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Jun 29, 2007

Sad tale for former NFL players, but who's really at fault?

By the time former NFL players got done telling their stories of pain and poverty to Congress, there was barely a dry eye in the House.
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 2007

Chief executive who serves two masters

This is the first in a series of columns on the political and economic status of Hong Kong. On Sunday, the former British crown colony will mark its 10th anniversary as a special province of China.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jun 29, 2007

Taste receptors bow to flavor god

It used to be said that the human tongue perceived flavor in the form of four basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Then a Japanese scientist, Ikeda Kikunae (1864-1936), detected a rich, satisfying taste common to meat, cheese and Japanese dashi (stock) — among other things — which couldn't...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2007

Study the school before studying English

OSAKA — Thinking about studying English at a private school chain? If so, proceed with caution and know what you're getting into, say university English professors, teachers union representatives and the English-language schools themselves.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2007

China, Russia in the new world disorder

WARSAW — Can Kosovo achieve independence from Serbia without the tacit consent of Russia, and can there be a humanitarian and political solution to the tragedy in Darfur without the active good will of China? The two crises have nothing in common, but their resolution will depend in large part on whether...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2007

Feting Japan's finest animators

Omnibus films are hard sells to ticket buyers and critics; the former because they want a full cinematic meal, not a plate of hors d'oeuvres, the latter because they see a package of segments as a sort of horse race — and proclaim disappointment when all the horses/segments don't cross the finish line...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jun 27, 2007

Soft-shelled turtle

* Japanese name: Suppon * Scientific name: Pelodiscus sinensis * Description: This is a medium-sized turtle whose carapace (the upper part of the shell) grows up to 25-cm long, and is colored olive, gray, or mottled pale green/brown. It has a long head with a pointed snout and bulging eyes, giving it...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 26, 2007

Prison reforms seen as too little, and way too late

In May 2006, the government revised the prison law in the first attempt at broad reform since 1908. The Law Concerning Penal Institutions and the Treatment of Sentenced Inmates, as the legislation is formally known, went into effect June 7.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Jun 26, 2007

Metaphys, Bunaco, etc.

Earlier this month at Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center, the massive Interior Lifestyle show hosted more than 600 exhibitors, more than half of which were domestic companies. Having dug through the many products on display, this week I will spotlight the best Japanese designs you can expect to see on...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jun 25, 2007

Haiku appreciation at the United Nations

NEW YORK — This month I was judge of the Japanese division of the haiku contest sponsored by the United Nations International School (UNIS). John Stevenson, editor of Frogpond, the magazine of the Haiku Society of America, judged the haiku written in English.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 24, 2007

Somewhere between history and the imagination

David Mitchell is one of Britain's most influential novelists. "Ghostwritten" (1999), his first novel, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and won the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Shortlisted for the 2002 Man Booker Prize for fiction, his second novel, "number9dream" (2001),...
EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 2007

Education reform for what?

The ruling coalition has passed through the Diet three education-related bills regarded by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as most important. But the bills will result only in more state control of education, imposition of the government's own interpretation of the nation's history and culture on students,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 23, 2007

Feet, feet . . . where would we be without them?

As the weather warms up, off come the tights and socks and it's time for sandals. But what are these? Yes, the two possibly pale, calloused, misshapen — for which read "mistreated" — things upon which you are now standing, called feet.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Jun 23, 2007

Handbag entrepreneur owes success to quality, celebrities

From the start, entrepreneur Kazumasa Terada had his eye on the global market. Using celebrities like the Hilton sisters in 2002 to promote his handbag label, Terada has turned Samantha Thavasa into a household name in Japan, and is on the verge of bigger things abroad.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 23, 2007

A doughnut by any other name

Basically, I try to live my life according to that time-tested maxim from the Roman philosopher Seneca, who said wisdom is knowing the proper limit of things.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 22, 2007

Rimbaud revelry

Who ever would've thought a nightclub event would take a page out of a classic literary masterpiece?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 22, 2007

An inside track on the Japan Alps

As the overnight buses roll into the car park at Kamikochi at six on a summer's morning, disgorging disheveled and sleep-deprived long-distance travelers from as far afield as Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka and Kyoto, the whole area is already buzzing with people.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 22, 2007

A Japanese Grand Prix

The red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival could be graced by more Japanese if the government and the film industry were to cooperate in a more substantiative way, suggests director Naomi Kawase, this year's winner of the Grand Prix for her film "Mogari no Mori (The Mourning Forest)."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 21, 2007

Soundtrack of the summer: Puffy

No festival this summer will attract more punters through its turnstiles than Rock In Japan. And no band is likely to get the crowds more animated over this all-Japanese music fest's three days than female duo Puffy. Now in their 30s, Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura have been plying their punkish, made-for-karaoke...
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 21, 2007

Yano, Rawl pursue new path to sporting success

The first real innovator in human history invented the wheel, ushering in an era of lighter workloads and easier trips. Others have made notable contributions: Thomas Edison perfected the light bulb; Johannes Gutenberg gave us the printing press; and Wilbur and Orville Wright demonstrated that airplanes...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2007

Don't underestimate Hamas' extremism

PRAGUE — Hamas' capture of the Gaza Strip has created, along with Iran, a second radical Islamist state in the Middle East. The region, probably the Arab-Israeli conflict and certainly the Palestinian movement will never be the same.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 19, 2007

Second Life, second lingo

There probably aren't many English teachers in Japan who go to work carrying a samurai sword, dressed in battle armor, with a large Stars and Stripes strapped to their back. But happily for Chris Flesuras, in 3-D virtual world Second Life little is impossible.
COMMENTARY
Jun 19, 2007

Giving China the red hook

LOS ANGELES — U.S. Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer has a tiger by the tail. And since he hails from the mean streets of Brooklyn, you can count on the fact that he's not about to let go soon, no matter how loudly the tiger roars.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Jun 17, 2007

Frontale waste chance to gain ground on Gamba

KAWASAKI — With their full complement of forwards, Kawasaki Frontale possess a fluid attacking threat able to dissect defenses far better than the one presented by Kashiwa Reysol on Saturday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 17, 2007

Bureaucrats discovered to be pathetically human

Few fixtures of civilization invite more derision than bureaucracy. We understand that government agencies are necessary for the smooth operation of civic life but bristle at the prospect of having to interact with them. Public offices are cold, monolithic things, operating on principles that have little...

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