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Reader Mail
Jan 6, 2011

Spare the monotheistic arrogance

It seems that The Japan Times' editors, in choosing to run Kevin Rafferty's "A thought for the holy day" on Dec. 24, did so out of either fear of or favor for that small, highly vocal clique that still believes that Jesus is the reason for the season. What we now call Christmas began as a solstice holiday...
Reader Mail
Jan 6, 2011

Checking the Philippine aid budget

As a representative of PAG-ASA Group, Japan, I would like to answer Joergen Jensen's query in his Dec. 30 letter, "Delivery cost of Philippine aid," and explain the importance of our annual monitoring visit. Selection of 40 children for The Japan Times Readers' Fund sponsorship is done by the ERDA Foundation...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 1, 2011

Your 108 misleading karmas

Happy New Year! Did you visit a temple (or shrine) on the first of January, and ring the bell 108 times, per Japanese tradition? The ringing of the bell represents the 108 bonno — defilements of man. Have you even wondered what exactly the 108 bonno are? Here is a list:
JAPAN / Media
Dec 26, 2010

Arashi get advice from their 'honey man'

What do you get when you combine the Wales-born, dyed-in-the-wool outdoorsman C.W. Nicol with the five squeaky-clean members of Japanese boy band Arashi? Good television, that's what.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Dec 19, 2010

The explosion of life: demise

Second of two parts
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 16, 2010

Escaping the city to get much more down to earth

Outside of Tokyo, at the tiny organic farm Nahual Garden in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, a group of young professionals swap packets of seeds and horticultural advice over cups of freshly brewed lemongrass tea.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE MONTH
Dec 10, 2010

Hamamatsu's Arnold, Shiga's Hamilton recognized for excellence in November

Some players thrive coming off the bench to give their team instant offense. Think back to high-energy guard Vinnie "The Microwave" Johnson, who helped the Detroit Pistons win NBA titles in 1989 and 1990, for instance.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Dec 5, 2010

Kawachi has backers, detractors

Knowing that the Japan Basketball Association (JBA) had no interest in establishing a legitimate professional league several years ago and that he would face fierce resistance from the sport's old boy network, Toshimitsu Kawachi took a courageous step and formed a rival circuit, which included a pair...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 28, 2010

Journalist wants Ashikaga murder case reopened

In June 2009, this column mentioned a TBS news report about the DNA testing method that resulted in the 1992 conviction of Toshikazu Sugaya for the 1990 murder of 4-year-old Mami Matsuda in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture. Sugaya was sentenced to an indefinite prison term but was released last year after...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2010

Japan hand Chalmers Johnson dead at 79

OSAKA — American author and scholar Chalmers Johnson, whose views on postwar Japan angered American academics and Japan experts in the late 1980s but influenced a generation of students studying the country, died Saturday in California at age 79.
COMMUNITY / MIXED MATCHES
Nov 23, 2010

For couple, home is where the heart is

Andrew Pickard, 42, from Leeds in northern England, and Kayoko Hirayama, 35, of Tokyo, met seven years ago at an aikido dojo in Tokyo.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ASEAN JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Nov 16, 2010

Japan urged to cope with changing landscape in Asia

Japan needs to come to terms with its declining influence in Asia and readjust its strategy toward Southeast Asia, where its once-dominant position has been replaced by rising China, veteran journalists from the region said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 12, 2010

Theater with a hint of human truth

Yumi Suzuki co-founded the Jitensha Kinqureat theater company with friends at Nihon Joshi Daigaku (Japan Women's University) in 1982, and it was not long before the Tokyo troupe gained a prominent reputation and a keen following for its true-to-life plays in colloquial language about the lives of young...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 8, 2010

Marines win Game 7, 2010 Japan Series

NAGOYA — The Chiba Lotte Marines have got wa. Now they have another Japan Series title to go along with it.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2010

Bending over to humiliate Tokyo

HONG KONG — Is Beijing deliberately trying to intimidate and humiliate Japan and Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, or are the Japanese merely collateral damage in China's wider ambitions to assert the political muscle of its new global economic aspirations?
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2010

ATM for the new gold rush

HONG KONG — The 21st-century version of the Gold Rush is becoming so sophisticated and convenient that soon all you will have to do, if you live in the right place, is put your card in the normal slot of a special ATM machine, punch in your password, and out will tumble not boring paper currency but...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Oct 28, 2010

A decade of trouble draws to a close

The world of sumo has been through a rough few years, but as the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, few serious fans would doubt that the future is looking brighter. Surely there is a silver lining in the dark clouds that have hovered above the sport since mid-2007.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 24, 2010

Nomo's legacy should land him in Hall of Fame

Fourth in a four-part series
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 22, 2010

Pavlicevic pleased with Susanoo Magic's start

The expansion Shimane Susanoo Magic can place a check mark next to the first item on their to-do list.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2010

Susan Roos champion of balance

Susan Roos wears many hats. A mother of two and the wife of U.S. Ambassador John Roos, she is also a partner at Cook Roos Wilbur LLP in San Francisco, where she practices as a labor law attorney.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2010

Maehara says foreign missions will move or sell excessive wine supplies

It looks like the beginning of the end of wine heaven for officials in the foreign service, now that the Foreign Ministry has started taking measures to decrease massive stocks of wine at dozens of Japanese embassies and consulates.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 17, 2010

Utopia means free money for everyone

Scientifically and technologically, the world is in flux bordering on chaos. Every day brings something new: a new discovery, a new device, a new technique, a new cure. The pace of change is dizzying; we scarcely know where we stand. Yesterday's novelty is today's norm, tomorrow's anachronism.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 9, 2010

Davies would make England history with debut

LONDON — England plays Montenegro in a Euro 2012 qualifier on Tuesday, when Bolton's Kevin Davies, at 33, could become his country's oldest debutant in modern times.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Oct 8, 2010

Ichiro hampered by poor supporting cast

It's been suggested that Ichiro Suzuki cares about statistics — his stats — and really doesn't care about winning.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 26, 2010

Where the osprey and the oxymoron play

NEW YORK — The United States sets aside an area larger than Japan for wildlife conservation. This is one of the things I found out as we spent two weeks this past summer at an isolated cottage on the Chesapeake Bay.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2010

Kanagawa to open language center

The Kanagawa Prefectural Government is opening a language and cultural institute in Yokohama in January to help foreign residents learn basic Japanese, while assisting schoolteachers and local government officials as they try to deal with foreign residents.

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