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JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 22, 2010

Rakuten's English- only policy endures close media scrutiny

Learn to speak English, or else!
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Aug 20, 2010

Time for bj-league to slow down on expansion

In a mad rush to expand, the bj-league is ignoring a number of real concerns, including the pressing need to aggressively market itself in Tokyo, this nation's entertainment, government, financial and media capital.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 15, 2010

Opposite ends in poll scrabble wildly for Aussie middle ground

This is the winter of a discontented electorate in Australia. Less than a week before Aug. 21's general election, the voters are deeply disgruntled and proving decidedly hard to please, while the main parties appear to be heading for a close finish.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 14, 2010

North Korea's 'Dear Leader' cleans house

SEOUL — There was a time, not long after the Cold War's end, when almost everyone assumed that North Korea would soon collapse. The sudden death in 1994 of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the tyrannical, economically disastrous North Korean experiment, reinforced this belief. That was then.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 14, 2010

Money not enough to give Manchester City the title

LONDON — When Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003, David Dein, the former Arsenal vice chairman, remarked that the new Stamford Bridge owner had "parked his Russian tanks on the lawn and is firing £50 notes at us."
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2010

DoCoMo may beat smart phone sales target, CFO says

NTT DoCoMo Inc. may exceed its April target for 1 million sales of smart phones this business year, helped by demand for Sony Ericsson's Xperia handset.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2010

Time to take nuclear disarmament seriously

MELBOURNE — People sometimes forget that the boy who cried wolf ended up being eaten. True, nobody has been killed by a nuclear weapon since the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 65 years ago this month.
EDITORIALS
Aug 6, 2010

Accelerate nuclear disarmament

This year Hiroshima and Nagasaki hold their peace memorial services to mark the 65th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of them as the world feels the "global momentum toward a nuclear weapons-free world," as U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon observes. It is important that every nation and citizens...
Reader Mail
Jul 29, 2010

The way to enrich communication

The anonymous author of the July 22 letter, "Rakuten may be asking for trouble," fears a loss of culture because of Rakuten President Hiroshi Mikitani's decision to make English the company's official language by 2012. As a citizen of a country where English is very often used as a business language...
COMMENTARY
Jul 29, 2010

A clash of interests in Asia

The show of force mounted this week off the Korean Peninsula by the United States and South Korea was the biggest in decades and was intended to warn North Korea not to take aggressive action against the South.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 26, 2010

Black Sea challenge by U.S. set to keep Russia on edge

A storm is gathering in and around the Black Sea as Russia faces a mounting challenge from the United States, which is beefing up its military presence in former Soviet satellite countries like Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 25, 2010

Japan's 'seismic ship' may yield a bonanza

Despite the ongoing Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, the search for deep-sea oil and gas reserves elsewhere continues unabated — off the coasts of Scotland, Greenland, West Africa, Brazil, the Philippines . . . and even Japan.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 25, 2010

Savoring the wisdom of some Japanese predictions about Japan

FIRST IN A THREE-PART SERIES — I was 8 years old when we got our first television set, a 10-inch Admiral. That was in 1952, still early days for the new and exciting medium. It wasn't long before I was glued every week to my favorite program, "Criswell Predicts."
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 18, 2010

Arashi idol in 'Summer Lover' drama; behind the scenes of the Sky Tree; CM of the week: Calorie Mate

The ratings for "Moon Lovers," the drama series that just ended in the coveted Monday 9 p.m. slot at Fuji TV, were not as high as expected despite the participation of heartthrob Takuya Kimura. Maybe a younger Johnny's idol, Jun Matsumoto of Arashi, will have better luck with "Natsu no Koi wa Niji-iro...
BUSINESS
Jul 17, 2010

China, Indonesia drive on Komatsu

Komatsu Ltd., the world's second-largest construction equipment maker, plans to double production this financial year to meet demand from China and Indonesia.
BUSINESS
Jul 17, 2010

Toyota, Nissan want bigger slice of the pie in Latin America

Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. will invest a combined $1.2 billion to expand production in Latin America amid growing regional and export demand.

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