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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2008

'Akumu Tantei 2'

Shinya Tsukamoto's crazed, bizarre, utterly original early films, beginning with "Tetsuo" (1989), which won him a devoted cult following abroad. In the Japanese film industry, though, he was regarded as a pariah.
Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2008

Students could use civics courses

I agree with the Dec. 5 article "Politicians failing to engage youth," but one main issue is ignored. As with most articles published about Japan's lack of political participation, this one neglects to address the school's role in citizens' political involvement. As an assistant language teacher (ALT),...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2008

Greenpeace softens protest tactics

Environmentalists in the icy seas, risking life and limb to save whales from the harpoons of Japanese hunters — it makes for good headlines in the West and has even spawned a TV series, "Whale Wars."
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 10, 2008

Rondo running the show for Celtics

NEW YORK — After visiting the Indiana Pacers at Conseco Fieldhouse on Tuesday, the 19-2 Celtics invade our nation's capital on Thursday. Given the way they're playing, David Stern has canceled the remainder of the season, called off the playoffs and ordered them to go straight to the White House.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2008

Japan to settle custody case, U.S. court rules

The Nebraska Supreme Court has ruled that the state's courts have no jurisdiction over a custody dispute involving a 6-year-old boy, leaving the issue to a Japanese court.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 10, 2008

'Self' and the macaque mind

One of my favorite locations in Japan is an uninhabited island just off the coast of the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture to the south of Tokyo. Uninhabited by humans, it is, however, inhabited by another primate: a troop of Japanese macaques.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 10, 2008

BOJ urged to tackle credit crunch more aggressively

Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa may be forced to adopt more aggressive measures to ease the credit shortage bedeviling companies, economists say.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 9, 2008

'Tokyo Two' fight to clear names

Six months ago Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki were ordinary men looking after young families. But in June they were arrested by a large group of uniformed police, taken to a detention center in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, and held for 26 days.
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Dec 8, 2008

Japan, Germany set to pounce on seismic shifts in auto industry

Last week, the heads of America's Big Three automakers were sitting again before a government panel, begging for money to save their companies. This time, the companies were asking for a total injection of some $34 billion — $9 billion more than just two weeks ago.
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 7, 2008

Antlers repeat as champs

Defending champions Kashima Antlers held their nerve to clinch the 2008 J. League title with a 1-0 win over Consadole Sapporo on Saturday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Dec 7, 2008

What's behind all the funny car names?

Over the years, Japanese car names have been a source of unending comedy, frivolity and perplexity in international motoring circles.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 7, 2008

Past events' bloodstained light casts a long and lasting shadow

On Dec. 7, the day of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 in Hawaii, the thoughts of many turn to wars, how they begin and the course they take.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 6, 2008

Keane stood by his convictions

LONDON — It was always going to end like this.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 6, 2008

Sending out smoke signals to the gods

While November is fire prevention month in Japan, on our island we are out deliberately starting fires. And during this dry time of year with crispy leaves and fallen twigs, the likelihood of setting the entire island on fire is at its highest. But fire is one of the many ways the island people communicate...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2008

Terror threat to civilization

HONG KONG — The death toll of nearly 200 from the carnage in Mumbai last week is small compared with the 5,400 people who die every day from AIDS-related illnesses or the 2,500 mostly children who die daily from malaria. Three hundred Zimbabweans died of cholera while the gun battles in India raged....
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2008

Politicians failing to engage youth

One of the oldest rules in politics the world over is that young people stay away in droves.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2008

'I Served the King of England'

Watching Czech waiter Jan Dite in "I Served the King of England" traipse through some of the most tragic years his country had ever known (Nazi intervention, Soviet invasion), you're reminded of another Czech cinema antihero: Tomas (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being."...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 5, 2008

Orchestra brings best of Venezuela's youth

The miraculous Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela will delight Japanese audiences during their first performances in this country, from Dec. 17 to 19.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 5, 2008

In Fukuoka, we're walking in a winter ramen land

Winter whistles through the streets, slips its icy fingers down your coat, and you search for something, just about anything, to ward off the damp chill of a Japanese winter. Suddenly, you know with all certainty the one true cure — ramen.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 5, 2008

'Magic Flute' adapted to South African beat

A new collaborative opera that blends Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and African music is coming to Tokyo this month, performed by South Africa-based Isango Portobello Productions.
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2008

Consider culling bull whales

A beached whale is synonymous with desperation. Pods have limited sources of krill and beach through hunger. Yet, historical records relating to Bass Strait, when pods were plentiful, mention large whales beaching singly and natives gathering to feast over many days. Now that marine life is significantly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 4, 2008

An audience with Miyazaki, Japan's animation king

Hayao Miyazaki says he doesn't like giving interviews, but the Oscar-winning, megahit-making animator has strong opinions he isn't shy about sharing, as a packed room of reporters learned when he appeared at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo on Nov. 20.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 4, 2008

Pink thrills: Japanese sex movies go global

As the last wave of vengeful female ghosts inspired by "Ring' "s Sadako fade from cinema screens worldwide, either in their original J-horror manifestations or the obligatory Hollywood remakes, more adventurous foreign-film fans have begun turning their heads Eastward in search of a new frisson. Their...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2008

Failed governance allowed attacks

MUMBAI — In most cities of South Asia, hidden beneath the grime and neglect of extreme poverty, there exists a little Somalia waiting to burst out and infect the body politic. This netherworld, patrolled and nourished by criminals who operate a vast black-market economy, has bred, in Mumbai, a community...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2008

Time for Europe to fill a fading NATO's shoes

LONDON — The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, whose foreign ministers will meet later this week, is dying. Death, of course, comes to all living things. And, as NATO approaches its 60th birthday next spring, there seems no immediate urgency about writing its obituary; 60-year-olds may reasonably...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2008

End the violence against women and girls

NEW YORK — The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women was commemorated Nov. 25, and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is spearheading a global campaign, "UNiTE to end violence against women."
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2008

Loudness rock star Higuchi dead at 49

Munetaka Higuchi, the leader of Loudness, which in the 1980s became Japan's first hard-rock band to break into the U.S. market, died of liver cancer at an Osaka hospital Sunday. He was 49.

Longform

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