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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 11, 2009

Central bankers must finesse money supply

TILBURG, Netherlands — The current economic crisis highlights the need for major changes at central banks. It is time for a return to some form of moderate monetarism — but in a 21st-century mold.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 11, 2009

In praise of films that refuse to follow formulas

After jostling through a metal detector, having my bag searched and my mobile confiscated by stern-faced blue meanies, I slump in my cinema seat, enduring head-exploding levels of volume from the coming attractions, and unwanted infrared scrutiny from guards patrolling for video-heads looking for their...
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2009

Tempers flare at climate talks

COPENHAGEN — Tempers rose during the U.N. climate conference Tuesday, with key players criticizing each other's plans to combat global warming and a leaked draft from host nation Denmark creating havoc in the negotiating sessions.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Dec 10, 2009

Luxuriating at MoT and Vulcanize, customizing at Nike and economizing at Venus Fort

The luxury of fashion
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2009

Moore says he's tired of making documentaries, down on Obama

. KYODO PHOTO
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Dec 8, 2009

Vietnamese physicist thrives in Japan

Nguyen Dinh Dang didn't choose Japan so much as Japan chose him. The Soviet-trained Vietnamese nuclear physicist and painter first came to live here in 1995 at the invitation of Riken, a semigovernmental science and technology research institute.
COMMENTARY
Dec 8, 2009

Sexual liberation taking tragic turn in India

CHENNAI, India — As sexual freedom sweeps across India, women are increasingly finding that the price they have to pay in this euphoric atmosphere is very heavy.
Reader Mail
Dec 6, 2009

Tattoos and Japanese tradition

I agree with all of Debito Arudou's Dec. 1 article, "A level playing field for immigrants." It's sad to see Japan, which is supposed to be one of the leading countries, falling short. The article should have included a section on how to teach Japanese society to be less fearful of non-Japanese people,...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Dec 6, 2009

Sendai guard Takahashi studies NBA to help improve his game

The Japan Times will be featuring periodic interviews with players in the bj-league. The league's fifth season began in October. Kenichi Takahashi of the Sendai 89ers is the subject of this week's profile.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 6, 2009

Eco cars go up in smoke

Preadolescent tarento (TV celebrities) tend to provoke my gag reflex. I can only tolerate preternatural cuteness if it's presented without irony or intensification. Ten-year-old Nozomi Ohashi, who's famous for singing the theme song to the animated movie "Ponyo," has, according to her Wikipedia entry,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Dec 6, 2009

Disney animators find black on their palette

LOS ANGELES — For most of the last century, the Disney cartoon heroine was as white as, well . . . Snow White, the studio's first feature-film superstar, who marked her debut in 1937's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 5, 2009

I'm a gaijin — just another guy in jeans

An editor once asked why I use the masculine pronoun "he," instead of the less sexist "he or she" when referring to people of both genders in the same sentence. Despite having grown up in what is now called the second wave of feminism, from the early '60s to late '80s, I still never quite made the change...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 5, 2009

I'm a gaijin — just another guy in jeans

An editor once asked why I use the masculine pronoun "he," instead of the less sexist "he or she" when referring to people of both genders in the same sentence. Despite having grown up in what is now called the second wave of feminism, from the early '60s to late '80s, I still never quite made the change...
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 5, 2009

Frontale need help to capture first J. League title

KURIHIRA, Kanagawa Pref. — For Kawasaki Frontale goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima, Saturday will either mark the greatest day of his club career or the latest in a long line of painful failures.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 4, 2009

Countdown Japan

The main difference between this year's four-day, end-of-year, all-Japanese-artist rock festival, Countdown Japan, and last year's is that this year it will only be held in Chiba. For the last three years it was also held simultaneously in Osaka, just like Summer Sonic is in August, but according to...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 4, 2009

Five Arrows fighting back after rough start

The Takamatsu Five Arrows have quietly crept into the conversation about the teams with the best chance to shake things up in the Western Conference playoff hunt.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 2009

Nature's way of perceiving things

Born in Denmark to Icelandic parents, Olafur Eliasson is best known for large-scale works that, in recreating natural phenomena, ask viewers to reconsider how they perceive their daily environments. In the "Weather Project" (2003), Eliasson installed a blinding sun — made of hundreds of mono-frequency...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 4, 2009

'Up'

Carl Fredricksen, the 70-something protagonist of Pixar's "Up," is a squat, short-tempered geezer, a virtual knot of rage on legs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 2009

Under the guise of medical history, the Mori gets radical

Don't be distracted by the big names showing at "Medicine and Art: Imagining a Future for Life and Love" — Da Vinci, Okyo, Damien Hirst — the jewels of the show lie in the obscure — timeworn or contemporary.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 4, 2009

2009: Cracks in the facade

A year of tragic deaths, amusing scandals and a series of increasingly senile looking attempts by the music industry to cling onto its outdated business model — that was 2009.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2009

Defense minister may visit U.S. over Futenma

Okada and I will join it, if necessary, to hold ministerial-level discussions," Kitazawa said in a speech at the National Defense Academy in Japan in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. "It would not be difficult (for the two countries) to share how things should be during the course of last-minute negotiations,"...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 3, 2009

Platter of the day: Flash Sushi

LONDON — Nyotaimori — aka "female body arrangement" aka "naked sushi," in which the food is eaten from the nude body of a beautiful woman — is as much legend as fact in Japan (see accompanying article). But that hasn't stopped the Western imagination from seizing upon it as supposed shorthand for...
EDITORIALS
Dec 2, 2009

A 'lack of confidence' in Iran

Enough is enough. That seems to be the message in last week's resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which voiced serious concerns about Iran's nuclear activities and demanded that Tehran halt operations at a hitherto secret nuclear facility. That rebuke is a sign that patience...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 1, 2009

What should the new government do to improve life for foreign residents?

JAPAN
Nov 29, 2009

Fukuyama optimistic emissions deal within reach

KYOTO — Last week's announcement by President Barack Obama that the United States would pursue a 17 percent cut in greenhouse gases compared to 2005, followed by China's announcement of its own emissions reductions target, are positive signs that an agreement will be reached at next month's Copenhagen...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Nov 29, 2009

The warring mind-sets on U.S. immigration

NEW YORK — Over dinner with a consultant friend recently, our conversation drifted to U.S. immigration when she said, "I'm worried about our future."
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2009

Ban donations to individuals

Regarding the Nov. 25 article "Hatoyama silent on funds probe": This absurd saga of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's shady political funds is merely another example of why donations to individual politicians should be banned completely. Under the current system there are just too many opportunities for...

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