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BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 2, 2009

Zero-rate bonds must be studied but 'invoice system' shows promise

F inance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven top economies wrapped up two days of talks last month with the recognition that the global economy will continue to deteriorate this year, and urged governments to act in concert to stabilize their finance sectors and inject stimulus to boost...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 1, 2009

Importance of being a top middleweight

Reviewed by Anthony Fensom Striking with a magnitude of 6.8, the severe earthquake that struck Niigata Prefecture and its surrounds on July 16, 2007, left a trail of destruction in its wake, killing seven people, injuring over 830 and destroying 500 homes.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Mar 1, 2009

Our woodland trust just keeps on growing

Last month, thanks to a very generous donation, we were able to add another whopping 119,088 sq. meters to our Afan Woodland Trust down the road from my home in the Nagano Prefecture hills outside Kurohime. This brings our total to 296,070 sq. meters — about twice the area we had when we set up the...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2009

Nakagawa's jet cost ¥41 million

Say you want to fly to Rome on a chartered jet. What would it cost? The answer: About ¥6.83 million per person, round trip.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 28, 2009

'Hafu' focuses on whole individual

"I always found it really strange," says Natalie Maya Willer, 30, a photographer based in London, "how I thought I could spot half-Japanese people in the street. . . . Then at the same time, with me not really looking Japanese, I also wondered if there really isn't a half-Japanese look after all!"
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2009

'Temp' protests warp face of egalitarian Japan Inc.

Fired engine plant worker Kouichirou Fukudome shouts slogans with dozens of protesters outside truck maker Isuzu's towering headquarters, all demanding they get their jobs back.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 27, 2009

Humans, not cogs

Twenty-six years after it premiered at the Cottlesloe Theatre in London, David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross," which caused a sensation in 1983 with its horrific yet realistic depiction of the dog-eat-dog real-estate business in a recession-hit America, could almost be considered a classic. The play went...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 27, 2009

One pricey bowl of soup noodles

A bowl of noodles at a typical Tokyo ramen joint is cheap — usually around ¥800 — and served in a convenient location. Fujimaki Gekijo, situated between Nakameguro and Yutenji in Meguro Ward, is neither. And the owner and chef, Shoichi Fujimaki, would have it no other way.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 27, 2009

One pricey bowl of soup noodles

A bowl of noodles at a typical Tokyo ramen joint is cheap — usually around ¥800 — and served in a convenient location. Fujimaki Gekijo, situated between Nakameguro and Yutenji in Meguro Ward, is neither. And the owner and chef, Shoichi Fujimaki, would have it no other way.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2009

Nippon Oil, Mining delay merger plan

Nippon Oil Corp. and Nippon Mining Holdings Inc. will delay a plan to merge in October because they need time to submit documents to U.S. regulators, sources said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 27, 2009

Linking video games to their visual history

Think of post-World War II popular culture in Japan as it relates to contemporary art, and you invariably arrive at Murakami Takashi and his Kaikai Kiki company/studio. But a new generation that draws from Japanese pop culture — and yet has no close connections to Murakami's art stable — has emerged...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2009

Unbalanced bargaining game with China

SINGAPORE — The territorial dispute in the South China Sea — referred to as the Spratly Islands dispute — used to be described as a major regional security flash point. Although core issues remain unresolved, economic integration and globalization, since the beginning of this decade, have temporarily...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Feb 22, 2009

Kim sends shot across bow with victory in Vancouver

Kim Yu Na delivered a strong message to world champion Mao Asada with her victory at the recent Four Continents Championship in Vancouver.
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2009

The freedom of Mr. Khan

On its face, the decision to release Mr. Abdul Qadeer Khan from house arrest in Pakistan is a slap in the face of international opinion and a blow to efforts to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons. According to Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, the work of the world's greatest proliferator "is a closed...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Feb 22, 2009

Cruising the Sumida for sights

However hidden behind built-up banks it may be, the Sumida River is not exactly a "back street." But as it's said that one of the best places from which to view cherry blossoms in Tokyo is from a water bus plying the river, I resolved on a reconnaissance better referred to as a "back stream" story.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2009

'Halfway'

"Halfway" ("Harufuwei") has one of those katakana titles that is supposed to sound vaguely exotic and mysterious to its intended audience — Japanese of about the same age as its teenage protagonists — but may strike native speakers as prosaic, even boring.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 2009

Snow yaks and yetis — an ice man cometh

Fans of Pop Surrealism were no doubt tickled pink to hear of their messiah, painter Mark Ryden, making an appearance in Tokyo for the opening of "The Snow Yak Show" at the Tomio Koyama Gallery. The solo exhibition features eight new works from the masterful painter, each exquisitely detailed in his characteristic...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 20, 2009

Dolls to be displayed for the health of girls

Events leading up to the March 3 Hina Matsuri (Japanese doll festival) are in full swing. In the centuries-old tradition, people decorate their homes with ornamental dolls and peach blossoms — and celebrate with sake and chirashi-zushi (sushi rice topped with egg and seafood) — to wish for young...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 2009

New art council jumps right into the action

Two years: That's how long it took Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara to set up a new "arts council," extract from it a range of new policy ideas and get his staff to start putting them into action. It's not rocket-paced, but in a country famous for the slowness of its bureaucracy, it passes for commendable....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 2009

An exhibition's critical charge

"In Japan, the city consists of parts perfect in themselves, but lacking a sense of or connection to the whole," observes curator Shino Nomura while discussing the work of Swiss architectural firm Diener & Diener.
Reader Mail
Feb 19, 2009

Kyoto got what it asked for

Regarding the Jan. 13 article "Respect 'maiko' privacy, don't act like paparazzi, Kyoto tells tourists": All of Kyoto has aggressively promoted tourism to the international community. The city.kyoto.jp Web site provides a pamphlet that dedicates two pages to the maiko (apprentice geisha), the same amount...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’