Search - u_times

 
 
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Feb 25, 2007

Suzuki takes pride in heady play

The Japan Times will be featuring periodic interviews with players in the bj-league -- Japan's first professional basketball circuit -- which is in its second season. Yukinori Suzuki of the Oita HeatDevils is the subject of this week's profile.
Reader Mail
Feb 25, 2007

Senseless dolphin slaughter

Thank you for publishing Boyd Harnell's Feb. 14 article, "Eyewitness to slaughter in Taiji's killing coves," the account of the dolphin killings in Wakayama Prefecture. Animal cruelty occurs worldwide, but few things are as horrifying as the mass slaughter of the one of the world's most intelligent,...
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 25, 2007

Law and disorder

I was surprised when Jaime Xavier Lopez, the head of Sacred Heart, a notorious "martial-arts" group, told me to meet him at the government's Office of Cadastral Surveys and Property, where he has his day job. Or that's where he did work, since he is now imprisoned.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 25, 2007

Will strategic retreat soon signal Australia's tardy advancement?

Apolitical wrangle, with Prime Minister John Howard as the prime wrangler, has begun in the rodeo ring of Australian politics -- and it certainly looks as if someone is going to take a spill.
EDITORIALS
Feb 25, 2007

Tehran shows its contempt

Iran's contempt for international opinion could not be plainer. The government in Tehran has flatly ignored the Feb. 21 deadline set by the United Nations Security Council to suspend its uranium-enrichment program. The burden is now on those who desire a multilateral order based on respect for international...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 25, 2007

Upstairs, downstairs and inside old Japan

Companions of the Holiday by Donald Richie, with an introduction by Timothy Harris and an afterword by the author. Tokyo/New York: Printed Matter Press, 181 pp., $15 (paper) Donald Richie is known to readers of The Japan Times for his regular reviews of books dealing with Asia, and more particularly...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 25, 2007

Women who give a rise to the man below them; it must be love

The big show business news last weekend was the wedding of model-actress Norika Fujiwara to comedian Tomonori Jinnai at a shrine in Kobe. The press were not permitted to attend the Shinto ceremony, but Fujiwara and Jinnai did come out a few times in their costumes to talk to reporters, which was nice...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 24, 2007

Toyoko Fry

Lady Fry, wife of British Ambassador Sir Graham Fry, is director of the Art of Dining Exhibition on March 7. All proceeds from this event go to Refugees International Japan, a volunteer organization with world-wide relief projects.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 23, 2007

Roofs raised in prayer

Most people are only too aware of the devastating effects of global warming -- the breaking up of polar ice shelves, weather patterns going haywire, glaciers in retreat, that documentary starring Al Gore. But the thermal consequences of all the carbon that humans assiduously upload into the atmosphere...
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2007

Reaffirming a commitment

Nothing dramatic happened -- no new demands or agreements -- during U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's meetings with Japanese leaders this week. His visit should be interpreted as a U.S. effort to reaffirm its close ties with Japan and thus help enhance its image as a world leader as it faces difficult...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 23, 2007

A spiritual conversation

The foreign music press has a weakness for weird Japanese music.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 22, 2007

Ending poverty in Asia key challenge: ADB exec

Despite Asia's splendid economic success stories, daunting challenges continue, not the least of which is poverty, Rajat Nag, new managing director general of the Asian Development Bank, said Wednesday in an interview with The Japan Times in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2007

Recognize us and apologize, ex-wartime sex slave tells Tokyo

Tokyo should officially recognize the women Japan forced into sexual slavery for the Imperial army in the 1930s and '40s and formally apologize, a South Korean former "comfort woman" demanded Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2007

Truth and consequences of inequality

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Leaders around the world seem to be convinced that inequality and lack of broad participation in economic growth, if allowed to persist, will lead to social discord and even violence. But is inequality the real problem?
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2007

Dealing with Iran's rapid rise in regional influence

BEIRUT -- America's decision to target Iranian agents in Iraq who may be involved in supporting violent militias is but another sign of the massive influence Iran is exercising in that troubled country. But the United States in fact facilitated Iran's growing influence by toppling Saddam Hussein's regime...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2007

Japanese manufacturers look to cash in on solar power boom

With the global-warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" hot at the box office and a recent report by the U.N. laying the blame for climate change and rising sea levels at humanity's feet, renewable energy sources are getting a fresh look.
BASKETBALL
Feb 19, 2007

89ers ride free throws in rout

If he had occupied the tiny speck of real estate known as the free-throw line any longer, the authorities would've demanded that Mamadou Diouf start paying rent, and rightfully so.
BASKETBALL
Feb 19, 2007

Five Arrows on target for split

The Takamatsu Five Arrows earned a weekend split against the Niigata Albirex BB on Sunday, closing out the two-game series with a 90-82 victory on the road. The Five Arrows and Albirex, who share identical 17-11 records, remain two games behind the league-leading Osaka Evessa (19-9), who beat the Saitama...
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Feb 19, 2007

Idle talk of 'unbundling' highlights EU's energy dependency woes

The EU Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council met in Brussels Feb. 15, and the chief item on the agenda was the "unbundling" of power networks.
Reader Mail
Feb 18, 2007

Lack of Islamic expertise shows

In Dinesh D'Souza's Feb. 5 article, "Bin Laden, America's left and the hysterical reaction to the 'The Enemy at Home' (D'Souza's book)," D'Souza argues that "Bin Laden isn't upset that there are U.S. troops in Mecca" -- since there are no troops in Mecca. This is technically true, but Osama bin Laden...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Feb 18, 2007

Close your eyes, count to 10 . . . and play to your heart's content

It seems only natural that everyone should have a wild time, at least once in their life, because for the most part our mortal span is occupied with studying, making a living or raising a family. All that, of course, can be fun -- but it tends to be rather serious stuff as well.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 18, 2007

Whose Japan deserves youth's patriotism now?

'I for one, cannot believe that love of one's country must consist in blindness to its social faults, in deafness to its social discords, in inarticulation of its social wrongs. Neither can I believe that the mere accident of birth in a certain country or the mere scrap of a citizen's paper constitutes...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 17, 2007

Japan's pop culture made palatable for the layman

Roland Kelts does not look like his publicity photo, in large part because he's wearing sunglasses. But not because he's trying to be cool: "It's just that my eyes are really tired this morning."
EDITORIALS
Feb 16, 2007

JAL's last chance at revival

The medium-term restructuring plan announced last week by Japan Airlines Corp. is a plan for the survival of the nation's flag carrier. The group is saddled with 1.7 trillion yen in debt. JAL President and CEO Haruka Nishimatsu summarized the importance of achieving the goals when he said, "We must keep...
SOCCER / World cup
Feb 15, 2007

World Cup defender Nakazawa makes Osim's training-camp squad

Ivica Osim on Wednesday called up Yuji Nakazawa to his 28-man training-camp squad ahead of the Mar. 24 friendly against Peru.
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2007

Abe PR flack U.S.-bound for media spin control

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's public relations adviser will visit the United States later this month in an apparent bid to improve his administration's image in the American media.

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