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SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 5, 2007

Liverpool, Milan prove worthy Champions League finalists

LONDON — The Athens police, sponsors, television companies and millions of fans around the world can relax. The Champions League final will not be between Liverpool and Manchester United, a matchup that would virtually have guaranteed nasty scenes in the Greek capital between two sets of fans whose...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 5, 2007

Elvis impersonators may be answer to island's problem

Like many other places in Japan's countryside, Shiraishi Island is suffering from depopulation. When I came here 10 years ago, the population was 900. Now it is almost 700. Which goes to show that anyone can have his or her own island if one waits long enough.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 4, 2007

'Ahiru to Kamo no Coin Locker'

Many directors keep returning to the same themes and motifs again and again. Alfred Hitchcock liked to torture ice queens (Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, Tippi Hedren), while Luis Bunuel, the master surrealist, subverted everyday reality with bizarre and disturbing imagery, like a sleeper returning to a familiar...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 4, 2007

'Tsotsi'

A while back in these pages, I was dumping on a movie ("The Last King Of Scotland") for giving us the same-old white man's view of Africa. What we really needed, I wrote, was an African view of Africa, something like an African "City of God," which gave an insider's look at life and crime in Rio's favelas....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
May 4, 2007

The sun shines in spiritland

Toshima Ward is rife with zombies and familiar spirits. In the wee hours near the stationopolis of Ikebukuro, pale-faced university students, partied-out salarymen and a host of others wander the streets until the first trains arrive. These are Toshima's innocuous shades; there are others more spine...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 4, 2007

'The Reaping'

"Sometimes people just need to believe in miracles," goes a line in "The Reaping," but by the time you hear it, you've pretty much ditched that effort at least as far as this film is concerned. Starring two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank, "The Reaping" pretty much wastes her talents and those...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 3, 2007

Banners for the boys

Celebrated on May 5, Japan's Children's Day originated as an ancient Chinese festival from the old lunar calendar that marked a day to ward off evil spirits and pray for good health.
JAPAN
May 2, 2007

Sumo offers stable life to man from Mongolia

dashed himself against the other without a word. The hierarchy was too severe. I hit out against a younger wrestler, who made much of his seniority only because of his advanced initiation," Kyokutenho said. The communal living with some 25 Japanese wrestlers, and the sumo wrestler's stew, with unpalatable...
JAPAN
May 2, 2007

State appeals acquittal of Obara in Blackman slaying

Prosecutors have appealed a court ruling that cleared convicted serial rapist Joji Obara of charges that he attacked and killed Briton Lucie Blackman, a court official said Tuesday.
Reader Mail
May 2, 2007

Blogger editorial disappoints

I was excited to see an editorial about the ascendancy of blogging in Japan . . . until I actually read all of it ("Japan as number-one blogger," April 22). While it could have been an engaging celebration of this boom in people's media, it ended up being a lame and quite bizarre attempt to downplay...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 2, 2007

With ODA, Vietnam begins to pull itself out of poverty

QUANG TRI, Vietnam — Filled with the constant roar of motorcycle traffic, Vietnam's cities, including Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi, are bustling with excitement as the country enjoys rapid economic growth.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 1, 2007

Blasting off for Golden Week

Tired of sitting in front of computers all day long? Sick of sucking up exhaust as you walk down the street? Have you been pondering life's meaning and, above all, our meager existence in this world?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 1, 2007

What are your reactions to the verdict on rapist Joji Obara?

CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Apr 29, 2007

Bus system special, elderly comedy drama and a mystery at the lost-and-found office

This week's "NHK Special," entitled "Kosoku Basu Senso (Highway Bus Wars)" (NHK-G, Monday, 10 p.m.), looks at the fierce competition that has arisen in the tourism and transportation industries since deregulation in 2000 opened the market to hundreds of new bus companies.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 29, 2007

The medical insurance game -- you always pay and they often play

On April 13, 12 different insurance companies apologized for failing to pay benefits for legitimate claims on life and supplemental medical insurance policies. It was the latest chapter in an industry-wide scandal that started with admissions about unpaid benefits for automobile and property insurance....
EDITORIALS
Apr 29, 2007

Global population is graying

The 2006 revision of the United Nations population estimates and projection recently made public shows that the world population, now 6.67 billion, will reach 9.19 billion in 2050. This increase of 2.52 billion people is equivalent to the world's total population in 1950. During the same period, the...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 28, 2007

La vida LaRocca: Slugger enjoying playing with Buffaloes

Last season was a tough one for Orix's Greg LaRocca.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 27, 2007

Japan finally warms to vulture culture

Time was when Japan Inc. shunned the heady world of corporate raiders as a vulture club anathema to the country's consensus culture.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 27, 2007

Maximo Park "Our Earthly Pleasures"

This year marks about the fifth birthday of the post-punk revival that has seen tightly dressed lads in Europe and cosmopolitan hipsters in America playing danceable rock. Of this clique, Maximo Park are the eccentric artsy and intellectual guys from northeast England who come across as not giving a...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 27, 2007

Patti Smith "Twelve"

Patti Smith has always been sentimentally reverent toward her fellow artists, even those you wouldn't expect. She once performed Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life," the epitome of sappy pop, on a children's TV show (look for it on YouTube) and totally transformed it without really changing anything....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Apr 26, 2007

The satellite in the room

The NSAT-110 is a Japanese telecommunications satellite built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems and launched in October 2000 from French Guiana on an Ariene 4 rocket into a geostationary orbit some 35,000 km above Indonesia.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 26, 2007

'The Science of Sleep'

There's something tread-mill repetitive about conventional on-screen romance. It seems as if we've seen phone-call/e-mail angst, candlelit dinners, fights, reconciliations and sex ad nauseum (and engaged in by the same beautiful people again and again). But Stephane (played by the always amazing Gael...
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2007

Scary driving in Kanagawa

I am very concerned about the alarmingly high number of traffic violations in Kanagawa Prefecture. What is more alarming to me is that the violations seem to have become a normal part of life here:
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 24, 2007

Getting a handle on earthquakes

Earthquakes are a fact of life in Japan. In the past month alone, the country has been hit by a huge quake in Ishikawa Prefecture and another in Mie. Following are questions and answers dealing with basic information on earthquakes:
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 24, 2007

Drawn-out dentistry, legal help

Do you have a problem? Is there something you need, whether it be information, a service or an item that you cannot find?
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Apr 24, 2007

Conof, One Percent and Panasonic's new mini-speakers

Shredding mystery When I first laid eyes on the Conof by n.o.l., I had no idea what it was but immediately developed a unprovoked yearning for it. So when I eventually figured out that it was a paper shredder, there was a moment of disappointment -- secrecy and sensitive documents play no part in my...
COMMENTARY
Apr 23, 2007

Restoring the military's honor

I was disappointed by two recent moves by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration to whitewash Japan's war responsibility, although I was not really surprised. After all, Abe comes from the most conservative faction in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as did his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi....

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