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Reader Mail
Jun 12, 2008

Whiff of hypocrisy in gate-tending

For Japanese people to express antipathy toward allowing the population of resident foreigners to rise suggests not a small dose of xenophobia. For a foreigner in Japan to echo the sentiment adds a whiff of hypocrisy.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 11, 2008

Jackson always marched to different beat

BOSTON — Phil Jackson couldn't always afford to be unconventional yet he maintained his nonconformity at a high cost anyway.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 11, 2008

Jackson always marched to different beat

BOSTON — Phil Jackson couldn't always afford to be unconventional yet he maintained his nonconformity at a high cost anyway.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jun 11, 2008

Style is substance . . . sometimes

Pretty pebble: As far as actual technology goes, all flash-memory MP3 players are pretty much the same. If you're thinking about the iPod Touch as an exception, think again, since the Touch is an actual computer, complete with a central processor, RAM and an operating system. But side by side, most solid-state...
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2008

Machinery orders show 5.5% rebound

Machine orders rose in April after falling for two consecutive months as companies replaced aging equipment, but economic and fiscal policy chief Hiroko Ota said demand is still weak.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2008

American finds his voice in the world of 'enka'

The world of "enka" ballads has been set on its ear with the historic debut of Jero, a 26-year-old black American from Pittsburgh whose sole passion since he was a child was to make the big time in the traditional crooning genre.
Reader Mail
Jun 8, 2008

Eschew romantic visions of past

In his June 5 letter,"Where East could meet West," Peter Link says returning to the Middle Ages is not an option, as if that's somehow a great loss. What he seems to fail to realize -- and what a host of romantic, historically uninformed books on Buddhism fail to point out (deliberately or otherwise)...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 8, 2008

Viva matsuri!

To commemorate 100 years of Japanese emigration to Brazil, and the countries' continuing close links, taiko drummers from both cultures will be powering a huge festival set for Sao Paulo on June 21
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2008

Rx for sick tourists: Add medical interpreters

When visitors to Japan fall ill, finding a doctor who can communicate with them in their mother tongue can be a difficult task.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 7, 2008

NPO brings smiles to the Philippines

Yokohama-based dental practitioner Dr. Kimio Miyake defines the turning point in his professional and personal life as taking place in the Philippines in 1983." I was dining at a terrace restaurant above the sea, and there were naked children on the rocks below diving for coins thrown by visitors. One...
EDITORIALS
Jun 6, 2008

Giving children their due

In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court on Wednesday declared unconstitutional a Nationality Law clause that denies Japanese nationality to a child born out of wedlock to a foreign woman and Japanese man even if the man recognizes his paternity following the birth.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 6, 2008

Simian Mobile Disco

An 18-year-old with a passion for dance music these days was not much more than a toddler when Underworld released "Rez" and started to establish themselves as part of a new generation of dance acts that could hold their own on the festival circuit. Very few acts in the years since then have managed...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 6, 2008

World-famous Yellow to close

On the morning of June 22, Tokyo will lose a modern cultural asset when Club Yellow, also known as Space Lab Yellow, closes its doors for the final time before its premises are sold to land developers. Since 1991, this event space has hosted world-class DJs, gained a reputation as one of the best clubs...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2008

Why Israel is engaging Syria

On May 15, U.S. President George W. Bush gave a speech before the Israeli parliament, decrying "radicals and terrorists." His archaic references to the "promised land" and "chosen people" certainly appealed to the equally outdated and exclusivist views of many, although not all Israeli Knesset members,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / UK JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Jun 5, 2008

Innovate to survive, U.K. journalists say

Innovation will be the key to the survival of advanced economies in the intensifying competition with emerging powers with cost advantages.
Reader Mail
Jun 5, 2008

God's-eye view of irrelevance

I am saddened but not surprised at Barrett Balvanz's June 1 letter, "Reality of life without a god" -- concerning the controversy surrounding Peter Singer's May 19 article. What saddens me is Balvanz's indiscriminating response to what he calls the "backlash" of letters provoked by the article. He sees...
Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR
Jun 5, 2008

Donald Richie offers history lesson

18th in a series
EDITORIALS
Jun 4, 2008

Severe sentence for assassin

Last week the Nagasaki District Court sentenced 60-year-old gangster Tetsuya Shiroo to death for assassinating Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito during his election campaign. The death penalty is rarely handed down in cases involving a single murder, particularly when the defendant had no prior convictions for...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 3, 2008

Hard work begins once Japan signs child-abduction treaty

If my own mailbox is any indicator, the Internet is buzzing as international family lawyers, family rights activists and others share an exciting piece of news: Japan is reportedly planning to join the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction! Perhaps Japan's days as a haven...
COMMENTARY
Jun 2, 2008

Macho move would make Burma's plight even worse

Their paranoia and mistrust of the outside world are such that Burma's generals have been criminally tardy in permitting emergency humanitarian supplies and personnel to come into the country. More than 100,000 may have been killed and over 2 million displaced and made homeless by the cyclone.
EDITORIALS
Jun 2, 2008

Fifth most peaceful nation

Japan may no longer be No. 1 in economic efficiency, but it is now No. 5 in "peacefulness," according to the Global Peace Index (GPI), an annual report by the Economist Intelligence Unit. In the recently released survey on world peace, Japan moved up one place from 2007 to become the fifth most peaceful...
EDITORIALS
May 31, 2008

Birth of a republic

Nepal has become a republic. A special assembly of legislators voted overwhelmingly this week to abolish the country's 239-year old monarchy. The Maoist-dominated Parliament now begins the difficult task of governing one of the world's poorest countries. All the country's political parties and its people...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 30, 2008

A dreamlike escape

An important feature of many Japanese gardens is the careful integration of the architecture of a house and the design of its garden. Many of the finest examples are located in private homes, and so are sadly not open to public view.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 30, 2008

TV dumbos drum up big following

As Forrest Gump said, stupid is as stupid does. And in Japan, these days, it does pretty well.

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