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Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2008

Kamei seeks to undermine death penalty

Japanese politicians are generally not very vocal when it comes to their views on capital punishment, mainly because a large majority of the public supports the death penalty.
BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2008

Steel sheet prices set to rise again

Nippon Steel Corp. and JFE Holdings Inc. will raise wholesale prices for steel sheets by 10 percent as early as June, according to three metal traders familiar with price talks.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 23, 2008

Goose barnacle

Japanese name: Kamenote
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 22, 2008

Yellow dust storms getting worse

Each year, most of Japan's prefectures are affected by what is known as yellow dust, which appears as a yellow fog in the atmosphere for a few days, often in late winter and early spring. A mixture of des ert sand, arid topsoil and man-made pollutants from Central Asia, China and Mongolia, the annual...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 20, 2008

Tuffy blasts pair as Buffs win

Orix Buffaloes manager Terry Collins said that Tuffy Rhodes "is swinging the bat really well right now."
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 20, 2008

Music talk show, lawyer melodrama, mystery thriller

It used to be that music shows were mostly music, but since the early 1990s they've generally been talking about music. "The M" (Nihon TV, Tuesday, 9 p.m.), a new show that premieres this week, attempts to give the music-talk format a few twists.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 20, 2008

The challenges of an aging society

POPULATION DECLINE AND AGEING IN JAPAN: THE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES by Florian Coulmas. Routledge: London, 2007, 167 pp., $150 (cloth) Florian Coulmas, a longtime contributor to the Japan Times and director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo, packs a lot of information and insights into...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 20, 2008

Soccer that's played the wheely way

I like soccer. I like to watch it. I even tried to play it a few times when I was a kid, though I was not good at sports that didn't require me to use my hands, so I switched to tennis and basketball. But I can imagine how skillful you have to be to play football well, and how much fun and how exciting...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Apr 20, 2008

Sojourner promoting game on and off court

There are professional athletes in all sports who fit this bill: They are outgoing, passionate about their chosen profession and more than willing to speak their mind about what they think the powers that be can do to improve the sport on levels.
BASKETBALL
Apr 19, 2008

Toshiba's Kita, Orihara retire

The Toshiba Brave Thunders announced the retirements of two of their veteran players, guard Takuya Kita and forward Yuki Orihara, on Friday. Kita, the 35-year-old former Japan national, joined the Kawasaki-based team in 1995. He was chosen for the JBL's first team five times, selected the regular-season...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 19, 2008

Putting faces on the subculture crowd

Sitting in a watering hole in Shinjuku's Golden Gai, meeting new people, exchanging name cards, one is likely to come across a tiny square name card with color caricatures on its front and back.
COMMENTARY
Apr 18, 2008

A passport to peace in the Middle East?

TUCUMAN, Argentina — Daniel Barenboim, the noted Israeli musician, is no stranger to controversy. By recently accepting Palestinian nationality, although in itself only a symbolic act, he will only fuel the controversy about his role in the Middle East process.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Apr 18, 2008

Neumann's Rizing try to keep roll going against Takamatsu

John Neumann arrived in Fukuoka last September to coach a team without an identity, a team with a tricky spelling and a team that has quietly and courageously produced an impressive opening chapter.
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2008

To survive, companies need a conscience

It's time for Japanese companies to review their profit-driven culture and think about the meaning of being truly accepted by consumers and society, according to a public policy expert and former vice governor of Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2008

Raw-materials cost rise putting economy at risk

Economic growth in Japan is at risk as soaring costs of raw materials squeeze profits, forcing companies to cut spending and wages, economists said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2008

How Cheap Trick put the Budokan on the map

The first pop group to ever play Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo was The Beatles in 1966, a concert that caused quite a scandal because of the auditoriums' semisacred status as Japan's premier martial-arts venue. Rightwingers protested the show but in the end the prerogatives of capitalism prevailed.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 18, 2008

Kurosawa: Hand-rolled soba — the director's cut

The word tsu (connoisseur) is often bandied around when talking about Japanese cuisine. Originally denoting a general savoir-faire in worldly matters — most especially in the pleasure quarters — it is now widely used for those who know their food and drink.
Reader Mail
Apr 17, 2008

Noble but unrealistic sentiment

In his April 1 column "Public forums, spinning wheels," Debito Arudou states that "Japanese society must stop the common practice of using grace and physical appearance as a paradigm for pigeonholing people." These are noble sentiments. But so are the sentiments that underpin the failed political philosophy...
Reader Mail
Apr 17, 2008

Bring back old weather forecast

Regarding the April 13 letter "Tough to read new forecast," I agree with Lynda Ichikawa. The new format is terrible, especially for a country where a conversation always starts with the weather. Give us back the old weather forecast with the lovely map of Japan and informative information like sunrise...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 2008

A simulacrum of the city

'With love from . . ." — it's the kind of message an expatriate might pen. Implicit in it is the warmth in the offering, a written embrace.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2008

Radio station to air '55 Osaka hanging

Nippon Cultural Broadcasting Inc. will air an audio recording of an execution carried out at the Osaka Detention House in 1955, a spokesman for the AM radio station said Wednesday.
BASKETBALL
Apr 16, 2008

Peppers earns final week honors

Rookie forward Joshua Peppers was a reliable all-around scoring threat for the first-year Rizing Fukuoka this season, scoring 20 or more points 23 times. His team, meanwhile, earned a playoff berth on the final day of the bj-league's regular season on Sunday, a day in which he scored 23 points and matched...
BASKETBALL
Apr 15, 2008

Osaka's Lottich is special guest

Osaka Evessa point guard Matt Lottich is slated to join sports reporter Ed Odeven from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday for The Japan Times' sports chat. Lottich, a former Stanford University player, will discuss his team's quest for a third straight bj-league title, help break down the upcoming playoffs and...
EDITORIALS
Apr 15, 2008

Funding for U.S. military facilities

The Lower House passed a new special-measures agreement for financial burden-sharing to maintain U.S. military facilities in Japan and sent it to the opposition-controlled Upper House on April 3. Even if the Upper House does not pass the agreement, it will become effective 30 days after the Lower House...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 15, 2008

Method in the madness?

In November, Japan became only the second country in the world (after the United States) to introduce mandatory fingerprinting and photo-taking at all international entry points, as part of beefed-up "antiterrorism" measures by the Ministry of Justice.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 15, 2008

An outside eye on Japan

In a nation traditionally seen as a monoculture, there's a multinational range of flowers blooming in Japan's current cultural crop. In the last several years there has been an influx of foreign-born creators — whether architects, designers or writers — and they are thriving in the local scene.

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