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BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 12, 2006

Will the Giants play as good as they look this season?

To say 2006 will be a pivotal year for the Yomiuri Giants would be an understatement, especially after that fifth-place, limp-to-the-finish-line showing in 2005.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 12, 2006

Kanazawa beats Fukuhara to win Japan Top 12 final

Saki Kanazawa staged a stirring fightback to overcome popular teenager Ai Fukuhara in the women's final at the Japan Top 12 table tennis tournament on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 12, 2006

'Animal' Hamaguchi named national head coach

Heigo Hamaguchi, the father of Olympic bronze medalist Kyoko Hamaguchi, has been named head coach of the Japanese women's national team for this year's Asian championships, the Japan Wrestling Federation said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 12, 2006

The case for a baby princess

No wonder the Crown Princess gets depressed. The spectacle of the chasm between the Imperial family and the 21st century has long been enough to depress anyone. But then, just when the princess must have thought the gap might be closing a bit, given the prime minister's efforts to win the right of succession...
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2006

Socialists declare SDF unconstitutional

The Social Democratic Party declared Saturday at its party convention that the existence of the Self-Defense Forces violates the pacifist Constitution, reversing a 12-year-old stance on the legality of the SDF.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 12, 2006

A yen to help a dictatorship

LONDON -- So Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are now working to help support the dictatorship of the people in China -- as managed on their behalf by the Chinese Communist Party. So are most of the world's multinational companies -- as well as you (and me).
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 12, 2006

Still life on a moving train

SUBWAY LOVE, photos by Nobuyoshi Araki with an interview (bilingual: English/Japanese), art direction by Toshine Ishihama. Tokyo: IBC Publishing, 2005, 226 pp., over 200 b/w images, 3,200 yen (paper). Between 1963 and 1972, photographer Nobuyoshi Araki took the subway to work. Always with his cameras,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 12, 2006

Fathoming the depths and heights of Japan's intercultural encounters

JAPAN'S LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WEST by Sukehiro Hirakawa. Folkstone: Global Oriental, 2005, 557 pp., £50 (cloth). Rudyard Kipling, one of the most popular writers in the English tongue of his generation, addressed his poem "The White Man's Burden" to the American people in 1899 -- when the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 12, 2006

Hosting is ghosting in as respectable profession

The reported improvement in the ratio of jobs to job seekers is good news for the nation's leaders, and not just because it indicates better economic health.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 12, 2006

Building scandals expose society's uncaring foundation

Japan is in the throes of two scandals that highlight a stunning flaw in the social order. For all its much-trumpeted national cohesion and the lip service paid in Japan to the people's sense of nasake (compassion, sympathy, mercy), these scandals are stark reminders that public welfare and the common...
Japan Times
Features
Feb 12, 2006

Refuge of Last Resort

It is 9 o'clock on a freezing winter's morning in Sanya, eastern Tokyo, a blighted downtown district that was once famed as a day laborers' mecca. Now, it is home to thousands of aging men on welfare.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 12, 2006

Quiz show 'Nep-League' on Fuji TV, Jo Odagiri in TV Asahi's 'Jiko Keisatsu' and more

One of the most popular new game shows is "Nep-League" (Fuji, Monday, 7 p.m.), starring the comedy trio Neptunes. The quizzes are based on word games that test knowledge of Chinese characters and arcane vocabulary. The show is also famous for its game-arcade atmosphere. The tests are time-intensive and...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 11, 2006

Mourinho's constant moaning comes at a cost for Chelsea

LONDON -- Dear Jose (if I can call you that as opposed to Senior Mourinho),
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 11, 2006

Ogura announces retirement

Former Japan striker Takafumi Ogura has announced his retirement after a 14-year professional playing career, officials of his J. League first-division club Ventforet Kofu said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2006

Kansai business leaders get political

KYOTO -- A key annual gathering of senior business leaders in the Kansai region ended Friday with calls to improve relations with China and South Korea and to create an East Asian economic bloc.
EDITORIALS
Feb 11, 2006

A pension for their thoughts

The Diet last week passed a bill, effective in April, to abolish the controversial pension system for members of the national legislature. Proposed by the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, it is a halfhearted measure because it preserves, although in a reduced form, special...

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