Japan Times

The March 7 article "Emotionalized debate blurs valuable functions of Futenma," by Dan Melton and Robert D. Eldridge, characterized my statement that the U.S. Marine Corp Air Station at Futenma, Okinawa, "has not been operational since the termination of the Vietnam War" (from the Feb. 14 letter "Air base mystifies, not the alliance") as an example of the "wild" statements surrounding the Futenma controversy.
I am happy to concede that my statement could be construed as incomplete — though it is clear enough from context, one would think. By "operational," I meant that no U.S. Marines have been dispatched from Futenma into Asian theaters of war for the past 35 years. The statement was worded on the premise that, given the present realities within Okinawa, the air station needs to fulfill its primary function of enabling, resisting or deterring attack, to justify a replacement on Okinawan soil.

We mentioned last week going to Okinawa to visit spring training camps last month, and baseball on that island is about to get an upgrade from the completion of construction on the 30,000-seat Onoyama Stadium.
The new ballpark is the latest in a series of "Field of Dreams" baseball facilities, sparkling new major league-type stadiums put up in recent years in cities around Japan where no professional franchise is located, some in the midst of residential neighborhoods or rice paddies seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

The Kyoto Hannaryz celebrated shooting guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf's 41st birthday on Tuesday. They had another reason to celebrate on Saturday.
The first-year expansion team earned the biggest win in franchise history, defeating the title-chasing Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix 74-69 at home.

I feel that the headline of the March 4 article "Foreigners get nod to skip social insurance" is misleading and will cause further confusion on the issue. Foreigners have not gotten the "nod" to skip their legal obligation to enroll in one of the two national health plans and the national pension plan.
Whether the Immigration Bureau checks, or not checks, foreigners' enrollment in social insurance when they come in to renew their visas has no bearing on the original law or laws mandating enrollment. Immigration Bureau guidelines were drawn up by the Justice Ministry, of which the Immigration Bureau is a part. The national health and pension plans fall under the jurisdiction of the health and welfare ministry, which has not changed the laws requiring all of us working and living in Japan to enroll in those plans.

The coast guard inspected a whaling ship Saturday at Yokohama port in the presence of a New Zealand antiwhaling activist under arrest for trespassing after boarding the vessel in the Antarctic Ocean last month.
The coast guard wants to confirm how Pete Bethune, 44, of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, boarded the Shonan Maru No. 2, the whaling fleet's security vessel.

The death in February of a killer-whale trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, made headlines all over the world. As has been widely reported, Dawn Brancheau, an experienced orca trainer, was dragged by her hair into the whale's pool, where she died of traumatic injuries and drowning.
The incident has led to a chorus of disapproval about keeping cetaceans in captivity, and debate about whether captive animals should be freed. Anti-whaling campaigners from the United States who complain about Japan's whaling program might want to reflect on how their own country treats cetaceans next time they criticize Japan.

SINGAPORE — Not long before U.S. President Barack Obama held his low-key meeting in the White House with the exiled Tibetan leader last month, the Dalai Lama, a Chinese Embassy spokesman in Washington issued a statement on the talks and the U.S. decision to provide a new package of defensive arms to Taiwan.
"China's positions on issues like arms sales to Taiwan, and Tibet, have been consistent and clear," Wang Baodong said, "as these issues bear on sovereignty and territorial integrity, which are close to Chinese core national interests."

Kenichi Tago became the first Japanese player in 40 years to reach the men's singles semifinals at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, on Friday, beating Beijing Olympic bronze medalist Chen Jin of China 2-1.
The 20-year-old Tago is the first to make the final four since Ippei Kojima took third at the 1970 tournament, a meet which once decided the world's best, according to badminton officials.

WASHINGTON (AP) As a group of reporters approached Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Matt Walker in the visitors' locker room Friday night, a teammate teased, "The superstar's here!"
Another called out, "You know his nickname? 'The Ocho,' " a reference to Walker's jersey No. 8.

NEW YORK (AP) LaDainian Tomlinson's visit with the New York Jets is going to overtime.
The free agent running back met with team officials at the Jets' training facility in Florham Park, N.J., on Friday and had dinner with coach Rex Ryan, general manager Mike Tannenbaum and others in New Jersey.

Prada Japan's senior retail manager said Saturday she had failed to reach a settlement with the Italian fashion label in a dispute alleging the company harassed her and other employees.
The manager, Rina Bovrisse, told The Japan Times she will prepare to take further legal action against the company.

As a member of the Diet's Upper House and as director general of the Democratic Party of Japan's International Department, I wish to comment on the circumstances of The Washington Post editorial "Poisonous thinking in Japan," which The Japan Times published on this page March 10. [The editorial referred to my ideas about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as "bizarre."]
On March 3, Washington Post editorial writer Lee Hockstader visited me for an interview — requested through the Foreign Press Center — on Japan's attitudes toward immigration. The requested interview time of one hour was spent discussing the current situation relating to Japan's response to immigration and my opinions on this issue. Hockstader typed my comments into his laptop computer as he had requested.

SAPPORO (Kyodo) Seven residents of a nursing home for the elderly with dementia in Sapporo died in a fire early Saturday morning, police said.
Another resident, an 83-year-old woman, and a 24-year-old female employee were taken to a hospital. The worker is suffering from burns in her throat but is not in a life-threatening condition, while the resident is unhurt, they said.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) Carmelo Anthony had the whole repertoire working.
There were graceful rainbow jumpers from 6 meters, tough layups in crowds, backdoor cuts for two-handed jams and even some gritty offensive rebounds and putbacks.

