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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 14, 2011

'Due Date'

Radio stations tend to broadcast live material with a seven- second delay on their signal, so they can have a brief window to censor people dropping "F"-bombs and the like. Comedian Zach Galifianakis isn't really worried about being offensive — see "The Hangover" — but it often feels like there's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 7, 2011

Dommune live-streams DJ sets to a growing fan base

The crowd bristles with excitement as the first DJ of the night winds down his set. An air of anticipation sets in around the room. As the next DJ enters the booth with his CD booklet in hand, the throng begins to swarm the tiny floor, no larger than your grandmother's basement. Four Tet is about to...
CULTURE / Film
Nov 12, 2010

'Spring Fever'

Director Lou Ye continues to prove he's one of the more daring directors working in China today with his latest, "Spring Fever." Or perhaps I should say, one of the more daring directors not working in China today, for Lou was placed on the government censors' blacklist in 2006 after his last film, "Summer...
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Oct 3, 2010

Shoji makes a splash in international debut

With world junior champion Kanako Murakami moving up to the senior ranks this season, there may have been some trepidation in Japanese skating circles about who would represent the next wave of young talent among the ladies.
COMMENTARY
Aug 22, 2010

Flying the humanitarian flag among Muslims

NEW YORK — What's the one major issue the West absolutely and totally must get right in the years ahead? If the obvious answer is not peaceful international relations with an increasingly assertive China, then it has to be the West's ever-more complicated relationship with the world's Muslims.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 30, 2010

LCD Soundsystem bring some edge to Fuji Rock Fest

Share your experience at Fuji Rock with The Japan Times Be sure to check out our live online coverage of the 2010 Fuji Rock Festival at tokyo.japantimes.co.jp. We'll feature interviews with some of the acts, reviews of all the major performances and lots of visuals.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / A SCORCHING SUMMER SCHEDULE
Jul 2, 2010

Fuji Rock Festival: Atoms For Peace

It sounded like a practical joke at first: Radiohead's Thom Yorke starting a band with frat-funk bassist Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers? But after a string of successful dates in the United States, including California's Coachella Festival, it's clear that Atoms for Peace mean business — and know...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 23, 2010

'Johnny Mad Dog'/'Clash of the Titans'

For a quick snapshot of the alternate and opposing directions being taken by cinema in the 21st century, it's worth considering a pair of films on release this weekend: "Johnny Mad Dog," by French director Jean-Stephane Sauvaire, is a provocative, intensely realist look at child soldiers on the rampage...
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Feb 20, 2010

Proposed new league will have major obstacles to overcome

To accurately describe what's been going on for several years now in this nation's pro hoop scene, I submit the following analogy:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 2, 2009

Creating a catalyst for self-reflection

"One of the hardest missions for people is to face themselves in the mirror, to criticize themselves, to ask themselves really basic questions," says ex-Israeli soldier Avichay Sharon. "No one wants to touch sensitive nerves, no one wants to go underneath, scratch underneath within himself." Sharon is...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Oct 8, 2008

Murakami case shows JSF short on skater support

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.''
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 27, 2008

VOCA: A look at the state of 2-D

Given the profusion of events lined up for next week, it's easy to believe that Tokyo is going through a contemporary art renaissance. Since the opening of the Mori Art Museum in 2003, contemporary art has arguably enjoyed a higher profile than it has in the past 30 years in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 20, 2007

Seeking collectors in Shanghai, not censors

Shanghai Exhibition Center is a massive, Stalinist birthday-cake of a building surrounded by newly constructed glass-and-steel skyscrapers in Shanghai's center. Originally know as Palace of the Sino-Soviet Friendship, from Sept. 6 to 9, the exhibition center had within its walls a new, capitalist friend,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 8, 2006

Arab Strap celebrate '10 years of tears' with sayonara tour

Pop artists tend to be identified by their musical stylings. But some, like Scottish duo Arab Strap, are associated more with specific themes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Aug 11, 2006

Psychedelic radar 08.11

Mother: Aug. 13-15
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jul 24, 2006

Kyushu showers let up long enough for All-Stars to play ball

MIYAZAKI -- Kyushu, what a boulevard of broken sweat.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 7, 2006

Deejay U-Roy's still-righteous chat

"Wake the town and tell the people" rings the trademark battle cry of Jamaican deejay extraordinaire U-Roy, who plays three live dates in Japan this weekend.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 22, 2006

Innovation, individuality in the mix

One place where language and cultural differences are barely an issue for Japanese artists is at the annual Barcelona electronica and multimedia event Sonar, which is part music industry showcase, part festival for ordinary music fans.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 9, 2006

Eye looks to tranquillity after his contrived chaos

"I don't really think I have any musicianship. I can't play any instruments. I have no technique. I really can't do anything. I have no professional skill at all. I'm also a crap DJ. I'm really not very deft! Really I'm crap . . . and I've been doing it for 10 years!" says Yamataka Eye, leader of the...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 19, 2006

Clean living under very difficult circumstances

To the legions of impeccably attired ravers who will attend the Mods Mayday '06 Weekender taking place this weekend in Tokyo, "mod" is about a whole lot more than renting a DVD of the 1979 mods and rockers classic "Quadrophenia" or throwing a beaten-up Kinks LP from their dad's record collection on the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 25, 2005

Help the disabled, but don't deny them

Several years ago, the government discussed state-sponsored care for people with disabilities. The idea was to assist mentally and physically disabled people in leaving publicly-funded facilities and entering society; or, at least, that was how it was presented.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2004

Salsa fanatics defy rigid Japan

A pulsating mambo fills the air at a cavernous club near Tokyo Bay. "Ayyy-esssooo!" the song calls in exhortation as a sea of dancers -- sweaty, skin bared, clothes clinging -- roll their hips and hurtle into turns with increasing abandon.
Japan Times
Features
Oct 10, 2004

Altogether now for the business of peace

LAYTONVILLE, Calif. -- Running a nonprofit organization with a global mission of promoting peace activities and sustainability might seem noble but naive to the skeptical, but Chris Deckker takes his role seriously as the founder of Earthdance.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 4, 2004

Tiger's agent Steinberg says business better than ever

Mark Steinberg is the agent for the world's No. 1 golfer Tiger Woods.
EDITORIALS
Mar 30, 2004

A test for Taiwan's democracy

Ten days after Taiwan's presidential election yielded a contested result, there are signs of progress in resolving the political crisis it created. The winner of the vote, President Chen Shui-bian, last weekend promised a recount to defuse mounting tensions. The recount is a vital step in sorting out...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 25, 2004

Discovering the bright side of the 'dark continent'

When I was young, Africa and its people were represented to me through two distinct sets of images. The first, delivered by National Geographic and other anthropological sources, were the cliched photographs of tribesmen gripping spears in their hands and bare-breasted woman balancing baskets on their...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDEN PATHS
Sep 25, 2003

Lush 'theme park' of the shoguns

Four hundred years ago, Edo was little more than a fishing village in the large domain of Tokugawa Ieyasu. But then, in 1603, the new shogun made this quiet spot his power base, and over the next two centuries Edo became one of the greatest cities in the world. Remarkably, the Koishikawa Korakuen garden,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 4, 2002

No fear of flying

"There's no such thing as improvisation," the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia once said. "There's only composition. Only you do it quickly; you're composing on the spot."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2002

It takes a village . . .

The feat of building a community takes vision, commitment and lots of time. But once every year, a massive village materializes on a mountainside in Niigata Prefecture in late July, only to vanish into thin air less than a week later.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?