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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 27, 2007

Prints rejected, scribe accepted

T he center of the little monitor — I'd guess about 20 cm from the looks of it — flashed the word "Yokoso" (welcome). Its colored border was festooned with a collage of images near and dear to visiting tourists' hearts: "torii" gates, the shinkansen, Zen gardens, Mount Fuji . . .
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 27, 2007

Re-entry for PRs; rent-a-gran

New 'Yokoso' measures Robert inquires about the changes that started Nov. 20.
LIFE / Language
Nov 27, 2007

New translation vividly depicts postwar Tokyo

Shishi Bunroku (the pen name of Iwata Toyoo) is a writer who deserves to be better known. His novel "Jiyu Gakko (School of Freedom)" was a best seller when it first appeared in 1951, and gives as vivid a picture as we're likely to get today of what daily life was like in postwar Tokyo.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 26, 2007

Sports sound bites beginning to bite back

Boxers earn their money saying things that might get people to buy tickets. So it wasn't exactly surprising when Floyd Mayweather Jr. suggested to Ricky Hatton the other day that they might enjoy being prison cellmates together.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Nov 26, 2007

Plenty wrong with U.S. agricultural policy

NEW YORK — The U.S. farm bill — a blanket term for all measures related to agriculture, some barely so — appears doomed this year. The House version passed at the end of July, but the Senate version has been stalled in such a way that there's even talk that its enactment may not occur until after...
COMMENTARY
Nov 26, 2007

Upbeat band of moderates keep the faith

BALI, Indonesia — A bad idea can sometimes illuminate the darkest landscape of truth with brilliant flair in a way that mere fact cannot. Consider, for example, the idea that Islam is incompatible with democracy. It's a really bad idea, but it can serve a very good purpose.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 25, 2007

Carp manager Brown optimistic despite loss of key players

In 2008, Hiroshima Carp manager Marty Brown will be entering his third season as skipper of the Central League club without his two best players.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 25, 2007

Vermilion gallops to record win in Japan Cup Dirt

Race favorite Vermilion extended his winning streak to two with a record win in the Japan Cup Dirt Saturday at Tokyo Racecourse.
Reader Mail
Nov 25, 2007

Foreigners overrate themselves

The sense of self-importance contained in the Nov. 20 Zeit Gist article "Watching them watching us" -- in which writer Michael Hassett complains about the capacity of the Japanese government to subject him to "physical abuse" by virtue of its ability to theoretically track him via security cameras from...
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 25, 2007

Jobs journal reflects social change

Back in 1980 when the weekly job-seekers' magazine Travail was launched, it was a social phenomenon that gave women the information they needed to independently switch jobs and build their careers. People even adopted the magazine's title (which means "work" in French, and is written in hiragana as torabayu)...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 25, 2007

Salvation Skype's out for a state of despair

I must confess this Sunday. No, I am not about to blurt out my sins. I would rather keep those to myself, thank you. The confession today is out of total despair. Despair for this country we are living in: Japan.
BUSINESS / ASIA-JAPAN-U.S. SYMPOSIUM
Nov 24, 2007

Common issues disarm U.S.-China strategic rivalry

Ten years from now, China will likely be a predominant military power in Asia, but it apparently does not intend to engage in an arms race with the United States nor to seek to become a global power, said Adam Segal, a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 24, 2007

Textiles — whispering soul of India

Walking into the main exhibition hall on the second floor of the Nihon Mingeikan (Japan Folkcrafts Museum) in Tokyo's Komaba, re-creates the startling impression Hiroko Iwatate received when she first went to India 37 years ago.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 23, 2007

'Grbavica'/'Children of Glory'

When the civil war broke out in Bosnia Herzegovina, Jasmila Zbanic was 17 years old.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Nov 23, 2007

Newcomer St. Preux helps Sendai bolt to 5-1 start

It may be too early to call the Sendai 89ers a title contender, but it's time to pay attention to what they've accomplished through six games.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2007

JT, Nissin in tender offer for Katokichi

Japan Tobacco Inc. and instant noodle maker Nissin Food Products Co. announced Thursday they will acquire all the shares of scandal-tainted frozen food maker Katokichi Co. for ¥109 billion through a public tender offer.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2007

It's Taiwan's referendum

For China, the launch of the Fukuda Cabinet in late September was good news, so it must expect many things from the new administration. What concerns me now in this respect is Taiwan's move to hold a national referendum on whether to seek U.N. membership in the name of "Taiwan."
Reader Mail
Nov 22, 2007

Plenty of other things to eat

I have heard the argument that Japan has been "eating whales for 400 years." Well, it's time to stop!
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Nov 21, 2007

Save a bomb and warm your bones this winter

Saving can hurt: With Christmas on the way, it's time to get saving those pennies. Toymaker Tomy is offering to help with its bomb-shaped piggy bank. Looking like one of the ancient black bowling-ball-type bombs beloved of cartoons past, it comes complete with a white skull-and-crossbones motif and a...
LIFE / Language
Nov 20, 2007

Dial up a good impression with denwa echiketto

"Moshi-moshi. Kochira wa Japan Taimuzu no Shuraibaa to moshimasu. Itsumo wo sewa ni natte orimasu" ("Hello, this is Schreiber of the Japan Times. Thanks as always for your kind support.")
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 20, 2007

World's suicide capital — tough image to shake

Japan has attained a reputation as the suicide capital of the world. A 2007 international comparison of suicide rates (per 100,000 people) by the World Health Organization ranked Japan sixth for females, at 12.8, behind Sri Lanka, South Korea and Lithuania, and 11th for males, at 35.6, well below Lithuania,...
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Nov 18, 2007

Takushi yearns to make impact

The Japan Times will be featuring periodic interviews with players in the bj-league — Japan's first professional basketball circuit — which has entered its third season. Naoto Takushi of the expansion Ryukyu Golden Kings is the subject of this week's profile.
COMMENTARY
Nov 18, 2007

Stoking democracy in a Muslim giant

BALI, Indonesia — Do you like big-time success stories? There may be a quiet one in the making here that almost no one knows about, aside from the neighbors. And it's an important story at this early stage, even if the political tale's ending cannot honestly be forecast.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Nov 18, 2007

Roadside profits and the parking lottery

For my stationary sins, I have been slapped with parking tickets from Los Angeles to London, and I used to think all fines were basically the same. Eagle-eyed traffic wardens pinpoint infringers and litter windscreens with $100 fines before you can say "Gimme a break!" Then you either pay up in person...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 18, 2007

Divorce rate boom special, interviewed female entrepreneurs, dealing with lonely deaths

Divorce is the main topic on the "Megami no Antena Special (Antenna of the Goddess Special)" (Asahi, Monday, 7 p.m.). Hosts Shinsuke Shimada and Shin Murakami discuss the rise in the nation's divorce rate, particularly among older couples.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Nov 16, 2007

Kyoto's Ultra-man in bedroom revolution

"Shotgun Blues" is the latest track off Hidenori Fujiwara's turbo-charged musical conveyor-belt of rock 'n' roll madness, and it's a blast of bluesy punk that sounds like Kings of Leon being chain-whipped by Iggy Pop in a dark alley.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 16, 2007

Jane Birkin

Jane Birkin

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat