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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 7, 2011

Hurts

When Hurts took the stage at the Chiba leg of 2010's Summer Sonic for their first ever Japan show, they surely could not have predicted the reception that awaited them. With their debut album still under wraps and nary a note yet released in Japan, this fast-rising British duo somehow wrangled a large...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 7, 2011

Dommune live-streams DJ sets to a growing fan base

The crowd bristles with excitement as the first DJ of the night winds down his set. An air of anticipation sets in around the room. As the next DJ enters the booth with his CD booklet in hand, the throng begins to swarm the tiny floor, no larger than your grandmother's basement. Four Tet is about to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 7, 2011

Buzz overseas spells success at home

For Japanese music acts, success abroad has traditionally been the reserve of noise-rock bands such as Boredoms and Melt-Banana, for whom potential barriers like language or cultural disparities do little to hinder their pursuit of abstraction. More conventional Japanese indie bands have traditionally...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 7, 2011

'Taking Woodstock'

History has a sly way of happening when you least expect it. For example: A one-time dealer and savvy concert promoter teams up with a hip record-company exec to hold a music and arts festival in a rural setting, showcasing a few of the year's better bands. The promoters expect attendance of around 200,000,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2011

Penalties pay off for New Year's resolutions

MELBOURNE — Sometimes we know the best thing to do, but fail to do it. New Year's resolutions are often like that. We make resolutions because we know that it would be better for us to lose weight, or get fit, or spend more time with our children. The problem is that a resolution is generally easier...
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jan 5, 2011

Will fortune shine on a campaign for new year's udon?

Can udon replace soba as the new year noodle of choice?
COMMENTARY
Jan 5, 2011

Lost religious liberty worldwide

WASHINGTON — Many of us take religious liberty for granted. Unfortunately, this most fundamental freedom is not protected in many countries around the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2011

Portents of Sudanese respect for diversity

JOHANNESBURG — It has been said, correctly, that Sudan is a microcosm of Africa. For this reason, the entire continent will follow events in Sudan over the next few months with the greatest interest.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2011

Setting a new democratic agenda for Russia

MOSCOW — When Russian President Dmitry Medvedev delivered his annual address to the Federal Assembly, I was struck by the fact that his speech seemed intended for an advanced, prosperous country, not the real Russia of today.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 31, 2010

The simple but profound flavors of Buddhist temple cooking

Hidden away in the quiet backstreets of Azabu-Juban, Itosho is a self-effacing little restaurant that has been serving shojin ryori (Buddhist temple cuisine) for 40 years, remaining — until recently at any rate — one of the city's better kept secrets.
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 31, 2010

A great year for theater innovation

Japan's drama scene has seen some change in 2010. It was as if the theater crowd grew tired of waiting for the country's ailing economy and faltering politics to offer them anything new to work with and decided to go and find their own inspiration.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 31, 2010

Best Japanese/overseas albums of 2010: Tokyo Indie

The Brixton Academy — "Vivid"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 31, 2010

2010 top movies: best moments in a mixed 12 months for Japanese cinema

This was the best of years and the worst of years for Japanese films. On one hand, dire TV-network-produced blockbusters continued to fill multiplexes. On the other, makers of indie films, both big names and small, struggled for funding and distribution, as the mini-theater (art-house) sector continued...
Reader Mail
Dec 30, 2010

Conceptions of rape, sexism differ

In his Dec. 26 letter, "Statistically Japan does value life," Greg Hutchinson makes the mistake of comparing statistics from the United States and Japan as though their history, culture and tendency toward liberalism were irrelevant. After nearly 20 years here, I have come to believe that problems in...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2010

Piyasvasti battles Thai Airways' beasts

COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2010

Endgames in Iraq and Afghanistan

NEW YORK — For nearly a decade, American foreign policy has been dominated by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As 2011 begins, with 50,000 U.S. soldiers still in Iraq and another 100,000 in Afghanistan, it may not look like that era is coming to an end. But it is.
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2010

Japan's 'hot' year

The kanji "sho" for "hot" has been chosen by the Japanese people as best representing 2010 in a poll organized by the Kyoto-based Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation. No doubt the memory of last summer's record-breaking heat is still fresh in people's minds, but ironically the summer also brought...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 29, 2010

Time for Jordan to man up on Bobcats' plight

NEW YORK — A failure to approach, much less reach expectations, however impractical they may be, is bound to get authority figures fired sooner than later, which is precisely why Larry Brown again is on relocation and Kurt Rambis has a job for life.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2010

Ex-bureaucrats bent on reform

A few years before the end of the Edo Period in 1865, prominent samurai Sakamoto Ryoma founded a private navy and the Kameyama Shachu trading company in Nagasaki and led the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate.
MULTIMEDIA
Dec 29, 2010

Optimism up as production posts first rise in half a year

Industrial production increased for the first time in six months in November, signaling that the export-led recovery will regain traction.
LIFE / Digital
Dec 29, 2010

Living in Japan: There's an app for that

As 2010 draws to a close, smartphone use in Japan has risen to an all-time high, accounting for around 50 percent of all handset sales here. Yet it shames this columnist to admit that I'm still rockin' an old Windows 6.1 phone — insofar as a Windows 6.1 phone can be rocked at all — because as someone...
COMMENTARY
Dec 27, 2010

What is Beijing willing to do to secure oil and gas supplies?

SINGAPORE — China's dependence on increasing amounts of oil imported from potentially unstable areas of the Middle East and Africa through vulnerable shipping channels has become an uncomfortable fact of life for the government in Beijing.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 26, 2010

Shikoku shrines: journey through a lost world

Itsue Takamure, born in 1894, grew up to become a remarkable woman: a pioneering feminist scholar — one whose work remains controversial — and an anarchist, though her progressive thinking did not prevent her from collaborating with Japan's militarist government during World War II.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 26, 2010

The king of impersonation; year-end roundup special; CM of the week: Softbank

The holiday season is upon us, and among the extended quiz specials and talk marathons there are monomane (impersonation) contests on every station. The king of impersonators is Croquette, whose repertoire of famous singers and actors numbers about 300.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 26, 2010

Mastering the enemy's tongue

Creating a language-learning program may not sound like the kind of material to set the readers' pulse racing, but author Roger Dingman has a unique and compelling story to tell.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 25, 2010

The perfect gift for the Traditional Book Snob

Merry Christmas! I hope Santa brought you an e-book reader. If he didn't, turn him in to the police. Because Santa doesn't know what's good for you. Let me explain.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 25, 2010

Happily lost in the 'empire of signs'

Signs and symbols play an ever-growing role in our increasingly complex society. In this respect, Japan — the "empire of signs," as French semiologist Roland Barthes called it back in 1970 — strikes and confounds the foreign visitor with a vast array of alphabets, shapes and designs.

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’