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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 11, 2006

Mary Ishin Sung Katayama

Educated in Japan and the U.S., and each year making frequent official trips to Europe, Mary Ishin Sung Katayama says that she thinks of herself as borderless. "I love to travel and feel a need to be on the go every month or two," she said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 10, 2006

Zoobombs redefine borderline pop

There's a story behind every song -- but like all tales, some are more compelling than others.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2006

Clues to living in a stress-filled society

We live in a high-pressure, high-stress society. In Japan, the symptoms of extreme levels of stress are seen in the "death from overwork" syndrome and a tragically high suicide rate. Vicious bullying among children is likewise a reflec- tion of this stress.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / POPULATION SYMPOSIUM
Nov 9, 2006

Environment, not career major hurdle to big families

See the main story: Low birthrate threatens Japan's future See related story: French values and child-care policies put family before work
BUSINESS
Nov 9, 2006

Softbank moves into black with good first-half results

Softbank Corp. announced Wednesday that it returned to profitability during the April-September period, helped by its acquisition of Vodafone Group PLC's Japanese mobile-phone unit and a turnaround in its broadband Internet and fixed-line telecom business.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 9, 2006

Tokyo National Museum shows Buddhist masterpieces

Living in a land still largely covered with forest, it is not surprising that Japanese have a special reverence toward wood. We see this particularly in traditional architecture, where wood is not only chosen to reveal its best qualities, but is largely left unpainted so that its beauty improves with...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 8, 2006

Expected behavior in a school jungle

That large clucking sound you are hearing is the sound of breakdowns in Japan's over-regulated education system forcing some very large chickens to come home and roost in the Kasumigaseki premises of Japan's conservative education ministry, MEXT.
COMMENTARY
Nov 6, 2006

Outrage over simple truths

LONDON -- A "gaffe" is a true statement that outrages the hypocrites, who then mobilize to shut the truth-teller up. The most common gaffes are about politics and religion, because those are the areas where the level of hypocrisy is highest. Which explains former U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry's...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Nov 4, 2006

JEF retains Nabisco Cup with win over Antlers

Like father, like son.
EDITORIALS
Nov 4, 2006

Renewal of a commitment

On Oct. 27 the Diet approved extending for another year -- from Nov. 1 -- the special antiterrorism law that, among other things, allows Maritime Self-Defense Force ships to refuel navy ships of the United States and other nations in the Indian Ocean in support of the security campaign in Afghanistan....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 4, 2006

Charmers of the Inland Sea

My landlord drives a ferry. Having grown up on an island in the Inland Sea, it was only natural for him to take up a job on a boat. Many islanders become captains of ferries, cargo ships, and tug boats. Ship captains in Japan can retire at age 55 and get a very nice pension. The problem is, it's hard...
EDITORIALS
Nov 4, 2006

Ideology ahead of education reform

The Diet is now discussing a bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education, a carry-over from the previous session. The main point in the revision proposed by the government is to instill love of nation in children -- which carries the danger of imposing on children a particular view of the "correct"...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 4, 2006

Hooked on the concept of sustainable fishing

Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market -- the largest in the world -- is oddly quiet early afternoon. Yet climb a steep flight of steps above a small warehouse and the pace is frenetic.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 3, 2006

Unheralded Giants big in tie

Meeting the Yomiuri Giants wasn't much fun for the San Diego giant.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Nov 3, 2006

A wave to Setagaya

Home to approximately one tenth of the total citizenry of all of Tokyo's 23 wards, Setagaya houses 800,000 people, the same figure as the population for the entire island of Oahu, Hawaii. At both places, people seem to have come in waves.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 3, 2006

It's not about porn, it's all about art

Lucile Hadzihalilovic strides into a room and the mood immediately becomes dense with awe. It's not just her striking looks or her height (over 1.85 meters in stockings), but the way she seems to mute these things behind a natural quietness and engaging shyness, as if she's whispering: "Please don't...
SPORTS / E-LIST
Nov 2, 2006

'Babe Factor' puts butts in Sapporo seats

SAPPORO -- The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters have already won the first two Japan Series games played on the northern island, and they are about to win its first championship.More than 41,000 people have come out for each postseason game at Sapporo Dome, and the main reason for that is the "Babe Factor."...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2006

Japan stands firm with sanctions on North Korea

Japan will continue the economic sanctions it leveled against North Korea despite Pyongyang's apparent about-face on returning to the multilateral talks to end its nuclear threat, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a news conference Wednesday.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Nov 2, 2006

Joe Bryant and Apache reaching out to community

It's 10:45 on Tuesday morning. Tokyo Apache coach Joe Bryant and his players are busy preparing for another day in the gym. They bring the necessary attire -- sneakers, baggy shorts, jerseys -- and, of course, their basketballs. They have a special audience, too.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Nov 1, 2006

NBA moving to crack down on Cuban

NEW YORK -- Behind closed doors at last week's NBA Board of Governors meeting, a special session was convened to chastise Mark Cuban for behavior unbecoming that escalated to an everyday low during the NBA Finals last June.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Nov 1, 2006

NFL owners showing ignorance by nixing Japan for regular-season games

The oversight was about as subtle as a cockroach on a white rug.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 31, 2006

Slow food, an attitude as much as a meal

In the 1960s, Japan's first instant ramen changed people's eating habits significantly by making it possible to get dinner in as little as three minutes. Even putting fast food and microwave dinners aside, eating has become easier and more functional since those days, due either to higher living standards...
MORE SPORTS
Oct 30, 2006

Major pockets fall Emperor's Cup

The win was in the numbers Sunday at Fuchu as Daiwa Major captured his second grade 1 race of his career with victory in the fall Emperor's Cup. Racing from the No. 14 post over 2,000 meters of turf, as he had done for his first top-level victory in the Satsukisho two years ago, the feisty 5-year-old...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 29, 2006

Children's welfare in the doghouse

This past week the nation was shocked by the news of yet another small child who died at the hands of abusive and negligent adults.
EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 2006

Japanese and the 'Paris syndrome'

How many victims does it take to make a syndrome? According to a French newspaper, a dozen a year will do. In the case of a trend it has dubbed "Paris syndrome," that would be the 12 or so Japanese tourists a year who are said to be so disenchanted by their encounter with the fabled French capital that...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 28, 2006

Seguignol Shimmy, Shinjo's tears . . . and more

SAPPORO -- The Japan Series wrapped up Thursday in Hokkaido, and Japan Times baseball writer Stephen Ellsesser is taking the first train out of here, before hopping a plane for Tokyo.

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