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Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2009

'Cove' debut draws mixed reactions

"The Cove," a film about dolphin slaughters in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, drew a mixed response from an audience of 150 that included foreign journalists in Tokyo on Friday evening, the first time the award-winning movie has been screened in Japan.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 27, 2009

Denied bear necessities of life

About a week ago, while browsing the Internet, I came across a headline at the BBC Web site that made me pause: "Bear injures 9 at bus terminal." The first thought that crossed my mind was, "Why was a bear waiting for a bus?"
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 27, 2009

Let's Bike!

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama could have made a stronger impact at the United Nations Summit on Climate Change in New York last week had he trumpeted another environmentally laudable proposal in addition to his declared goal of Japan cutting its greenhouse-gas emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 27, 2009

Inner life of a giant revealed

REFLECTIONS IN A GLASS DOOR: Memory and Melancholy in the Personal Writings of Natsume Soseki, by Marvin Marcus. Honolulu: Hawaii University Press, 2009, 268 pp., $49 (hardcover) Author of a well-received study of the biographical writings of Mori Ogai ("Paragons of the Ordinary," 1993), Marvin Marcus...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Sep 27, 2009

Source says JBL teams in trouble, league not viable in long term

Japanese basketball is suffering from an identity crisis. Besides Yuta Tabuse, the average citizen cannot name a handful of other top-level Japanese players. Indeed, this is problem No. 1.
COMMUNITY
Sep 26, 2009

Look for the 'mounted knights' at undo-kai

It could be any weekend in September or October, in any town across Japan. Excitement hitches onto every breeze as teams face off against each other, brightly colored headbands proclaiming allegiance.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 26, 2009

Reaching young people with music

When someone asks his age, Michael Di Stasio sometimes responds that it is the same as the late king of pop, Michael Jackson: "May he rest in peace."
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2009

Observing the pieces of a fragmented self

From an overwhelming slew of art, literature, music, cinema and theater references, there seems to emerge a provisional feel for order in William Kentridge's filmic worlds: worlds created between the artist and spectators' activity in constructing narratives from discrete fragments. How this materializes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2009

On the pleasure of self-deception

William Kentridge is known for his hand-drawn animations that evoke the quaint charms of the silent film era while unflinchingly observing the brutality of contemporary society, with many of his works drawing from the context of his native South Africa.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 25, 2009

Burning bright, a light that will never go out

While Sonic Youth just keep getting older and Dinosaur Jr are now all seniors, The Cribs have taken a shortcut to making their own baby-based name sound ironic. The Wakefield, England, band — initially based around twins Ryan and Gary Jarman and their younger brother, Ross — were all in their mid-20s...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2009

Making sure nothing is lost in translation

"The Coast of Utopia" a 10-hour-long trilogy of plays — comprising "Voyage," "Shipwreck" and "Salvage" — was originally written in 2002 by Tom Stoppard for the National Theatre in London. An award-winning English playwright, Stoppard first shot to fame with "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead"...
MORE SPORTS
Sep 24, 2009

U.S. sprint stars Gay, Felix cruise to easy victories in 100

Tyson Gay and Allyson Felix did not have their best races, but still lived up to top billing as both triumphed in a comfortable manner.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 23, 2009

Annals of cheap: QB House

It's very chop-chop at QB House, a chain of successful barber shops where you get a cut, no chit-chat, no shampoo, all in 10 minutes.
JAPAN / Q&A
Sep 23, 2009

Details on how Japan's dolphin catches work

Dolphin slaughters in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, have drawn strong protests from animal rights groups, their supporters and foreign media over what they call the brutality of the traditional hunt.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 23, 2009

How to lose your temper in Japanese

Sometimes you just want to wring someone's neck (kubi wo hinetteyaru (首をひねってやる). Oh, only figuratively, I mean. And having wrung — verbally, that is — you feel like a new man or woman, totally refreshed. This may even clear the air, or, in Japanese, sukatto suru (すかっとする),...
LIFE / Digital
Sep 23, 2009

Can firms trust cloud computing?

This year's overhyped IT concept is cloud computing. Also called software as a service (SaaS), cloud computing is when you run software over the Internet and access it via a browser. Both Google Docs and salesforce.com's customer management software are examples of this.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Sep 22, 2009

Meiji & Yamanote celebrate with a wrapper's delight

Meiji Chocolate and Japan Railways celebrate their centennials to the delight of trainspotters and chocoholics.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 22, 2009

'The last flies of summer'

Three years ago, I was lying on the beach of a package hotel, watching a pair of jet skis churn the sea to muddy silt. J-pop blared from the shore-side Tannoy, and two lifeguards were pinning down a hysterical toddler, while a third doused vinegar over a scarlet welt of jellyfish sting.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 21, 2009

'Alien' prime minister, new-look Cabinet bring change to old politics

Politics is not the kind of stuff you normally stay up to watch on the telly long into the night. Not unless scandals, drunkenness and other juicy activities are involved, of course.
Reader Mail
Sep 20, 2009

News about Taiji film appreciated

Regarding the Sept. 16 article "(Tokyo) Festival to screen Taiji dolphin-slaughter film": Thank you for keeping us informed about the film "The Cove" and giving us news related to Taiji — the kind of news that often gets censored by corporate media. I appreciate the integrity of The Japan Times on...

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb