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JAPAN

Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2009
DPJ flattering to deceive: Hosoda
The policy platform unveiled by the Democratic Party of Japan is full of pledges simply to woo voters ahead of the Aug. 30 Lower House election, Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Hiroyuki Hosoda lamented Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WITNESS TO WAR
Aug 14, 2009
For vet, Soviet labor camp as bad as war
24th in a series

BUSINESS

Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Aug 14, 2009
High quality proves key ingredient to success
High-priced but good-quality products will win the hearts of customers every time. This is the belief of Masamichi Toyama, founder of Soup Stock Tokyo, and so far he has proved it.
BUSINESS
Aug 14, 2009
Lehman moves to block Shinsei
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the investment bank liquidating in bankruptcy, said it may be out of pocket by $500 million if Shinsei Bank Ltd. gains control of the reorganization of an Asian Lehman unit, Sunrise Finance Co.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 14, 2009
Bucking trend, Honda backs hydrogen
Honda Motor Co. believes hydrogen will power the cars of the future, a stance at odds with the Obama administration's decision to drop automotive fuel-cell technology in favor of battery-run vehicles.

Opinion

EDITORIALS
Aug 14, 2009
Smooth start to new trials
The first criminal trial under the lay judge system ended in Tokyo District Court last week, and a second such trial wrapped up in Saitama District Court on Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 14, 2009
Party leaders out of the gate
Prime Minister Taro Aso and Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Hatoyama held their first election debate Wednesday. Mr. Aso strove to paint the DPJ as a party with no governing ability, and tried to sell his Liberal Democratic Party as the "responsible" one that implements policy based on a solid...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 14, 2009
Cory Aquino's legacy of enriched freedom
MANILA — The death of former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino — "Tita Cory" to most of the 92 million people of the Philippines — left behind a precious inheritance: a legacy of freedom that the Philippines came to share with oppressed peoples around the world.

Sports

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Aug 14, 2009
Fighters rally past Buffaloes
The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters haven't figured out how to handle Tuffy Rhodes yet, but they're becoming experts at corralling the rest of the Orix Buffaloes.
D'Antona hits stride for surging Swallows
If September is as good to Jamie D'Antona as July was, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows might be playing baseball in late October.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 14, 2009
Sprint queen Fukushima looking forward to challenge at worlds
How quickly things can change.

LIFE

Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Aug 14, 2009
'Tapas Night' at the Hilton Tokyo
Friday and Saturday evenings at the Hilton Tokyo's first-floor Marble Lounge are "Tapas Night," with traditional Spanish tapas appetizers, Spanish wine and cocktails, and the passionate rhythms of a flamenco guitarist (Fridays only).
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 14, 2009
The spiritual side of making wine
Between the cold steel of enormous fermentation tanks and the state-of-the-art equipment in the tasting rooms of today's modern wineries, it's hard to believe that there is any element of the winemaking process that is not governed by the strict dictates of science. So imagine my surprise when, visiting...

CULTURE

Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 14, 2009
Junko Onishi
Eleven years is a long time to be out of the spotlight. For a musician, 11 years between albums usually results in a drastic change in style, sometimes not for the better, or an outdated sound that attracts only die-hard fans. However, Junko Onishi, 42, avoids both these fates because of a couple of...
CULTURE / Music
Aug 14, 2009
Summer Sonic: 10 years zoom by
Japan's biggest urban rock festival, Summer Sonic (SS), held simultaneously in Chiba and Osaka, marked its tenth anniversary last weekend by expanding from two days to three. All three-day tickets for the Chiba end at the Chiba Marine Stadium and Makuhari Messe complex in Chiba were sold out before...
CULTURE / Music
Aug 14, 2009
The Boom Boom beat goes on
Thanks to their jaw-dropping live act and the danceable nature of their techno-rock tunes, Boom Boom Satellites are one of Japan's top festival draws. Having already headlined the second stage at Fuji Rock in 2007 and with a clutch of foreign festival appearances under their belt, this year the band...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 14, 2009
Playwright Tomohiro Maekawa finds the uncanny in the mundane
In February this year, 35-year-old Tomohiro Maekawa's reputation was given a boost when he was nominated in both the best-playwright and best-director categories of the prestigious Yomiuri Theater Awards. Although Maekawa didn't walk away with an award; the nominations, coming just six years after he...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 14, 2009
'Cadillac Records'
After Hollywood's huge success with "Dreamgirls," the thinly fictionalized story of legendary soul/R&B label Motown, along comes "Cadillac Records." This musical biopic goes one step further back in the history of black American music, and comes up with a thinly fictionalized look at legendary blues...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 14, 2009
Eastern Youth "Hohaba to Taiyou"
Formed in Sapporo in 1988, last year marked Tokyo trio Eastern Youth's 20th anniversary. To commemorate the occasion they issued two retrospective discs and performed for the first time on Fuji Rock's Green Stage, the renowned festival's largest performance area. The newly released "Hohaba to Taiyou"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 14, 2009
'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas'
Forty years after the fall of the Third Reich, French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann made "Shoah," a 9 1/2-hour documentary about the Holocaust. The film still endures today as the definitive film on Nazism and the death camps.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 14, 2009
'Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl'
Japanese filmmakers will almost always tell you that they make films for the domestic market first and foremost. If foreigners happen to like them too, that's a nice little bonus, like an after-dinner mint.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 14, 2009
Dancing to N.Y. and back
Trying to rate the energy levels of a troupe of Broadway performers is like looking at a group of ants and trying to work out which is walking the fastest. They all seem to be going at 120 percent.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 14, 2009
Mexico's search for an artistic identity
What kind of art would best represent a rapidly developing country coming out of the social upheaval of a violent revolution — especially when it had, only a century before that, just thrown off the yoke of colonial rule? Twentieth-century Mexico faced just this question — how it attempted to answer...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
Aug 14, 2009
Hachiko: A Dog's Story
Director: Lasse Hallstrom
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 14, 2009
Breaking all the rules in ceramics
For many people, the term "ceramic art" conjures up the image of functional ware on a dinner table: cups and bowls filled with food and drink, or perhaps ornate European platters or wabi-sabi Japanese teapots. To others, it may mean terra-cotta figurines or simply sculpture that uses clay as its primary...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji