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Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 13, 2013

Entertainingly angry study of Italy's trains

Thirty years ago, Tim Parks moved from London to Italy. As a writer until recently mired in the midlist, he admitted that he didn't want to watch "the rise of the Amises and McEwans" in more detail than strictly necessary. He has written 15 novels, but his breakthrough came with a nonfiction work, "Teach...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 13, 2013

A diary washed ashore opens up a world of multiple realities

A good read transcends into the eternal, melding the real now with a timeless present. Ruth Ozeki's "A Tale for the Time Being" is all that and more: a quietly amazing achievement, a careful construct bridging quantum physics and the role of the reader/observer, a Zen eternity of multiple realities...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 13, 2013

West must deal with Egypt's de facto leadership

Events in Egypt are the latest example of the interplay worldwide among democracy, protest and government efficacy. Western disengagement is not an option.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 13, 2013

Intriguing coming-of-age story masquerading as a crime thriller

'Joyland" comes with all the horror trappings for which Stephen King is known: a sinister carnival, a grisly unsolved murder, a haunted ride.
Reader Mail
Jul 13, 2013

The old man and his reputation

While telling us of the important contributions he has made to the consumption of whiskey in Japan, both by his own efforts in that direction and by the good advice he says he gives its makers, C.W. Nicol, in his July 7 article 'Water of life' helps to keep spirits up," also refers to "good old Bill...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 13, 2013

Water issues around Asia; the world of solo karaoke; CM of the Week: Recruit

Monday is Marine Day, a national holiday, and as has been its tradition for a decade, Nippon TV will air a 90-minute afternoon special about sustainability hosted by Osaka-based announcer Seiji Miyane. "Nippon no Shoku no Mirai" ("The Future of Food in Japan," 2:55 p.m.) attempts to project the future...
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 12, 2013

'Abenomics' dark side: hinterland pay cuts

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cuts to local-government subsidies are like trying to "wring water from an old rag that's been squeezed dry," says Kazuya Yoshida, a 27-year municipal employee in Shijonawate, Osaka Prefecture.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 12, 2013

The Cockney hardman who is Britain's most bankable star in Hollywood

Clipped vowels, a suggestion of impeccable breeding: when it comes to Hollywood's appetite for British and Irish actors it is easy to see why producers keep shopping on these islands. It does not matter whether the stars really went to Eton, the public school sheen on Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Orlando...
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jul 12, 2013

Tweet Beat: #七夕, #鯖アニメ, #愛国競争

Tanabata wishes, political demonstration and a whole pile of anime premieres featured big in last week's Japanese Twitter hashtags! #TweetBeat
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 11, 2013

Experiments in the wild

Ten years ago, when a new cultural facility opened in the western Japan city of Yamaguchi, its founders sought to fulfill a role quite different from those museums in the countryside.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2013

'Shanidaru no Hana (The Flower of Shanidar)'

Gakuryu Ishii has made something of a career of confounding fans and critics alike with his big shifts in artistic direction, his long silences and, in 2010, his name change from the unusual, if memorable, Sogo to the pretentious, if still hard-to-forget, Gakuryu (a combination of the kanji for "mountain"...
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Jul 11, 2013

Aqua art makes for fishy frames

Some say beauty can get you far in life. That's true this weekend, at least for our friends with fins.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2013

'Bernie'

Based on real-life events in Carthage, Texas, "Bernie" showcases Jack Black's uncanny powers of observation, and director Richard Linklater's ability to lay on the cynicism so thick you hardly notice it. Black visited with the title character, Bernie Tiede, in prison to study his mannerisms, speech...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 11, 2013

Nishio takes apparel approach to art

Yoshinari Nishio is one of the winners of the "Life by Media" competition at Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM) and is currently displaying his project, "Pubrobe," there until Sept. 1. It's an atypical piece, a station where people lend and borrow clothes for free.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2013

Okinawans explore secession option

Okinawans are losing patience with Tokyo's repeated vows to reduce the prefecture's burden of hosting U.S. military installations and other hollow pledges, and some are seriously looking into the possibility of having the territory secede from Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 10, 2013

Surveying the city from a different viewpoint

Beside Stephan Balkenhol's sculpture "Big Head with Three Part Relief" a note reads, "Nothing here is as it should be." This figureless "head" set against a black void represents "Mr. Everyman," that common figure, detached from his surround and considering his place in the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2013

Koreans find breaking up with chaebol hard to do

Park Geun-hye has one five-year term to undo her father's legacy in South Korea. Thus far her efforts to build a more creative economy lack teeth as well as creativity.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 10, 2013

'Play'

This exhibition focuses on recreation in ancient Japan. More than 100 artifacts from the Kyoto National Museum's collection are being displayed, categorized under nine types of "play," such as festivals, indoor games, children's toys, and song and dance. Artifacts include toys and board games that once...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / Japan Pulse
Jul 9, 2013

A Tale of Two Limited-Edition Burgers: Lotteria’s Twin and McD’s Gold Ring

We rebuild Lotteria's Twin Burger into a double and then go after McDonald's Gold Ring.
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2013

Step toward equality under the law

The U.S. Supreme Court walked a fine line in ruling that same-sex couples are entitled to federal benefits. It washed its hands of the most polarizing point.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 7, 2013

The aidoru industry seeks big bucks in numbers

They say that Japan is suffering from a major shōshika (少子化, plummeting birth rate) syndrome, but a cursory glance at the entertainment industry reveals a singular fact: The young people of this country are well and thriving, and huddled together in mass aidoru gurūpu (アイドルグループ,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 6, 2013

Hats off to Chiyoda's rice-field rites

I can't quite believe we're getting up just after dawn on a Sunday morning for an event that doesn't start till lunchtime. But our Japanese friends all assured us we'd regret it if we didn't arrive early.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Jul 6, 2013

Equal-opportunity infidelity comes to Japan

As a Japanese saying puts it: Suezen kuwanu wa otoko no haji (It is shame for a man not to eat a feast placed before him).
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 6, 2013

Reddit's opinionated audience is growing

Six percent of American adults who are online say they've visited Reddit, which encourages its users to submit links to stories, photos and other Web postings and then vote them up or down, according to results from a survey out Wednesday.
Reader Mail
Jul 6, 2013

Dumbing down 'The Road'

Regarding the June 25 article "Finally, 'The Last of Us' [video game] is here": How could anyone compare a simple-minded video game to the literary genius of Cormac McCarthy and his Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Road"?

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years