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COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Feb 24, 2009

What would the locals do? Readers offer their views

Following are readers' responses to Paul de Vries' Feb. 3 Zeit Gist article, "What would the locals do?":
EDITORIALS
Feb 24, 2009

Breaking the U.S.-Iran deadlock

In his attempt to find a new U.S. policy toward Iran, U.S. President Barack Obama is trying to engage the nation through direct dialogue, a move that Iran appears to have responded to rather positively. The Iraq war provided Iran with an opportunity to increase its influence on Arab nations and Mr. Obama...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Feb 24, 2009

The half, bi or double debate

Following are some of the responses The Japan Times received on the issues raised in Kristy Kosaka's Jan. 27 Zeit Gist article headlined ""Half, bi or double: one family's trouble":
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2009

New game pokes fun at Nakagawa

A game developer is cashing in on former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, who resigned following an allegedly drunken appearance at a news conference at the end of the Group of Seven meeting in Rome earlier this month.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 24, 2009

Women forsake frills but spare no expense for skin

When Miwako Taniuchi's income slumped 30 percent last year, out went the expensive dinners and new Gucci and Louis Vuitton handbags. One purchase that didn't get axed: a skin cream worth its weight in gold.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 23, 2009

Tiger's return may not be enough to cure golf

Welcome back, Tiger Woods. It's been way too long. Just eight months have passed since that Monday on the edge of the Pacific Ocean when neither Rocco Mediate nor a bum leg could deny you another U.S. Open trophy. Across the country on that magical day, productivity in offices dropped as workers tuned...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
Feb 23, 2009

Schiller not letting steroid issue damage fight to get baseball in Games

As bad as the steroid issue has been over the past several years, International Baseball Federation president Harvey Schiller thinks he can see the light.
Reader Mail
Feb 22, 2009

Contrast in political behavior

Regarding the Feb. 18 articles "Nakagawa resigns after G7 disgrace," and "Japan, U.S. sign accord on forces" with a photo of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Prime Minister Taro Aso: It has been said that Japanese people are indifferent to politics. But after watching many times on...
Reader Mail
Feb 22, 2009

Shameful focus on student trivia

Regarding the Feb. 16 article "Kyoto Univ. law student busted for pot": It seems shameful that both the United States and Japan still criminalize the use of marijuana while dispensing by prescription horrible and lethal drugs to their citizens. Does anyone do anything about it until people die? I, for...
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2009

The freedom of Mr. Khan

On its face, the decision to release Mr. Abdul Qadeer Khan from house arrest in Pakistan is a slap in the face of international opinion and a blow to efforts to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons. According to Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, the work of the world's greatest proliferator "is a closed...
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 22, 2009

Its director's cut on new Festival/Tokyo

Japan may be floundering politically and economically, but amid all the uncertainties it is a joy to report the sparkling rebirth of a major international theater event in Tokyo.
Reader Mail
Feb 22, 2009

Innovation with what's available

Regarding the Feb. 18 editorial "Surprisingly sharp decline": I agree that innovation is the key to fighting the recession, and I would like to cite two examples. First, do the Japanese people realize that, despite this recession, companies that have done well are none other than the mobile service providers...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Feb 21, 2009

Holtz happy to coach Notre Dame alumni in 75th anniversary game

What a summer it will be for American football fans in Japan.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 21, 2009

Tangling over chopsticks

"You know what we should do?" I tell my wife over lunch. "Find a way to insert some Chapstick onto the end of a chopstick. We could call it the "Chapchop-stick" and make millions."
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2009

'Halfway'

"Halfway" ("Harufuwei") has one of those katakana titles that is supposed to sound vaguely exotic and mysterious to its intended audience — Japanese of about the same age as its teenage protagonists — but may strike native speakers as prosaic, even boring.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 2009

Snow yaks and yetis — an ice man cometh

Fans of Pop Surrealism were no doubt tickled pink to hear of their messiah, painter Mark Ryden, making an appearance in Tokyo for the opening of "The Snow Yak Show" at the Tomio Koyama Gallery. The solo exhibition features eight new works from the masterful painter, each exquisitely detailed in his characteristic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 20, 2009

Worst Taste: as stupid as they wanna be

"I like bands that are energetic and stupid. And with no sense of fashion. We hate fashionable bands whose music is no good."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2009

Bent Hamer nails another odd story

N orwegian filmmaker Bent Hamer is a generous man. At the end of our interview, while waiting for the next journalist to arrive, Hamer began putting together media kits that were piled up on a desk to be sorted out by the staff of his film's promotion company. Told not to bother, he kept at it with a...
Reader Mail
Feb 19, 2009

Kyoto got what it asked for

Regarding the Jan. 13 article "Respect 'maiko' privacy, don't act like paparazzi, Kyoto tells tourists": All of Kyoto has aggressively promoted tourism to the international community. The city.kyoto.jp Web site provides a pamphlet that dedicates two pages to the maiko (apprentice geisha), the same amount...
Reader Mail
Feb 19, 2009

People who can revitalize Japan

Many foreign residents, including myself, are angered at the Japanese government's insular, isolationist worldview, most recently reflected in the Justice Ministry's decision to deport a Filipino family, the Calderons, who have lived here since the early 1990s ("Filipino parents told to leave").
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 18, 2009

No way out left for Aso, experts say

The resignation of Finance Minister Shoichiro Nakagawa following his disgraceful display in Rome has further weakened Prime Minister Taro Aso and could prove to be the straw that breaks the Cabinet's back, political observers said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Feb 18, 2009

Nakagawa resigns after G7 disgrace

Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa abruptly resigned Tuesday evening amid rapidly growing calls to quit over his sloppy and allegedly drunken appearance at a Group of Seven press briefing in Rome on Saturday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2009

BOJ must back bond flood: expert

The October-December gross domestic product figures announced Monday, marking the sharpest fall in 35 years, sent shock waves through recession-racked Japan.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2009

Creating demand at home must be main goal

To achieve a long-term solution to the economic crisis, the government must offset the sharp decline in foreign demand by strengthening industries that can generate demand at home, according to economist Nobuo Ikeda, a professor at Jobu University in Gunma Prefecture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 17, 2009

Berlitz launches legal blitz against striking instructors

It has been 14 months since members of the Berlitz General Union Tokyo (Begunto) first downed chalk and launched rotating strikes against the language school Berlitz Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2009

Aso won't fire 'drunk' Nakagawa

Prime Minister Taro Aso refused Monday to fire Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa for his unusual behavior Saturday after a Group of Seven meeting which has led opposition parties to call for his dismissal.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2009

Toyota to cut output 54%

Toyota Motor Corp. will slash domestic production 54 percent in the current quarter as demand plunges in the U.S. and Japan.

Longform

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