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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 8, 2011

'Blue Valentine'

What happens in a marriage that goes awry seems — dare I say it — similar to what goes down at a stricken nuclear power plant. A thousand experts may be called in, engineers may work around the clock, but in the end, the damage will prove to be beyond repair. And in both cases, dissection and analysis...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2011

Japan's crisis leadership

Amid the horrifying news from Japan, the establishment of new standards of political leadership there is easy to miss — in part because the Japanese media follow old habits of automatically criticizing how officials are dealing with the calamity, and many foreign reporters who lack perspective simply...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 27, 2011

Spare us shoganai as we face an ominous spring

For two weeks now, ever since death and destruction swept northeastern Japan, all of us here have been trying to get our heads around this catastrophe.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Mar 27, 2011

Time for JBA to give up charade on merger

Under normal circumstances things move at a snail's pace within the Japan Basketball Association. So it's anyone's guess if talks between JBA officials and their bj-league counterparts will pick up anytime soon and/or if any progress will be made in the months to come for the creation of a new "top league"...
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Mar 20, 2011

Actions of Apache, Broncos unacceptable

It's understandable that the Sendai 89ers, whose home region was devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, won't continue play this season. But the Tokyo Apache and Saitama Broncos, Sendai's Eastern Conference rivals in the bj-league, appear to have not thought things through or come up with...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Mar 17, 2011

Yokobue

Dear Alice, Last November, I went to Kyushu to see the Karatsu Kunchi festival. It was a wonderful spectacle, with huge, flamboyant floats pulled through crowded streets to the rhythmic accompaniment of drums, music and shouts of "Enya! Enya!" I loved it all, but if I had to designate one aspect as my...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2011

More trade, less hunger

GENEVA — The recent sharp spike in food prices and growing concerns about food security have sparked anxiety worldwide. The possibility of being unable to put food on the table fills parents with a deep sense of foreboding. And because the world's poorest people spend a higher proportion of their income...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 5, 2011

Grampus favored to repeat as J. League champions

The following is the second of a two-part J. League preview for the upcoming season. Team-by-team previews of the nine top-ranked teams competing in the first division are listed.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2011

A call for philosophical thinking

HIROSHIMA — It has been long since hope for the future was lost, and a vague sense of anxiety is now prevailing among us. Yet this feeling of uneasiness should be the beginning of our thinking philosophically. We should rather take it as an unexpected blessing.
COMMENTARY
Mar 1, 2011

'Horizontal mobility' staves off revolt in India

CHENNAI, India — Now that President Hosni Mubarak has finally relinquished power in Egypt and the military has taken control, the question in India is whether such a people's revolt can possibly happen there.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Mar 1, 2011

Foreignness, nationality and naturalization: readers' views

A selection of responses to "Naturalized Japanese: foreigners no more" by Debito Arudou (Just Be Cause, Feb. 1):
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 28, 2011

University entrance fee system profits from unstable job market

Students are being held hostage by the convoluted nyugakkin (entrance fee) system. Parents either pay up now, or the kid doesn't get in later.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2011

Egypt's economic future

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — For Egypt, the question of the day is whether the country will build an open, democratic political system or relapse into some form — new or old — of autocracy. But an equally important question — above all for Egyptians, but also for other developing countries (and for development...
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2011

Futenma issue revisited

Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's recent interview with Okinawan newspapers on his failed attempt to move U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma out of Okinawa Prefecture has caused strong reactions from Okinawa's people and its newspapers. But his interview sheds valuable light on how and why his...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Feb 17, 2011

Bloomers

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 11, 2011

Should Japanese-style painting represent the nation as a whole?

Mise Natsunosuke has been drawn into the fold of neo-nihonga (new Japanese-style painting) practitioners, a pigeon-hole he happily investigates but is also troubled by. In earlier exhibitions he has shown complicity with both the destruction and the resurrection of nihonga, which he pursues in his current...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2011

EU envoy says no arms sales for China

The European Union's new ambassador to Japan denied speculation the EU may remove its arms export ban against China in the near future, and that even if that were to happen, the bloc wouldn't automatically begin selling weapons to Beijing.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Feb 6, 2011

Threatening media not a wise move for league needing exposure

"I may be getting older but I refuse to grow up," someone once said.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Feb 3, 2011

Eda unsure if he will sign hanging orders

New Justice Minister Satsuki Eda openly opposes capital punishment but can't decide whether to perform his duty and sign off on executions or stick to his personal beliefs.
COMMENTARY
Jan 26, 2011

Universal values do matter

NEW DELHI — With a Nobel Peace Prize to his credit, U.S. President Barack Obama was widely expected to advance universal values. Yet he has signaled that promotion of human rights is a tool to be used only against the small kids on the global block who hold no major economic benefits for the United...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2011

Iraq could use the open culture and enterprise spirit of Lebanon

NEW YORK — After watching the collapse of Lebanon's government, it is hard not to think about efforts to build a stable Iraq. The two countries have so much in common.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2011

Facebook and dark matter

HONG KONG — News that Goldman Sachs has taken a $450 million stake in Facebook in a deal that puts a $50 billion valuation on the fledgling company raises interesting and somewhat troubling questions beyond the immediate gawping and jaw-dropping headlines that a spotty-faced Harvard dropout aged 26...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jan 20, 2011

Wagashi

Dear Alice,

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat