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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 28, 2010

It's time Japan shook off its past and stopped toadying to the U.S.

Allow me to introduce a Japanese word to those unfamiliar with it. It is the verb kobiru, which means "to flatter"; "to curry favor with"; "to play up to"; "to toady to." In more up-to-date parlance, it may be rendered as "to suck up to."
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 28, 2010

Trans-Pacific Partnership for a cheaper bowl of beef and rice

The APEC summit in Yokohama earlier this month was a key event by any standard. Leaders of 21 countries came to discuss how to integrate the world's most dynamic region in terms of trade.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 28, 2010

NPB looks to trim deficit by having third All-Star Game

You no doubt saw the news item whereby the Nippon Professional Baseball authorities are asking the Japanese players union to have a third All-Star game in 2011, in order to blot a portion of its reported ¥60 million of red ink. Two All-Star games are scheduled so far next season: at Nagoya Dome July...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Nov 28, 2010

Education profiteers and the public trough

NEW YORK — A college or university, especially of a private variety, may not be "an eleemosynary institution," as Sen. Sam Ervin, of the Watergate hearings, might put it were he alive, but the American insistence on free-market notions has brought the matter to the other extreme in higher education....
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Nov 27, 2010

Nagoya business chief angling for cruise lines

Less than a month since his appointment Nov. 2 as president of the Nagoya Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Jiro Takahashi will be traveling to the United States, Mexico and the Bahamas to lead a delegation promoting the port of Nagoya.
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2010

Whaling fleet yet to depart

The whaling fleet has not yet left for the Antarctic Ocean, making this year's departure unusually late.
Reader Mail
Nov 25, 2010

Ask JETs for English-teaching tips

Regarding the Sept. 7 article "Don't blame JET for Japan's poor English": Participants in the Japan Exchange and Teaching program, as a a group, probably have the single broadest picture of English education in Japan. I say this because JETs talk to one another about their very different situations regardless...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Nov 22, 2010

Japan shouldn't bet farm on China's 'middle class'

Many Japanese corporations are pinning their hopes on what they see as the expanding "middle class" in China, which they think will offer a huge potential market for their products. In reality, that class is a mirage created politically by the Chinese Communist Party and is on the verge of disintegrating....
EDITORIALS
Nov 22, 2010

Vote disparity condemned

In a lawsuit filed by a group of lawyers, the Tokyo High Court on Nov. 17 ruled that the Upper House election held in July — in which the vote-value disparity between constituencies reached a maximum 5.00 to 1 — was unconstitutional.
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 21, 2010

Heading for the hills — in style

One sunny Saturday a couple of weeks ago, this writer joined five women and three men who met up at Ikusabata Station on the JR Ome Line in the mountains of western Tokyo.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Nov 18, 2010

Living off the land in Okinawa

The issue of U.S. military bases in Okinawa has largely been a political argument, but there's also an economic angle that comes with the territory.
Reader Mail
Nov 18, 2010

More to globalization than English

I don't think the Japanese are working less hard, but there is no direction to all their hard work at present. Direction comes from inspiration. Confidence is low at present. The Japanese must believe in themselves and in the present, be proud of their past, and move positively into the future.
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Nov 17, 2010

Possibilities are endless as Japan's manga fans turn cell phones into libraries

In a development indicative of the growth of Japan's digital publishing industry, key player Celsys Inc. was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's second section on Nov. 4. This is in addition to being listed on startup market Centrex.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 16, 2010

Justice sought after allergy trauma

One day in May, 7-year-old Kaiya Lucente was cleaning her classroom after lunch when she began coughing, her face puffed up and she found it difficult to breathe. Her eyes turned red, and scarlet blotches started to appear on her face. She had had these frightening symptoms before after accidentally...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Nov 13, 2010

Aichi barber finally cuts his way to the top

Toshihiko Katagiri, 31, a hairdresser at Basic Hair Katagiri in Shinshiro, Aichi Prefecture, won the "classical cut and fashion" category at the national hairdressing championship in October, earning a Prime Minister's Award.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BY THE GLASS
Nov 12, 2010

Australia bottles a touch of class

A few weeks ago a decadent dinner held at the American Club in Tokyo showcased some top-notch wines from two Australian family-owned wineries. Though the tablecloths were stiff and well starched, the staff — who served up some cracking fusion cuisine that brought out the best in the wine — were not,...
COMMENTARY
Nov 11, 2010

Iraqi Christians: also victims of the invasion

On Sunday, Oct. 31, when a group of militants seized a church in Baghdad, killing and wounding scores of Iraqi Christians, it signaled yet another episode of unimaginable horror in the country since the U.S. invasion of March 2003. Every group of Iraqis has faced terrible devastation as a result of this...
Reader Mail
Nov 11, 2010

U.S.-Latin America could prosper

In his Oct. 28 article, "Should the U.S. be worried as Latin America prospers?," Gregory Clark wrote that Mexico is unable to compete with highly mechanized U.S. corn production and that it makes up for that by exporting illegal workers and drugs.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2010

Building the India-United States partnership

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama's first presidential visit to India offers a unique opportunity to cement a global partnership with a rapidly emerging power. Set to become the world's third- or fourth-largest economy by 2030, India could become America's most important strategic partner.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Nov 9, 2010

Pachinko parlors pulling in pensioners

Bored? Need to get out the house but nothing too strenuous? How bout a friendly game of pachinko, gramps?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 9, 2010

Muslims in shock over police 'terror' leak

This time last month, Mohamed Salmi says he was just another anonymous foreigner living and working in Japan. Today he fears his life here may be over, and receives phone calls from reporters asking him if he is an al-Qaida "terrorist."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 7, 2010

The darker side of motherhood

In the first edition of the famous book of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, published in 1812, the story that has become known as "Snow White" had a different villain than the one we all know and hate. Snow White's original nemesis was her biological mother. In later editions, the evil queen became...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2010

Bending over to humiliate Tokyo

HONG KONG — Is Beijing deliberately trying to intimidate and humiliate Japan and Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, or are the Japanese merely collateral damage in China's wider ambitions to assert the political muscle of its new global economic aspirations?
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Nov 6, 2010

Town growing, serving up cactus

The city of Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, Japan's largest producer of cactus grown from seed, is promoting a full-fledged campaign to get people to eat prickly pear.
Reader Mail
Nov 4, 2010

Wishing Japan still had chutzpah

Regarding the Oct. 28 article "Ministries mixed on merits of joining Pacific FTA": Times have changed. I can remember coming to Japan over 20 years ago and hearing the Japanese defend the rice farmer as essential to "our culture." Now he is about to be sacrificed to the interests of global corporations...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 2, 2010

Currency war refugees

BUENOS AIRES — Today's global currency war resembles real war in two important respects: A faceoff over structural imbalances between two large opponents — China and the United States — has forced uncomfortable smaller allies to take one side or the other, and third parties that may not be directly...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Nov 2, 2010

Census is blind to Japan's diversity: readers offer their thoughts

A selection of readers' views on last month's Just Be Cause column:
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2010

U.S. voters set to jump from frying pan to the fire

HONG KONG — Is the United States heading for disaster when the country goes to the polls Tuesday to elect all 435 members of the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate?

Longform

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