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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 13, 2009

'Inglourious Basterds'

Anyone who drinks outside the privacy of their own home knows the peril of stumbling across the dreaded barroom bore. You know the type: a casual question ("Is that The Japan Times you're reading?") followed by a quick unsolicited opinion ("I've always thought Fazio was a bit of a prat."), which somehow...
Reader Mail
Nov 12, 2009

Japanese men more than willing

Regarding James Guthrie's Nov. 8 letter, "Couples' weak pursuit of romance": As someone blissfully married to a Japanese guy, I am always amused by this sort of opinion. I have yet to figure out why so many non-Japanese males feel the need to inflate their ego this way. Most of the ones I have met who...
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2009

Base relocation remains thorn in side of Japan-U.S. ties

OSAKA — On April 12, 1996, Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota was meeting with prefectural officials when Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto telephoned with big news.
COMMENTARY
Nov 12, 2009

APEC remains toothless

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping will hold its annual summit meeting in Singapore this weekend, with the leaders of its 21 member-nations expected to attend. But do we really need yet another high-level global talk-fest?
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2009

Yet another 'Battle of Okinawa'

CANBERRA — Elections in August gave Japan a new government, headed by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. In electing him and his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the Japanese people, like the American people less than a year earlier, were opting for change. Remarkably, however, what followed on the part...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Nov 11, 2009

Bulls a likely entrant in LeBron sweepstakes

NEW YORK — Big ups to the Cavaliers, who came into New York and rode roughshod over it . . . you know, like Bloomberg.
COMMENTARY
Nov 8, 2009

Don't bank on 'adverse impact' from Hatoyama's carbon cuts

I would like to commend Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama wholeheartedly for his determination to work toward a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2020. It is utterly absurd to question the feasibility of attaining this goal. Rather, the entire nation must recognize the...
Reader Mail
Nov 8, 2009

Japan risks default in five years

I am really sorry to write this, but in my opinion Kumiharu Shigehara's Nov. 3 article, "Central banks 'experimenting' to counter deflationary pressure," is out of it.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 7, 2009

United clash gives Drogba chance to prove player-of-year credentials

LONDON — The prospect of Didier Drogba even being considered as the Footballer of the Year last season would have brought ridicule. The members of the Football Writers' Association have to judge the player who "by precept and example" they believe deserves the award and the Chelsea striker is on course...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2009

Personifying 'evil' makes war so much easier

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Equating war with individual evil has become ubiquitous — if not universal — in contemporary international politics.
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 1, 2009

Ministry insider speaks out

Health ministry bureaucrat Moriyo Kimura made headlines in late May just after the H1N1 flu outbreak sparked a massive mask-buying spree across the nation. Appearing before a Diet committee as an expert witness, the 44-year-old quarantine officer sharply criticized her own ministry — and especially...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 31, 2009

Giants, Fighters ready to rumble in Japan Series

The stage is set for the 2009 Japan Series.
COMMENTARY
Oct 30, 2009

Significance of East Asia

There have been renewed debates over the pros and cons of forming an East Asia community ever since the Hatoyama Cabinet advocated its promotion. Such debates have triggered the argument in the United States (and among some Japanese journalists) that East Asia community building runs counter to U.S....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 27, 2009

Immigration showing signs of ninjo

Last month, I was asked to take part in a public panel discussion on the recently released Harrison Ford blockbuster "Crossing Over." In the film, Ford plays an L.A. Immigration and Customs officer with a conscience, increasingly disturbed by the human consequences of his job.
BUSINESS
Oct 27, 2009

Delta hires Fleishman to work JAL bid

Delta Air Lines Inc., the world's largest carrier, has hired Fleishman Hillard Inc. to lobby Japanese politicians, analysts and opinion leaders as it seeks a tieup with struggling Japan Airlines Corp., two sources said.
Reader Mail
Oct 25, 2009

Realistic nuclear disarmament

U.S. President — and Nobel Peace Prize-winner — Barack Obama wants to achieve a nuclear weapons-free world. That's a nice goal, but how achievable is it? Will the United States, Russia and China ever trust each other enough to give up all their nuclear weapons? I seriously doubt it. The expression...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Oct 23, 2009

Bento packaged for the global spotlight

Boxed lunches have been around for centuries in Japan, but now the rest of the world is seeing the beauty and economic good sense of bento.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2009

Unexpected Olympic pitch

The mayors of the atomic-bombed cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have announced their desire to invite the 2020 Summer Olympics to their cities and have called on the central government and the Japan Olympic Committee for support. Mayors Tadatoshi Akiba of Hiroshima and Tomihisa Taue of Nagasaki put...
COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2009

Fading trust in the political class

LONDON — The world is clearly passing through a crisis of political legitimacy. People in growing numbers do not trust their governments or their governing classes. In many cases they despise them.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2009

DPJ wants Cabinet to call policy shots, not juniors

It all began with a single notice handed out last month to Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers.
COMMENTARY
Oct 20, 2009

Western media stoking conflict

A little more than a year ago, Russia and Georgia were at war over Georgia's small autonomous republic of South Ossetia. We now have two authoritative reports — one from late 2008 by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE ) and the other just released by the European Union —...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2009

Mistrust carries economic consequences

LONDON — Public trust in financial institutions, and in the authorities that are supposed to regulate them, was an early casualty of the financial crisis. That is hardly surprising, as previously revered firms revealed that they did not fully understand the very instruments they dealt in or the risks...
Japan Times
JAPAN / HOT BUTTON HENOKO
Oct 19, 2009

Opposition to Futenma move won't go away

First of Two Parts
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 19, 2009

China too reliant on exports, fixed-asset investments: expert

China can probably achieve its goal of 8 percent growth this year, but it won't be sustainable in the long term if the economy's overreliance on exports and fixed-asset investments doesn't end, a prominent Chinese economist recently said at a seminar in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2009

How Japan can regain its vitality

Last November, two months after the inauguration of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso, I predicted, in an opinion piece for the American magazine Science, that a sweeping change in Japanese government was imminent.
Reader Mail
Oct 18, 2009

Obama's prize decided early on

Regarding the Oct. 14 editorial, "Nobel invests hope in leadership": The Japan Times, like any other newspaper in the world, certainly has a right to express its editorial opinion for or against the selection of U.S. President Barack Obama as the recipient of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Such opinions...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 18, 2009

Professor, schoolgirl share victim status in grope case

Last April, the Supreme Court reversed a Tokyo High Court decision that found Masahiro Nakura, a professor of medicine at the Self-Defense Forces University, guilty of being a chikan (groper) after he was charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old high school girl on the Odakyu train line in 2006....

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Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?