Word: japanized
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TOKYO Spring blossoms in Japan...
Vladimir Putin's regional roulette has many fronts but just two primary stakes: oil and pride. Russia is nursing border disputes with Norway and Japan, but the real emotional outbursts come with the former Soviet states, many of whom are sidling up to NATO or the E.U. Among the weapons wielded: troop deployments, trade embargoes and immigration quotas. Late last year Russia hiked gas and oil prices to Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine, all countries resisting the Kremlin's political embrace. With former satellites like Azerbaijan planning oil pipelines that bypass Russia, expect more hurt feelings--and more rough play...
...JAPAN Fishermen and Russia's navy clash in a long conflict over control of Kurile Islands...
...worry the corporate overlords who run Japanese baseball. Matsuzaka is just the latest in a series of Japanese players who have left their home league at the peak of their career. The emigration has done wonders for the worldwide reputation of Japanese baseball players but not for baseball in Japan. While Dice-K (a fratty phonetic rendering of Daisuke that has become his new American nickname) can't blow a bubble without the media watching, attendance at Japanese professional games has sagged. TV ratings for the Yomiuri Giants, by far the country's most popular team, are so low that...
...good news is that baseball as a game hasn't lost its grip on the Japanese soul. Every summer Japan is transfixed by the national high school baseball championship tournament, so passionate that it makes March Madness look like a pickup game at the YMCA. Ratings for local pro games may be low, but millions of Japanese will tune in to Matsuzaka's Red Sox games. If Japanese pro ball can liberalize--perhaps by sharing revenue to add competitive balance--there's no reason it can't recapture Japan. After all, there are some aspects of the Japanese game that...