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Reader Mail
Mar 26, 2009

Lay off a consumption tax hike

Regarding the March 18 article "Aso taps experts to help form economic policy": I would like to comment on the position of Iwao Nakatani (director of Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting). Low-wage people have a high consumption rate and a low savings rate compared to those with healthy incomes. Poor...
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2009

Medical translation course starts in May

Japan's first full-scale medical translation course will start in May at translation colleges run by Inter Group Co. to produce trained interpreters for hospitals.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 18, 2009

Calligraphy still holds the key to mastering kanji

I recently encountered a new term that's a real mouthful: IT依存性漢字健忘症 (IT izonsei kanji kenbōshō, kanji amnesia due to dependence on information technology). The word acknowledges that the proliferation of word processors has weakened people's ability to recall both individual kanji...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 5, 2009

Well-edited shopping for discerning travelers

While Japan might not have invented the idea of the "select shop," it has certainly refined the idea to an art form. The original models for Japanese shops such as Ships and Beams, which opened in the 1970s, were Barneys in the United States and Brown's in the U.K. — outlets that offered a special...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
Mar 4, 2009

Players devote extra time to WBC preparations

With two days remaining until the start of the World Baseball Classic, Team Japan held a light two-hour workout in the indoor facility of Jingu Gaien in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward on Tuesday afternoon. Due to cold weather, the team practiced there instead of holding its workout outside at Jingu Stadium.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
Mar 3, 2009

Vexing slump has Ichiro searching for answers

There is no argument that Ichiro Suzuki will again be the star attraction for the Japanese team in its hunt for consecutive championships in the World Baseball Classic, but right now he isn't even a supporting cast member.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / GLOBAL ECONOMY SYMPOSIUM
Mar 3, 2009

Falling U.S. demand, investment challenges export-driven Asia

Asia will need to brace for sharply reduced consumption in the United States over an extended period following the global financial crisis, and change the export-dependent structure of its economies and create more regional demand to drive their growth, experts told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Mar 3, 2009

Frenchman's flavorful twist on green tea has good of farmers at heart

Stubbornness and prudence seem to have paid off for Stephane Danton, a 44-year-old French entrepreneur who runs Ocharaka, a Japanese tea shop in Tokyo's trendy Kichijoji district.
Reader Mail
Mar 1, 2009

BOJ road to more economic pain

Regarding the Feb. 20 article "BOJ will buy ¥1 trillion in corporate bonds; rate stands": It's a shame that the action taken by the Bank of Japan with such good intentions will in the long run lead only to more economic pain. This is not just a Japanese mistake; America's stimulus package and Troubled...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Feb 27, 2009

True icon of indie

The Wedding Present's latest album, "El Rey," is one of the best records I've heard over the last few years and has also been widely lauded in the British music media. Criminally, it has not been picked up for distribution in Japan. But you'll be able to hear the new songs at the band's upcoming Japan...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2009

Communists looking better lately

The Japanese Communist Party, although still a minor factor in either house of the Diet, is gaining popularity among voters as its membership grows again and as an increasing number of people watch the Web sites of party chairman Kazuo Shii. This worries other political parties, since a general election...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 2009

Snow yaks and yetis — an ice man cometh

Fans of Pop Surrealism were no doubt tickled pink to hear of their messiah, painter Mark Ryden, making an appearance in Tokyo for the opening of "The Snow Yak Show" at the Tomio Koyama Gallery. The solo exhibition features eight new works from the masterful painter, each exquisitely detailed in his characteristic...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 20, 2009

Butoh master shows his class

Akaji Maro, founder of the Dairakudakan (Great Camel Ship) company, and one of Japan's revered icons of the butoh dance form, is known for often speaking rather obliquely. Speaking during rehearsals last July for the world premier of his company's "Secrets of Mankind" at the American Dance Festival's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 2009

An exhibition's critical charge

"In Japan, the city consists of parts perfect in themselves, but lacking a sense of or connection to the whole," observes curator Shino Nomura while discussing the work of Swiss architectural firm Diener & Diener.
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Feb 17, 2009

