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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 30, 2007

Welcome to Misery Park

Shinjuku's Kabukicho is among the world's largest adult entertainment districts, with thousands of bars and sex clubs providing a cornucopia of nighttime entertainment options.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Jan 30, 2007

Between the crafty and the user-friendly

Receptacle for the respectable It wouldn't seem that much could be done to improve on the functionality of the lowly water dispenser -- all you need is a receptacle and a tap. Enter Kai House with the Adhoc product from their Kitchen Design Movement collection. It features both a paired-down design --...
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2007

Canon breaks records for net profit and sales

Canon Inc. said Monday that net profit rose 18.5 percent to a record 455.3 billion yen in 2006 as sales broke 4 trillion yen for the first time on robust interest in digital cameras and color laser printers and copiers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 30, 2007

Lend an ear to an ancient practice

The tools and rules of hygiene are generally cut and dry: Brush your teeth at least twice a day, floss once, remember to bathe, and clip your nails to meet your own taste. But what about cleaning your ears? For some people, once every couple of weeks is enough, but others like to do it every day.
LIFE / Language
Jan 30, 2007

Euphemisms may mask ruder instincts -- or not

No one likes their euphemisms (enkyoku na kotoba) and circumlocutions more than the Japanese. If there is an inoffensive (sashisawari no nai) way to say something, they will find it; and if there isn't, they will make one up.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 30, 2007

Crime and embassy changes

Foreign victims Masaru recently searched the Web for information on "crime and foreigners in Japan" and got a plethora of figures and statistics, many of them from police bodies and the Ministry of Justice, all relating to crimes by foreigners.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 30, 2007

Yoko Yamada

Yoko Yamada, 27, nicknamed Iron Beauty, is the 2005 women's arm wrestling world champion in the 45-kg weight class and has won more than 35 gold medals, in both the Left- and Right-Handed Divisions. Yamada failed to qualify for the 2006 world championship because the minimum weight was raised to 50 kg,...
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jan 30, 2007

All-Star game in Okinawa proves a slam dunk

GINOWAN, Okinawa Pref. -- Never underestimate the impact of a dream.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 29, 2007

Yoshida keeps streak going

Athens Olympic gold medalist Saori Yoshida dominated Hitomi Sakamoto to win the final of the women's 55-kg class, claiming her fifth straight crown at the national championships on Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2007

Inconveniences of truth

This January, whether golfing in the snow country of Niigata, butterfly-watching in the Alps or skating over the ice in Texas, the weather is obviously stranger than ever before. The observation of the senses, or at least the quick read of a few news articles, should be enough evidence of global warming...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jan 29, 2007

Same hot buttons a hundred years later

NEW YORK -- What was the world like 100 years ago? That was not the question I had in mind when I idly wondered if I could find exactly how French actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) had described British playwright/novelist Oscar Wilde on one special occasion. As this is the age of the Internet, I quickly...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 28, 2007

Sparks plugs hoop with windmill dunk

GINOWAN, Okinawa Pref. -- Rasheed Sparks is having a sensational season for the Takamatsu Five Arrows.
BASKETBALL
Jan 28, 2007

Okinawan sky Starry on big Saturday

GINOWAN, Okinawa Pref. -- The hometown hero had the spotlight to himself. Well, at least for a few seconds; after all, this was a stars' showcase.
Reader Mail
Jan 28, 2007

Humane alternative to abortion

Regarding the Jan. 14 article "The birds, bees and the Japanese" (Mark Schreiber's commentary on a survey published in the Jan. 21 edition of Yomiuri Weekly): I got the impression that many Japanese people feel that there are only two solutions to an unwanted pregnancy -- abortion or raising a child....
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 28, 2007

The rundown on foreign players in Japan for 2007 season

Spring training camps open for the 12 Japan pro baseball teams on Thursday, Feb. 1, and the Pacific and Central Leagues will welcome a total of 64 foreigners in uniform.
Reader Mail
Jan 28, 2007

Seeing 'liberation' for what it was

Jeff Kingston's review was simply one of the best essays published recently in The Japan Times. It addresses some of the issues facing Japan over its World War II-era atrocities. For nearly 20 years the public has been told by various Japanese leaders (mainly of the Liberal Democratic Party) that the...
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2007

Mr. Abe's pitch to the Diet

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in a policy speech in his first regular Diet session as prime minister, pitched his top political goal -- changing Japan's postwar regime and revising the Constitution. But just what kind of nation he wants to build through such endeavors is not necessarily clear. In the short...

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