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SOCCER
Jun 2, 2007

Japan cruises to win against Montenegro

Japan brushed aside Montenegro 2-0 in their Kirin Cup opener at Shizuoka Ecopa Stadium on Friday evening. Yuji Nakazawa and Naohiro Takahara's first-half goals set up a second-half stroll in the park for Ivica Osim's men, giving them a boost ahead of July's Asian Cup finals.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 1, 2007

'Shaberedomo, Shaberedomo'

Japanese are often stereotyped (and tend to stereotype themselves) as bad communicators — or just plain silent. Men, especially, are praised for being miserly with words, though their wives may long for something more than the furo, meshi, neru (bath, food and sleep) that is said to be the sum total...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 1, 2007

'300'

The long-simmering cold war between Hollywood and the critics has again flared hot with the release of "300," an effects-driven popcorn movie about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., when 300 Spartan soldiers went down fighting against a Persian horde.
COMMENTARY
May 31, 2007

Handling a truculent Russia

LONDON — Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer who had denounced corruption in the FSB, the successor to the KGB, is thought to have been murdered in London last November. His death was particularly horrific as he died after prolonged suffering as a result of ingesting liquid polonium, a dangerous...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 31, 2007

Yukiko Motoya takes a satirical look at the 'Super No-Flat'

There's a new buzz in Japan's theaters these days — and she's called Yukiko Motoya. Hailing from Ishikawa Prefecture on the Sea of Japan, the 27-year-old founder of an eponymous Tokyo-based theater company has quickly become a new source of freshness both in the drama world and other cultural fields....
CULTURE / Film
May 31, 2007

Doing it her own way — Kawase's determined path to success

Naomi Kawase has been tagged as "Japan's leading woman director" since her first feature film, "Moe no Suzaku (Suzaku)," won the Camera d'Or prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 31, 2007

A rare reunion of Jakuchus in a Kyoto temple

For the first time in 120 years, the 30 scroll paintings by Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800) known as "The Colorful Realm of Living Beings" are being shown together with the "Sakyamuni Triad" — three hanging scroll paintings of a central Buddha and two attendant bodhisattvas — at the Shokokuji Temple in Kyoto....
Reader Mail
May 30, 2007

Best part of student exchange

Regarding the May 20 editorial, "Don't be shy about study abroad": I am a Norwegian with the good fortune to have made friends with many Japanese foreign students while studying at the Grieg Academy in Bergen, Norway. We have had many students from Tokyo and Sapporo as one-year exchange students....
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 30, 2007

Sex, morals and DNA

It wouldn't be surprising to see a message along the following lines on an Internet dating site: "SJF, 26, wants to meet kind, generous, romantic, honest man."
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
May 30, 2007

DIY bread makers fill big gap in Japanese menus; robot cubes mimic people

Japanese cuisine does for seafood what French wineries do for the gift of the grape. But what it does for bread is more akin to the imposition the English have made on the world's palate. The alleged loaf consisting of six thick white slices with not a crust in sight at either end of it, and apparently...
COMMENTARY
May 29, 2007

World's 'best' health care fatally flawed

NEW YORK — One of the most contentious issues of the U.S. presidential campaign will be how to fix what many agree is a malfunctioning health-care system. Adding fuel to the fire is a recent study detailing the shortcomings of the U.S. health-care system compared with those of Australia, Canada, Germany,...
BUSINESS
May 29, 2007

Food prices rise as more crops go into producing biofuels

The increasing demand for biofuel, which is derived from biomass — usually plants — has taken a bite out of supplies of crops and other farm products worldwide. The redirection of crops from mouths to fuel tanks is reflected in the rise of prices of ordinary food items in Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 29, 2007

Aso Mining's POW labor: the evidence

One year after media reports that Aso Mining used 300 Allied prisoners of war for forced labor in 1945, Foreign Minister Taro Aso is refusing to confirm that POWs dug coal for his family's firm — and even challenging reporters to produce evidence.
LIFE / QUEUING
May 27, 2007

Patience pays off for firms on standby to queue for you

With queuing playing such an important role in Japanese life — just watch any breathlessly excitable TV magazine program fearlessly reporting any day of the week on long lines outside noodle shops or dog groomers — there are even those who cash in on the phenomenon directly.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 27, 2007

Baby hatch gives rise to empty moralizing

Every year the national Parent-Teacher Association conducts a survey to find out which television shows people either want or don't want their children to watch. Two programs always make it to the top of the disapproval list: "London Hearts," a variety show hosted by the coarse comedy duo London Boots,...
CULTURE / Books
May 27, 2007

Ethnic cop caught between cultures

CHINATOWN BEAT by Henry Chang. New York: SOHO Press, 2006, 214 pages, $22 (cloth) Well before Sax Rohmer created his sinister villain Dr. Fu-Manchu in 1911, Chinatowns figured prominently in British and American popular fiction. These are chronicled by such scholarly works as William Wu's "The Yellow...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 26, 2007

Treatment of Liverpool fans result of actions back home

LONDON — The police baton-charged "blameless" fans who could not gain entry to the stadium despite having valid tickets, while many inside the ground were allowed in with forgeries.

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