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COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2010

Self-defeating equivocation on democracy

MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insists that "without normal democratic development, Russia will have no future." We Russians are pleased to hear these enlightened words, yet Putin adds a "but" to his argument that renders his points senseless.
BUSINESS
Jul 2, 2010

Toyota may shift some car output to Thailand

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest carmaker, may move production of some cars to Thailand, reducing its reliance on Japanese factories.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Japan Pulse
Jul 1, 2010

Yama girls take to the great outdoors

Eco-consciousness and thirst for a new trend breeds the mountain-skirt wearing yama girls, coming to a power spot near you.
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Jun 30, 2010

Japan's four world champions set for NHK Trophy

Japan won't waste any time showing off its four new world champions, according to the recently released Grand Prix assignments for the 2010-11 season.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2010

New mind-sets needed for growth

Japanese firms will need to focus on high-growth markets such as China and India while also putting greater emphasis on domestic demand as post-"great recession" world economies appear to become less globalized.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 30, 2010

Mastering the gentle art of arguing in Japanese

"I'd like to have an argument, please."
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2010

No regrets about exit: Fukushima

Social Democratic Party leader Mizuho Fukushima said she has no regrets about leaving the ruling coalition and will only consider returning if the Democratic Party of Japan rules out the Henoko coast as the relocation site for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 29, 2010

No need to know the law, but you must obey it

A few months ago I met with some Western diplomats who were looking for information about Japanese law — in particular, an answer to the question, "Is parental child abduction a crime?" As international child abduction has become an increasingly sore point between Japan and other countries, foreign...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jun 27, 2010

Still shy of reversion after all these years

NEW YORK — Just about the time Yukio Hatoyama resigned as Japan's prime minister, apologizing to the Okinawa people in tears, I was writing about the last day of Yukio Mishima's life — Nov. 25, 1970.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jun 27, 2010

Cool (old) Japan flourishes along flowing rivers of Edo

In blistering midday heat, traffic blasts by, spitting out exhaust and grit at the busy intersection of Yotsume and Shin Ohashi Avenues. I've exited Sumiyoshi Station on the Toei Shinjuku Line, eager to find Sarue Onshi Park, said to be pretty with streams and water features. About to produce a water...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 27, 2010

Must Hello Kitty really die?

"I love Cantonese," proclaims Fiona Yu. "I can express myself at a whole new level of crudeness and vulgarity that I can't with English."
JAPAN / PARTY LINE
Jun 26, 2010

New Komeito's leader lays into 'wavering' DPJ, rules out coalition

New Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi denounced the ruling Democratic Party of Japan for wavering in its policies and not keeping its promises with the public, and said his party has no plan to enter into a coalition with the DPJ.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jun 26, 2010

Best to avoid penalty shootout against Germany

LONDON — During the first week of the World Cup finals a German reporter asked Wayne Rooney whether he was worried by the possibility of meeting his country in the second round.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 25, 2010

Te' "Aete, Rikai wo Nozomi Motsure Tsuku Onsei ya Moji no Wakugai de no 'Yakusoku' wo"

As one of the country's more popular instrumental rock acts, Tokyo's Te' have sold out large clubs in Japan and toured overseas in the United States and Taiwan. Signed to local indie imprint Zankyo Record since the act's 2004 inception, Te's fourth full-length is their first stab at working with a major....
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 25, 2010

'Beautified Taboo' fuses fashion, art

"Violent" and "gruesome" aren't adjectives typically associated with the world of fashion. However, curator Vivienne U.H. Doan hopes to change that.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2010

'The Cove'

A Japanese diver who signed up to travel and work aboard a Sea Shepherd (the renowned, independent ocean conservation society) boat told a local magazine that, initially, she was apprehensive because of her nationality. Coming from a nation that does continuous battle with ocean conservationists, she...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 25, 2010

Caribou asserts latest album is 'uniquely mine'

Daniel Snaith is a remarkable individual. Not just because of his astounding, cerebral, diacritic music that, nearly a decade and five albums later, is seeping into the minds of people searching for, as one recent reviewer put it, "electronics for grownups."
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2010

Face to face with Internet privacy issues

NEW YORK — Long ago, when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was in grade school, I wrote a book ("Release 2.1: A Design for Living in the Digital Age") in which I lauded something called gP3h (now p3p), the platform for privacy preferences. I was sure that people would start using P3 or something like...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jun 24, 2010

Home helper Takanori Kato

Takanori Kato, at age 68, is in his first year as a home helper in Tokyo's Chuo Ward. Last December, he graduated from a 4-month nursing course and immediately got a job at a nursing home. Since then, he's been learning the ropes of lifting the spirits of bedridden patients while taking care of their...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 23, 2010

A veteran plumbs his path to Japanese fluency

On a trans-Pacific flight to Narita several months ago, I struck up a conversation with a passenger who was upbeat about living in Japan. After six months, he told me with a self-satisfied grin, he had "just about got all the hiragana down pat."
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Jun 22, 2010

JPBPA needs to follow through on free agency proposals

The Japan Professional Baseball Players Association (JPBPA) has a chance to do some good by proposing more changes to the free agency system.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 22, 2010

Daughter finds long lost mom after 40-year separation

Judy Mintze, who contacted us in search of her long lost mother, is on cloud nine.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 22, 2010

How do you think the Japanese government could improve?

Charlotte Warren, 32Translator (British)The politicians all seem faceless and interchangeable. The project started by Junichiro Koizumi to reform the nation needs to go further. Politicians like Yuriko Koike need to take a more active role.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jun 21, 2010

Gyaru get cooking

Ajinomoto takes gyaru mamas seriously and targets this demographic with a cooking site for mobile phones.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 20, 2010

Who pays for sumo?

Sumo wrestlers don't make huge salaries but they can get a lot of yen in other ways.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2010

Renho vows to cut waste

While a sales tax hike may be on the horizon, the government will remain unyielding in its quest to eliminate wasteful spending, new state minister in charge of government revitalization Renho says.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 20, 2010

Flying high with alluring aosagi

A large dark shape flaps in a leisurely fashion on deeply bowed wings across a dark gray sky. It looks somehow lumpy, with very broad, rounded tips to its arched wings — and at a distance it appears like a large black "M," but with long outstretched legs, etched on the glowering clouds.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 20, 2010

Pulp fiction raunch with a happy ending

Yoshihiro Tatsumi was, when young, a fan of Mickey Spillane, the poor man's — the very poor man's — Raymond Chandler, and Spillane's fingerprints are all over "Black Blizzard," a page-turner in the best pulp style, published in 1956.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear