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BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 18, 2010

Redefining the minimum wage in an age of no expectations

The DPJ wants to raise minimum wage to u00a5800 but is that high enough to decrease the number of 'working poor'?
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BY THE GLASS
Aug 13, 2010

East meets West at the dining table

Matching wine with Japanese food can be fraught with difficulty. A refined, oak-aged Bordeaux paired with a cool plate of sashimi, for example, can come across as brash and overbearing, completely drowning out the subtle spectrum of seafood flavors. But that's not to say great matches are impossible....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 13, 2010

Man Ray: The bright ideas of an original

"Unconcerned but Not Indifferent" reads the gravestone epitaph of American-born artist Man Ray, who was buried in his adopted hometown, Montparnasse, Paris. The same phrase is used for the title of an exhibition of the enigmatic artist now showing at the National Art Center, Tokyo. It can be applied...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 13, 2010

Contemporary art helps revive a city

For theater, dance and art fans in Japan, an unprecedented gourmet selection of performances and exhibitions — the inaugural Aichi Triennale 2010 — will kick off in Nagoya on Aug. 21, running until Oct. 31. Promoting cutting-edge and cross-genre concepts with an emphasis on performance-based works,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Aug 13, 2010

'Innocence — Art Towards Life'

Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 6, 2010

Animation fest seeks peace

Hiroshima plays host to various types of animated films from all over the world this weekend.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 6, 2010

Setouchi: the art of island hopping

Japan's Seto Inland Sea, known for its breathtaking vistas and art-filled island of Naoshima, is the site for the inaugural Setouchi International Art Festival until October 31. Also titled as a "100-Day Art and Sea Adventure," about 78 Japanese and internationally recognized artists and art groups are...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 30, 2010

Charismatic Chan makes 'Karate Kid' role his own

HOLLYWOOD — He's featured in more than 100 movies spanning six decades, holds the Guinness World Record for most stunts by a living actor, and has enjoyed a career as one of China's truly global superstars. And despite all this, Jackie Chan continues to dazzle audiences and critics alike — well,...
COMMENTARY
Jul 19, 2010

Getting on the same page for 'third way' to recovery

"The third way" to economic recovery, as advocated by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, appears to have been misinterpreted by a columnist who wrote for the July 3 issue of Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a leading Japanese economic journal.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2010

China's disturbing dam plan

LONDON — What is China up to beyond the highest Himalayas? Reports from a variety of sources, including official Chinese Web sites, say that Beijing is embarking on a series of dams and attempts to harness the waters of the Brahmaputra River. One of these alone would be a massive 38-gigawatt project,...
JAPAN / OKINAWA'S HOSTAGE ECONOMY
Jul 7, 2010

Special burden, special economic benefit

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. — On Aug. 4, 2005, then Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine was told by Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya that the United States had agreed to return all of the major military bases south of Kadena, central Okinawa Island, to Japan on condition that the Futenma air base be relocated...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jun 28, 2010

Who will feed the Haruki Murakami fans online?

Author Haruki Murakami has 60,000 followers on one Twitter account. But where is the real Web presence of Murakami?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Jun 25, 2010

'Watanabe Toyoshige: Playing with ONI'

The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 25, 2010

Keeping an eye on new ceramics

Places of worship take many forms, but they all share a common atmosphere. There's a certain quietude that puts visitors at ease and a sense of other-worldliness achieved, in part, through the careful placement of precious objects on raised platforms. Kim Riyoo's ceramic installation, "Ceramics as New...
JAPAN / PROMOTING TOURISM FROM CHINA
Jun 17, 2010

Kansai gropes to find right hook

OSAKA — PROMOTING TOURISM FROM CHINA
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 6, 2010

Dancing for joy in Japan

As I sipped my vin rouge last week during an interval in "The Sleeping Beauty," K-Ballet's latest Tokyo production, a woman at the next table said to her companion: "I can't believe that evil fairy was a man! I just naturally thought it was a woman dancing that role."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 4, 2010

Artistic daring from a retired prime minister

This story may sound like the ultimate anecdote about "slumming it," a phenomenon in which the rich and privileged willingly choose to endure conditions much harsher and more squalid than they are used to. About 10 years ago, following his retirement from politics, ex-Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa...
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.
CULTURE / Books
May 23, 2010

Murder, mayhem and brain eaters abound in two Thai thrillers

Thailand, as I write this, is stepping back from major civil unrest. And Canadian author Christopher G. Moore has been blogging frontline dispatches from his home in central Bangkok.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 21, 2010

Animation fest sparkles

A collection of surreal, witty and thought-provoking short animation films currently showing at the Laputa Animation Festival 2010 in Asagaya, western Tokyo, stands splendidly apart from the plethora of mainstream anime works that vie for airtime on Japanese TV.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 21, 2010

Directing the flow of theatrical creativity

Any time you go to a theater in Japan you are sure to be handed several colorful flyers for other shows — and among them you will almost certainly find the face of Tetsuya Chiba. At 46, and the father of three boys, Chiba is one of the country's most popular and best-known stage actors, known as much...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 16, 2010

Sense of complacency links Japan to Greek crisis

There's nothing like a good financial meltdown to straighten out your priorities. When it happened in Greece more than a month ago, the Japanese press went over to see whether or not the country's situation had anything to teach Japan. After all, Japan's public debt is much worse than Greece's. In fact,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 14, 2010

Gelmatica

In 2001, Alexander Gelman was awarded the title of one of the "world's most famous modern and contemporary artists in all media" by New York's Museum of Modern Art. The artist has since chosen Tokyo as one of his bases and often works here on projects such as TV commercials, music videos, publications...
COMMENTARY
May 12, 2010

Democracy far from perfect

Prime ministers refusing to leave, political parties with a large number of votes being excluded and dubious coalitions being negotiated — which country are we in, the United Kingdom or Iraq?
CULTURE / Books
May 9, 2010

From a public toilet to outer space, sliding in filth all the way

In his 1989 essay "Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast" Tom Wolfe argues: "It was realism that created the 'absorbing' or 'gripping' quality that is peculiar to the novel, the quality that makes the reader feel that he has been pulled not only into the setting of the story but also into the minds and central...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Apr 30, 2010

Japan's modern art gets an online boost

T he Bank of Japan has come under a lot of fire of late, but there's at least one thing it can be proud of: the work of former employee Rasa Tsuda.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2010

Tokunoshima is a risky gambit

TOKUNOSHIMA, Kagoshima Pref. — When Tokunoshima, an island with about 26,000 residents officially governed by Kagoshima Prefecture but counted as part of the Satsunan Islands that lie closer to Okinawa than Kyushu, first emerged as a candidate host for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, local reaction...

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?