Search - 2005

 
 
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jul 7, 2012

Handling of Chiba's departure latest bogey by league incompetents

The Chiba Jets' recent defection announcement from the bj-league to play in the re-branded JBL in 2013-14 triggered two reactions. And the first one is shared by most people in Japan's basketball community.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 2012

'Kueki Ressha (The Drudgery Train)'

Directors often find themselves boxed in by fan expectations. If a filmmaker who is known and loved for quirky pieces does a serious film or two, fans tend to complain he or she is sliding down a slippery slope toward dreaded respectability.
BUSINESS
Jul 6, 2012

Barclays ex-chief tries to deflect blame in rate-fixing probe

Fallen banking titan Bob Diamond on Wednesday described regulators on both sides of the Atlantic as partly complicit in a scandal involving the manipulation of a key interbank lending rate, telling a British parliamentary committee that government watchdogs had failed to act after his bank, Barclays,...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jul 4, 2012

Aoki returns to Tokyo; Aomori, Nara get expansion teams

The bj-league will add a pair of new franchises for the 2013-14 season, and Cohey Aoki, the only six-time All-Star in league history, is returning to the capital city.
BASKETBALL
Jun 24, 2012

Chiba to quit bj-league

The Chiba Jets, coming off a mediocre 18-34 inaugural season, are jumping ship to the JBL's re-branded top league for the 2013-14 campaign.
Jun 22, 2012

An East Asian community?

The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Japan, China and South Korea (ASEAN-plus-3) announced in December 2005 their determination to realize the East Asian Community.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 12, 2012

Single fathers unite to voice their concerns about benefits in Japan

A group of dads and their small kids gathered around for a step-by-step demonstration of how to make perfect French toast. Then they got busy cracking eggs and beating them, cutting the bread into small squares that they dipped in the egg and then dropped into a hot skillet to watch sizzle as a buttery...
BUSINESS
May 31, 2012

Tokyo Grain Exchange to dissolve at shareholders' meeting, switch bourses

The operator of the Tokyo Grain Exchange, the nation's second-largest commodity bourse, will seek its dissolution at a shareholders' meeting next March due to shrinking volumes.
BASKETBALL
May 18, 2012

Ryukyu star Newton set for seventh straight Final Four

This is arguably the most remarkable statistic in the bj-league's seven-year history: Center Jeff Newton's teams have advanced to the Final Four every season.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 17, 2012

There is trouble on Kafka's shore

Seventy-six-year-old theater director Yukio Ninagawa is famed and honored the world over for his magnificently visualized stagings of Shakespeare and Ancient Greek tragedies — as well as modern Japanese plays.
BASKETBALL
May 14, 2012

Phoenix, Golden Kings return to Final Four

As expected, the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix and Ryukyu Golden Kings, regular-season winners of the Eastern and Western Conference titles, respectively, will return to the bj-league's Final Four again this coming weekend with a shot at meeting in the title game for the second consecutive year.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
May 12, 2012

Overuse could be a factor in Asao's drop in efficiency this season

Chunichi Dragons reliever Takuya Asao gave up an earned run against the Tokyo Yakult Swallows during the eighth inning of Thursday's game at Nagoya Dome.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 10, 2012

Low incomes drive surge in number of never-marrieds

The percentage of men who have never been married by age 50 topped 20 percent for the first time on record in 2010, coinciding with another societal trend that finds more males are living on reduced incomes, according to a government survey.
COMMENTARY
May 1, 2012

Hands behind Sudan's war

Once again Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir waved his walking stick in the air. Once again he spoke of splendid victories over his enemies as thousands of jubilant supporters danced and cheered. But this time around the stakes are too high.
COMMENTARY
Apr 24, 2012

'Cruel and unusual' punishment of teenagers

In the summer of 1787, just 94 years after the Salem witch trials, as paragons of the Enlightenment such as James Madison, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin deliberated in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, a mob pelted and otherwise tormented to death a woman accused of being a witch....
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Apr 20, 2012

For Iwate's Malloy, Hurricane Katrina provided valuable life lessons

Natural disasters can alter one's outlook on life in a positive way, and give an individual a greater sense of purpose or focus in everything he/she does.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 8, 2012

Lack of strong ties spurs business of dying alone

New businesses arising to meet new needs tell us much about the times we live in. A cleaning company named Green Heart, for example, thrives on a peculiar expertise. Its website explains: "Sadly, it often happens that unclaimed bodies go long unnoticed. In summer after two days, in winter after four...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 5, 2012

Lee Bul: Inspired by the past imperfect

She may be Asia's leading female artist, but Lee Bul has grown very tired of that title.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 5, 2012

Lee Bul: Inspired by the past imperfect

She may be Asia's leading female artist, but Lee Bul has grown very tired of that title.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 3, 2012

Volunteers struggle to track neediest residents

Welfare commissioners cover a broad array of tasks, including regularly checking in on elderly and disabled residents, looking for signs of child abuse, providing local residents with information about services, and even helping them dispose of garbage.
EDITORIALS
Mar 21, 2012

Painting a target on Mr. Kony

Mr. Joseph Kony is a nasty piece of work. The warlord is the founder of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), an insurgent group that has been battling the government in Uganda for over two decades. Founded in 1987, the group was formed as a rebel group that fought for power and spoils against southern Ugandans...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Mar 16, 2012

League to test all players for drugs after Washington arrest

After Osaka Evessa star Lynn Washington's Tuesday arrest for his alleged involvement in smuggling a package (1 kg to 1.5 kg, various published reports stated) of marijuana into Japan in November, the bj-league reacted by announcing league-wide drug testing of players will be conducted by Friday.
BASKETBALL
Mar 14, 2012

Evessa's Washington arrested in drug case

Osaka Evessa power forward Lynn Washington, the most famous player in bj-league history, was arrested at 10:20 a.m on Tuesday for alleged involvement in the importation of between 1 kg and 1.5 kg of marijuana, media reports stated the same day.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2012

Three years in jail sought for Ozawa

Court-appointed lawyers acting as prosecutors demanded Friday that Ichiro Ozawa be sentenced to three years in prison for allegedly violating the Political Funds Control Law.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake