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EDITORIALS
Jan 23, 2009

Another slush-fund scandal

A slush-fund scandal has hit the construction industry again. Tokyo public prosecutors on Tuesday arrested the president of Nishimatsu Construction Co. on suspicion of instructing a former vice president and three others to bring ¥70 million into Japan without reporting it to customs authorities between...
CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2009

Broth in translation

Although she was born in 1977 (in Atlanta, Georgia), Brittany Murphy is a show-business veteran who grew up fast.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2009

Broth in translation

Although she was born in 1977 (in Atlanta, Georgia), Brittany Murphy is a show-business veteran who grew up fast.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2009

Vienna's Arming strikes the right note

"During these five years, we have often tackled contemporary works," says Austrian conductor Christian Arming, music director of the New Japan Philharmonic (NJP) since 2003. "I believe that broadened our horizon."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2009

Vienna's Arming strikes the right note

"During these five years, we have often tackled contemporary works," says Austrian conductor Christian Arming, music director of the New Japan Philharmonic (NJP) since 2003. "I believe that broadened our horizon."
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jan 22, 2009

Dekopon

Dear Alice,My husband attended a business dinner late last year at a very fancy traditional Japanese restaurant. At the end of the evening, as he was heading out the door, the kimono-clad proprietress presented him with a gift of a single piece of fruit. It was like a large orange but with a weird pear...
BUSINESS
Jan 21, 2009

Toyoda family scion got to the top fair and square

Akio Toyoda, 52, heir apparent to Japan's biggest automaker, may have the founding family's blood running through his veins but was not spoiled in any way as he steadily climbed the corporate ladder, a journalist said Tuesday.
Reader Mail
Jan 18, 2009

Making a lovely place better

Regarding the Jan. 13 Views From the Street question — "If you could change one thing about Japan, what would it be?" — I think smoking should be banned in many places as it is in North America. I love Japan, but when I went to Tokyo for a trip in 2005, I ended up getting bronchitis because of the...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 18, 2009

In love with China: from forbidden fruits to futile fantasies

CHINA DREAMS by Sid Smith. London: Picador, 2008, 183 pp., £7.99 (paper)
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 18, 2009

Karori: A wildlife sanctuary for our times

A new year has begun, signs of change abound, and this column has migrated to a new page. The economic crises of 2008 are still with us and the nightmare of global climate shock is not one that we can awaken from. But among all this there are signs of hope.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 18, 2009

Of orphans and granddaughters

When I was 10 years old, I found a book titled "Akage no An" ("Anne with Red Hair") in a library. It was a Japanese translation of "Anne of Green Gables" written by Canadian novelist Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) in 1908.
EDITORIALS
Jan 18, 2009

Regrettable admission in court

In the trial of a psychiatrist charged with disclosing investigative materials on a teenage boy who set a house fire that killed his stepmother, half-brother and half-sister about 2 1/2 years ago, a journalist has testified in court that the psychiatrist was the news source.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 18, 2009

The strength of Japan's 'soft power'

SOFT POWER SUPERPOWERS: Cultural and National Assets of Japan and the U.S., edited by Yasushi Watanabe and David L. McConnell. New York: M.E. Sharpe. Armonk, 2008, 296 pp., $32.95 (paper)
CULTURE / Books
Jan 18, 2009

The strength of Japan's 'soft power'

BEYOND PACIFISM: Why Japan Must Become a "Normal" Nation, by William Middlebrooks. Praeger Security International: Westport, Conn., 2008, 155 pp., $75 (cloth) SOFT POWER SUPERPOWERS: Cultural and National Assets of Japan and the U.S., edited by Yasushi Watanabe and David L. McConnell. New York: M.E....
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Jan 17, 2009

Fukumoto blazed quite a trail on bases before Rickey came along

Before the self-proclaimed (and arguably rightly so) "greatest of all time" and new MLB Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson was redefining the way leadoff hitters would be viewed, the Hankyu Braves' Yutaka Fukumoto was helping to set the standard.
EDITORIALS
Jan 17, 2009

Peace at last for Sri Lanka?

Could the end be near for the Tamil Tigers? A military offensive by the Sri Lankan government has made historic gains against the rebel force and appears set to conclude the bloody civil war that has lasted a quarter of a century and devastated the country. This vicious insurgency has claimed far too...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 16, 2009

Japanese wine: unadulterated and ready to go abroad

The image most people have of Japanese wine is of the ¥500 plonk sitting next to the synthetic beer and sickly sweet chu-hi cocktails on the shelves of their local convenience store; of the cheap and decidedly dismal stuff of lost weekends and discarded personal dignity.
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2009

Wholesale inflation slows on energy, commodities deflation

Wholesale inflation slowed for a third month as the global recession lowered the cost of oil and commodities, adding to the threat of a return of deflation later this year.
Reader Mail
Jan 15, 2009

Keynesian policy caused the crisis

In the Jan. 8 article, "Outlook is mixed for 2009," the commentator (Gregory Clark) seems highly biased. Keynesian fiscal policy and dangerously loose monetary policy is what caused the "subprime mortgage crisis" in 2007 and 2008 — not a lack of regulation. U.S. interest rates were artificially low...

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?