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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 27, 2009

'The Informant!'

Steven Soderbergh's latest, "The Informant!," comes off like the smartest, funniest kid in the class — a wiz at everything he does from physics to basketball, but somehow friendless.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 27, 2009

How 'new' kabuki has captivated theater audiences for decades

In 1893, at age 78, the great playwright Kawatake Mokuami died. Since he left no protege, his death also ended the tradition of classical Kabuki writing. Mokuami, who, during the 19th century wrote more than 360 plays over his long career, became the last of the professional writers to work exclusively...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2009

The long journey from Kafka to Gorbachev

NEW YORK — On Aug. 2, 1914, Franz Kafka wrote in his diary: "Germany has declared war against Russia. In the afternoon, swimming." Kafka, the reclusive and visionary Central European writer, gave his name to the 20th century. Seventy-five years had to pass before Kafka's swim before Central and Eastern...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Nov 26, 2009

Cable guy Yasushi Sano

Yasushi Sano, 30, is a "cable guy" living and working in Tokyo. By his estimates, over the past six years, he has installed cable TV into about fives homes a day, averaging 25 hook-ups a week, 100 a month and 1,200 a year, bringing quality entertainment into a total of 7,200 households. Sano's passion...
JAPAN / ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE
Nov 26, 2009

CO2 cuts will require nation's transformation

First in a series
EDITORIALS
Nov 25, 2009

The shame of growing hunger

According to the United Nations, more than 1 billion people — one of every six persons on this planet — go hungry each day. In a world of unprecedented prosperity, that statistic is shameful. More appalling still, the number of undernourished individuals is growing despite rising levels of affluence...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Nov 25, 2009

Iverson continues to be own worst enemy

NEW YORK — For a New Yorker who three years in a row purchased season tickets a section removed from the 76ers' bench just to be assured of the opportunity to be entertained by Allen Iverson whenever in Philadelphia, it's distressing to see his career tumbling (bouncing out of Graceland) so unhappily...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Nov 25, 2009

U.S. online strategy holds clues for Tokyo

Imagine befriending Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Facebook. Or getting "tweets" from Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Twitter. It could happen if Tokyo follows Washington's lead.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Nov 25, 2009

Hallods puts definition on its screen; Maxell turns volume up

Screen saver: Putting genuine high definition in portable-media players is a bit like trying to craft the perfect diamond. If you pull off the act it looks brilliant, but the difference between it and the normal article is nearly impossible for laypeople to actually see. Despite doubts over whether the...
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 2009

Increase the tobacco tax

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama recently told the Diet that an increase in the tobacco tax should be considered from the viewpoint of improving people's health. He has instructed the government's Tax System Council to study the matter. A tobacco tax increase is long overdue; we hope Mr. Hatoyama's effort...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2009

Ramping up hope for Roma with education

BRUSSELS — Hated, alienated and shunned as thieves and worse, the Roma have for too long been easy and defenseless targets for disgruntled racists in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and other European countries.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 22, 2009

How to save the planet, Edo Japan style

JUST ENOUGH: Lessons in Living Green From Traditional Japan, by Azby Brown. Kodansha International, 2009, 232 pp., $24.95 (hardcover) Azby Brown is fascinated by Edo Japan because it once faced dire environmental degradation and yet did not collapse. Through a combination of ingenious technological advances,...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2009

Twilight of France's Republican aristocracy

PARIS — No tumbrels have appeared in Paris' Place de la Concorde, but a revolution may be under way in France nonetheless. Recent weeks have seen the trial of former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and the conviction of former Defense Minister Charles Pasqua.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 22, 2009

Exploring cancer research, the classic 'Sakura' and filial piety

Two years ago journalist and critic Takashi Tachibana was operated on for bladder cancer. The experience made him curious about research into cures for the disease, and what he learned is outlined in "Tachibana Takashi Saizensen Hokoku, Gan to Ningen, Hateshinaku Tatakai" (Takashi Tachibana's Front Line...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2009

'Happiest' revolution of 1989 was in Prague

NEW YORK — It was early June 1989. Vaclav Havel had been released from jail only days before, yet he was full of what now seems an almost prophetic certainty. Thousands of his countrymen had written letters petitioning for his release, at a time when declaring solidarity with Czechoslovakia's most...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 22, 2009

Ozawa's sermon hardly befitted the spirit of the mount he chose

On Nov. 10, Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, dropped a bombshell in a speech he made atop one of Japan's most sacred mountains, Mount Koya, in Wakayama Prefecture.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 22, 2009

Exploring cancer research, the classic 'Sakura' and filial piety

Two years ago journalist and critic Takashi Tachibana was operated on for bladder cancer. The experience made him curious about research into cures for the disease, and what he learned is outlined in "Tachibana Takashi Saizensen Hokoku, Gan to Ningen, Hateshinaku Tatakai" (Takashi Tachibana's Front Line...
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 22, 2009

Our growing Earth?

The world is awash with wild theories, conjecture and speculation about everything you could imagine — and then some.
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 22, 2009

Dogmas may blinker mainstream scientific thinking

The competing claims of Growing Earth Theory and Plate Tectonics Theory as presented in the accompanying article may appear to be a recent rivalry, but they are in fact following in a long tradition.
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 22, 2009

Our growing Earth?

The world is awash with wild theories, conjecture and speculation about everything you could imagine — and then some.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2009

Heian tomb yields tweezers

A makeup kit containing a pair of 17-cm iron scissors and iron tweezers 8.5 cm long has been discovered in the tomb of a woman who lived at the end of the Heian Period (794-1192), archaeologists said recently.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 20, 2009

Imperial treasures shown in full glory

Few objects have surfaced from early Imperial tumuli as, being graves of an extant family, excavation is at present prohibited by the Imperial Household Agency. Nevertheless, the occasional object has come to light in the course of repairs following damage by natural disasters, and one of the most beautiful...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 20, 2009

Rediscovering Rebecca Horn

If you've been paying attention to recent contemporary art, both in Japan and abroad, you might be struck by the question "Why now?" during a visit to German artist Rebecca Horn's survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOT), Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2009

Kobe professor eyed to replace Mizuno at BOJ

The government Thursday selected Kobe University professor Ryuzo Miyao to replace Atsushi Mizuno on the Bank of Japan Policy Board.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2009

Obama's Vietnam syndrome

NEW HAVEN — There can be no military resolution to the war in Afghanistan, only a political one. Writing that sentence almost makes me faint with boredom. As U.S. President Barack Obama ponders what to do about the war, who wants to repeat a point that's been made thousands of times? Is there anyone...
Reader Mail
Nov 19, 2009

Don't blame Japan for problems

I would like to reply to Denis McGowan's Nov. 15 letter, "Kids cut off from caring fathers." Many people have personal problems and I've been through my share, yet I would not shout them out in a newspaper. The person in the article cited by McGowan ("Fatally flawed math of risking it all in Japan,"...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Nov 17, 2009

U.S. nuclear arms in Japan: a firsthand account

Dear Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama,

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