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EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2007

Beautifying Kyoto, at last

In early September, the Kyoto city government began enforcing regulations against ugliness in the city. Yes, ugliness. The mayor of Kyoto, Yorikane Masumoto, and his municipal government found the political will to think beyond the immediate concerns of day-to-day business demands, and to consider how...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Sep 23, 2007

Cellphone bards hit bestseller lists

Like many other young Japanese, Rin, 21, punches her mobile phone keys very quickly. Holding her phone with two hands, and moving her thumbs deftly and smoothly, she quickly generates sentences on the small screen.
Reader Mail
Sep 23, 2007

Forced philosophy in Bhutan

Regarding David Howell's Aug. 30 article, "Happiness can't be legislated": Happiness is not measurable by economic and material prosperity, yet the Bhutanese regime makes every effort to force people to comply with the principles of happiness that a dictator propagated.
TENNIS
Sep 22, 2007

Romania wins late match to tie Japan

OSAKA — Japan's Davis Cup playoff against Romania is on a knife-edge going into the second day after Takao Suzuki beat Victor Hanescu to put the hosts up 1-0 before Andrei Pavel leveled the tie with victory over Go Soeda.
SOCCER
Sep 22, 2007

Speculation begins on Mourinho's future

LONDON (AP) Jose Mourinho already is waiting for his next job offer.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Sep 22, 2007

Children smile again thanks to art of healing

When you're just one person who wants to make a change in a world of 6 billion, effecting that change can be a little daunting. But for some people, waiting around for something to happen is a whole lot more worrisome.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2007

Mob leaders found liable for botched hit

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday ordered the two top executives of Japan's second-biggest crime syndicate, including its "Godfather" and three hit men, to pay a combined ¥59 million in damages to the family of a South Korean student killed in a botched revenge shooting in 2001.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 21, 2007

Still rising like a phoenix

S teve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy, former old-school hippies turned cybertechno pioneers with their band System 7, have a career that puts most of their contemporaries to shame. And, unlike Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, after three decades of making music, they still love each other, still challenge...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
Sep 21, 2007

Stomp The Yard

"Stomp The Yard" Director: Sylvain White
COMMENTARY
Sep 21, 2007

China revisits a contradiction

HONG KONG — More than 25 years ago, China's paramount ruler Deng Xiaoping criticized excessive concentration of power within the Communist Party as the cause of grave problems, including the precipitation of the Cultural Revolution.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 21, 2007

Miraikan's new moon

Why go to the moon when Miraikan brings the moon to you? To celebrate the season of the harvest moon, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan), located in Tokyo's Odaiba, will turn its 6.5-meter-diameter spherical LED display — usually reserved for same-day representations...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 21, 2007

Don Quixote, Korean style

This "Man of La Mancha" has a lot to do with a man from South Korea: Cho Seung Woo, the film-star hero of such hits as "The Classic — Love Story" (2003) and "Marathon" (2005), and star of such musicals as "Rent" (2007), "Hedwig" (2006) and, most notably, "Jekyll and Hyde," whose massive success in...
EDITORIALS
Sep 20, 2007

A vital graying society

The nation is now in the midst of the Week of the Aged. As the theme suggests, the government and the people must rack their brains to figure out how to build a graying society full of vitality. The internal affairs ministry's report says there were an estimated 27.44 million people aged 65 or over as...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 18, 2007

Looking on the bright side

Last in a two-part series
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Sep 18, 2007

Tokyo Look Book, Brazil Fashion Now, etc.

You get the look
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2007

Once again, musical chairs at the Kremlin

VIENNA — It's that time again: Russia's pre-election season when prime ministers are changed as in a game of musical chairs. The last one seated, it is supposed, will become Russia's next president. As the end of his rule approached, Boris Yeltsin went through at least a half-dozen prime ministers,...
Reader Mail
Sep 16, 2007

Poor sense of visitor comfort

Regarding a recent article on promoting tourism to Japan: It is true that Kyoto is struggling with how to change itself into one of the most popular travel destinations in the world. I think one reason Kyoto is not a popular travel destination is that the quality of people who professionally deal with...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 16, 2007

A night out — with divorce on the rocks

Ask a friend to name a detective, and legendary sleuths such as Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot or Kosuke Kindaichi will probably figure in their reply. Regardless of nationalities, detectives seem to be familiar to many — provided they are fictional characters.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 16, 2007

Postmodern sports for all

One night last month, while I was lazily channel-surfing at home, I happened on shot-putters doing their thing at the IAAF's World Athletics Championships in Osaka.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 16, 2007

Three cheers for the boys!

Take a moment to try to think seriously about cheerleaders. Nowadays, they don't just wear skimpy outfits, wave pompoms and do high kicks. Oh no, the cheerleaders jump, tumble and perform acrobatic stunts. And, of course, they dance, chant and smile as well. But colorful pompoms and short skirts apart,...
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2007

Hope found in submarine legacy

and Katja Boonstra (left), who lost their fathers during World War II, visit William King, the former skipper of the British submarine HMS Telemachus, at Oranmore Castle in Ireland in May 2004. PHOTO COURTESY OF AKIRA TSURUKAME
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 15, 2007

All the dirt on life's ins and outs

This summer has been hotter and longer than most. But rather than fight it and hide indoors in the air conditioning, I just put on my bikini.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 14, 2007

'Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten'

Punk rock has survived over the past three decades, but at the expense of devolving into fixed form and fashion — the very rock 'n' roll cliche the original movement so loudly denounced. But for those of us who were there at the time, it was clear that punk was a mind-set, an unspoken philosophy of...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2007

English-language Web site gives voice to survivors of atomic bombs

Gleaning stories from countless hours of recordings made by the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a former broadcast journalist started an English Web site last month to share their horrifying experiences with the outside world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 13, 2007

An excess of curating

One of the key elements of the Istanbul Biennial is the city itself. Founded by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great in A.D. 330 as the first world's Christian capital, it was long the glorious center of the Byzantine Empire, before becoming the capital of the Ottoman Turks. Today, it's a megacity...
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2007

Stocks fall on Abe's decision to step down

Stock prices closed lower Wednesday following Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's surprise announcement of his decision to resign.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 13, 2007

Look inside the puppet's head

"One aspiring to become a puppet operator would have to spend 10 years to master the handling of the puppet's feet and another 10 years to be able to operate its left hand," says Yoshida Bunjaku, 79, one of two omozukai (principal puppeteers) awarded the title of Living National Treasure. "While he is...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 13, 2007

Memories of fortresses and clouds

Watching on television as the second plane hit the World Trade Center in 2001, Japanese sculptor Masayuki Nagare's thoughts were not with his most famous sculpture, "Cloud Fortress" (1975), which was located at the base of the towers. The then 78-year-old was recalling a time 58 years earlier when, as...
Reader Mail
Sep 12, 2007

Realities belie national boast

Bhutan, which pompously boasts of its gross national happiness index, has some realities worth considering. For example, 20 percent of the total population still lives a nomadic animal-herder life with attire made of animal hides. Can this be an indicator of happiness or is it the struggle for...

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