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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 12, 2010

Cyber Arts Japan: As interactive as they want to be

"What are silk screen prints doing in a show of media art?"
CULTURE / Books
Jan 31, 2010

Entrap, exploit and repeat

WESTERN POWER IN ASIA: Its Slow Rise And Swift Fall 1415-1999, by Arthur Cotterell. John Wiley & Sons, 2009, 439 pp., $29.95 (paper)
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 31, 2010

Groping pregnant women shouldn't be what's it about

On Jan. 14, 36-year-old comedian Sayaka Aoki made her last TV appearance before taking some time off to have a baby. The appearance was on Fuji TV's noontime variety show "Waratte Ii to mo" ("It's OK to laugh"), where she was a semiregular. The show's host, Tamori, placed his hands on Aoki's belly as...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2010

Google walkout will expand the possibilities

NEW YORK — Usually, disclosure statements go at the end of an article, but let me start with mine. I sit on the board of Yandex, a Russian Internet search company with a roughly 60 percent market share in Russia, compared to Google's 20 percent or so.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 17, 2010

Dangling around with the stars

There is a type of reporting known as burasagari shuzai in Japanese. Literally, it means "hanging reporting," or "dangling reporting," and there can be no better illustration of why it is given this name than the keyed-up backstage zone at "Kohaku Uta Gassen" ("Red and White Song Battle"), NHK's annual...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 16, 2010

Hope and peril for Sudan

ALGIERS — The future of Sudan hangs in the balance. National elections are due in April. A referendum on the future status of the south of the country is supposed to follow in 2011. Both were key ingredients of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended 20 years of civil war between north...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 13, 2010

O-shōgatsu can really test a woman's endurance

Here's my take on the Japanese o-shōgatsu (お正月, New Year's) holiday week: I am, like, so ecstatic the whole thing is over.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2010

Bankruptcy won't scare U.S. riders

DALLAS (Bloomberg) A Japan Airlines Corp. bankruptcy probably won't diminish demand from U.S. passengers, who have grown accustomed to flying on carriers operating under court supervision.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 5, 2010

Florist sees seeds of change in Japan

Hans Damen came to Japan from his native Holland 16 years ago, attracted by the traditional aspects of Japanese culture, like "taiko" drumming and ikebana flower arrangement. After teaching flower design at a school in Tokyo for a year, he landed a job with the major flower retailer U.Goto Florist and...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Dec 20, 2009

Cultivating pure tastes from the past

Shinagawa Ward in central Tokyo has seen lots of high-rise condos and office complexes sprout up in recent years, especially since shinkansen bullet trains began to stop there in 2003.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 11, 2009

Central bankers must finesse money supply

TILBURG, Netherlands — The current economic crisis highlights the need for major changes at central banks. It is time for a return to some form of moderate monetarism — but in a 21st-century mold.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2009

Climate talks open amid growing hope

COPENHAGEN, After two years of preparation and anticipation, the U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP15, opened Monday amid growing hope an agreement between developed and developing countries on specific greenhouse gas targets is within reach.
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2009

Hatoyama plays down prospects for drafting foreigner suffrage bill

Enacting laws to allow permanent foreign residents to vote in local-level elections may be difficult in the near future and more debate is needed to form a nonpartisan consensus in the Diet, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2009

Another twist and shout from North Korea

LOS ANGELES — Like the baby that hurls its rattle out of the crib to grab attention, North Korea has never been known for a subtle diplomatic style. Right now, though, it appears to have abandoned, temporarily at least, the crude infantile approach for a more adult turn.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 10, 2009

Capello looking at final choices for World Cup lineup

LONDON — England has the rare luxury of playing a World Cup tie away to Ukraine on Saturday with defeat meaning nothing in terms of qualification because Fabio Capello's team has already secured its place in South Africa next summer.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 2, 2009

'Akumu no Elevator'

Movies are confidence tricks played on willing victims. The bullets are blanks and the sex is faked, but we usually want to believe, as long as the lights are down, that it's all real. Creating that belief — or rather, that suspension of disbelief — has long been Hollywood's goal.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Sep 30, 2009

Perks enhance Sony headphones; Epson pushes postcards

Sound investment: Sony may have long ago surrendered the portable music-player war to Apple, but it still wins in the battle over headphones.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Sep 24, 2009

Can LDP recoup the glory days?

Is former Prime Minister Taro Aso solely to blame for the crushing defeat of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the Aug. 30 general election at the hands of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)?
COMMENTARY
Sep 13, 2009

Real 'fraternity' with U.S.

Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Hatoyama's article on the "Banner of Fraternity" — particularly the part that deals with globalization, Americanism and Japan's relations with her Asian neighbors — has drawn many comments both in Japan and the United States.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 13, 2009

Sex in space could be the key to the survival of humans

I've been thinking about sex in space. Not from any interest in a potential new porn genre, or because I've got a chance of joining the 62-mile-high club any time soon. No, my concerns are loftier even than that: I'm worried about the future of humanity.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 13, 2009

Serving up soba and shrines

The lump of dough in the large mixing bowl in front of me doesn't look like much, but soba-making instructor Hatuko Tokutake isn't concerned.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 11, 2009

Electric Eel Shock stays metal, man

'I am 'Metal Man,' " states Akihito Morimoto matter-of-factly. "I love heavy metal, and I also studied metal materials and die-cast manufacture at university. So all my life is about metal."
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 8, 2009

U.S. ambassador serves a role most vital

The U.S. ambassadors chosen for Japan have long reflected Washington's dedication to Tokyo, as each successive nominee has drawn Tokyo government and media speculation of how bilateral ties will evolve.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 5, 2009

How to become a gaijin that can say no

I wish I could say, "No." I wish I knew how.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 4, 2009

The ins and outs of competitive art shows

Michiyo Yamanaka probably devoted several weeks to creating the three abstract paintings she entered in this year's Nikaten, one of Japan's oldest and largest competitive art exhibitions. Heaven forbid she ever finds out how long it took the judges to condemn her efforts to oblivion: 18 seconds.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 4, 2009

Fresh direction for the Hatakeyama Memorial Museum

A long with other great collections accumulated by early industrialists such as the Goto, Seikado Bunko, Mitsui and Nezu museums, the Hatakeyama Memorial Museum of Fine Art is a hidden gem where only the very best is to be seen.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Aug 30, 2009

A textiles tour to dye for

A landlocked train stop named Hikifune (Tugboat) begs a question. Two such stations in Tokyo's downtown Sumida Ward — the other is nearby Keisei Hikifune — suggest there should be some answers.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami