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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 29, 2007

The curse of the middle name

When I was new to this country, I had regular "episodes of misunderstanding" about Japanese life. Episodes that taught me that Western thinking and Japanese thinking did not, could not, would not match. Episodes that always left me muttering that I had been in Japan too long, even though I had just arrived....
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 28, 2007

What's in a name . . .

It's 20 minutes before her fashion show is due to start at the Italian Cultural Institute in Tokyo and Francesca Versace is giving a very slight, nervous bite to her lower lip.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Sep 28, 2007

The beat goes On in Shimokitazawa

Shimokitazawa is a magnet for young musicians in Tokyo. Virtually every other kid you pass on the street totes a guitar, and it sometimes seems like half the bars — big and small — are equipped for staging live music.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 27, 2007

Why do performing arts have a 'dead-end feeling' in Japan?

Tarahumara is a mysterious area deep in Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains. Dancer Hiroshi Koike chose the enigmatic name for the dance-drama company he founded in 1982 because he aimed to create beautiful performances that transcend genre.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 27, 2007

Ikuo Hirayama sought solace on the road

Ikuo Hirayama clearly represents how the Japanese like to see — and project — themselves.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 27, 2007

Tokyo gallery walkabout

Tokyo's galleries have woken from their summer slumbers — or, more likely, beach naps — with a vengeance. The current wave of openings started out in the east, at the complex of galleries in Kiyosumi, with shows that are set to close this Saturday (two were reviewed here this month).
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2007

Danger in distorted views of terrorism

WARSAW — A distorted view of the present is the worst way to prepare for the challenges of the future. To describe the struggle against international terrorism as "World War IV," as the leading American neoconservative Norman Podhoretz does in his new book, is wrongheaded in any number of ways.
COMMENTARY
Sep 25, 2007

Ugly truth of antiwar lefties

NEW YORK — Although its appearance in The Nation guaranteed it would receive scant notice, a July 30 essay by Alexander Cockburn was one of the first to seriously address the most troubling internal contradiction of the anti-Iraq War left. War, everyone knows, is a zero-sum game. For one side to win,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Sep 25, 2007

Tokujin Yoshioka, Nosign Design etc.

A drop of light
SOCCER
Sep 24, 2007

Inamoto hoping to get career back on track in Frankfurt

FRANKFURT — It's fair to say that if Junichi Inamoto had begun his European adventure at Eintracht Frankfurt instead of Arsenal his star would probably be shining that much brighter now.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2007

Russia and the Kosovo card

TBILISI — Look before you leap is as sound a principle in foreign policy as it is in life. Yet, once again, the Bush administration is preparing to leap into the unknown. Even though lack of foresight is universally viewed as a leading cause of its Iraq debacle, the United States (with British backing...
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2007

LDP bets on dour political blue blood to lead its recovery

Yasuo Fukuda is hardly the most dynamic politician in Japan. Saggy-jowled and owlish in his trademark glasses, the 71-year-old son of a former prime minister prefers gray suits, classical music and moderate, pro-U.S. policies.
Reader Mail
Sep 23, 2007

Incomprehensible abuse case

Regarding the Sept. 12 article "Life sentence upheld for fatal abuse of two kids": Just out of curiosity, how could the Hiroshima District Court rule that "there was no intent to murder because (Kenichi) Takao had confined the (6-year-old) boy in a plastic bag only to make him fear he would die"?
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...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years