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JAPAN
Nov 29, 2008

Fingerprint screening stops 846

The new biometric system that fingerprints and photographs all incoming foreigners at airports and seaports prevented 846 undesirables from entering the country over the past year, the Immigration Bureau said Friday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 28, 2008

Dreaming of a Pink Christmas

"Almost every year, I'm working at Christmastime," mourns Kaori Asada. "If I'm not working, I'll have a big Christmas party with friends and family. But in the last 10 years, I haven't had that kind of Christmas party, ha ha. Still, I like Christmas."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2008

'252 — Seizonsha Ari'

Disaster pics have been big in Japan since the days of "Godzilla," the 1954 classic whose title monster served as a rubber-suited symbol for everything from earthquakes (that stomp) and fires (that breath) to atomic bombings (that city-wrecking power).
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Nov 28, 2008

Urawa's treatment of fired Engels a real disgrace

Gert Engels' dismissal on Thursday as manager of Urawa Reds was inevitable, but although he must shoulder some of the blame for a disappointing season in Saitama, the German could have expected better than the shabby treatment he received over the past few weeks.
COMMENTARY
Nov 27, 2008

Time to get tough with Somali pirates

On one side are the eight navies, the world's largest shipping companies, the rich Gulf states that need to get their oil to market, and the great powers, whose commerce depends heavily on the shipping lanes around the Horn of Africa. On the other side are a few thousand Somali pirates in small boats...
Reader Mail
Nov 27, 2008

More immigration is a solution

Regarding the Nov. 22 article "Workers urged to knock off early, make babies": Declining birthrates are a good thing. They have been dropping in other developed countries for many years, but those countries have rising populations that are more balanced by age because those countries encourage immigration....
COMMENTARY
Nov 26, 2008

Common sense versus PC

Presumably the recent remarks of former infrastructure minister Nariaki Nakayama about Japan being ethnically homogeneous were correctly reported. If so his remarks were tactless, in view of Japan's Ainu population, but also showed an ignorance of history. The Japanese are generally considered to be...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Nov 26, 2008

Pressure on Mao for victory at upcoming NHK Trophy

Defending world champion Mao Asada got a taste of what it is like to have everybody gunning for you following her recent second-place finish at the Trophee Bompard in Paris two weeks ago.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2008

Obama offers new Asia tack: Vogel

Japan will continue to be a friend of the United States, but incoming President Barack Obama may try to approach China more to solve international issues because Beijing can more quickly effect policy, according to a noted American expert on Japan and China.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 25, 2008

The long Japanese love affair with foreign words, from sake to sōpurando

I wouldn't blame some readers for assuming that an article about foreign borrowings in these times of economic crisis would delve into the subprimal world of international finance. But I write this week and next not about leverage but linguistics.
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 2008

Tamp down the old ways

Sixty years ago on Nov. 12, 1948, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMT) handed down its verdict branding Japan an aggressor nation and leading to the execution of six military leaders and one politician for instigating the war. As if to substantiate the validity of this verdict,...
BASKETBALL
Nov 24, 2008

Newton's impressive play helps Golden Kings sweep Sendai

It's safe to assume that Jeff Newton will never forget Nov. 22, 2008. After all, it was the night he scored 40 points, grabbed 30 rebounds and played 48 exhausting minutes in the Ryukyu Golden Kings' 108-105 double-overtime win over the Sendai 89ers.
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Nov 23, 2008

J. League title chase enters home stretch

The J. League title race going down to the wire is nothing new, but this year's championship is shaping up to be the tightest yet.
Reader Mail
Nov 23, 2008

Anachronistic arms 'freedom'

Regarding Joseph Marriott's Nov. 16 letter, "Right to bear arms still relevant": While I respect Marriott's "right to bear arms," he does not have the right to bear arms anywhere near me. The "right to bear arms" is vaunted, it seems, proudly by many Americans as a sign of independence and freedom. That...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Nov 23, 2008

Training regime for keirin draws blood, sweat, sometimes tears

When the teenagers at the Japan Bicycle Racing School in Shuzenji, Shizuoka Prefecture, rise at 6.30 a.m. each day, they always have an appetite. The training here is tough, a regimen of cycling, studying, chores and more cycling, so a big breakfast is a must.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 23, 2008

Deadly disconnect in the 'Real World'

REAL WORLD by Natsuo Kirino, translated by Philip Gabriel. Vintage, 2008, 224 pp., £7.99 (paper) A high school student, unhappy with life, bludgeons his mother to death with a baseball bat. He is calm and appears removed, almost abstracted from the events. He leaves the scene and disappears into the...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2008

A better built ship weathers a 'perfect storm'

WASHINGTON — It was short-lived, the decoupling. For a few months — from August 2007 to mid-2008 — Latin America thought it might emerge from the global financial crisis relatively unscathed. Even as the subprime cancer spread through the industrialized world, in Latin America things didn't look...
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2008

More subsidies for solar power infrastructure

Japan plans to expand solar power generation by offering higher subsidies for capacity installed in schools, hospitals and railway stations.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2008

Paroled death-row inmate dies after decades-long fight for retrial

Kenjiro Ishii spent most of his life seeking a retrial. Still hoping for another court appearance, the paroled death-row inmate died on the morning of Nov. 7 at a hospital in Kumamoto Prefecture at age 91.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 21, 2008

A Flowering Tree

American opera director Peter Sellars will stage the Japanese premiere of "A Flowering Tree" in Tokyo on Dec. 6.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2008

Masuda defends 'hawkish' classes

The Defense Ministry will continue to provide a balanced education at its Joint Staff College, but will not immediately respond to criticism that some of its lecturers are known to hold nationalistic views, Vice Defense Minister Kohei Masuda said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2008

'The Bank Job'

"The Bank Job" is one of those movies that somehow winds up being far, far better than it has any right to be.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Nov 21, 2008

Sendai personifies team concept

Sometimes making a pass is better than taking a quick shot. In other words, patience does pay off on the basketball court.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2008

Aso to be LDP 'funeral director' for delaying poll?

Taro Aso was so confident that he would call a quick election after becoming prime minister in September that he postponed moving into the official residence.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2008

Salaryman-turned-activist keeps island nation Tuvalu in the picture

Tanned and relaxed, 42-year-old Shuichi Endo has set himself a monumental task: Photograph 10,000 residents of the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu, nearly the entire population.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Nov 20, 2008

Apache comeback falls short as champions Evessa assert authority

Despite a spirited comeback, the Tokyo Apache came up short in the fourth quarter against the Osaka Evessa on Wednesday night at Yoyogi National Gymnasium, losing 78-69 in a game that featured as much verve as flash and as many miscues as brilliant moves.

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