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Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Feb 13, 2013

Davis sets sights on playing in NBA

Can shot-blocking maestro Jeral Davis reach the NBA in his late 20s?
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Feb 11, 2013

Evessa gather steam with win over HeatDevils

The Osaka Evessa do not look like a championship contender. And it will probably take a minor miracle for the Western Conference club to qualify for the playoffs this season.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 8, 2013

Eradicating match-fixing no easy task

Just under three years ago I received a call from a contact who knew people in a side of life that is at best described as shady. "Fancy making a few quid?" he asked, and I knew his reply was not going to be legal.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2013

How to cope when home is where the radiation is?

When she hears the phrase "a sense of home," filmmaker Michale Boganim always endures a wave of sadness. "Home can mean a whole lot of things, but to me it has connotations of displacement and loss," she tells The Japan Times. "I come from a family that was always moving around, and even as we were moving,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 7, 2013

ZZZ's hone skills abroad and have some chance encounters

The highlight of 2012 for experimental postpunk trio ZZZ's was meeting Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore in Miami. It turns out the feeling was mutual. American record label Matador Records posted their artists' and employees' favorite things from the past 12 months online recently and Hyogo Prefecture's...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Feb 4, 2013

Keep Abe's hawks in check or Japan and Asia will suffer

On Jan. 1, The Japan Times' lead story was "Summer poll to keep Abe in check." It made the argument that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party alliance falls short of a majority in the Upper House, so until elections happen this summer he lacks a "full-fledged administration" to carry...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 4, 2013

Russians cast wary eye on volunteerism

A country doctor, a tiny, dilapidated village hospital, an indifferent health bureaucracy — and now, coming to the rescue, volunteers from distant Moscow, bringing furniture, equipment, money and, maybe most important, good cheer.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2013

Hay fever sufferers brace for a nasty season

Pollen season is coming. Due to last year's sizzling summer, the amount of pollen this year is expected to be particularly nasty in some parts of the country, adding to the suffering of those subject to allergic reactions this time of year.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 1, 2013

Your body — not just a temple, but a laboratory too

1. Appendix to life The appendix gets a bad press. It is usually treated as a body part that lost its function millions of years ago. All it seems to do is occasionally get infected and cause appendicitis. Yet recently it has been discovered that the appendix is very useful to the bacteria that help...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Feb 1, 2013

Unusual scheduling makes it tough on players, fans

Finalizing a schedule for a league with an uneven number of teams creates real challenges.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 1, 2013

Abe can expect little sympathy from nominal allies during Okinawa visit

When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits Okinawa for a meeting Saturday with Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima and other local politicians, he'll be sitting down mostly with fellow Liberal Democratic Party members or those who won with LDP support.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2013

The up- and downside for the biggest economy

'Is America in decline?' may be the wrong question, as most of the affluent world — including U.S., Europe and Japan — faces similar threats.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 31, 2013

Seeing the wood for Enku's Buddhas

While a golden age for secular arts, Japan's Edo Period (1603-1867) is broadly dismissed by art historians as a period of stagnation for Buddhist sculpture.
Reader Mail
Jan 31, 2013

Aso broaches a difficult issue

Recent comments by Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso about the elderly in Japan, while controversial, make a great deal of sense to me because of my personal experience.
Reader Mail
Jan 31, 2013

Price of intolerance in a culture

The recent suicide of the Osaka high school basketball team student who had been regularly hit by his coach is a sad manifestation of one aspect of Japanese culture: intolerance. This takes the form of ignoring or excluding those who are deemed undesirable to the group. Often, bullying is involved as...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2013

Lawmaker looks at risks of populism

Shizuoka Prefecture should hold a referendum for its citizens to decide whether the Hamaoka nuclear power plant should be restarted, assembly member Takuya Abe said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2013

South Africa envoy says Japan needs to reinvent itself

Mohau Pheko, South Africa's ambassador to Japan since January 2012, said Japan is a "technologically blessed" country that has been an important international trend-setter but now "faces the big challenge of elevating itself to the next level."
MORE SPORTS / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Jan 30, 2013

Kaepernick, Wilson usher in new era

Howie Long, NFL analyst on Fox TV, said it best: The second weekend of this season's playoffs will go down as a landmark in pro football history.
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2013

Mr. Obama throws down gauntlet

Trivia buffs have noted that only U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and Franklin D. Roosevelt have taken the oath of office four times. FDR did so because he was elected president four times. Mr. Obama has done it because he and Supreme Court Justice John Roberts flubbed the first oath four years ago and...
Reader Mail
Jan 26, 2013

Sober critique of American ideals

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison's Washington Post article, "Building a better U.S. drone policy," which was printed in The Japan Times on Jan. 17, is a sober, elegant and erudite critique of the "drone wars." That it is written by an American congressman is both encouraging and depressing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 26, 2013

Looking back on a major turning point

Routinely acclaimed as a giant of world cinema in his lifetime, Akira Kurosawa has slipped in the global director league rankings since his death in 1998.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Jan 24, 2013

A monk's teenage angst can be monstrous

Monsters and runaways aren't usually the kinds of problems teenagers face, but a Tokyo-based theater troupe thinks these are the kinds of conundrums that await teenage monks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 24, 2013

With 'Desh,' Khan proves you can go home again

If art's purpose is to ask the relevant questions, then British-Bangladeshi dancer Akram Khan successfully interrogates humanity — and himself — with his latest production, 'Desh.'
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 24, 2013

Tokyo goalkeeper Gonda sets bar high for coming season

FC Tokyo goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda is far too modest to accept the plaudits that have come his way after a string of fine performances for club and country last season, but there is certainly nothing humble about his ambitions for the year ahead.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2013

Shortcake Collage Tape "Spirited Summer"

Creating music meant to purposely evoke the past can be tricky. Recreate the sounds of a specific decade too closely and the music becomes too nostalgic, pining for a time the artist never even knew existed. On the other hand, approach bygone times too cynically — as the Internet-born microgenre "vaporwave"...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2013

Ban talks about Japan in the world in exclusive interview

In a series of seven two-hour sessions that included informal get-togethers with his wife Soon Taek, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, the well-regarded former South Korean foreign minister, shares his insights exclusively with American journalist Tom Plate. The following excerpts from Plate's...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 23, 2013

U.S. president lays out liberal vision

A self-assured President Barack Obama on Monday used his second inaugural address to lay out a bold liberal vision of the American future, drawing direct links between the origins of the republic and some of the most vexing political issues of the day.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jan 22, 2013

Readers' views: Skype's downside for teachers; Senkaku and the ICJ; Arudou's ageist attack on Keene; Abe's nuclear folly

Do we really need to know ages? Re: "Osaka: What are your hopes for yourself, Japan and the world in 2013?" (Views From The Street, Jan. 1):

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