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Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 7, 2009

Beer fest brings out the bands

Enjoy beers and free live music from a variety of genres in Tokyo's Shiodome.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 6, 2009

My plan to achieve nuclear disarmament

NEW YORK — The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 marked an end and a beginning. The close of World War II ushered in a Cold War, with a precarious peace based on the threat of mutually assured destruction.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Aug 5, 2009

Time for Apache to do right thing with Joe Bryant

It's been 2 1/2 months since the Ryukyu Golden Kings defeated the Tokyo Apache in the bj-league championship game.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 4, 2009

Strict rules in play to keep campaigning above board

Since Prime Minister Taro Aso dissolved the Lower House last month and announced Aug. 18 would be the official start of campaigning for the Aug. 30 general election, hundreds of undeclared candidates have been making the rounds to attract voters.
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2009

First lay judge trial kicks off in Tokyo

The first trial involving lay judges kicked off Monday in the Tokyo District Court with Katsuyoshi Fujii, 72, pleading guilty to murdering his neighbor, Mun Chun Ja, 66, in May.
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2009

Those off lay judge hook feel relieved

Relief was the overriding emotion of the candidates who weren't picked in a final lottery draw Monday to participate in the first criminal trial under the new lay judge system.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Aug 4, 2009

Unlike humans, swine flu is indiscriminate

The biggest news a few months ago, now affecting every prefecture in Japan, has blipped off our radar screens. For the time being.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 2, 2009

Forgotten Igawa continues to toil for Yanks in minors

Last week we examined the situations of pitchers Masahide Kobayashi (recently released by the Cleveland Indians) and Yasuhiko Yabuta (still treading water on the Kansas City Royals farm team at Omaha) and suggested they give up the major league dream, return home and pitch for a Central or Pacific League...
Reader Mail
Aug 2, 2009

Questions fly over arrest of tourist

Brian Hedge's July 28 letter, "Pocket knife lands tourist, 74, in lockup," presented in the Hotline to Nagatacho column, relates what seems to be an unfortunate incident stemming from police being overly zealous to enforce a new law. However, the article also raises a number of questions.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 1, 2009

Baseball expert lines up new book on mobsters in Japan

Robert Whiting is best known as an expert on baseball. But he's much more than that. He's also an expert on mobsters in Japan and the sound a radar site makes when it is "spotted" by a U2 spy plane.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 31, 2009

Escape from propaganda

Artist, architect, designer, photographer, curator, writer, editor, activist — Ai Weiwei is many things. This multiplicity of means all serve a united end that centers on the existential question: What does human freedom mean in China today?
Reader Mail
Jul 30, 2009

Advice about the Google accord

Regarding the July 22 article Google Books leaves Japan in legal limbo": I'm glad that Japanese authors and publishers are benefiting from the delay in the Google settlement. I was one of seven authors and their representatives who challenged the May 5 deadline. Google wanted to grant only a one-month...
Reader Mail
Jul 30, 2009

Words can't make up for tragedy

Regarding the July 20 article "Agent sorry for mountain deaths": The only proper way this tour company could acknowledge its gross failure in the eight deaths of senior citizen hikers who entrusted their lives to it would be to shut down its mountain activities for good. "Wet-cold" is one of the first...
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2009
Jul 29, 2009

Politicians tap Twitter to tweak profiles

At 6:44 p.m. on July 15, Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Seiji Osaka posed a question on his Twitter profile: "I think bringing the voting age down to 18 years old is OK. What do you think about it?"
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2009

Uniqlo operator wins PR awards

Fast Retailing Co., operator of the popular Uniqlo casual clothing retail chain, has been awarded this year's best corporate communications prize by the public relations arm of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren).
COMMENTARY
Jul 28, 2009

Challenge of a straight question

LONDON — Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, recently was asked twice by the Defense Committee of the House of Commons whether the army chief of staff had requested that reinforcements of 2,000 men be sent to Afghanistan, where British forces have recently suffered a string of casualties. Brown...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Jul 28, 2009

English speakers gather for human rights

Amnesty International Tokyo English Network offers English speakers, both native and otherwise, an opportunity to participate in the activities of the worldwide human rights organization Amnesty International while in Japan.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jul 27, 2009

Dollar beauty may be fading but it still tops currency pageant list

The Group of Eight countries and the outreach participants in the July 8-10 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, discussed promotion of an international currency system that is stable and functions well. But it remains an elusive goal to find concrete ways of reforming the system.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 27, 2009

Mettle of 'thoroughbreds'

What does Prime Minister Taro Aso have in common with his immediate predecessors — Junichiro Koizumi, Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda? Each is either a son or a grandson of a well-known politician of the past.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Jul 27, 2009

How to Japonese

The blog How To Japonese should appeal to anyone studying intermediate and advanced Japanese, but don't expect structured step-by-step courses. Launched in 2008 by Daniel Morales, a New Orleanian who first came to Japan in 2002 and currently works as a translation coordinator in Tokyo, the blog pretty...
Reader Mail
Jul 26, 2009

For a more beautiful fortification

I have just read Alice Gordenker's July 16 column — "So, what the heck is that?" — about ishigaki construction at Japan's castles. The article conveyed interesting information about engineering design, but I think that the castle expert quoted in the article, Yasuhiro Nishigaya, has been misled about...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 26, 2009

Myth-buster points the way to Japan's role as 'credit-crunch' pioneer

T here are five myths circulating the globe regarding the financial crisis that has it in its grip. This is the view of Pavel Minakir, director of the Institute of Applied Economic Research in Khabarovsk, Russia. His fascinating and sobering assessment of these myths appeared in a recent issue of the...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 26, 2009

China vets shock archivist with 'horrible things they did'

In 1999, Sinitirou Kumagai dropped out of university, got on his motorbike and set out to begin what he now calls his "life work" — traveling from one end of Japan to the other to record the testimonies of former soldiers stationed in China between the 1930s and the end of World War II in 1945.
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2009

Disaster warnings still lag

Floods and landslides triggered by torrential rains this week in Yamaguchi Prefecture have resulted in the deaths or disappearances of 17 people.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go