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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2011

Justifying an intervention in Libya for justice' sake

MELBOURNE — The world has watched in horror as Libya's Colonel Moammar Gadhafi uses his military to attack protesters opposed to his rule, killing hundreds or possibly thousands of unarmed civilians.
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2011

Dawn of Arab democracy?

LONDON — The revolution in Tunisia was set off by the self-immolation of a poor vendor persecuted by an autocratic and corrupt regime. The consequent toppling of the Tunisian dictator inspired revolts in Egypt, Bahrain and Libya and led to unrest in the Yemen, Algeria and Jordan. It also spurred the...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 2, 2011

Ono, Ghotbi confident S-Pulse will be contenders

Given the changes that have taken place at Shimizu S-Pulse over the winter, new manager Afshin Ghotbi could be forgiven for playing down expectations in Shizuoka ahead of the new season.
Japan Times
Rugby
Feb 28, 2011

Sungoliath earn title

Rugby legend George Gregan finished his illustrious career in style, helping Suntory Sungoliath hoist the All Japan Cup on Sunday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 26, 2011

Committed to 'making it work' as foreign wife

Forty-five years spent living in the Kobe area as the American wife of a Japanese businessman must change a person. Yet Winnie Inui, 68, still welcomes visitors to her suburban home in Ashiya, Hyodo Prefecture, with a blanket of felicitous concern ("Enough tea, dear?") and a flair for storytelling that...
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2011

Public pension fund may sell bonds for payouts

The public pension fund said it may become a net seller of bonds to cover payments in the world's fastest aging society.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 25, 2011

Jolie acts out a teenage crush in 'The Tourist'

"Of course I always wanted to work with Johnny Depp!" laughs Angelina Jolie. "What actress hasn't? I've thought he was the coolest thing for years. I practically grew up with him and had such a crush on him in 'Edward Scissorhands'!"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 25, 2011

Asian art challenges Western museums' way of thinking

Art from Asia has enjoyed increased global interest in the past few decades, which has brought major changes to the way in which the art scene now views this hitherto neglected region. In a special symposium, "How is the World Engaging with Contemporary Asian Art?," at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo on...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Feb 20, 2011

The green heart of Tokyo

An unexpected whickering whistle had me mystified. I circled, trying to pinpoint the direction it was coming from, and puzzled over its origin.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 20, 2011

The trouble with today's youth is nothing new

Here we go again. "Young people," frets Sapio magazine, "are rapidly becoming stupid." They can't read, can't calculate, can't communicate. They have no manners, no ambition, no interest in anything; no consideration for other people, no knowledge of world affairs. New technology enabling instant communication...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 18, 2011

Finding the inner strength to be a survivor

From Feb. 4 to 27, New York photographer Paule Saviano is exhibiting 22 images from his series of Tokyo and Dresden firebombing survivors in one of the few buildings in Tokyo to survive World War II. The show takes place at the same time as Saviano's exhibition in Dresden, Germany, commemorating the...
EDITORIALS
Feb 17, 2011

Steel merger aims for survival

Nippon Steel Corp., Japan's biggest steel maker, and Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd., the nation's third-ranked steel maker, announced Feb. 3 a plan to merge in October 2012. The merger, if it materializes, will bring about the world's No. 2 steel maker after Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, which produces...
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2011

India inks economic partnership accord

Japan and India signed a bilateral economic partnership agreement Wednesday that will strengthen ties with the fast-growing South Asian market of 1.15 billion people.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 17, 2011

Planned school will offer diversity in the classroom

Lin Kobayashi explains that in the high school that she attended in Canada, in the early 1990s, there were 86 different nationalities represented in her year alone. Needless to say, Japan has no schools that could compete in terms of diversity, even today. But, if the 36-year-old Tokyo native gets her...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2011

Russia-held isles past point of return

Japan has failed for more than half a century to secure the return of four islands seized by Soviet forces off Hokkaido near the end of World War II, and Moscow's recent moves to bolster its hold on the territories dims the likelihood of any concessions from Russia.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2011

Italians slam orgy-bent Berlusconi

More than 100 Italian and Japanese staged an angry demonstration in Tokyo against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi over his alleged orgies, including with a 17-year-old girl.
Reader Mail
Feb 13, 2011

Match-rigging scandal overblown

Regarding Jack Gallagher's Feb. 9 column, "Shut sumo down for the rest of 2011, put its future in private hands": I was fortunate enough to be part of the English-language sumo broadcast team at NHK for almost nine years. It remains one of my treasured memories of Japan. Early on I was taught by someone...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 13, 2011

Living with the bomb

THE DRAGON'S TAIL: Americans Face the Atomic Age, by Robert A. Jacobs. University of Massachusetts Press, 2010, 151 pp., $24.95 (paper) FILLING THE HOLE IN THE NUCLEAR FUTURE: Art and Popular Culture Respond to the Bomb. Edited by Robert A. Jacobs. Lexington Books, 2010, 276 pp., $32.95 (paper) There...
COMMENTARY
Feb 13, 2011

How does Japan start to cope with fewer births, longer lives?

Economic growth depends on the rates of population increase and technological evolution, among other factors. Technological evolution relies on the capacities of human beings. So its kernel factor is human power.
COMMUNITY
Feb 12, 2011

For Kanagawa artist, past goods offer key to creation

View the sun through a shitajiki, those transparent, decorative pencil-boards ubiquitous to elementary school children in Japan, and you can gaze, squint-free, into its rays. The world transforms when you look directly at the sun because perceptions shift. Shoichi Sakurai, 49, artist, discovered this...
EDITORIALS / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Feb 10, 2011

National sport on its knees

The Japan Sumo Association, rocked by a match-rigging scandal, has decided to cancel Spring Grand Sumo Tournament, which would have started March 13 in Osaka. This is the first time that a grand sumo tournament known as hon-basho has been canceled since the summer of 1946, when the summer tournament...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Feb 10, 2011

Artist Yoshitaka Amano

Artist Yoshitaka Amano, 58, is a world-famous creator of manga, anime and game characters. At age 15, he launched his professional career with the popular "Speed Racer" anime and has since worked on many hit shows, such as "Time Bokan," "Gatchaman" ("G-Force"), "Tekkaman" and "Honey Bee." He also illustrated...
BUSINESS
Feb 9, 2011

Toyota profit slips 39% but full-year forecast hiked

Toyota Motor Corp. reported a 39 percent slide in quarterly profit but raised its full-year forecasts for earnings and car sales amid booming business in Asia and other emerging markets.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2011

Kan reveals ire at annual rally for northern isles

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's November visit to Kunashiri Island was an "unforgivable outrage," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Monday at the annual government-sponsored rally in Tokyo to demand the return of territory seized by the Soviets at the end of World War II.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past