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Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Mar 24, 2009

Designers, artists take stage for direct route to the people

An unusual mix of designers, architects, painters, and non-artists gathered last month at SuperDeluxe, an event space in Tokyo's Nishi Azabu. They had one thing in common — something they wanted to show and talk about.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 24, 2009

What's your favorite word and why?

Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 24, 2009

Smokes here cheap, in state's interest

The World Health Organization calls smoking "one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced."
Reader Mail
Mar 22, 2009

Useless engineering achievement

Humanoid robots really bug me. The unveiling of the humanoid robot HRP-4C (shown in the March 17 photo titled "MODEL OF TECHNOLOGY"), accompanied by an all too predictably maudlin caption describing how "its face can exhibit expressions of surprise via 42 actuators," and news that it will debut at a...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 22, 2009

Tale of a fallen woman and other intrigues

Since his literary debut in 1992, Vincent "Vinnie" Calvino, an expat Italian-Jewish attorney from New York, has been pursuing investigations on behalf of mostly foreign clients in Bangkok.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 22, 2009

The cowardly whisper of politics

A few weeks ago I watched "All The President's Men" for the first time in more than 20 years. Set in the early 1970s, it was a potent blast from the past, but what struck me wasn't the relative youth of Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman or the pre-Internet drudge work that their real-life characters,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 22, 2009

Raising bilingual children takes time, huge effort — and lotsa money

An American friend recently asked me a difficult question: How do you bring up a bilingual child?
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 22, 2009

Oceans awash in toxic seas of plastic

Umbrella handles. Pens. Popsicle sticks. Lots and lots of toothbrushes. These are just a few of the items that make up the approximately 13 million sq. km Eastern Garbage Patch, an immense plastic soup in the Pacific Ocean that starts about 800 km off the coast of California and extends westward. Sucked...
Reader Mail
Mar 22, 2009

Immigration controls in Britain

Regarding the March 17 article "I am not a Pakistani child bride (but the U.K. can't tell the difference)": While I understand the author's frustration, I welcome the opportunity to clarify U.K. immigration procedures. We actively encourage visitors from Japan to enjoy and experience life in the United...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
Mar 22, 2009

A rose among roots on Awajishima

I'm bent over double, throwing up water I've just drunk. I can't keep anything down.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 21, 2009

Fear not and embrace the music of Japanese

Welcome to Japan! And welcome to hiragana, katakana and kanji. I hope you packed some aspirin.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2009

Activist views homeless in realistic light

Social activist Makoto Yuasa caused a stir by bringing poverty out into the open when he teamed up with unions and nonprofit organizations to open a tent village for jobless people in Tokyo's Hibiya Park over the yearend holidays.
COMMENTARY
Mar 21, 2009

Are Earth's oceanic 'carbon sinks' filling up?

Russian and South Korean scientists made a disturbing discovery recently in the Sea of Japan. They found that the amount of carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas, being absorbed in the water dropped by half between 1992 and 2007.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 21, 2009

Culture shock connections

Japan is not as shocking as it used to be.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 20, 2009

Set to Cruise control in Tokyo

Tom Cuise was in Japan last week with his wife, Katie Holmes, and their 2-year-old daughter, Suri, to promote his new film, "Valkyrie." As always, the star did the best he could to please his Japanese fans, spending over two hours outside a theater in Roppongi shaking hands and signing autographs; and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 20, 2009

'Drop'

Punks, in their various post-Elvis incarnations, have been a feature of Japanese society — and films — for almost half a century. More recent, though, is the vogue for what might be called punks-brawl-for-fun films, which celebrate the joy and glory of smashing heads together with your four or 40...
CULTURE / Film
Mar 20, 2009

'Drop'

Punks, in their various post-Elvis incarnations, have been a feature of Japanese society — and films — for almost half a century. More recent, though, is the vogue for what might be called punks-brawl-for-fun films, which celebrate the joy and glory of smashing heads together with your four or 40...
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2009

Don't need stimulus pay? Donate it

For those unsure of how to spend their government cash handouts or opposed to the measure itself, there is now a systematic way to donate the money to charity.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Mar 18, 2009

Davidson's passing another blow for NBA

NEW YORK — Already staggered by the deaths this year of Larry Miller, Red Kerr and Norm Van Lier, as well as the life-threatening illness of ex-Pistons maestro Chuck Daly, the NBA took another giant hit Friday when Pistons owner Bill Davidson died at 86; enshrined into the Hall of Fame last September,...
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2009

Embassy warns of Roppongi drink-lacing

The U.S. Embassy informed Americans in Japan on Tuesday that it has recommended that its employees avoid frequenting bars and clubs in Tokyo's Roppongi entertainment district because of a significant increase in drink-spiking incidents.
EDITORIALS
Mar 18, 2009

A test for Northern Ireland

Terrorists murdered three people in Northern Ireland last week. A decade ago that news would have been commonplace. Today, however, it is a stunning development for a people who have grown accustomed to peace and reconciliation. The remaining elements of a terror movement are trying to fan the flames...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 17, 2009

Canucks abroad fret over new curbs on citizenship

Citizenship can mean the difference between "belonging" and being just a visitor. Some people endure years of waiting in line and filing applications in a bid to change citizenship; others, by virtue of their birthplace and familial ties, begin their lives with the opportunity to be citizens of two or...
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Mar 15, 2009

Fire devastates Hakodate, Dalai Lama on the run, leftists protest Narita airport expansion

YEARS AGO
EDITORIALS
Mar 15, 2009

Blossoms amid the gloom

The cherry blossom season will soon arrive, and with it the reflections and lessons that go with the yearly event. As Japan begins the season of enjoying the cherry blossoms, the differences from last year start to appear as well. Part of the excitement of spring comes from never quite knowing exactly...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 15, 2009

From Japan's heart of darkness

A hundred years ago, a young scholar named Kunio Yanagita traveled to remote Iwate Prefecture in search of stories that reflected people's lives. Yanagita was born at an epochal time when Japan was flinging off its feudal past and embracing modernity. He wanted to capture the vanishing ways in which...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 15, 2009

Icy white 'blossoms' and a flourish of deep pink

Each day last week I strapped on cross-country skis to patrol some trails quartering the primeval, 2,050-hectare Nopporo Forest adjoining Sapporo.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Mar 15, 2009

45s at 60 just keep groovin' on their 7-inch way

It was 60 years ago this month when a country crooner from the South released the first-ever single to spin at 45 rpm.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan