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JAPAN
Jun 26, 2011

Tax increase urged to pay for rebuilding

The government's reconstruction panel submitted a report Saturday to Prime Minister Naoto Kan mapping out measures needed to recover from the devastating March 11 quake and tsunami.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 26, 2011

Disney collection appraisal; feline muses; CM of the week: Intel

The guest on the antique-appraisal show "Kaiun! Nandemo Kanteidan" ("Good Fortune! Team That Evaluates Anything"; TV Tokyo, Tues., 8:54 p.m.) is Hiroshi Yamamoto, the silver medalist in archery at the 2000 Athens Olympics.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 26, 2011

The other day of infamy

A TRAGEDY OF DEMOCRACY: Japanese Confinement in North America, by Greg Robinson, Columbia University Press, 371 pp., $29.95 (hardcover) The facts are well known. In the spring of 1942, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, some 112,000 Japanese American citizens living on the Pacific...
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2011

Shift to weekend work ups day care crunch

The nuclear crisis in Fukushima continues to extend its reach months after the March 11 disaster, with the latest repercussion hitting working parents across Japan who will be forced to work on weekends to save electricity but when day care centers are normally closed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 24, 2011

'Hesher'

What would happen if Megadeath decided to record an emo album? The answer may be something like "Hesher," which features an almost Cro-Magnon sort of misanthropic metalhead hero who likes nothing but shredding, shagging, smoking dope and smashing things, but who, it turns out, will teach his straighter...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 24, 2011

'Biutiful'

Ninety percent of the time, it's too much to bear even for the audience, so imagine what those people up on the screen are going though. Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu revels in shoveling out far more than a fair share of atrocious luck and tremendous suffering to his characters, and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 24, 2011

Director Ishii brings style to family drama

Japanese directors with any kind of ambition usually end up making a family drama, which is to Japanese cinema what the Western used to be to Hollywood: the core national genre.
Reader Mail
Jun 23, 2011

Fukushima 'risk' was avoidable

I agree to some extent with Grant Piper's June 19 letter, "Impossible to live without risks." Yes, we do face risks every day and even "getting out of bed in the morning is dangerous." If Piper has come to the conclusion that the possibility of radiation sickness and death is a part of his life, fine,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2011

Suicides upping casualties from Tohoku catastrophe

On June 11, a dairy farmer in Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, chalked a note on the wall of his cattle shed. "If only there wasn't a nuclear power plant," the message read, in reference to the damaged Fukushima No. 1 plant just 45 km away, which had effectively ended his livelihood.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 23, 2011

A marriage of East and West: something old, something borrowed and something blue

The Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg is showing its collection of Japanese prints for the first time on these shores as part of diplomatic celebrations around the 150th anniversary of Japan-German relations. It is a catholic exhibition that showcases ukiyo-e in its wide array of manifestations,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 23, 2011

Bedroom ears: Japan's new D.I.Y. ethic

The dimly lit Bar Fabrica is an appropriate place to meet the four artists from Cuz Me Pain Records, who describe their music as "quite dark" and are known for being shrouded in mystery.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 23, 2011

Changing the climate of architecture

Hokkaido-born architect Jun Igarashi seems to be a bit out of his comfort zone in the stultifying humidity of Tokyo. As he chats in the Toto Gallery, where he is holding his first solo exhibition, he explains that he's accustomed to the cooler and more temperate climate of his northern prefecture, which...
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2011

Reconstruction agency bill passed

A basic law for reconstructing the Tohoku region, including plans to form a new agency dedicated to this task, cleared the Diet Monday, more than three months after the megaquake and tsunami calamity.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 21, 2011

Coping with diseases can go beyond medication

If you are diagnosed with a chronic disease, the shocking news can often lead to confusion and depression. Just the thought of the illness indefinitely affecting various aspects of your life can be overwhelming. And yet at the same time, you'll find there is so much you need to do: learn about the illness,...
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jun 21, 2011

Is Facebook's 'Check-in Coupon' a good deal in Japan?

Facebook makes a foray into Japan's mobile coupon market with location-based discounts, but will social shopping catch on?
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2011

Objective defense of why some things matter

Can moral judgments be true or false? Or is ethics, at bottom, a purely subjective matter, for individuals to choose, or perhaps relative to the culture of the society in which one lives?
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Jun 19, 2011

The national sport; State to take over electric power firms; flooding kills 235; concerns over Chernobyl accident

100 YEARS AGOSaturday, June 19, 1911
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 19, 2011

All hail the Constitution's vacuous guarantee of freedom of thought

Fifty years ago this month, I faced an agonizing personal dilemma. As president of the student body at my Los Angeles high school, I was obliged to lead my fellow students, teachers and staff in reciting the "Pledge of Allegiance," the oath of loyalty to the United States of America, at our graduation...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 19, 2011

Temblor brings hope and tears to zoo

The Great Eastern Japan Earthquake on March 11 affected the animals in Ueno Zoo in Tokyo in both negative and positive ways.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 19, 2011

Oh, where is the city of dreams?

Illuminated manuscripts, Persian and Mughal miniatures, Victorian novels enriched by illustrations from the likes of Cruikshank and Phiz: Illustrated texts have a long, rich and varied history.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 19, 2011

Summer's joys in snow country

If you'd only ever experienced Niseko under a four-meter blanket of snow, you'd barely recognize Hokkaido's most cosmopolitan winter-sports resort in summer — in the best way possible.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 19, 2011

Strong workouts likely make Tyler a first-round pick

You already know that Japanese basketball's significance on a global scale is minor in comparison to most nations. And yes, most of this nation's residents can tell you that Yuta Tabuse was a trailblazer for Japanese basketball by becoming the first Japanese to play in the NBA.
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2011

Debt problem for survivors

As people in northeastern Japan devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami are struggling to start their life anew, they are facing a big financial problem — that is — their debts. They are obligated to repay loans taken out in the past on what are now destroyed or damaged residences or business...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 17, 2011

Tokyo and Yokohama festival celebrates the art of brevity

Short films have traditionally been seen as a director's starting block toward making their first feature. Yet with the art of filmmaking becoming ever cheaper, many have been sidestepping the short-film format, instead heading straight for a low-budget feature film. Yet short films are an art form in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 17, 2011

'127 Hours'

Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," released in 1960, famously terrified audiences to the point where a generation was checking the door locks before taking a shower. Stephen Spielberg's "Jaws," released in the baking summer of 1975, kept many people on the beach and out of the water. Now along comes "127 Hours,"...
COMMENTARY
Jun 17, 2011

Triple disaster proves need for an industrial revolution

Some three months since the colossal earthquake and tsunami in eastern Japan, stricken areas are getting on track for recovery with local industrial production capacity having been restored to as much as 90 percent of pre-disaster levels.

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’