Correspondents, PR reps warm ties at annual 'Hacks & Flacks' dig

The relationship between a journalist and a corporate public relations representative can be a tense one. Journalists, pressured by deadlines, hound the PRs for precise and prompt information, while PRs, irritated and a bit bewildered by the incessant questioning, respond with gritted teeth.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Feb 17, 2009

Job taken on a whim leads to 35 years in Tokyo

Peter Barakan, 57, wears many hats. He is a radio DJ, a TV program host, an author of books on music and English language education, a long-time Tokyoite fluent in Japanese, husband to a Japanese woman, and the father of a college boy and high school girl. Barakan said he never imagined spending more...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Feb 16, 2009

Tigers, Hawks busy breaking in new skippers during spring training

With spring training under way, fans in Osaka and Fukuoka are watching closely as their teams undergo a change.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Feb 15, 2009

Anti-Japanese Bills, military budget eases unemployment, foreigners shun ski fields and socialists drop class struggle

100 YEARS AGO
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 15, 2009

Do Japanese yet realize that culture's acquired, not in the blood?

There's no doubt that Japanese people's attitudes toward foreigners, and the ways they relate to them, have changed markedly in the 40-odd years since I first arrived here. But is this change we can believe in?
Japan Times
Rugby
Feb 9, 2009

Scandal clouds Toshiba's victory in Microsoft Cup

The Toshiba Brave Lupus are back on top of Japanese rugby, even as scandal looms on the horizon.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2009

'Anime,' 'manga' grab spotlight at major exhibition

At the Japan Media Arts Festival, prepare to jet into the sky like Superman and dance with speakers blasting at your hips, as the nation's largest showcase of cutting-edge "anime," "manga" and high-tech arts gets more interactive.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 6, 2009

A risky gift of myth for the audience's soul

It would be easy to sensationalize the work of Marie Chouinard, as many other critics have, as purely shock tactics. Her early solo work as dancer and performance artist in the late 1970s and early '80s was overshadowed by press coverage of certain risque incidents, including auctioning herself off to...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 30, 2009

Drama outsider takes a step into the theater

Kuro Tanino leaped into the spotlight in November 2007 with a production of Henrik Ibsen's tragicomedy "The Wild Duck" that was almost sold out for a month at Theater 1010 in Tokyo's Kitasenju.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2009

A whale of a shortsighted subsidy program

BEPPU, Oita Pref. — After stepping off the train and onto the platform at Ogata station, in the Tosa area of Kochi Prefecture, Shikoku, travelers are greeted by a sign with two whales: "Welcome to Ogata, where the whales also greet you."
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2009

Japan hopes new U.S. leader can demonstrate alliance is still vital

Sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama faces high expectations not only at home, but also from close ally Japan, as he grapples with an unprecedented array of domestic and foreign policy issues.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 21, 2009

The key words that kept Japan abuzz in 2008

Last October, publisher Jiyu Kokuminsha released the 61st edition of its "Gendai Yogo no Kiso Chishiki (Encyclopedia of Contemporary Words)" — a massive 1,614-page tome that retails for just ¥2,980. I have a facsimile copy of the book's first edition, launched on Oct. 10, 1948. In the introduction,...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 21, 2009

The key words that kept Japan abuzz in 2008

Last October, publisher Jiyu Kokuminsha released the 61st edition of its "Gendai Yogo no Kiso Chishiki (Encyclopedia of Contemporary Words)" — a massive 1,614-page tome that retails for just ¥2,980. I have a facsimile copy of the book's first edition, launched on Oct. 10, 1948. In the introduction,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2009

Coordinate a global stimulus for this crisis

GENEVA — As recession spreads around the world, the global production networks that arose with the globalization of the world economy have become sources of cutbacks and job losses. Postponing purchases of new winter coats in the United States means job losses in Poland or China. These losses then...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 20, 2009

Missionary devotes lifework to helping Tokyo homeless

Jean Le Beau says his decision to pursue a life dedicated to the benefit of others was inspired in high school when he read the story of Father Damien, a 19th-century Roman Catholic missionary from Belgium who spent his life caring for lepers cast out of normal society and quarantined on the Hawaiian...

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it