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Japan Times
BUSINESS / ASEAN JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Nov 24, 2009

Southeast Asian economies look to return to growth in 2010

Southeast Asian economies hit hard by the global crisis expect to return to positive growth in 2010 as signs of recovery started to emerge in recent months following massive government stimulus measures, veteran journalists from the region told a recent symposium.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 24, 2009

Emperor — poise under public spotlight

This year marks Emperor Akihito's 20th year on the Chrysanthemum Throne.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Nov 20, 2009

Hannaryz trying to shake slump

Every expansion team is expected to struggle during its inaugural season. And if Aristotle had focused on athletics instead of classic philosophy, he could've written volumes about this subject.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2009

Hatoyama North Korea trip denied

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano denied a report Wednesday that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is planning a trip to North Korea to discuss nuclear disarmament and the Japanese abductees.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 17, 2009

Choice, chic, cheap — no one feels fleeced

Times are difficult for many retailers. Conspicuously not among them, however, is Fast Retailing Co., which posted both record sales of ¥685 billion and operating profit of ¥108.6 billion for the business year that ended in August.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 15, 2009

Movie JAL doesn't want you to see snubbed by media

Big-budget movies need all the help they can get recovering their production and promotional costs at the box office, so advertisements stating that the 3 1/2-hour epic "Shizumanu Taiyo" ("The Sun That Doesn't Set") is a "big hit" should be taken with a grain of salt. First of all, every movie released...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Nov 13, 2009

Staggered start makes it tough getting out of gate

Before the dark days of the winter, the first five weeks of the season have essentially served as a dress rehearsal for the bj-league's 13 teams.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 10, 2009

As status symbol, it tops the rest

The commercial-residential complex of Roppongi Hills opened six years ago, boasting offices, a museum, cinema, condominiums, restaurants and shops, becoming a popular tourist destination and a high-status residence in a part of central Tokyo otherwise known for its nightlife dens.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 3, 2009

Marriage ever-changing institution

Marriage may be an institution, but it's permutations have run the gamut from polygamy, a practice that dates to ancient times but is still allowed in certain areas, to the recent legalization in some places of same-sex partnerships, with everything in between.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2009

Obituary: Vivienne Kenrick

Vivienne Kenrick, who wrote the weekly Personality Profile in The Japan Times from 1963 to 2007, died Sunday of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital. She was 89.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Nov 1, 2009

The haunting beauty that is Yushima

On a glowering October morning, I exit the Chiyoda Line at Yushima Station and stroll northwesterly through the back streets of Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 27, 2009

File-sharing: Handle Winny at your own risk

More than a decade since the heyday of Napster shareware, peer-to-peer file distribution remains a key tool for Internet users exchanging music and movie files online. The leading program in Japan is Winny, an application distributed free of charge since May 2002 by former University of Tokyo researcher...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 25, 2009

Ishihara was ignorant of fact Olympics bid never had a hope — and we must pay price

Ever since Tokyo lost out on hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics the local media has been discussing what the Japan Olympic Committee (JOC) did wrong. In particular, they analyzed the presentations given by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara and a group of former and future Olympians before the International...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 22, 2009

Comparative payoffs

Considering housing as an investment in Japan? You might want to compare the PER (price earnings ratio) in different areas.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 20, 2009

Abortion still key birth control

People may be surprised to know abortion has been legal in Japan since 1949, more than a decade earlier than in other industrialized countries.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 16, 2009

This tax's for you

A new political regime threatens to flatten the frothy head of profits that brewers have been enjoying with their tax-proof 'daisan' beers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2009

After fast start, it's crunch time for Cabinet

The Democratic Party of Japan-led Cabinet heads into its second month Friday, after coming out quickly to usher in a new political era in the wake of the Liberal Democratic Party's long domination.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 16, 2009

NBA lockout gives Greene a shot at big time

Considered a top official during the bj-league's first four seasons, Tim Greene is now in uncharted territory.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 14, 2009

Electric vehicles, touted as next big thing, still in their infancy

Competition has been heating up in the domestic market for electric vehicles and many automakers have been prioritizing the technology since Mitsubishi Motors Corp. launched an egg-shaped electric minivehicle in July.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 11, 2009

Japan's No. 1 playboy hardly a lady- killer

Talk-show host David Letterman obviously did the right thing when during a recent monologue he confessed to having had sex with some of his female staff. He made the admission to pre-empt news that he had been blackmailed for his indiscretions, but whatever the revelation said about Letterman's lack...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 6, 2009

Rice — a staple of unstable future, funds?

Rice is an indispensable staple in Japan, but the people who grow it have an average age of 60 and their offspring increasingly are looking to other, more lucrative fields.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 29, 2009

Murakami: Titan of postwar literature

Haruki Murakami is probably the most internationally acclaimed and influential contemporary Japanese author alive today. Over a career spanning 30 years, he has illustrated the apathy and ennui enveloping postwar Japan through sometimes wildly fantastic storytelling with surreal twists and turns, sprinkled...
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2009

Mercury danger in dolphin meat

SAPPORO — The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, as documented in the film "The Cove" has sparked an emotional international debate, with animal rights activists decrying the capture and slaughter as unnecessary and cruel, and those in Japan who defend the slaughter as both legally...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 22, 2009

Small group making waves

About two months before the Aug. 30 election, a small group of political leaders made big news by forming a new group. Though it consists of only half a dozen politicians at the local level, Shucho Rengo (the Local Leaders Federation) grabbed headlines nationwide and created concern among senior Diet...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 22, 2009

'The last flies of summer'

Three years ago, I was lying on the beach of a package hotel, watching a pair of jet skis churn the sea to muddy silt. J-pop blared from the shore-side Tannoy, and two lifeguards were pinning down a hysterical toddler, while a third doused vinegar over a scarlet welt of jellyfish sting.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 20, 2009

The forgotten DPJ promise on women's rights

In the weeks since the Democratic Party of Japan secured a majority in the Lower House, the new DPJ members of that institution have apparently been told to keep their mouths shut when they're around the media.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan