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EDITORIALS
Mar 11, 2010

Secret agreements to get along

A Foreign Ministry panel of experts on Tuesday concluded that secret agreements existed between the United States and Japan concerning the "bringing in" of U.S. nuclear weapons to Japan, military operations of U.S. armed forces from Japanese bases in an "emergency" on the Korean Peninsula, and cost burdens...
COMMENTARY
Mar 11, 2010

The U.S. media badly needs a wakeup call

Different societies allow their news media different roles. In most countries the media is subordinated to power, whether of the government or the ruling class. Surprisingly or not, the American model is not widely emulated globally.
COMMENTARY
Mar 9, 2010

Intolerance in India putting artists to flight

CHENNAI, India — Indians have always taken pride in being a tolerant and understanding society, and the country's predominant religion, Hinduism, has often been described as a way of life that never relies on conversions, force or violence. These virtues, however, appear to be fading.
Reader Mail
Mar 7, 2010

Viewing older workers as an asset

Regarding Yosuke Kaneda's Feb. 21 letter, "Encourage foreign students to stay": Encouraging more foreigners to settle in Japan as a solution to the growing labor shortage — due to the declining and aging population — would be difficult to implement and would have various negative side effects.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2010

Grasping for a way to save the Greek sinner

MUNICH — The euro's current weakness has one culprit: Greece. At 14 percent of GDP, Greece's latest current-account deficit was the largest of the euro-zone countries after Cyprus. Its debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 113 percent by the end of 2009. As this year's deficit is projected to be more than 12...
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2010

U.S. 'torture memo' lawyers got off too easily

NEW YORK — The recent statement by the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) that the two lawyers who wrote the so-called torture memos merely exercised "poor judgment" is a disservice to justice. This is a topic that should be properly addressed by a serious inquiry...
Reader Mail
Feb 28, 2010

Futenma's closure will leave void

Regarding the Feb. 21 article "Futenma in the end may stay in Okinawa, (Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi) Hirano hints": I live right across from the U.S. Marine Corps air strip at Futenma. Sometimes I can see the pilots' faces during takeoffs and landings. I got used to the takeoffs after a while. I...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Feb 26, 2010

Merpeoples bewitch; The Party's . . . party

Four cute young women clad in ghostly white robes prance around in a forest holding twigs: No, it's not an outtake from the classic 1973 pagan spookfest "The Wicker Man." Yes, it is the excellent video for the Merpeoples' spankingly sublime song "Sherman."
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 24, 2010

Confucius says reading on will help your Japanese

I remember the first kanji I ever wrote. In fact, I still have them — a Chinese aphorism roughly equivalent to "seeing is believing." In 1964, I awkwardly copied them out of a book on linguistics from my high school library in North Carolina. I was about to turn 17 and could not possibly have imagined...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 22, 2010

Root of premier ambitions

Interior Affairs Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi is that rare politician who doesn't hesitate to say he'll eventually be prime minister. He has apparently become more confident than ever after receiving support and encouragement from two of the most influential figures in the Japanese media.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 21, 2010

Consumer safety should come before pride

It's difficult to get a balanced perspective on the public-relations crisis surrounding Toyota Motor Corporation's current global recall, which mostly involves its popular Prius hybrid.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 21, 2010

Never mind 'strategy,' a basic education involves others' languages

"Americans have never been particularly interested in learning other languages and are even less interested today. . . . Our government spends 25 per cent less, adjusted for inflation, than it did 40 years ago on foreign-language training at university level."
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 20, 2010

Wenger must recognize Arsenal's trouble in goal

LONDON — There are times when I wonder whether Arsene Wenger is blind to the realities of his team or just plain obstinate.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 15, 2010

LDP flailing for relevance

The once dominant Liberal Democratic Party is said to be trying to re-establish its identity as a genuine conservative force, but the LDP leadership appears to be doing nothing more than working desperately to maintain the status quo.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2010

The best way to rebuild Haiti

WASHINGTON — In the wake of the devastating earthquake, there has been an outpouring of international support for Haiti. The first priority has been saving lives. That means getting water, food, shelter, medicine and other basic supplies to victims. The first rush must be backed up by an ongoing logistics...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 8, 2010

Consumer finance regroups: Promise to be good?

Dinged with lawsuits and government scrutiny, the consumer loan business is having to play it a bit cautious.
Reader Mail
Feb 7, 2010

French fight against climate hype

Regarding Gwynne Dyer's Feb. 1 article, "Heated politics of disbelief": How many more inconvenient "climate-gates" will be needed before journalists start doing their job, i.e. questioning? Sorry to disappoint, but climate skepticism exists beyond the "Anglosphere."
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 7, 2010

Female knuckleballer Yoshida plugging away despite the odds

I have never met Eri Yoshida, so I do not have her meishi (name card) but wonder if it reads, "Eri Yoshida, Female Knuckleballer."
COMMENTARY
Feb 7, 2010

Rebirth of Haiti begins with education effort

NEW YORK — "Did you see this?" My colleague asked me in a hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, in 2005.
Japan Times
BASEBALL
Feb 7, 2010

History, tradition helped to undermine Valentine

Fourth in a four-part series
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2010

Sumo failed to keep champ in check

Yokozuna Asashoryu, who announced his retirement Thursday, is one of the strongest sumo wrestlers of modern times.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 2, 2010

Children's rights, judicial wrongs

Last in a two-part series
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Feb 2, 2010

Non-Japanese suffrage and the racist element

On Jan. 17, Takeo Hiranuma made this statement about fellow Diet member Renho:
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 1, 2010

Kashiwagi relishing challenge at unfamiliar Urawa

SAITAMA — If Urawa Reds manager Volker Finke intends to focus on the positives from his first year in charge of the J. League club, new recruit Yosuke Kashiwagi is on hand to remind him how far the team still has to go.
Japan Times
BASEBALL
Jan 31, 2010

Resentment of Valentine's power factored in downfall

Third in a four-part series
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Japan Pulse
Jan 29, 2010

Which e-reader will conquer Japan?

The time for e-readers has finally arrived, but which one will prevail? Or more importantly, which one will attract manga-readers?
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

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.

Longform

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