Japan

It's an exciting time for basketball in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 21, 2007

Dig in at this genuine cantina

OSAKA -- Osaka likes to brag that it is the kitchen of Japan, where the stomach is the most important body organ. But as the guidebooks might say, "Cheap and cheerful is the rule" when it comes to establishing a decent greasy spoon in this city, which prides itself on its working-class, merchant roots....
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Jan 20, 2007

Toney-El keeps Broncos teammates loose with nicknames

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. Marcus Toney-El of the Saitama Broncos is the subject of this week's profile.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 20, 2007

Improved defense fuels Apache turnaround

The Tokyo Apache are not one of the taller teams in the bj-league. But they are one the league's quicker teams.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 20, 2007

Mourinho, Shevchenko rows have Chelsea on defensive

LONDON -- Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon said there was no crisis at Chelsea.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2007

Abe keen to revive controversial conspiracy bill

parties so the bill can clear the Diet," Abe told reporters. In 2000, Japan signed the U.N. Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, which set guidelines for crime-fighting cooperation. The treaty obliges member countries to enact domestic legislation that establishes conspiracy as a crime....
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2007

'Yokohama Incident' appeals dismissed

The Tokyo High Court on Friday dismissed appeals brought by the relatives of five men convicted in the so-called Yokohama Incident, the nation's worst case of repression of journalistic freedom during the war.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2007

Japan gets Brazil to try man in fatal hit-and-run

A Japanese-Brazilian suspect in a fatal hit-and-run case in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, has been indicted in Sao Paulo, setting a landmark precedent in Tokyo's pursuit of foreign criminals who have escaped overseas, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Friday.
SUMO / Basho reports
Jan 20, 2007

Asa has 20th Cup in reach

Grand champion Asashoryu dispatched veteran Kaio on Friday to stay on target for his 20th Emperor's Cup at the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament.

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