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LIFE / WEEK 3
Aug 16, 2009

Aussie vet wishes POW painters well

Australian Harold Moss is looking for a few Japanese painters — and not just anyone with a brush and a can of paint will do.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 16, 2009

Shoplifting detectives; TOKIO vs. Takako Matsu; Doraemon in love

When evening news shows have time to fill they often run short reports by freelance news teams about pressing social problems. A common theme right now is the rise of shoplifting among senior citizens, a development that has in turn given rise to specialty security guards who patrol department stores...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Aug 16, 2009

Fishery fair nets shoals of hopefuls

The recruiters and job-seekers gathered recently in a hall in central Tokyo looked serious but excited as they sat facing each other and talking across tables. But this wasn't an event pitching young men in suits against corporate managers.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2009

Koizumi, Abe make Yasukuni visit

Despite the hectic runup to the general election, former Prime Ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe, as well as a Cabinet minister and other Diet members, found time to visit Yasukuni Shrine on Saturday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 16, 2009

Striking it rich on the Izu Peninsula

Gold may be heavier than water, but all that's rattling around the bottom of my panning bowl are lots of multicolored pebbles.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 14, 2009

Film center commemorates Tsuchimoto

The National Film Center in Tokyo's Chuo Ward presents the works of Noriaki Tsuchimoto (1928-2008), a postwar documentary filmmaker, who is best known for an extensive series of films on Minamata disease, one of the worst industrial pollution-related illnesses in Japan's history.
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
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Aug 13, 2009

Variations on Dynamite Cabarets, Tiger, togas, Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garcons

Aki and Kuzu get smart Cabaret Aki and Jackal Kuzu are known as the designers of scandalously flagrant men's brand Gut's Dynamite Cabarets, but with the launch of their impressive new line, JhonAG, their alter-egos may soon fade as the two are set to be reverently known as just Aki and Kuzu.
COMMENTARY
Aug 11, 2009

Seven topics for a summer day

LONDON — As Japanese lawmakers campaign for the Aug. 30 Lower House election, British members of Parliament are in recess and Prime Minister Gordon Brown is on holiday. Papers and weeklies are scraping the barrel for something to write about. Many fill their columns with so much sports that foreign...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 11, 2009

TOEIC no turkey at 30

The Test of English for International Communication turns 30 this year. In three decades it has risen from humble beginnings to become one of the best-known tests in Japan. In December 1979, 3,000 people sat the first TOEIC. In 2008, people in Japan took it 1.7 million times. Many were repeat customers;...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 11, 2009

Todai still beckons nation's best, brightest but goals diversifying

For more than 130 years, the University of Tokyo has been unrivaled as the gateway to elite careers for thousands of hopeful candidates who pass the exam to get in.
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2009

Hitting the recovery road with eco-friendly products

On July 16 the State Statistics Bureau of China announced that GDP for the April-June quarter grew 7.9 percent in real terms from a year before, surpassing the 6.1 percent rate of the January-March quarter. After the Lehman Brothers shock last September, China's annual economic growth rate — which...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 9, 2009

Enter a fantasy world of Zen-like bedroom gymnastics

A few weeks ago, BBC News ran a report on how love hotels were one of the few business sectors in Japan doing well in the current recession. The report stressed the unique trappings of these hotels and actually raised more questions than it answered about their socioeconomic significance.
COMMENTARY
Aug 9, 2009

Pariahs of Asia and their nukes

LONDON — It is generally agreed that North Korea and Burma have the two most oppressive regimes in Asia. They rule over two of the poorest countries in the continent, and that is no coincidence whatever.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 9, 2009

Sampling a pot-sticker paradise

Whenever I watch national broadcaster NHK's weather forecast, I feel consoled that no matter how hot it may get in July and August in Tokyo, the mercury in Utsunomiya is always going to be several degrees higher.
EDITORIALS
Aug 8, 2009

Stronger case for videotaping

In preparation for the lay judge system, which recently started, public prosecutors and police began partially videotaping the interrogation of suspects on a trial basis in August 2006 and in September 2008. The videotaped scenes are of investigators reading the record of a suspect's oral statement to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 2009

The 'big bang' at Echigo-Tsumari

It is a picture-book perfect shrine. Tiny and tranquil, it is framed by a red gateway at the top of a winding forest path. But there is one surprising intrusion on the scene: a shiny Coca-Cola bench matching the vermilion hue of the shrine sits under its roof.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 2009

Allowing ourselves to be deceived by art

Whether enjoying the sight of shadow puppets against a wall or the suggestive placing of objects in an Austin Powers movie, people have long delighted in the playful use of images.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 7, 2009

Anna Tsuchiya's classic new world

"I find beauty in the dark side or in people's anger!" confesses a boisterous Anna Tsuchiya. Surprisingly, Japan's choice wild-child actress, model and singer did not talk about herself egotistically, but merely justified her love of Chopin over Mozart: "When I (first) listened to Chopin's 'The Revolution,'...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 2009

Art triennial helps revitalize rural Niigata

Visiting Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2009 is a strange and wonderful journey. A satoyama (mountain homeland) adventure replete with rice paddies brimming with bright green shoots, refurbished abandoned houses and closed-down elementary schools, it features 370 contemporary artworks by little-known and...
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.

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