The Nuclear Safety Commission on Feb. 22 gave the go-ahead to starting the test run of the prototype fast-breeder reactor (FBR) Monju in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture. If the prefectural and municipal governments give their consent, the test run should begin by the end of March at the earliest.
The 280,000 kW FBR, which uses a mixed nuclear fuel of uranium and plutonium and is intended to produce more fuel than it burns, is an important part of a nuclear fuel cycle Japan hopes to establish. In the cycle, spent nuclear fuel will be processed to extract plutonium, which will be then used as nuclear fuel.

"In some rural areas even today, elderly villagers face the rising sun each morning, clap their hands together, and hail the appearance of the sun over the peaks of the nearby mountains as 'the coming of the kami,' " — so wrote historian Takeshi Matsumae in "The Cambridge History of Japan," published in 1993. W hat is Shinto? There is no answer; its devotees hardly seek one.
Who or what are the kami, the myriad objects of Shinto worship? Nobody knows; knowledge seems beside the point.

KONAN, Kochi Pref. (Kyodo) Rikako Morita carded a 2-under 70 on Saturday to take a one-shot lead into the final round of the Yokohama Tire PRGR Ladies Cup.
The 20-year-old Morita, looking for her first career win on the tour, mixed four birdies with two bogeys to reach 7-under 137 at Tosa Country Club in Kochi Prefecture.

YOKOHAMA — Shunsuke Nakamura enjoyed a winning return to the J. League as Yokohama F. Marinos cruised past Shonan Bellmare 3-0 on Saturday.
Nakamura's transfer to the club where he began his career did not go through in time for last weekend's season-opening defeat to FC Tokyo, but there was nothing stopping the former Reggina, Celtic and Espanyol star from pulling on the Yokohama colors for the first time in almost eight years at Nissan Stadium.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) Tim Lincecum stayed under cover on the dugout steps and quickly assessed the heavy rain soaking the San Francisco Giants' spring training field.
Then he was off, headed to the weight room for a workout. Entering his third full major league season, the two-time reigning NL Cy Young Award winner knows he needs to take his routine up a notch in order to maintain his dominance on the mound.

People in the same business slapping one another on the back should hardly be of interest to anyone outside that business, but to paraphrase "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" the business called "show" is an entirely different animal. That's why we display a disproportionate fascination with the Academy Awards, which basically provide an opportunity for certain lucky individuals to congratulate themselves for having secured employment in the movie industry.
They get away with this by pretending that the awards are about merit, when they're actually about image. It's no secret that the producers of last week's Oscar telecast had reconfigured the ceremony to make it more acceptable as TV entertainment. The awards themselves are not enough of a draw because most people are less interested in who wins than in who shows up. As Anthony Lane pointed out at newyorker.com, older stars were effectively marginalized this year — the lifetime achievement awards, which always go to geezers, were not given out during the broadcast — so that more young celebrities could take part and, it was hoped, attract a younger audience.

Regarding Eric Johnston's March 4 article, "Battle lines drawn across Nagoya land": Many people may see no reason to save such a small tract of open land shared with local flora and fauna. I may be an Australian who has had all-too-brief contact with Japan, but if I were still teaching in Japan, I would be fighting tooth and nail to have these areas conserved — not only for the well-being of the local people but also for future generations — to demonstrate what is really meant by sustainability.
The national and regional departments responsible for Japan's heritage and environment need to work to preserve such rare and wonderful ecosystems like this satoyama.

I wish to express my disappointment with the contents of the March 8 editorial, "A 'first step' in South Asia." While I appreciate the overall thrust of the editorial in welcoming the modest progress made in Pakistan-India relations, I take exception to the distorted interpretation of historical facts on the Kashmir dispute and the projection of a one-sided picture on the Pakistan-India peace process.
The editorial observes that, for Islamabad, "Kashmir is a Muslim territory and therefore should be part of the Muslim state of Pakistan." Pakistan's principled position on Jammu and Kashmir is not based on emotions but on U.N. Security Council resolutions that acknowledge it as a disputed territory and not part of India. The resolutions provide that the final disposition of Jammu and Kashmir will be made in accordance with the will of the Kashmiri people. Pakistan is committed to this position.

Renowned American poet to perform in Kyoto
The Japan International Poetry Society invites people to an English-language poetry event on March 22 in Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto.

The makeover variety show "Kasupe! Beauty Colosseum" was a weekly series up until a few years ago, and its return to Fuji TV this Tuesday at 7 p.m. is for a 2-hour " kiseki no daigekihen " (miracle super change) special.
The guest is a woman who is overweight and describes her features as being "simian and masculine-looking." All through her school days she was cruelly teased by classmates. After graduating she got a full-time job and managed to lose weight, but as a consequence her "poor bone structure" was emphasized and she became a shut-in, afraid to interact with other people.

In A.D. 552 (or 538 — experts disagree; some say it never happened) a Korean envoy presented himself at the Japanese court of Emperor Kimmei.
The Korea of that time was split among several perpetually warring kingdoms. The three largest were Kokuli, Silla and Paikche. The envoy was from Paikche, whose defenses were buckling under attack by Silla.