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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 13, 2007

Mammograms — with a little bit of sunshine

My neighbor Kazu-chan came over to my house for dinner the other night and while she was here said, "Amy, zannen. The hospital boat was just at the island next door giving free mammograms to women." We will have to go all the way to the mainland to get ours.
BASKETBALL
Oct 12, 2007

Sea Horses beat Sunrockers in JBL opener

In a sense, it was a typical fashion of basketball. One team build a huge lead early, but the other came back with lots of determination.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 12, 2007

Another perspective

Here's what I saw on Thursday night:
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2007

Fukuda could resolve issue over Yasukuni by visiting

I believe it would be good for Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to visit Yasukuni Shrine during the annual autumn festival. I am very well aware that the prime minister himself is extremely cautious about the visit. But, objectively speaking, the time is getting ripe to resolve the Yasukuni problem.
BUSINESS
Oct 12, 2007

Sony Financial rises 3.8% in biggest Japan IPO of year

Sony Financial Holdings Inc. gained 3.8 percent Thursday on its first day of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after raising ¥320 billion in Japan's largest initial public offering this year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2007

'0093 Jo Heika no Kusakari Masao'

The Japanese film industry makes many comedies, but few parodies of the "Airplane," "Naked Gun" or "Austin Powers" variety. This is puzzling, since Japanese comedy directors have been borrowing freely from Hollywood for generations, including Koki Mitani ("Uchoten Hotel"), who worships at the altar of...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / 2007 NPB PLAYOFFS
Oct 11, 2007

Omura, Naruse lift Marines in series clincher

CHIBA — After the Chiba Lotte Marines' Game 1 Pacific League Climax Series victory Lotte manager Bobby Valentine said that nobody had bigger guts than Saburo Omura. Fittingly in the series clincher, nobody had a bigger hit.
COMMENTARY
Oct 11, 2007

'Silly summit' produced serious results

LOS ANGELES — It sure opened up as one big oddball of a summit.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 11, 2007

The scary sexy girls of painter Junko Mizuno

With an international audience hungry for Junko Mizuno's graceful images of hellish honeys, it's no wonder that the young artist is looking to the West.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 11, 2007

Little friends for the other world

Tomb artifacts have a powerful effect over their viewers, reminding us of the grandeur of the past. The design of tombs and funeral vaults on a monumental scale and with luxurious details stand as symbols of a desire for immortality.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2007

A role for Japan in Myanmar

HONG KONG — If any good is to come from the murder of cameraman Kenji Nagai on the streets of Yangon, it must be that Japan recovers its moral voice. So far there has been a small stirring of conscience and murmurs that aid may be cut as a mark of dissatisfaction with the murderous Myanmarese military...
EDITORIALS
Oct 10, 2007

Crimes and the Internet

While the Internet has revolutionized communication and information transmission, Net anonymity has made it easier to engage in illegal activities. Numerous Web sites carry information on child pornography, sales of stimulant drugs and other illicit activities. Some Web sites even appear to be recruiting...
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Oct 10, 2007

Trash can's size adjusts to your trash; MP3 player one-fifth as thick as iPod

Trash suffers so much at our hands. We inflict the twin insults of scorn and apathy on it, despising our refuse and really not caring too much just how it is removed from our presence. Just think how many research grants are devoted to building the better mousetrap, while we just treat our trash cans...
EDITORIALS
Oct 10, 2007

Refueling bill undercuts Diet

The ruling coalition has presented the opposition bloc with an outline of a new law to continue the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean. The new law, if enacted, will replace the current special law, which expires Nov. 1. Although similar to the current law, the new law...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Oct 9, 2007

Keiko Sumi

JUDIT KAWAGUCHI Keiko Sumi, 57, is the 10th-generation owner of Komaruya, a Kyoto-based company that produces traditional and modern handheld fans. Komaruya's fans were selected by Dentsu, Japan's largest advertising company, to represent the best in Japanese craftsmanship at the 2005 Aichi World Expo....
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 9, 2007

Smoldering J-love lacks yesteryear's gumption

The question, "What has happened to love these days?" is every bit as serious as the question why diets never work in this country. I'm very distressed to have to report that Japanese love, like Japanese politics and the not-so-quite-lovely outlook of the economy, is unwell. It suffers from low blood...
COMMENTARY
Oct 8, 2007

Getting Japan's politics wrong

Western media have reported Japan's new prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, as drab and unexciting and even as "lukewarm pizza." But anyone who watched him during his more than three-year stint as chief Cabinet secretary would know that he has a sharp mind and a laid-back sense of humor.
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Oct 8, 2007

Japan's huge ad market still slowing foreign firms

It's no secret that Japan's advertising market is one of the world's largest. Indeed, the world's biggest advertising firm is a Japanese one.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 7, 2007

Pivotal seasons for Alex Ramirez & Marc Kroon

Neither of their teams made the Central League Climax Series, but the 2007 season has been a pivotal one for Yakult Swallows slugger Alex Ramirez and Yokohama BayStars reliever Marc Kroon. The contracts of both expire at the end of the current dragging out season, and there is doubt whether either club...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 7, 2007

Foreign celebrity talk show, teen sitcom, recycling tips

In the 1960s and '70s, no foreign celebrity was more popular in Japan than the French actor Alain Delon. His name was synonymous with the idea of the perfect-looking man, and because he was popular in an era that was not as media-saturated as our own, he seemed even more unreachable. He was also the...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2007

Ministry snubs meeting with foes of dolphin kill

U.S. activists waging a high-profile campaign against Japan's annual dolphin slaughter and sale of mercury-tainted dolphin meat were snubbed by government officials Friday in Tokyo when they tried to hand over a petition of protest they claim bears 50,000 signatures.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 6, 2007

Jumping mullets, it's the season for fire prevention!

Ahh, autumn on Shiraishi Island when I wake up to quacking ducks paddling around in the port in front of my house waiting for me to open the Duck Cafe.
COMMENTARY
Oct 5, 2007

Myanmar's crimes against public health

NEW YORK — During four decades of rule, the Myanmar military has neglected people's health needs to such an extent that it amounts to an attack against the people, whose health status remains one of the most precarious in the region. This is more proof that the military leadership has been more interested...

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