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JAPAN
Oct 22, 2010

Salarymen feeling pressure of elderly care

For Itsuo Kandatsu, cooking three meals a day is a task he performs for his wheelchair-using mother and disabled brother. But the 49-year-old Tokyo resident isn't a house husband.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 22, 2010

Is Tokyo staging the next major theater festival?

Festival/Tokyo, which launched last year with two sets of events in spring and autumn, is in a bid to join the ranks of the world's top-flight theater festivals — such as Edinburgh's annual spectacular in Scotland, Avignon's in the South of France and Adelaide's in South Australia. The question is,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2010

First-time director takes on Murakami

Many filmmakers say the difficulties of adapting a best-selling novel to the screen can be daunting. How about the challenge of adapting a story by a foreign best-selling author ("All God's Children Can Dance" by Haruki Murakami) from a country one had never visited (Japan) and to choose the project...
COMMENTARY
Oct 22, 2010

Are China and Japan on a collision course?

LOS ANGELES — The people of China and Japan deserve better leadership at the top than they have been getting. But better leadership is not immediately in prospect for either ancient nation. That means relations between the two giant economies will probably get worse, when improvement is urgently needed...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 20, 2010

Ramen chain widens definition of 'new graduates'

A ramen chain causes a stir by dropping the tradition of hiring from only this year's pool of graduates.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2010

U.S. is no role model for prosecutor reform

The revelation of an "ace" prosecutor's criminal misconduct in Osaka, and of a coverup by his bosses and peers, have led to one of the most serious scandals in the history of Japanese criminal justice — and to many calls for reform of Japan's prosecution system.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Oct 19, 2010

Re: Richard Cory's story

A selection of readers' views on "Battling a broken system" (Zeit Gist, Sept. 21) and "Behind the facade of family law" (Zeit Gist, Sept. 28), both by Richard Cory:
EDITORIALS
Oct 18, 2010

Measure of a healthy planet

Since their appearance on Earth, humans have developed by using plants and animals for food, clothing, residences, medicines and other purposes. Ecosystems are the basis of human existence. This basic fact does not change no matter how much industrial civilizations may progress. An important measure...
COMMENTARY
Oct 17, 2010

Time to let the neighbors deal with the North Korean problem

PARIS — North Korea has officially unveiled the youngest son and heir apparent of "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il. Yet again the impoverished dictatorship has captured the world's attention. But the United States should leave the problem of dealing with Pyongyang to the North's neighbors. The so-called Democratic...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Oct 17, 2010

Homegrown swordplay hits the mark

With the sizzling summer heat replaced by cool breezes and mild temperatures recently, it's a great time to contemplate adding a new exercise to your weekly routine. If you are interested in a homegrown sport that is recreational and relieves stress, sports chanbara lets you kill two birds with one stone...
JAPAN / Media
Oct 17, 2010

Pusan festival delivers rich lineup of movies despite budget slump

Earlier this year, Kim Dong Ho announced that the 15th Pusan International Film Festival, which ran from Oct. 7 to 15, would be his final one as the event's director. Kim launched PIFF in 1986 and quickly made it the most important Asian film event of the annual calendar. As a farewell gesture, the traditional...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 17, 2010

Friendship on death row; Dr. Doolittle revisited; CM of the week: JR East

Prison life is a popular theme this fall, and the latest drama series to utilize it is "Mori no Asagao" ("Morning Glory in the Forest"; TV Tokyo, Mon., 10 p.m.), which centers on the relationship between a rookie prison guard and a man on death row.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 17, 2010

Singing the praise of the silent majority

It is a peaceful autumn day here in Hokkaido; a Black-eared Kite banking, wheeling and gliding effortlessly on outspread wings just outside my workroom window tempts me out for a walk in Nopporo Forest near where I live. There, I stroll among trees that now seem somewhat threadbare; the extreme density...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 17, 2010

Utopia means free money for everyone

Scientifically and technologically, the world is in flux bordering on chaos. Every day brings something new: a new discovery, a new device, a new technique, a new cure. The pace of change is dizzying; we scarcely know where we stand. Yesterday's novelty is today's norm, tomorrow's anachronism.
COMMENTARY
Oct 16, 2010

Beijing's reaction justifies Nobel Committee's choice

In China's upside-down world where black is white, the great honor of the Nobel Peace Prize being given to Liu Xiaobo, a writer, intellectual and human rights activist, has been denounced by the government as a "desecration" of the award because it was given to "a criminal who broke China's laws."
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 16, 2010

Giants-Tigers series looks like a tossup

OSAKA — The Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers have the fiercest rivalry in all of Japan. Their storied feud gets taken to a new level this year as they meet for the first time in the postseason.
EDITORIALS
Oct 16, 2010

Triumph of faith and will

By Wednesday night, all 33 Chilean miners trapped 600-plus meters underground since a Aug. 5 mine collapse had been pulled up to safety through a vertical shaft specially constructed to accommodate a rescue capsule.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2010

Selling smart cities to the world

CHIBA — There were gadgets and robots galore at Japan's premier electronics show last week. But one of the biggest attractions wasn't anything you could touch — an energy efficient city of the future.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 15, 2010

Lopez-Curval tells moving motherly tale

"Meres et Filles" (released in Japan as "Kakusareta Nikki)" is a film about women. But contrary to expectations, it's not a celebration of womanhood. Director Julie Lopez-Curval (working from a script by Sophie Hiet) is more concerned with the telltale details of women's lives: the momentary coldness...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 15, 2010

A modern twist for Japan's National Ballet

It doesn't seem quite right to mention hirsute, mustachioed actor Tom Selleck and baseball legend Bobby Valentine in the same breath as David Bintley, the new artistic director of The National Ballet of Japan. However, if you're unlucky enough to have seen Selleck's 1992 film "Mr. Baseball" or know of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 15, 2010

Breaking old conventions to find the new

Ryota Aoki (b.1978) says that he wants to see things that never before existed in ceramics. Personally, too, he is the exemplification of that ethos. We do not usually expect a celebrated ceramicist to be wearing a turban, have both ears pierced and be listening to hip-hop in the background as he sits...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 15, 2010

Lite

The music industry is like high school in a way: You become cooler and life becomes more advantageous after you make some well-connected, older pals.
COMMENTARY
Oct 14, 2010

Netanyahu is a deal-breaker, not a racist

"With this law Israel buys an exit ticket from the family of nations," wrote Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea last week in the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. "The proposed loyalty law . . . is really racist. It obliges non-Jews to declare that they would be loyal to the Jewish state but exempts Jews from...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 14, 2010

Labour's left foot forward?

New party leaders never want for advice. Since his election as leader of the British Labour Party last month, everyone has words of wisdom for Ed Miliband. This frenzied fight to mold the Miliband message is hardly surprising; a series of poor policy and presentational decisions when Labour last lost...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Oct 14, 2010

Fashion retailer Choichiro Motoyama

Choichiro Motoyama, 89, is a pioneering Japanese retailer who has brought some of the most famous European fashion brands to the Far East. In the 1960s, he was the first to import Gucci, Hermes, Loewe, Ferragamo, and then later Etro, to Japan. Through constant study and travels, Motoyama developed an...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 13, 2010

Hawks, Marines poised for intriguing showdown in PLCS second stage

The Chiba Lotte Marines almost didn't make the playoffs. Now they've got their sights set on reaching the Japan Series.

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