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BUSINESS
Dec 12, 2006

Nissan developing its own hybrid lineup

Nissan Motor Co. said Monday it plans to launch its own hybrid vehicles in North America and Japan in fiscal 2010 as part of a five-year environmental plan.
EDITORIALS
Dec 12, 2006

Take the money and run

Nearly 20 offices, including the head office, of Kinmirai Tsushin Inc., an Internet protocol telephony service provider, have been searched following allegations that it lured and defrauded investors with talk of new technology and lucrative returns.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 10, 2006

Setting it straight about Matsuzaka's free agency status

As the deadline (Dec. 14) approaches for the Boston Red Sox to sign posted Seibu Lions Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, let me clarify -- once and for all -- one key point seemingly misunderstood by many.
BASKETBALL
Dec 10, 2006

Osaka defeats Tokyo - again

The host Osaka Evessa defeated the Tokyo Apache 74-68 in Saturday's bj-league action, their third victory in as many games against Joe Bryant's squad this season.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2006

31st mad cow case is confirmed

The health ministry has confirmed Japan's 31st case of mad cow disease, this time involving a Holstein in Hokkaido.
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Dec 10, 2006

'Nice eyes' Yoshida can read moves in bj-league

The Japan Times will be featuring periodic interviews with players in Japan's bj-league -- the nation's first pro basketball circuit -- which is in its second season. Taira Yoshida of the Sendai 89ers is the subject of this week's profile.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 10, 2006

Guidance from a master brewer

THE BOOK OF SAKE: A Connoisseur's Guide, by Philip Harper. Kodansha International, 2006, 96 pp., 2,940 yen (cloth) How the global culinary pendulum does swing. It was not so long ago that drinking sake was considered as exotic, or even as ill advised, as eating raw fish seasoned with green horseradish....
EDITORIALS
Dec 10, 2006

Our words of the year

Once again, it's the season when the dictionary and language people are hard at work winnowing words -- new ones, catchy ones, much-looked-up ones, over-used ones -- in preparation for crowning their latest Word of the Year (WOTY). This year, we thought we might do a bit of winnowing of our own.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 10, 2006

Rediscovering a neglected tradition

THE BOOK OF INCENSE, by Kiyoko Morita. Tokyo/New York/London: Kodansha International, 2006, 136 pp., illustrations XX, 1,600 yen (paper) Incense came early to Japan. According to the fifth-century "Nihonshoki" (Chronicles of Japan), a whole aloeswood tree drifted ashore at Awaji. When the fisherfolk...
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 10, 2006

Politics at the grass roots

Judging by the society pages of certain publications in Japan, politicians at both the local and national levels seem to spend a lot of their time being photographed with ambassadors, captains of industry, assorted aristocrats, passing film stars and all manner of other folk.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 10, 2006

What remains 'Japanese' in such climates of change?

What is national character, and how does it differ from custom, manners and fashion? People talk about "the Japanese" as if referring to a nationality with an immutable quality that has existed and will continue to exist throughout the ages; and yet, Japan and the Japanese of the past are so different...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 10, 2006

SMAP's Kimutaku a different breed of idol

Six years ago this month, the public learned that Japan's most popular male showbiz personality, Takuya Kimura, was set to marry former singing idol Shizuka Kudo, already pregnant with his child at the time.

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