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Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Jul 8, 2009

Lean, mean business machines

In the 1990s, few Japanese associated the term "coaching" with instructing and directing people toward achieving their goals in business.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 5, 2009

The Shanxi trilogy: films that never made it back home

Sometimes called the most significant of the current generation of Chinese film directors, Jia Zhangke (b. 1970) enjoys the distinction of never having had some of his finest work commercially shown in his own country.
Reader Mail
Jul 5, 2009

More sympathetic than Americans

Regarding Eric Hilton's June 25 letter, "Japanese is just a language": Hilton's point is well made and his observations are in line with my experiences at a college in Japan, where I have taught for four years. I think the issue he raises of the importance of respecting a target language is overlooked....
LIFE / Digital
Jun 24, 2009

How will iPhone 3GS fare in Japan?

Apple Inc.'s iPhone 3GS, the newest in the iPhone series, will debut on June 26, plunging into Japan's cell-phone market, where competition is getting more intense as phone carriers release impressive summer 2009 lineups.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2009

Laws, legal terms get official translation

Japanese businesses might operate on a global scale, but foreign firms often run into a wall — the language barrier — when trying to understand the ins and outs of this nation's legal system.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 7, 2009

Apichatpong Weerasethakul: No ordinary Joe

Perhaps no Asian film director since Akira Kurosawa has received the critical attention bestowed on 39 year-old Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul. His "Blissfully Yours" won a major Cannes Festival prize in 2002; "Tropical Malady," took the 2004 Jury Prize and the Tokyo FilmEx first prize; and...
JAPAN / Media
May 31, 2009

Pigs, pimps, prostitutes and other things — Japan's New Age

Fifty years is a long time, especially in film history. The iconoclastic Japanese New Wave, born with the release in 1959 of Nagisa Oshima's debut feature, "A Town of Love and Hope," is now an established part of Japan's cinematic canon. And in contrast to the French Nouvelle Vague, several of whose...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 27, 2009

Appreciating kanji can unleash your inner art critic

As exotic as kanji (Sino-Japanese logographs) may appear to the uninitiated, most of those we encounter in everyday situations are intended to convey notices and other mundane or essential information, such as 禁煙 kin'en (no smoking) or 駅長室 (ekichō-shitsu, stationmaster's office).
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 16, 2009

Holy mackerel — a fish story

If you live in Japan long enough, various shipwrecks of odd jobs will float your way. For example, a short while ago I was asked to do some translation work regarding . . . fish.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 15, 2009

'Angels & Demons'

How much work can you get done in five hours? That's the crucial question in "Angels & Demons," the sequel to the 2006 global megahit "The Da Vinci Code."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 26, 2009

Like it or not, becoming bilingual involves being bicultural, too

Several weeks ago in this column, I wrote about some of the nonlinguistic aspects of raising a bilingual child. These can be social, financial and marital, involving the milieu the child grows up in, the necessity to move back and forth between countries, and even the periodic separation of husband and...
EDITORIALS
Apr 26, 2009

90 million Japanese wired

Internet users in Japan topped 90 million at the end of 2008, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications reported earlier this month. That means three out of four Japanese are communicating, shopping, reading or hanging out on the Internet. With Japan's advanced broadband and fiber-optic connections,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Apr 23, 2009

Stylish ways to organize clutter, keep time, track burned calories and send letters

A stylish plug
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 21, 2009

The past, present and future of fortunetelling

From the traditional "omikuji" — sacred lots — people draw at shrines and temples to learn their New Year's fortunes, to the horoscopes displayed on commuter train video screens to distract strap-hangers, Japanese society is immersed in fortunetelling.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 19, 2009

Soviet-era trove shows that photos never lie, except when they do

"I have not taken a single step, spoken a single word, written a single line, or had a single thought which I need conceal from the party, the central committee, and you personally . . . I implore you to believe my word of honor. I am shaken to the depths of my being."
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 19, 2009

Freedom of religion or freedom of speech?

PRINCETON N.J. — Last month, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution condemning "defamation of religion" as a human rights violation. According to the text of the resolution, "Defamation of religion is a serious affront to human dignity" that leads to "a restriction on the freedom...
Japan Times
LIFE / JAPAN FASHION WEEK
Apr 12, 2009

Tokyo hots up for autumn / winter '09

The length of a fashion show averages about 10 minutes, a short span during which design prodigies can be born while others fail, dragging small fortunes into fashion oblivion with them.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 5, 2009

Deciphering 'A Page of Madness'

Teinosuke Kinugasa's "A Page of Madness" ("Kurutta Ichipeiji," 1926) was long thought lost. Only some 75 years later did the discovery of the missing negative allow the picture to be finally viewed by the present generation. At the same time there emerged a critical need to evaluate it because it seemed...
LIFE / Digital
Mar 25, 2009

Programmed for combat or for pleasure

While Japan is a technological powerhouse, it is usually a follower and not a pioneer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Mar 20, 2009

"Hiroshima"

Vacant, Omotesando
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 20, 2009

Photographer Sugimoto strikes a Stone Age deal with U2

Just two minutes into an interview with artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, it became clear why the famously discreet 61-year-old had agreed to talk about rock band U2's use of one of his photographs on the cover of their latest album, "No Line on the Horizon."
CULTURE / Books
Mar 15, 2009

Invoking 17th-century demons and desires

On the opening day of Shin-Yoshiwara — Edo's new pleasure quarters — Matsunaga Seiichiro, a 26-year-old swordsman stands on the Asakusa Nihon Embankment and looks across at the city. He then descends into streets filled with music, danger, alcohol and prostitutes, and thus begins his journey to manhood...
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2009

Aso's kanji conundrums spur self-reflection, textbook sales

Reading Japanese isn't easy — even for Japanese.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Mar 4, 2009

Top technology comes in small packages

Touch and go: Asus virtually created the burgeoning market for netbook computers with its groundbreaking Eee PC lineup. Whether it can give the demand for touch-screen desktop machines the same sort of boost is open for debate. But the Taiwanese maker is giving it a shot with its Eee Top 1602, due out...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2009

Power of words eludes politicians

Japanese prime ministers aren't known for the impact they make with their words, or straight talk with the public.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past