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SOCCER / World cup
Dec 13, 2011

Barcelona wary of jet lag after touching down in Japan

Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola has urged his players to fight through jet lag and become world champions for a second time at the Club World Cup in Japan this week.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Dec 13, 2011

Stepping in the right fashion-forward directions

Opening ceremony for Kenzo Kenzo is one of Japan's most long-standing fashion houses, so it is understandable that it has undergone quite a few changes in its 41-year history — especially since Kenzo Takada himself retired in 1999.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 11, 2011

Japanese artistry, by design, melds time and space into all its creations

Among the greatest of Japan's gifts to the world is surely the gift of design.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 11, 2011

Japanese 'good-for-nothings' heart Bhutan

Japan is in love — with Bhutan, a supposed Shangri-La of a country nestled in the Himalayas, famous for deemphasizing gross domestic product (GDP, the standard measure of well-being) in favor of a more abstract, possibly more human metric known as gross national happiness (GNH).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 9, 2011

'The Ditch' / 'Sacrifice'

In 1949, the revolution of Mao Zedong infused revolutionaries worldwide with hope. In France, existentialists Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre singled China out as a nation with the potential to set all other nations free. Then in 1956, Chairman Mao made a public declaration to encourage free...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 9, 2011

"Secrets of Japanese Paintings"

Though nihonga is a long-standing, traditional style of painting in Japan, for ordinary Japanese it is not easily accessible in everyday life. Even art students rarely get the opportunity to learn traditional Japanese-style painting techniques.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 9, 2011

Ticket giveaway: 'Devil's Double'

The Japan Times has 15 pairs of tickets to give away free to readers for an exclusive prerelease screening of "Devil's Double" on Jan. 6 at a central Tokyo location.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 9, 2011

Jackson brothers to visit Michael's 'second home'

"Immortal," the new Michael Jackson-themed Cirque du Soleil show touring North America may sound grandiose but the self-proclaimed "King of Pop" was undoubtedly a larger-than-life character. While immortality was out of Jackson's reach, the singer's family are doing their best to keep his memory alive...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 9, 2011

Miraikan uses anime to teach

The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) in Tokyo's Odaiba waterfront district has unveiled a new anime program that is both fun and educational for families.
Reader Mail
Dec 8, 2011

Criticism of criticism puzzling

I can't for the life of me understand why Donald Feeney — in his Dec. 1 letter, "Unbalanced article on immigrants" — believes that Hiroaki Sato (Nov. 28 article, "Learning to live with the builders of America") should feel obligated to bring up Japan in his article on American immigration policies....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 8, 2011

Architects of the future build a better understanding of 3/11

With the new year in sight and 2011 about to slip into the annals of history, the defining event of this year, the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, is now starting to recede into the distance. Though for those directly touched by the tragedy, it will of course always be present in the absence...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 7, 2011

Political earthquake in Osaka

Toru Hashimoto's huge victory in the Osaka mayoral election was undoubtedly a political earthquake. The question now is how sweeping and powerful will be the tsunami that follows. My worry is that Tokyo, and particularly the political and bureaucratic establishment, does not comprehend the tectonic forces...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Dec 6, 2011

For the sake of Japan's future, foreigners deserve a fair shake

These past few columns have addressed fundamentally bad habits in Japanese society that impede positive social change. Last month I talked about public trust being eroded by social conventions that permit (even applaud) the systematic practice of lying in public.
COMMENTARY / World / 50 years of ASEAN
Dec 5, 2011

China: soft or crash landing?

Economists who believe that China can come to the rescue of an increasingly troubled global economy are now in a decided minority, with questions increasingly being asked whether China can save itself: Will China's economy achieve a soft landing, a hard landing or even suffer a crash landing?
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 5, 2011

Unknown consequences if Japan joins TPP

Japan couldn't make up its mind, so it was up to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. On Nov. 13 he made it official: Japan would join multilateral negotiations aimed at forging a free-trading Kan-Taiheiyo Keizai Renkei Kyotei (環太平洋経済連携協定, Trans-Pacific Partnership, TPP).
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 4, 2011

Occupy Wall Street resonates within Japan

While Japan's vernacular media has regularly reported on the Occupy Wall Street movement that has swept the United States over the past several months, coverage regarding the movement and its aims has been somewhat bland.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 4, 2011

Waxing woody as winter nears

This will be my 32nd winter in Kurohime, way up in the hills of northern Nagano Prefecture. Yesterday I was stacking firewood for the Afan Woodland Trust Centre, which has a fine, baronial-style stone-and-brick fireplace. There really is nothing like a room heated with firewood, and sitting by an open...
BUSINESS
Dec 3, 2011

Firms to aid disaster-info FM stations

Kyodo Shiseido Co., Canon Marketing Japan Inc. and Panasonic Corp. will provide financial help for 15 temporary FM radio stations broadcasting information for victims of the March 11 disasters.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Dec 1, 2011

Japan's top 10 buzzwords of 2011

The phrases and buzzwords that were on everyone's lips in 2011.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2011

Let's hope Europe does the right thing at last

The resignations of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi have highlighted how Greece, Italy and many other countries obscured for too long their bloated public sectors' long-standing problems with unsustainable social-welfare benefits. Indeed, for many of...

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear