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CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2013

Kis-My-Ft2 "Good Ikuze!" (Avex Trax)

Odds are, Japan Times reader, that you do not like Kis-My-Ft2. Maybe you've been unable to escape the bleating "Wanna Beeee!!!" while out strolling in Shibuya, or maybe they lost you at, "From the people who brought you SMAP and Arashi!" So this review should be quick, right? A nice hatchet job with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2013

i-fls "Diary of Spectre" (self-release)

The first song I ever made — and I'm willing to wager many who graduated high school in the mid 2000s share this experience — was using Apple's GarageBand, a software application that lets people make music on their computers. "I made a killer techno track last night, dude," I overheard one classmate...
Reader Mail
Apr 18, 2013

Democratic defense against abuse

Regarding the April 11 article "Ishin leaders, Abe meet on revising Constitution": Once more, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has indicated his desire to revise Article 96 of the Constitution so that it can be amended by a simple majority in the Upper and Lower houses of the Diet rather than by the two-thirds...
Reader Mail
Apr 18, 2013

The joy of not being accepted

I am so grateful to professor Jeff Kingston for his April 14 review of Adam Komisarof's book "At Home Abroad: The Contemporary Western Experience in Japan." I've lived here for nearly 17 years and have never really understood my own deep feelings about this country and its people.
Reader Mail
Apr 18, 2013

Application of statistics fails

As someone who has spent his entire academic life in computational economics, I would like to comment on the April 12 Bloomberg article by theoretical physicist Mark Buchanan, titled "Beware economists who peddle cute models."
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2013

Blame Western 'demonists' for Pyongyang's belligerence

Demonists never sleep. They concoct fantasies almost daily over a North Korea that almost certainly only wants to protect itself from the threat of U.S. attack.
Reader Mail
Apr 18, 2013

Takarazuka hits discordant note

I read Mark Buckton's April 14 Timeout feature article, "Takarazuka: Japan's newest 'traditional' theater turns 100," and thought, "Maybe I need to get out more."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 18, 2013

Early photos of northern Japan capture a time of change

Although photography entered Japan in the mid-19th century, it took time to spread beyond the few port cities permitted to engage in trade with the West at that time. As a result, it was several decades before this imported Western technology reached outlying districts, and by then the Japanese concept...
Reader Mail
Apr 18, 2013

Learn from Margaret Thatcher

Regarding the April 12 editorial "A decisive but divisive leader": Once upon the time, the United Kingdom was labeled the "sick old man of Europe." Margaret Thatcher, a female prime minister, challenged that image and wiped it out.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2013

Film sheds light on plight of left-behind parents

Images of left-behind parents, holding up photos of their children, flash across the screen. In the United States, Canada, Europe and even Japan, these parents are waiting to reunite with offspring taken away by their estranged Japanese spouses.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2013

When the zombies attack, you'll need your gun

The zombie craze sweeping the U.S. is a warning to baby boomers: Our children are worried that the fortifications along the wall might not hold. Let's hope there's time to leave them a different legacy.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Apr 16, 2013

Fazekas, Diouf sparked major turnaround for Brave Thunders

After a dismal 2011-12 campaign, the Toshiba Brave Thunders are the JBL's undisputed Cinderella team this season
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 16, 2013

World Bank pushes Asia stimulus end

Asia's emerging economies should consider reining in monetary stimulus to curb the risks of asset bubbles and inflation as policy easing in developed nations, including Japan, spur capital inflows, the World Bank said.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Apr 16, 2013

The 5 p.m. bell

Dear Alice,
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 14, 2013

South Korea police thwart activists' planned launch of leaflets

Seoul AFP-JIJI
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Apr 14, 2013

Woods' triple-double, Aoki's outside shooting propel Tokyo past Saitama

Ricky Wods and Cohey Aoki grew up on opposites sides of the Pacific Ocean. But both are big keys for their team.
Reader Mail
Apr 14, 2013

Social justice here and now

Vimal Malik, in his April 4 letter, "Where does human respect live?," says we must look at the world we actually live in, not through the "stained glass of dogma." I agree, yet it apparently is Malik's "dogma" that social justice sprang up spontaneously from late modern secularists and Scandinavian social...
Reader Mail
Apr 14, 2013

When is enough, enough?

Regarding the April 6 AFP-JIJI article "Whale institute still justifying lethal research": I believe a few points need to be raised.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 14, 2013

The Oki Islands: where time seems to have stood still

Before he left Japan after several years spent in Hiroshima, the multi-award-winning English novelist David Mitchell advised me: "If you only make one trip while you are here, make sure it's to the Oki Islands." They were, he assured me (in not quite so many words), little patches of ye olde Nihon as...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 14, 2013

Garuda plans Osaka-Jakarta flights amid soaring interest in Indonesia

Garuda Indonesia will begin offering flights between Osaka and Jakarta in October as part of its international expansion strategy, the chief of the nation's flagship carrier said.
Reader Mail
Apr 14, 2013

No reason to fear North's nukes

The argument posed in the April 9 AP article "Japan has real reasons to fret about North Korean nukes" does not hold up to scrutiny.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 14, 2013

Casting a little light on fireflies

If dragonflies are the insects of Japan's day, then the mysterious, magical fireflies are its bugs of the night.
Figure Skating
Apr 13, 2013

Takahashi triumphs in men's singles competition

Daisuke Takahashi came from behind to win the men's singles on Friday night to keep Japan in the hunt for a medal at the World Team Trophy.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 13, 2013

Swallows' Balentien glad to return to diamond after WBC injury delayed season debut

Wladimir Balentien's season began with a lot of lonely days in Toda, Saitama Prefecture, a city of a little more than 126,000 (according to a 2012 population estimate) just across the Arakawa River, while his Tokyo Yakult Swallows teammates were busy taking on three of their Central League rivals.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2013

Fans flock early to snag Murakami's latest book

Fans of Haruki Murakami lined up at bookstores from the wee hours of Friday morning to be the first to get their hands on the famed author's much-anticipated new novel.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 13, 2013

Catholic priests unmasked: 'God doesn't like boys who cry'

March 13, 2013. The world is waiting. Television screens show days-old footage of cardinals in red and white, processing past Vatican guards into the magnificence of the Sistine Chapel for the papal conclave.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 13, 2013

Final Somali pirate slapped with 11-year term

The Tokyo District Court on Friday convicted a Somali national and sentenced him to 11 years imprisonment for attempting to hijack a Japan-operated oil tanker off the coast of Oman in March 2011.

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’