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LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Dec 15, 2010

Social gaming frenzy sees two Godzillas play rough

On Dec. 8, the Tokyo-based Internet company DeNA received an on-site investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) due to suspected unfair trade practices. DeNA had allegedly interfered with their third-party game providers' development of games for DeNA's competitor, Gree.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 15, 2010

Marketers bask in the glow of the year's successes

If you can generate profits during a 不景気 (fukeiki, a business recession), you must be doing something right. If you can generate a ヒット (hitto, hit) and sustain it in the face of deflation, imitators and low-cost imports, then you're to be heartily congratulated for your business acumen.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 14, 2010

X Bowl coaches begin mind games

With a week still to go before the Japan X Bowl, the players have yet to pick up their helmets and pads and the coaches have yet to put on their headsets. But it appears the mental game has already kicked off.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Dec 14, 2010

Doing Japan in a van: highs, lows, dos, don'ts

Oh, the pros and woes of responding to your queries. Great advice, personal experience — even the odd wakeup call. Here are some responses to our Nov. 16 column on "How to do Japan — in a VW camper van":
Reader Mail
Dec 12, 2010

Atheist feeds off religious terms

Regarding The Observer article titled "Tony Blair versus Christopher Hitchens — is religion good or evil?," which ran in The Japan Times on Dec. 4: Hitchens uses the concept of "goodness" descended from a long line of religious traditions that existed when most people were religious. He sounds parasitic...
Reader Mail
Dec 12, 2010

Italian baker could use leavening

I am gravely disappointed in the comments of Paolo Aggio, the subject of the Dec. 7 Who's Who article, "Italian baker gives new life to old Tochigi warehouse." Aggio yearns for the "good old Japan" — by that he means all of 22 years ago! — and he cannot say good things about the opportunities that...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2010

Scariest WikiLeaks' tales show U.S. wandering in fog

HONG KONG — Breakfast tea or coffee has suddenly become more interesting with the flood of tittle-tattle, gossip and serious political reporting pouring out via WikiLeaks. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the American right fulminate and wish to charge WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange with...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 10, 2010

Fukuoka harbors hotbed of new talent

Despite its far westerly location (being closer to Seoul than it is to Tokyo), the Kyushu city of Fukuoka has for a long time been one of the musical powerhouses of Japan.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 10, 2010

Life-size whale pics will leave viewers in awe

Your average digital camera takes photos at a resolution of 10 million to 15 million pixels. That's more than enough to take a detailed image of, say, Tokyo Tower. Now imagine a camera with almost five times that resolution — capturing a massive 50 million pixels in a single photo — and imagine taking...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2010

On a mission to save bankrupt city

Naomichi Suzuki walked away from a stable job at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government last month, deciding he'd rather run for mayor of a bankrupt city in Hokkaido.
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...
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Dec 10, 2010

Time for league to get wise, promote names

Here's a brilliant idea: Expose the masses to the bj-league's most prized assets, its former NBA players — Kyoto Hannaryz guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Tokyo Apache center Robert Swift and Saitama Broncos guard Kenny Satterfield and Apache coach Bob Hill, a veteran bench boss of four NBA teams — during...
COMMENTARY
Dec 9, 2010

No emissions deal at Cancun

LONDON — The U.N. climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, is nearing its end, and while the ending will not be as rancorous as last year's train wreck in Copenhagen, there will be no global deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions this year either. However, there is some hope for the longer run.
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...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2010

Euro crisis reaches midlife

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Now that the European Union and the International Monetary Fund have committed 67.5 billion euro to rescue Ireland's troubled banks, is the euro zone's debt crisis finally nearing a conclusion?
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
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2010

Kabuki star apologizes for drunken brawl

Kabuki star Ichikawa Ebizo, injured during a midnight brawl in a Tokyo bar late last month, apologized Tuesday for disappointing his fans and promised to keep away from alcohol.
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 Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 8, 2010

A relationship with the city

I magine you live in a house that communicates with you through an interface resembling the futuristic info-graphics in the science-fiction movie "Minority Report" — where actor Tom Cruise interacted with icons on an holographic touch screen. For example, a kitchen appliance, such as your fridge, displays...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 8, 2010

When even teachers run to get things done

It's here: Shiwasu (師走, the month of December), whose kanji characters are composed of shi (師, teacher) and hashiru (走る, running) — put them together and you get a month so busy and jam-packed with events that even teachers have to sprint to get everything done.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2010

Autoliv has $1 billion for Japan acquisitions: CEO

Autoliv Inc., the world's largest maker of automotive air bags and seat belts, has about $1 billion to spend in Japan and fast-growing segments such as electronic accident prevention, according to Chief Executive Officer Jan Carlson. "We're better equipped to do acquisitions, and we are looking to do...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Dec 7, 2010

Japan loses, rest of the world gains from 'one citizenship fits all' policy

Dear Diet Member Keiichiro Asao:
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,...
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2010

Hitachi develops rare-earth recycling machine

Hitachi Ltd. said it has developed machinery to harvest rare earth metals from discarded hard-disk drives and compressors as electronics makers seek to reduce their reliance on Chinese supply.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2010

Uniqlo billionaire Yanai goes back to the basics

Tadashi Yanai, Japan's richest man, used advice from management guru Peter Drucker to build his Uniqlo clothing empire. To pull out of a slump that's hammered profits and shares, the billionaire is revisiting the lessons.
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.

Longform

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The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan