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Reader Mail
Apr 15, 2007

Levity relieves biases

If the image of Hachiko on his way to China on a junk freighter brought a smile at the expense of any "minority group" in Japan -- as Eve Campbell alleges it might have in her April 8 letter, "A joke that can fan prejudices" -- the only group that would qualify as the butt of such humor would be an international...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 15, 2007

A great naturalist, and a pretty good shot

BORNEO, CELEBES, ARU, by Alfred Russel Wallace. London: Penguin Books, 2007, 112 pp., with maps, £4.99 (paper) The great naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) traveled widely in what was then called the East Indies and which we now know as Malaysia and Indonesia. Between 1854 and 1862 he wandered...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 15, 2007

Train fan's dream buy is derailed online

Internet-auction sites allow people to sell and buy, at the click of a mouse or with a push on a cellphone button, almost anything from brand bags to resort condominiums to moldy Imperial Japanese Army uniforms. And, according to a 2005 report by Nomura Research Institute, in Japan it's a market that...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Apr 15, 2007

Okabayashi bridges communication gap for HeatDevils on, off court

The Japan Times will be featuring periodic interviews with figures in the bj-league -- Japan's first professional basketball circuit -- which is in its second season. Kyoko Okabayashi of the Oita HeatDevils is the subject of this week's profile.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 15, 2007

LDP fuddy-duddies' social engineering hits women and the birthrate

Earlier this month, the ruling coalition put together a bill to change part of the Civil Code that determines the paternity of a child under certain circumstances. The planned revision, which editorial writers supported for its acknowledgment of practical reality, nevertheless split the Liberal Democratic...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 14, 2007

Hard to envision Mourinho leaving Chelsea, despite friction with Abramovich

LONDON -- I am not a billionaire. I do not own a number of hugely profitable companies. Unlike Roman Abramovich, I am not the owner of Chelsea Football Club.
BUSINESS
Apr 14, 2007

ANA to sell 13 domestic hotels to Morgan Stanley

All Nippon Airways Co. announced Friday it will sell its 13 domestic hotels to U.S. brokerage giant Morgan Stanley for about 280 billion yen -- a move that will allow the carrier to focus on its core airline business.
BASEBALL / MLB'S EFFECT ON JAPAN
Apr 14, 2007

NPB players in need of strong union like MLBPA

Last of four-part
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 13, 2007

Vienna Boys' Choir pay homage to trad, pop worlds

Vienna Boys' Choir, known for their exquisite voices and on-stage charm, return to Japan to give 23 performances across the country from April 27 to June 17.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 13, 2007

'Dresden'

German movies are making headway into mainstream international cinema ("Perfume" and "Head On" leap to the mind), opening up a new window from which to view stories of love, obsession, history and war. "Dresden" takes all these themes and weaves them into one episode: the bombing of Dresden during World...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 12, 2007

Best when grotesque

One good point about public museums in Japan having "funding issues" is that rather than pulling in the art that the public really wants to see and turning themselves into virtual Musee d'Orsays or ersatz Guggenheims, they instead focus on more academically valuable and locally relevant work.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Apr 12, 2007

Something for everyone

Fine art collecting being widely regarded as a pursuit of the privileged, one can appreciate the trepidation of the everyman regarding the auction and gallery scene.
BASEBALL / MLB'S EFFECT ON JAPAN
Apr 11, 2007

Is the MLB destroying Japan's national pastime?

Best-selling author Robert Whiting, who has penned such classics as "You Gotta Have Wa," "The Chrysanthemum and the Bat" and "The Meaning of Ichiro," has written an exclusive four-part series for The Japan Times on the effect Major League Baseball is having on the Japanese pro game, and how the poor...
MORE SPORTS
Apr 10, 2007

Cracks appear in Tiger's major myth

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- A 4-iron wasn't the only thing that Tiger Woods broke Sunday at the Masters.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 8, 2007

Nice debut for 'Dice-K', Eagles day games, MLB events

Nice major league debut for "Dice-K," eh?
Reader Mail
Apr 8, 2007

A joke that can fan prejudices

Although the front-page April 1 article "Shibuya's loyal dog Hachiko vanishes" was clearly an April fool's joke, I don't think The Japan Times should do things like this at the expense of minority groups. (In this case the story suggested that soaring prices for copper and other metals, spurred by the...
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 8, 2007

Japan's way of judicial killing

Japan's application of the death penalty is cruel, secretive and out of step with much of the developed world, say its opponents. As a record 102 inmates now wait on death row for the hangman's noose, in this JT review of the capital-punishment system, the one man alive and free who knows the true horrors...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2007

Ruing the death of Russian womanhood

SOUTH BEND, Indiana -- Valentina Tereshkova, the first female Soviet cosmonaut -- indeed, the first woman to go into space -- recently celebrated her 70th birthday. In an interview, she stated her only wish: to fly to Mars, even with a one-way ticket. It was an implicit wish for a spectacular form of...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 7, 2007

Takamatsu's Sparks best player, James top defender

Power forward Lynn Washington was instrumental in leading the Osaka Evessa to the bj-league's first championship last April.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 7, 2007

Mao plans for gold at 2010 Olympics

Three years may seem like a very long time for someone so young, but teen figure skating sensation Mao Asada already knows what she wants to be doing in 2010 -- winning Olympic gold.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 7, 2007

Latest violence likely to cost Italy 2012 European C'ships

LONDON -- Quentin Tarantino would no doubt have been delighted by the horrendous scenes of gratuitous violence in Rome's Olympic Stadium on Wednesday night had they been for his latest movie.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 7, 2007

Pamela Bodle

The Yokohama International Women's Club is holding its 52nd Azalea Tea from 10:30 a.m. on April 19 at the Hotel New Grand Yokohama.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 6, 2007

Dragons' Woods whacks 3 homers

Tyrone Woods homered three times in a 4-for-4 outing with five RBIs Thursday to power the Chunichi Dragons to a 5-3 win over the Yomiuri Giants, keeping the defending Central League champions on top of the standings.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 6, 2007

Love triangles

Setagaya Public Theatre (SEPT), Japan's foremost municipal arts venue, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 6, 2007

'Everyone Stares/The Police Inside Out'

It's been more than 20 years since Stewart Copeland ended his tenure as drummer for The Police after a string of platinum albums and era-defining singles. The band members went their separate ways: Sting, to a solo career and mainstream celebrity; guitarist Andy Summers, to the relative obscurity of...
COMMENTARY
Apr 5, 2007

Shaking up Russia's Far East

LONDON -- If you Google "Vladimir Nikolaev," mayor of Vladivostok, 2007," you will come up with an interesting story about how he was recently arrested. You will also find stories about how he resisted arrest, but finished up in handcuffs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 5, 2007

Planet of the apes

The hottest band of the moment tells The Japan Times about their new album, shunning the file-sharing trend that shot them to fame -- and drawing an ordinary paycheck to keep their heads straight
MORE SPORTS
Apr 3, 2007

Players make NFL Europa rosters

Five Japanese football players made the opening day rosters of the 2007 NFL Europa season, NFL Japan announced on Sunday. The five are linebacker Rikiya Ishida, wide receivers Yuji Otaki, Michihiro Ogawa and Noriaki Kinoshita and defensive back Ryota Hori.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 3, 2007

Time up for bag-happy stores, users

Retailers have long considered plastic bags basic to good service. Supermarket clerks toss tofu, eggs and ice cream into individual clear plastic bags to prevent a mess should the products' own wrapping somehow break. More plastic bags are often provided just in case, then it all goes into bigger shopping...

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