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CULTURE / Stage
Dec 10, 2010

Class of 2010: Japan's playwrights head west

Japan's young dramatists are increasingly shrugging off their medium's long-standing, self-imposed national isolation and are setting sail in search of new audiences, and critical praise, overseas.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 10, 2010

When followers outdo the master

R. D. Laing, the leading light of the 1960s anti-psychiatry movement, believed that mental illnesses were natural responses to the unnatural stresses and strains of modern life. Something similar can be said about Surrealist art, which, at times, seems like an artistic reaction to a world that throws...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2010

Prisons trying to cope with swelling elderly population

ONOMICHI, Hiroshima Pref. — Handrails run down the middle of the hallway to help prisoners make their way from one end to the other. Adult diapers are neatly stacked in a corner. When an inmate chokes on his rice and coughs, a supervisor rushes over to rub his back.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 9, 2010

Hibiya Matsumotoro owner Tetsuro Kosaka

Tetsuro Kosaka, 78, is the owner of Hibiya Matsumotoro, one of Japan's most historical restaurants. A three-story building resembling a cozy country estate, Matsumotoro was designed to sit in the center of Japan's first Western-style park, Hibiya Koen, and it has been in business since the park opened...
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 9, 2010

Tokyo left to pick up pieces after nightmare year

What began as a year of optimism and promise could not have turned out any worse for FC Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2010

'Tree of Hope' lit up for refugees

The Christmas "Tree of Hope" was set aglow in Tokyo's Marunouchi district Tuesday by Princess Kiko and a group of schoolchildren to show support for refugee kids worldwide suffering in conflicts and hardship.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 8, 2010

'Father of the Internet in Japan' predicts the future of networked devices and tells us why Japan must deregulate online healthcare

In 1990, Jun Murai, at the time an associate professor at Keio University in Tokyo, made a prediction in an article in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. When asked what the future of computer systems would look like, he described a world where, on one level there would be a network, on a second level computers...
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2010

Global goodbye for singer Utada

Pop star Hikaru Utada, one of Japan's best-selling artists of all time, is calling it quits at the end of the year, but not before performing for fans this week in a concert that will be streamed live online.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2010

Dead American's kin seek justice

Family and friends of Hoon "Scott" Kang say the 19-year-old's death in Tokyo in August left too many questions unanswered and are seeking ways to shed more light on the case.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 7, 2010

Abuse rife within trainee system, say NGOs

In October 1999, 19 Chinese trainees came to the Takefu city office pleading for help. In their first year in Japan as interns, the women had been promised ¥50,000 a month, but scraped by on ¥10,000. The next year, as technical trainees, they should have received ¥115,000 a month. After health insurance,...
COMMENTARY
Dec 7, 2010

U.S. remains delinquent on landmine treaty

NEW YORK — "I heard a thundering sound and saw darkness all around me. I spent three months in the hospital, and lost my leg and my son. I had stepped on a landmine and the world as I knew it had come to a halting end," wrote Monica Piloya, chairperson of the Gulu/Amuru Landmine Survivors' Network...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 7, 2010

Getting alcoholic beverage makers aboard the wagon

WASHINGTON — This year the World Health Organization adopted the historic Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol. Governments around the world are now taking stock of the toll of harmful drinking on public health, communities and economies, and beginning the important work of implementing...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 6, 2010

India moving to pole position for Security Council challenge

LONDON — U.S. President Barack Obama made a splash in India recently when he indicated that the United States would back India's bid for a permanent seat on an expanded United Nations Security Council.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 5, 2010

Rape: A crime for which hush-up society ought to stand trial, too

Mika Kobayashi is a brave woman.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 5, 2010

Privacy is losing its very meaning

Words come and words go. Times change, language evolves.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 5, 2010

A relaxed approach makes news understandable for young and old

Two weeks ago, NHK announced that its popular half-hour series, "Shukan Kodomo no News" ("Weekly News for Children"), will be ending on Dec. 19. According to an article in the Sankei Shimbun, an executive at the public broadcaster explained the cancellation by saying that the show, which was launched...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Dec 5, 2010

Valentine says NPB needs major reform

The posting system is far from perfect, but is there a better solution?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 4, 2010

Secret life of ikebana

Several days ago, I started finding yellow stains on my clothes. I'd be stain-free when I woke up in the morning, but by the end of the day, I'd look down and see a yellow stain somewhere on my shirt. Sometimes it was just a faint suggestion, other times it was a big stripe of yellow. They started appearing...
COMMUNITY
Dec 4, 2010

American artist's creativity never stops in Kyoto

Daniel Kelly's immaculate central Kyoto atelier is empty upon arrival, but soon the artist comes bounding in, extending warm greetings before leading a quick tour of the two-floor studio-living quarters. Then we're off again, dashing around the corner to check out his kura (warehouse)-cum-art storehouse...
CULTURE / Film
Dec 3, 2010

'Whatever Works (Jinsei Banzai!)'

If I were to tell you that Woody Allen's new film, "Whatever Works" (opening locally as "Jinsei Banzai!"), involves a nubile, rather dim young girl falling for a cantankerous, neurotic, much older guy, your reaction might be: "Not again!"
CULTURE / Film
Dec 3, 2010

'Robin Hood'

Ridley Scott has never been one to cushion the blow when it comes to sticking it to modern consumerist society. From "Blade Runner" to "Thelma & Louise," "Black Hawk Down" to "American Gangster," the diseases of so-called civilization become exposed in tableaux of greed, discontent and a cunningly concealed...
EDITORIALS
Dec 3, 2010

Flu season is upon us

Vaccination against influenza started in October. This year's vaccine targets three types of flu: H1N1 influenza, which broke out last year, and the A/Hong Kong-type and B-type influenza. In the last flu season, the damage from H1N1 influenza was not as serious as had been feared, probably because its...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years