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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / LIQUID CULTURE
Dec 26, 2008

Hot and tasty to keep you toasty

"Basically, no," said the bartender at one of Kyoto's ritzier drinking establishments when I asked if he could make something hot. I could have fancy juices, cream, egg whites or yolks in my cocktail, but I could not have heat. Even in winter.
COMMENTARY
Dec 26, 2008

Doctors held for talking with the 'enemy'

NEW YORK — Cyrus the Great, the first Achaemenid emperor and founder of Persia, would be ashamed of the actions of the Iranian government with regard to the uncalled for detention in June of two Iranian doctors, who are experts on AIDS. The flagrant abuse of their basic human rights would have been...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 26, 2008

Ticket giveaway for 'Zen' screening, meditation demo

Ten pairs of tickets are being offered to readers of The Japan Times for a Jan. 6 screening of the movie "Zen," directed by Takahashi Banmei and starring kabuki actor Nakamura Kantaro, son of kabuki legend Nakamura Kanzaburo. Prior the screening will be a demonstration of zazen (sitting meditation)....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 26, 2008

A turbulent 12 months

Like pretty much everything these days, the fortunes of the music business in 2008 were mainly tied to the global economy. CD sales have long been dropping steadily, mostly due to the steady increase in illegal downloading, but until this year, top artists could still count on fairly decent sales, and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 26, 2008

Kicking back in Kurohime

A school friend of mine did his in Nagoya. An American I met the other day did hers somewhere in Kyushu. I was sent to central Hokkaido, where I did my one-month home stay in a tiny town called Otofukecho. I occasionally check the map to make sure it's still there. But, I have to admit, I've never been...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2008

Job cuts hit dispatch firms hard

In the past few months, companies have started to cut workers to save costs. As well as growing to be a major social issue, slashing temp workers also means agencies dispatching such workers face an increasingly tough time.
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2008

Persistence of superstition

I read with great interest David Klinghoffer's Dec. 17 commentary (originally printed in the Los Angeles Times) "Appeal of the otherworldly remains strong." While I agree that a great interest in the otherworldly is pervasive in America and the world, I find that this hardly indicates the reality of...
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2008

Hardly a wilderness for cuisine

Regarding Robbie Swinnerton's Dec. 19 article, "Northern Tokyo's top-notch Italian": I had no problem with the review of the restaurant itself in this article, which lived up to Swinnerton's usually good standard. What I did feel aggrieved by was the patronizing tone of the article toward the area in...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Dec 24, 2008

Five Arrows standout Okada expands role on offense

The Japan Times will be featuring periodic interviews with players in the bj-league — Japan's first professional basketball circuit. Yu Okada of the Takamatsu Five Arrows is the subject of this week's profile.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2008

Asia will rise as dollar sinks

SINGAPORE — The world faces a depreciation of the dollar, a phenomenon that will result in the transfer of purchasing power from the United States to other parts of the world, specifically to Asia and to a lesser extent, Europe. An unprecedented economic decline for the U.S., never evinced in its history,...
MORE SPORTS
Dec 24, 2008

Realignment has added too many mediocre teams to playoffs

NEW YORK — The Arizona Cardinals have lost four of their last five games, allowing 37, 48, 35 and 47 points. Their only win during that period was over St. Louis, a 2-13 team. And if they don't beat 4-11 Seattle at home on Sunday, they will finish 8-8.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2008

Hard times for foreign workers

First of two parts
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 24, 2008

Overseas aid benefits whom?

PHNOM PENH CAMBODIA — Despite widespread awareness and censure of human rights violations, Japan, the United States and member nations of the European Union continue to give aid to governments that use the money to enrich themselves while ravaging ecosystems and brutalizing their own citizens. China...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 23, 2008

Gay scene: Tolerance, legal limbo

Some countries see homosexuality as a crime punishable by death, while others are open to diversity and make no judgment on the basis of one's sexual orientation.
EDITORIALS
Dec 22, 2008

What did the ASDF do there?

A unit of the Air-Self Defense Force has withdrawn from Iraq after completing its five-year-long transportation mission. Fortunately the ASDF unit suffered no casualties despite constant danger. Still, the Diet should examine whether the ASDF's activities in Iraq were proper from the viewpoint of the...
Reader Mail
Dec 21, 2008

The right words to get elected

Regarding the Sentaku magazine article published in The Japan Times on Dec. 16, "Japan aches for a political rescue": Hajime Funada should be applauded for summing up the Japanese political landscape so accurately, and the people of Japan should take heed when next deciding whom to cast their votes for....
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 21, 2008

To conform at times is neither a Japanese diktat nor a sellout of self

Let's talk education.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Dec 21, 2008

The auto trade gears up for a revolution

The automotive world is under assault from two storms that will lead to a watershed in its century-old history.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Dec 21, 2008

Burning temples, busted black marketeers, golf boom and discriminatory bookshop

100 YEARS AGO
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 19, 2008

Parity keeps things interesting in bj-league

Coaches and players have stated on many occasions this season that the bj-league is an ultra-competitive league and that there are no guaranteed victories, especially in the second game of a two-game series.
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2008

Chinese reporters push bad-news envelope

HONG KONG — Strange things are happening in the Chinese media. Articles that would normally be expected to be censored have appeared in the establishment press, exposing the possibly illegal behavior of Communist Party officials.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Dec 19, 2008

Let's pray to the Great Black One

In Tokyo, it's prudent to pray to the Great Black One if you want to improve your financial outlook for the coming year. Putting in a good word for U.S. President-elect Barack Obama wouldn't hurt as well, once you arrive at the Slope of the Great Black One, or Daikokuzaka, a back street minutes from...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2008

Modest signs of progress in Poznan

SINGAPORE — The world remains on a path toward a new treaty to limit greenhouse-gas emissions, blamed by some scientists for warming the planet to potentially dangerous levels. But clinching a comprehensive deal designed to control climate change has been made increasingly difficult as both developed...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2008

The subcontinent shows its heart

Over the last decade or so, India has gone through unprecedented change, from largely missing out on the advances of the 20th century to rapidly becoming a leader of those in the 21st. But while the fragmented media coverage of the country hails its successful IT and biotechnology industries, it also...
Japan Times
JAPAN / READERS' FUND
Dec 17, 2008

NGO fetes 15th school it's built in Cambodia

Fourth in a series
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Dec 16, 2008

A look back at sumo in 2008, before heading heading into 2009

For many sumo fans looking back at 2008, it will be a year of scandal with yaocho (match-fixing) allegations involving Yokozuna Asashoryu, and also the unfinished case surrounding the death of a young rikishi in mid-2007, still making their way through the infamously slow court system.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 16, 2008

Rise of the spas

The world economy appears to be in free fall. Temperatures are plummeting toward zero, too. Work is stacking up perilously on the desk. Christmas celebrations and bonenkai (forget-the-year party) hangovers are setting in. Does this sound familiar?

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