Search - people

 
 
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2007

Opium King's ties believed went to the top

An obscure tomb in a small graveyard at a Chiba Prefecture temple marks the final resting place of Japan's wartime "Opium King," although the site betrays nothing of this dark cloud, nor the relationship the deceased had with key historical figures.
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2007

Peninsula poised to enter luxury inn fray

The opening Saturday of The Peninsula Tokyo in Yurakucho, Chiyoda Ward, marks yet another top foreign luxury hotel chain's foray into the capital of the world's second-largest economy.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Aug 27, 2007

'Lucky bag' binge turns into Pandora's box

Japanese retailers like to offer "fukubukuro" (lucky bags) to customers as an added attraction. The bags, sold at a fixed price, are filled with an assortment of goods that are supposed to be worth more than what you paid for the bag.
COMMENTARY
Aug 27, 2007

Issues with U.S. hurt LDP

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has been rocked by its humiliating defeat in the July 29 House of Councilors (Upper House) election. The LDP's loss was generally attributed to the government's long-standing mismanagement of public pension accounts, but in my opinion, two United States-related issues...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 26, 2007

Marine sniper in a modern-day retelling of the legendary 47 ronin

Author Stephen Hunter's series character Bob Lee Swagger, the ex-marine sniper who gained the nickname "Bob the Nailer" for his wartime exploits in Vietnam, has few soft spots. One is his late father, Earl, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor for valor on Iwo Jima.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 25, 2007

Ami, guitar team up against sex trafficking

Ami & Her Guitar revolve dramatically through the doors at What the Dickens pub in Tokyo's Ebisu. She's late, she's late, for a very important date, but on a day when temperatures have hit 40 C plus, she is easily forgiven.
EDITORIALS
Aug 23, 2007

Seconds shy of a disaster

A Boeing 737-800 passenger plane of Taiwan's China Airlines exploded and burst into flames after it parked at Okinawa's Naha airport Monday morning. Miraculously all 157 passengers and eight crew members escaped unhurt moments before the airline burst into a fireball.
EDITORIALS
Aug 20, 2007

Downturn in economic recovery

The Cabinet Office has announced that Japan's gross domestic product for the April-June period grew 0.1 percent, or an annualized 0.5 percent, in real terms from the previous quarter. This points to slowing economic growth in Japan, although economic activities as a whole continue to expand.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / WEEK 3
Aug 19, 2007

Putting the fun back into feeling fit

Although you may be a typically busy worker, in Japan there's no shortage of easy exercise options to help keep you in shape — whether "10-minute fitness" clubs where you can have a quick workout without even changing your clothes, varieties of home exercise videos or machines and, of course, any number...
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2007

Nintendo scores with brain-training, etiquette games

Since March, Natsumi Takita has spent 10 minutes daily on a Nintendo DS hand-held game machine, undergoing daily quizzes using "Otona-no Joshikiryoku Training DS" ("Common Sense Training for Adults").
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Aug 15, 2007

Hoppy enjoying comeback after radical shift in management

Hoppy, a sparkling low-alcohol beverage usually mixed with "shochu" distilled spirits, debuted in 1948 and became popular mainly in and around Tokyo as a cheap alternative to beer after the war.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 14, 2007

'Izakaya' morale-boosting ritual catches on

Twenty-five minutes before the 5 p.m. opening, staff at Teppen, a Japanese-style bar in Tokyo's Shibuya district, and employees of other businesses gather around the counter for a daily meeting.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 12, 2007

TV host visits South Korea, WWII Tribunal Judge special, WWII A-bomb special tribute

One of the most popular series on NHK is "Tsurube no Kazoku ni Kampai (Tsurube Toasts Families)" (NHK-G, Monday, 7:30 p.m.), in which sandpaper-voiced rakugoka (comic storyteller) Tsurube Shofukutei and a guest visit a town or village and casually strike up conversations with people on the street with...
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2007

Nagasaki mayor slams nuclear talk, tests

NAGASAKI — Nagasaki marked the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bombing here Thursday with criticism of nations that have tested or are suspected of possessing or pursuing nuclear weapons, and people in Japan who advocate acquiring them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 10, 2007

'One Day in Europe'

"One Day in Europe" is a comedy of cultural and linguistic misunderstanding that toys with the idea of a unified Europe, where everyone shares the same singular, unifying identity. Unlike many Americans, who proudly admit to being "American," Europeans — single currency and the EU notwithstanding —...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2007

Should Abe stay or go? Japan debates the LDP's electoral defeat

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has told the Japanese public that despite his ruling coalition government's devastating defeat in the July 29 Upper House elections, he will do "the responsible thing": He will stay on as the party's leader and as Japan's prime minister.
COMMUNITY
Aug 7, 2007

Pride vs. prejudice

Japanese people take 10 months to gestate, have longer intestines and higher body temperatures. And there are no gays in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Aug 6, 2007

Flagging spirit to abolish nukes

The 62nd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the first use of a nuclear weapon in history, comes amid circumstances not necessarily favorable for abolishing nuclear weapons. The Aug. 6, 1945, bombing of Hiroshima killed some 140,000 people; the bombing of Nagasaki three days later, some 70,...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2007

Conversion in France's Foreign Ministry

PRAGUE — French President Nicolas Sarkozy's appointment of Bernard Kouchner as France's foreign minister was a brilliant political stroke. Having beaten his Socialist rival, Segolene Royal, Sarkozy decided to compound the Socialists' crisis by appointing to his government several political figures...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 4, 2007

The times, they've been a changin'

Thumbing through some faded photographs of my early days in Japan, I find a mustachioed face with shoulder-length hair and water-clear eyes, eyes perhaps indicative of a vast open space behind. My face.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 3, 2007

'Ring' director's spooky tales

Almost a decade ago, long before "torture porn" was a successful horror subgenre, director Hideo Nakata unleashed "Ring." Not unlike the fatal images in the movie itself, "Ring" spread its brand of almost bloodless, atmospheric terror across the globe; Nakata himself tackled tinsel town to direct Naomi...
EDITORIALS
Aug 2, 2007

Mr. Abe's logic for staying on

His Liberal Democratic Party's massive defeat in Sunday's Upper House election notwithstanding, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared that he will not step down. His far-from-convincing explanations for staying on, even when cursorily examined, sound like a quibble. By clinging to power, Mr. Abe will...

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’