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CULTURE / Books
Nov 2, 2008

Nothing funnier than a comedian in a kimono

RAKUGO: Performing Comedy and Cultural Heritage in Contemporary Tokyo, by Lorie Brau. Lexington Books, 2008, 274 pp., $75.00 (cloth) Of all the Japanese arts, rakugo traditional comedy is one of the most impenetrable for foreigners. The premise is simple: kimono-clad practitioners tell old funny stories...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 31, 2008

Club tricks and treats for Halloween

With Halloween falling on a Friday this year, there's a countrywide wealth of ghoulish fun on offer over the weekend — and even less excuse not to indulge in some serious sartorial inelegance and hit the town.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 30, 2008

Oh's career sparkled with achievements as player, manager

Second in a three-part series
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2008

Foreign workers are first to feel impact of economy's slowdown

HAMAMATSU, Shizuoka Pref. — Brazilian Stenio Sameshima came to Japan last year planning to make a bundle of money at the country's humming auto factories. Instead, he's spending a lot of time in line at employment agencies.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 29, 2008

Devoted to the game: Looking back at Oh's career

First in a three-part series
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 28, 2008

WWII forced labor issue dogs Aso, Japanese firms

After evading the issue for more than two years, Taro Aso conceded to foreign reporters on the eve of becoming prime minister that Allied POWs worked at his family's coal mine in Kyushu during World War II.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Oct 25, 2008

Hasegawa qualified to manage WBC team

There has been much discussion about who should be the manager for Japan's 2009 World Baseball Classic team. The now-retired Sadaharu Oh won't be the skipper and Senichi Hoshino has repeatedly stated he will refuse to accept the job if it is offered to him.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 23, 2008

Craftsmanship and nationalism

'Utility" is conventionally held up as what separates crafts from art. But what practical purpose is served by the stained-glass panel by Christopher Whall, "Saint Agnes" (1901-10) in "Life and Art: Arts and Crafts from Morris to Mingei" at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto? In truth, the Arts...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Oct 19, 2008

Sun blocks out Sendai in first game

HAMAMATSU, Shizuoka Pref. — Sun Ming Ming didn't steal the spotlight in his highly anticipated bj-league debut, but he enjoyed a respectable outing in the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix's first game of the 2008-09 season.
Reader Mail
Oct 19, 2008

Lucky millennium celebration

The three articles Oct. 12 on the "1,000 years of 'Genji' " by Eriko Arita are absorbing and delightful. I've read Waley's, Seidensticker's, McCullough's and Tyler's versions -- the latter I don't know how many times. I've yet to tackle the very first version, and those by Jakucho Setouchi and Donald...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 13, 2008

Fujii returns to Dome for postseason victory

OSAKA — Shugo Fujii delivered another solid postseason outing in Kyocera Dome.
BASKETBALL
Oct 11, 2008

Goya eager to make positive impact for Evessa

Point guard Takanori Goya was the No. 1 pick in the bj-league's 2006 draft. After two losing seasons, he was traded to the Osaka Evessa.
BASKETBALL
Oct 11, 2008

Evessa begin quest for fourth straight championship

A year ago, Osaka Evessa fans, opponents and media members shared a common inquiry: Will Kensaku Tennichi's team complete its quest for a three-peat?
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Oct 11, 2008

Buffs, Fighters ready for PL Climax Series showdown

The first stage of the Pacific League Climax Series matches two teams that will contest strength against strength to decide which team will advance to face the Seibu Lions in the second stage.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Oct 11, 2008

Newton fired up to play in Okinawa

His bj-league resume is as impressive as anyone's in the circuit's brief history. Three championship seasons are his crowning achievement — so far.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 10, 2008

Juvenile court opens up for a day

Minors are usually tried in family courts behind closed doors, but in an effort to give the public a better understanding of how these cases are handled, the Tokyo Family Court this week showcased a mock juvenile trial.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Oct 8, 2008

Murakami case shows JSF short on skater support

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.''
EDITORIALS
Oct 8, 2008

Beyond the Kyoto Protocol

One of former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's notable achievements was when, as the chair of the Group of Eight summit this summer, he managed to get the G8 nations to broadly agree on efforts to fight global warming. Although the government has changed, Japan must strive with other countries to overcome...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2008

EU financially vulnerable when confidence collapses

VIENNA — The most notable innovations of the past two decades have been financial. Like technological innovation, financial innovation is concerned with the perpetual search for greater efficiency — in this case, reducing the cost of transferring funds from savers to investors. Cost reductions that...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Sep 28, 2008

Fanfare greets Tabuse in return

UTSUNOMIYA, Tochigi Pref. — For 40 minutes of action, all eyes focused on him. Pride, curiosity and excitement characterized the occasion.
COMMENTARY
Sep 24, 2008

Comrade Bush and the banks

LONDON — After Comrade George W. Bush nationalized the two giants of the U.S. mortgage market, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, earlier this month, Anatole Kaletsky wrote in The Times of London that "the most capitalist administration ever, in the world's most capitalist country, (has) decided to wipe out...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2008

Protesters question safety of U.S. nuclear carrier

In the face of North Korea's return to nuclear development and China's ever-growing military presence, Yasunari Fujimoto believes the defense of the Japanese homeland must be secured at almost any cost.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 23, 2008

Readers get last word on 'gaijin' tag

The Community Page received another large batch of e-mails in response to Debito Arudou's followup Sept. 2 (Sept. 3 in some areas) Just Be Cause column on the use of the word "gaijin." Following is a selection of the responses.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 21, 2008

Koizumi branded the bad boy in latest food scandal

Most of the recent food-related scandals were motivated by pure greed, so they were easy to understand. The current scandal involving inedible imported rice bought from the government and sold as edible rice is more complicated and raises some questions. How do the governments of the countries that produced...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Sep 21, 2008

Marshall bids bj-league farewell

Any new sports league will face bumps on the road to respectability. Players, coaches and front-office types will work incredibly long hours as they strive to give the fans a product they want to care about.
Reader Mail
Sep 18, 2008

New face of American feminism

In response to feminist leader Gloria Steinem's Los Angeles Times article that appeared in The Japan Times on Sept. 9, "Palin: wrong woman with wrong message": I hate to say it, but Steinem is off the radar for most young women. My two, well-educated, world-traveled daughters (in their 20s) are looking...

Longform

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