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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 6, 2010

A guided tour to Akihabara

Maid cafes, cosplay (costume play), gachapon vending machines, canned oden noodles and otaku (geeks) — lots of otaku: I thought I knew Akihabara, or "Akiba" as its fans affectionately call it. I bought my first Apple computer (a secondhand Macintosh Powerbook) there in the early 1990s and had visited...
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2010

Voters hope new chief is a better fit

Voters were mixed Friday on whether Naoto Kan would be a better fit than his Democratic Party of Japan predecessor, Yukio Hatoyama, as the nation's leader.
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2010

Economy, debt reduction trump party pledges: Kan

Inheriting a mountain of problems from his predecessor's administration, newly elected Prime Minister Naoto Kan appears to be clear about one thing: something must be done about the snowballing government debt and moribund economy.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jun 5, 2010

Walcott a surprise omission from squad

LONDON — The phone calls started before England's World Cup squad was officially announced. The rumor mill told us Theo Walcott was the shock omission from Fabio Capello's selection for South Africa and the country was not happy.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 5, 2010

No end to JBA's incompetence

Only the names change, but the story remains the same, someone wiser than I once said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 5, 2010

Niseko's real estate boom: Bigger picture in sight for local development

For some it was a flash in the pan, at best an experiment destined to fail, at worst a mini-bubble hyper-inflated by greedy "outsiders" with little interest other than the type accumulating in the bank.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2010

Exporters keep dreaming of a buyers' wonderland

HONG KONG — It is a measure of the nervous mess of world financial markets that when the Financial Times reported last week that China was reviewing its assets denominated in euros, the markets promptly plummeted. The very next day — when China denied any such euro-review — there was a massive...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 4, 2010

'Survival of the Dead'

Director George A. Romero kicked off the zombie genre in 1968 with his "Night of the Living Dead," and from the outset he used the undead menace to channel contemporary fears.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 4, 2010

'Entre les murs'

Times may have changed, but a few things remain stolidly the same — and one of them is the middle- school classroom. Whatever else is happening out there, the classroom continues to pack a bunch of teenagers into a confined space, prop a teacher at the head of the room, and shut the door hoping for...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 4, 2010

Singer-songwriter Nozuka's 'train' picks up speed

In the fall of 2007 and 2008, the Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA) hosted Asian Trade Missions in Tokyo to cement stronger footholds in Japan for Canuck music companies and acts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 4, 2010

Red and black and spread all over

The avant-garde generally gravitates toward absolutes; you're either with them or against them. But how often in history has progressive art been created in service of the state's one-size-fits-all ideology? Not many, and perhaps the best-known example is the group that appeared in a brief window of...
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2010

Voters mixed over sudden resignation

Voters interviewed Wednesday by The Japan Times on the streets of Tokyo and Osaka had mixed reactions about the resignation of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, speculating the ruling Democratic Party of Japan was growing deeply worried about next month's Upper House election.
COMMENTARY
Jun 3, 2010

North Korea: the region's 'uniter'

Ever since international investigators concluded that the South Korean naval ship Cheonan, which sank in March with the loss of 46 lives, was struck by a North Korean torpedo, China has been under growing pressure to condemn its close friend and ally in the United Nations Security Council.
COMMENTARY
Jun 3, 2010

NASA keeping a closer eye on space weather

The images from cameras and sensors on the latest satellite watching the sun are a dramatic reminder of the awesome power of the star that warms our planet. They show clouds of magnetized gas big enough to engulf the Earth breaking away from the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere. These coronal...
JAPAN / BOOSTING THE BIRTHRATE
Jun 2, 2010

Holdout singles stalling birthrate

Japan's low birthrate has accelerated the graying population.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 30, 2010

Summer gift season tests Miyazaki meat rep

Dept. stores worry that Miyasaki's foot and mouth disease outbreak could put a chill on chugen sales.
Japan Times
LIFE
May 30, 2010

Grad-school boom for all

When Wakayama University set up a new masters program in economics last year at its Kishiwada satellite campus, 34-year-old financial planner Kenji Yoshida said he felt like "they created the program just for me."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
May 30, 2010

Pearl farmers look to satoumi to save their way of life

One bright blue February afternoon, Akira Harajo stood on a concrete pier and surveyed Mie Prefecture's Ago Bay. With dyed black hair, a zippered sports shirt and immaculate V-neck sweater, Harajo, 75, hardly looked the part of the farmer that he is. Then again, his crop isn't exactly ordinary: Harajo...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
May 30, 2010

Miso happy in Nakamurabashi

I hear somewhere near Nakamura in Nerima Ward, miso is still made in the age-old traditional way. I figure I'll just wander around the tidy little neighborhood and find it.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 30, 2010

Studies highlight a 'heartwarming' resu of the real thing in Japan

Nothing gets the circulation going like sex.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
May 29, 2010

Futenma blame game in full swing

OSAKA — In the end, the only thing Friday's agreement between the United States and Japan on relocating the Futenma air base does is to yet again avoid fundamental questions and problems that both sides have long ignored in favor of a face-saving political agreement for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama....
EDITORIALS
May 29, 2010

A good time to quit smoking

Japan Tobacco Inc. plans to raise the prices of tobacco products from Oct. 1 following the government's decision to raise the tobacco tax by ¥3.5 per cigarette or ¥70 per 20-cigarette pack. As a result, prices for cigarette packs, now around ¥300, will top ¥400 in what JT calls an "unprecedented...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 29, 2010

An ode to aging English teachers

"I haven't lost a beat," he tells me.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 28, 2010

Rising star set to shine

In September 1984 — three years after MTV: Music Television had kicked into life with British electro-pop duo The Buggles' appropriately titled 1979 classic "Video Killed the Radio Star" — Madonna strode onto a New York stage for the fledgling channel's first Music Video Awards.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’