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BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jan 27, 2010

Van Gundy the definition of disingenuous

NEW YORK — Jeff Van Gundy's insincerity, his most important product, was on full display Friday throughout ESPN's coverage of the Lakers' victory over the Knicks.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2010

A Chinese champion of peace and freedom

PRAGUE — On this past Christmas Day, one of China's best-known human rights activists, the writer and university professor Liu Xiaobo, was condemned to 11 years in prison. Liu is one of the main drafters of Charter 08, a petition inspired by Czechoslovakia's Charter 77, calling on the Chinese government...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 27, 2010

Spouse hunting, politics had us all abuzz in '09

The 2010 edition of the "Encyclopedia of Contemporary Words" was recently put on sale by publisher?Jiyukokuminsha. The bulky paperback's English title doesn't really do justice to the Japanese name, which is "Gendai Yogo no Kiso Chishiki." Broken down by its individual components, it becomes 現代 (gendai,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2010

Cool head for the hottest issues

LONDON — Reading Barack Obama's "Dreams From My Father," the U.S. president's beautifully written reflections on his early life and identity, most people are struck by his cool and intellectual approach. This is not to say that he is unemotional. Obama can rage and weep. But he rarely seems to act...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2010

Google walkout will expand the possibilities

NEW YORK — Usually, disclosure statements go at the end of an article, but let me start with mine. I sit on the board of Yandex, a Russian Internet search company with a roughly 60 percent market share in Russia, compared to Google's 20 percent or so.
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2010

JR Tokai looking for big bullet-train deals in U.S.

Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) said Monday it is teaming up with U.S. companies to promote its N700-I bullet trains and maglev transportation system in U.S. states, targeting such corridors as the Tampa-Orlando-Miami route in Florida.
EDITORIALS
Jan 25, 2010

Poverty in Japan

Japan's relative poverty rate as of 2007 stood at 15.7 percent, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry announced last October. This marks the first time the government has officially released its own data on the subject. Past rates were known only through surveys conducted by the Organization for Economic...
COMMENTARY
Jan 24, 2010

Media gang up on Iran for Latam outreach

SEATTLE — Should the United States be concerned about Iran's determined efforts to reach out to Latin America or, as was suggestively described in the Economist, about the ayatollahs' strategy of cozying up to Latin America?
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2010

U.N. rapporteur to North: Clean up rights act

A special rapporteur for the United Nations on human rights in North Korea has urged Pyongyang to take concrete measures to resolve the abductee issue as soon as possible and return the victims to their families.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2010

'Fat cats' roaring back at Obama

HONG KONG — U.S. President Barack Obama has used harsh words in denouncing the big bonuses that Wall Street is paying to its bankers and announcing new levies to claw back some of that money. "We want our money back, and we are going to get it," he said, calling the bankers "fat cats" and their payments...
Reader Mail
Jan 24, 2010

Would foreign vote hurt governor?

Regarding the Jan. 20 article "Ueda against letting foreigners vote": I assume that Saitama Gov. Kiyoshi Ueda and others gladly accept the tax contributions made by foreign permanent residents — but not their right to participate in local elections.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 24, 2010

Angels fans excited about Godzilla's move to Southern California

We can expect to see a lot more Los Angeles Angels games than the New York Yankees on NHK and J Sports in 2010 because of Hideki Matsui, especially when the Angels play the Seattle Mariners with Ichiro Suzuki.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 24, 2010

Eschewing the cheerlessness of modern-market memoirs

Those who have read Donald Keene's 1996 memoir "On Familiar Terms" may wonder whether it was necessary for him to bring out another that covers much the same ground. One suspects that Keene published "Chronicles of My Life" simply because he had been asked to write a series of columns about his life...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 24, 2010

Become a slave to rhythm

In the introduction to the first English translation of her work, Takako Arai refers to poems as vacant lots, alluding to the economic suffering of her hometown Kiryu, Gunma Prefecture, and to the open spaces left by terrorism and bombs in New York City and Belgrade.
JAPAN / Media
Jan 24, 2010

Movie about balloon dad could clear him

LOS ANGELES — Once Richard Heene admitted in court that he wrongly sent authorities on a wild goose chase across Colorado to save the son he thought was aloft in a runaway balloon, friends and supporters seemed to take off just about as fast as that balloon.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 24, 2010

Saving the planet through its trees

Negotiators at the COP15 conference in Copenhagen didn't see eye to eye on much last month, but almost everyone agreed on one thing: To protect the planet we need to save its forests.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jan 24, 2010

Once mighty Apache in complete disarray

First in a two-part series
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2010

Bargain-price retailers leading deflationary trend

Mieko Watanabe wanted to buy a soft white dress to wear around the house, but the ¥6,000 price tag at apparel shops put off the 23-year-old office worker. Then she saw what she wanted at a Uniqlo outlet for less than ¥3,000.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2010

'Crossing' bares North defector fate

Every year, poverty-stricken North Koreans risk their lives crossing the border into China to escape the repression and starvation plaguing their hermit homeland.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2010

Hatoyama reaffirms innocence

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama again proclaimed his innocence Thursday in a political funds scandal involving donations from his mother, telling the House of Representatives Budget Committee that he is ready to resign if the facts prove otherwise.
COMMENTARY
Jan 22, 2010

Narrowed gap in Ukraine

LONDON — Yulia Tymoshenko, Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych were once called the "eternal triangle" of Ukrainian politics, but eternity is not what it used to be. One side of the triangle has disappeared.

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?