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COMMENTARY
Feb 27, 2006

Nuclear carrier unwelcome

The U.S. Navy recently announced a decision to deploy a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa Prefecture, dismaying residents of the area. Following the decision -- made in conjunction with the reorganization of U.S. forces in Japan -- the mayor of Yokosuka, the prefectural...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Feb 27, 2006

Criticism of Japan skips the finer points

NEW YORK -- By way of criticizing Taro Aso as "Japan's Offensive Foreign Minister," a Feb. 13 New York Times editorial came up with a sweeping condemnation of the Japanese and their society by asserting that "public discourse in Japan and modern history lessons in its schools have never properly come...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 27, 2006

Of winter sports and economic fortunes: What's the connection?

The Winter Olympics were last held in Japan in 1998. The stage was Nagano, and on that stage, the Japanese athletes performed brilliantly. They won no less than five gold medals, one silver and four bronzes. Many of the winning athletes sported auburn, if not blonde-tinted hair. Some even went for eyebrows...
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 26, 2006

Powerful Reds down Gamba

Urawa Reds proved too strong for Gamba Osaka in the Xerox Super Cup on Saturday, beating the defending J. League champion 3-1 in the traditional season curtain raiser.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 26, 2006

Will Barry Bonds play his last game at Tokyo Dome?

News came last week that San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds announced he would be retiring at the end of the 2006 season. The next day, he said he may play several more years. Typical for a guy who often changes his mind, but there's nothing wrong with that.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 26, 2006

Mourinho should take a media lesson from Wenger

LONDON -- When Arsene Wenger left the press conference in Bernabeu Stadium after Arsenal's 1-0 win over Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday night he smiled as the assembled media gave him a round of applause.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Feb 26, 2006

Carp ace Kuroda out of WBC

FUKUOKA -- Japan lost Hiroshima Carp ace Hiroki Kuroda for the World Baseball Classic after a finger injury sustained in Friday's 7-0 win over the NBP All-Stars.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Feb 26, 2006

Murata lifts All-Stars over Japan

FUKUOKA -- Daisuke Matsuzaka got in 67 pitches, and he'd give anything to get one of them back.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2006

JAL boots, reseats serial e-mailer

A male passenger who refused to stop sending e-mail from his mobile phone caused a one-hour delay in a plane's departure from Kagoshima airport on Friday, Japan Airlines said Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2006

DPJ hopes to settle e-mail issue this week

The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan hopes to settle questions surrounding an e-mail that one of its lawmakers has claimed shows a shady money transfer involving ruling Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe without anyone having to resign, DPJ members said Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2006

Income linked to student performance

About half of unionized teachers at elementary and middle schools believe academic performance of their students is mirrored in the growing differences in their parents' incomes, according to a survey by Kyodo News.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2006

LDP planning policy to legalize gaming casinos

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is expected to formulate a basic policy around June to legalize casinos in an effort to attract more tourists from abroad, lawmakers said Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 26, 2006

Justice for a Holocaust doubter

Of all the people whose misfortunes made news this past week, few inspire less sympathy than David Irving. The British historian who has fashioned a career out of questioning the Nazis' slaughter of millions of European Jews was sentenced to three years in prison on Monday for violating Austria's ban...
Japan Times
Features
Feb 26, 2006

Tales of two cities

The seeds of political tension in Xinjiang are not hard to find.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 26, 2006

Dateline: Xinjiang

Our plane looked new and well maintained, but as we headed off into the void on the atlas far, far to the northwest of Shanghai, I still wondered if I had made a mistake by not buying some of the "Air Unexpected Insurance" on offer at the airport.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 26, 2006

Fuji TV presents Yoshi's romances in the series "Angels With Broken Wings" and more

Anovelist who simply goes by the name of Yoshi has sold more than 2.7 million volumes in his "Deep Love" series of Harlequin-like romances. This week, Fuji TV will present four 45-minute Yoshi-penned dramas on the same days that they are published in book form.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 26, 2006

It was downhill all the way in Japan's media coverage of Olympics

Were the Turin Winter Olympics really that boring or was it just the Japanese television coverage?
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2006

Tamiflu is produced via chemical synthesis

A research team has developed a method to make Tamiflu, the antiviral drug considered the best defense against bird flu, from a chemical compound without using a botanical ingredient used by the Swiss manufacturer F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., it was announced Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 26, 2006

Memoirs of a foreigner

JAPANESE JOURNEYS: Writings and Recollections, by Geoffrey Bownas. Kent: Global Oriental Ltd., 2005, 264 pp., with b/w photos, £30 (cloth). One late evening in 1970, the scholar Geoffrey Bownas was working with the writer Yukio Mishima on their anthology "New Writing in Japan." The noted author excused...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 26, 2006

Current events frame detective plots

MOGHUL BUFFET by Cheryl Benard. New York: Soho Crime, 1998, 264 pp., $12 (paper). THE TYPHOON LOVER by Sujata Massey. New York: HarperCollins, 2005, 306 pp., $23.95 (cloth). "I like Pakistan," writes Cheryl Benard. "I want to say that right at the outset, to avoid any misunderstandings. Its cities are...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 26, 2006

Has America's conscience fallen victim to 9/11?

On the 15th of this month, the Australian television station SBS broadcast one of the most awful and horrendous programs I have ever seen. The images aired -- many for the first time anywhere -- were still photographs and raw videos of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These were abuses committed...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji