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COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 6, 2009

Scuba, from Sado to Shikoku

Tim writes: "My girlfriend and I have snorkeled around the coast of Japan — Izu, Shikoku, Sado Island — and now plan to scuba-dive in Okinawa this autumn.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2009

Why joint initiatives on climate will likely fail

GUATEMALA CITY — A U.N. summit on climate change at the recent U.N. General Assembly meeting was supposed to give momentum for a post-Kyoto Protocol accord to be penned in December in Copenhagen. Indeed, an announcement was made that most leaders agreed that there is an "urgent and significant need"...
Reader Mail
Oct 4, 2009

Abduction of another kind

Regarding the Sept. 30 article "Okada, Yu want to keep pressure on N. Korea": Japan hopes to resolve the fate of Japanese nationals abducted in the past by North Korean agents and looks for other nations' support. Yet, recent news reports indicate that Japan is hiding many kidnapped children from international...
Reader Mail
Oct 4, 2009

Model for priest statue identified

I read Alice Gordenker's Sept. 17 "So, what the heck is that?" column regarding the statue of the Franciscan priest on the premises of the Shinjuku Sumitomo Building in Tokyo. I have often wondered about that statue (titled "Dialogue" by the late sculptor Naoki Tominaga), but never pursued the matter....
EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2009

Justice review too low-key

Overshadowed by the Aug. 30 Lower House election was the national electoral review of Supreme Court justices held the same day. The review deserves a higher profile. The top court should give information about the justices and their opinions in court rulings more frequently and in a manner easily accessible...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2009

Bike-share project kicks off

Japan's first community bicycle program kicked off on an experimental basis in Tokyo's Marunouchi business district Thursday with 50 bikes at five locations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 2, 2009

Metric

Sure it is always an honor to be nominated, but at this point Metric have got to be jonesing for a win. One of Canada's top alt-rock acts, the quartet's fourth full-length, "Fantasies," was shortlisted for this year's Polaris Music Prize (Canada's version of the U.K.'s Mercury Prize), but the band left...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Oct 2, 2009

45th anniversary food fairs

The Hotel New Otani Tokyo is celebrating its 45th anniversary with a variety of culinary fairs, including the 45th Anniversary Premium Kaiseki dinner at Kato's Dining & Bar through Nov. 2.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 2, 2009

Fleisher to hold workshops

Suntory Hall welcomes U.S. pianist Leon Fleisher at a music workshop this month.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 2, 2009

'Akumu no Elevator'

Movies are confidence tricks played on willing victims. The bullets are blanks and the sex is faked, but we usually want to believe, as long as the lights are down, that it's all real. Creating that belief — or rather, that suspension of disbelief — has long been Hollywood's goal.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 2, 2009

Little Boots serves pop a remedy

"I don't know what it is about my music that appeals to the Japanese," says Victoria Hesketh, the British pop sensation better known as Little Boots. "A lot of people in England miss the point, and they're like, 'Oh, it's just pop music.' And the whole point is that I was trying to do something simple...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 2, 2009

Shin hanga bringing ukiyo-e back to life

The great print works of ukiyo-e, by the likes of Hokusai, Hiroshige, and Utamaro, became fine art almost by accident. Originally mass produced for the popular market, their status was roughly equivalent to that of illustrated calendars and posters of pop stars today. But, ironically, the fact that they...
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Oct 2, 2009

45th anniversary food fairs

The Hotel New Otani Tokyo is celebrating its 45th anniversary with a variety of culinary fairs, including the 45th Anniversary Premium Kaiseki dinner at Kato's Dining & Bar through Nov. 2.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 1, 2009

Motherhouse: beyond Fair Trade

By cutting out the middlemen, Tokyo-based Motherhouse has found a way to make the Fair Trade system work like it's supposed to.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 29, 2009

Brace for a possible spring shock

When spring approaches next year, many foreigners in Japan could be in for a rude awakening: From April 1, all those who apply to extend their visa in Japan will be asked to show proof of enrollment in one or other of Japan's main national health systems, the shakai hoken (social health insurance and...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 29, 2009

Gaijin health coverage: an appeal for choice

Unless you've just made it to this corner of the world in the last couple of weeks, you're probably well aware of the new visa guideline that's scheduled to go into effect in April 2010. Because of this guideline, foreigners who wish to renew their visa and who are required to be enrolled in social health...
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2009

Grayer population

In its Respect for the Aged Day (Sep. 21) report, the internal affairs ministry made public its information about the population n Japan. As of Sept. 15, Japan's population stood at 127.56 million, down 120,000 from a year before. People aged 65 or over numbered 28.98 million (12.39 million men and 16.59...
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2009

Local accounting irregularities

The Chiba prefectural government has detected accounting irregularities totaling ¥29.79 billion from fiscal 2003 through fiscal 2007. The irregularities were found at 383 — about 96 percent — of the prefectural government's sections, including the prefectural police.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 27, 2009

Murder with hefty history

PAPER BUTTERFLY, by Diane Wei Liang. Simon and Schuster, 2009, 227 pages, $24.00 (hardcover) Reviewed by Mark Schreiber Mei Wang, the Beijing-based female private investigator who made her first appearance in "The Eye of Jade" (2008), is back. Burned out by the demands of her job in the Ministry of Public...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 27, 2009

Denied bear necessities of life

About a week ago, while browsing the Internet, I came across a headline at the BBC Web site that made me pause: "Bear injures 9 at bus terminal." The first thought that crossed my mind was, "Why was a bear waiting for a bus?"
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 27, 2009

Bike tours offer a new view of the city

Despite long-standing conflicts between cyclists and others with a stake in using Tokyo's streets, Japan's capital can be a great place to tour by bike — as I discovered last weekend while participating in the "Tokyo Great Cycling Tour," a one-day guided trip organized by Tokyo-based operator Alive...
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2009

Probe launched into four secret pacts with U.S.

Under direct orders from the new administration, Foreign Ministry officials launched a comprehensive investigation Friday into secret pacts with the United States, including an accord to allow entry of U.S. ships and aircraft carrying nuclear arms into Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 26, 2009

Reaching young people with music

When someone asks his age, Michael Di Stasio sometimes responds that it is the same as the late king of pop, Michael Jackson: "May he rest in peace."
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2009

Observing the pieces of a fragmented self

From an overwhelming slew of art, literature, music, cinema and theater references, there seems to emerge a provisional feel for order in William Kentridge's filmic worlds: worlds created between the artist and spectators' activity in constructing narratives from discrete fragments. How this materializes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 25, 2009

Asagiri Jam

The last major outdoor music festival of the year, Asagiri Jam has been dubbed "the real Fuji Rock Festival" due to its very scenic location at the foot of Mount Fuji in Shizuoka. The two-day concert was established in 2001 and inspired by the spirit of the late 1960s and the communal atmosphere at early...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 25, 2009

'Paulus' to mark Mendelssohn bicentennial

To mark the bicentennial of the birth of German composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847), two choral groups and two instrumental groups based in Tokyo will present "Paulus (St. Paul)," the first of the composer's oratorios.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes