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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 18, 2011

'Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Japan title: Boonmee Ojisan no Mori)'

You have to be in a certain frame of mind to appreciate "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives," (released in Japan as "Boonmee Ojisan no Mori"). The kind of frame that comes at a point in life when you're ready to discard material wealth and social position, to rid yourself of stressful relationships...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Feb 10, 2011

Artist Yoshitaka Amano

Artist Yoshitaka Amano, 58, is a world-famous creator of manga, anime and game characters. At age 15, he launched his professional career with the popular "Speed Racer" anime and has since worked on many hit shows, such as "Time Bokan," "Gatchaman" ("G-Force"), "Tekkaman" and "Honey Bee." He also illustrated...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2011

Greed is good again in 'Wall Street' sequel

BEVERLY HILLS, California — After having announced a week earlier that he had beaten cancer, Michael Douglas took the stage at the Golden Globes awards ceremony in Beverly Hills, California, on Jan. 16 and was greeted with a warm round of applause.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 26, 2011

Yakuza movie lines without honor or humanity

Japanese movies, like their Hollywood counterparts, have produced plenty of 名台詞 (meiserifu, famous lines) over the years, in just about every genre. But when I was researching a book on ヤクザ映画 (yakuza eiga, Japanese gangster movies), I realized that this particular genre had generated...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 21, 2011

'Gantz'

Films about murder games of various sorts have become a popular Japanese-movie subgenre, beginning with the ultra-violent Kinji Fukasaku hit "Battle Royale" (2000) and continuing with the even more successful "Death Note" trio of films (2006-2008) — though the "game" in the latter was more of a battle...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 15, 2011

After 20 years . . . and more

Japan is a revolving door when it comes to foreign residents. They come and they go. And when they go, most never come back.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 14, 2011

'The Social Network' wins friends among film critics

The Japanese tagline for "The Social Network" translates as "Genius, backstabber, dangerous guy, billionaire." Probably not the kind of sentiment a website trying to connect friends wants to be associated with. However, for a film — it's damn sexy.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 31, 2010

'Go' tackles Sengoku years from a female perspective

It's not surprising that NHK senior producer Yotaro Yashiki was pleased when he and his team came across a little-known princess named Go. Born in 1573, Go predates television by a good three centuries, but almost everything about her life suggests she was made for the medium, and, in particular, the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 28, 2010

Mind the gap, get over it: Japan hands

Things have changed for the better for foreigners since the old days in Japan.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Dec 26, 2010

Sexual politics and the veneer of free speech

NEW YORK — One intriguing story that has come to light as a result of the latest round of WikiLeaks revelations is, to use a somewhat dated term, the sexual politics in Sweden. I, like many, I'm sure, had assumed that Sweden is among the most sexually liberated developed countries. As it turns out,...
CULTURE / Film
Dec 24, 2010

'Charlie St. Cloud (Kimi ga Kureta Mirai)'

Charlie St. Cloud is blessed: Not only does he have a fantastic name (just screaming for a Hollywood treatment, in fact), he's also young, incredibly cute, and has just got a ticket to Stanford via a boating scholarship. For all that, he's humble and sincere, hailing from a working-class background and...
JAPAN / RESETTLEMENT
Dec 16, 2010

Pilot resettlement program put to test with first Karens

This fall, five families from Myanmar arrived in Japan filled with hope and excitement for a new life.
COMMUNITY
Dec 11, 2010

Mover, shaker aids Goa's poorest kids

Stephen Young has always felt "driven to see the world" and left London at the age of 17 to do just that. He loves music, celebrates life and love and sees value, use, and often great potential in the world's outcasts, whether they be unwanted appliances in Tokyo or street children in the slums of Goa....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Dec 10, 2010

'Daido Moriyama: Tsugaru'

Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2010

On a mission to save bankrupt city

Naomichi Suzuki walked away from a stable job at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government last month, deciding he'd rather run for mayor of a bankrupt city in Hokkaido.
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2010

Death sentence for a minor

Six lay judges and three professional judges at the Sendai District Court on Nov. 25 sentenced a male 19-year-old to death for murdering two people and injuring two others, one of them seriously. This is the second death sentence under the lay judge system introduced in 2009 and the first death sentence...
CULTURE / Film
Nov 26, 2010

'The White Ribbon'

As a critic, there's a very particular kind of mid-life crisis that creeps up on you: One day you wake up in a cold sweat and realize that despite having been inspired to write about cinema by such masters as Hitchcock, Truffaut, Scorsese, Kurosawa, Kubrick, et al., you now spend most of your time watching...
Japan Times
JAPAN / ORGAN TRANSPLANTS
Nov 12, 2010

Brain death in kids complicates transplant issue

On Dec. 16, 2005, a pediatrician told Akemi Nakamura that her 2-year-old daughter was brain dead.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 9, 2010

Muslims in shock over police 'terror' leak

This time last month, Mohamed Salmi says he was just another anonymous foreigner living and working in Japan. Today he fears his life here may be over, and receives phone calls from reporters asking him if he is an al-Qaida "terrorist."
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 4, 2010

CrossFit pushes exercise buffs to their limits

The grunting gets louder the further I walk down the path. It's somewhat synchronized, and suddenly I hear a buzzer and everything is quiet — for 10 seconds.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2010

Dieting moms' babies underweight

As soon as Keiko Ozaki found out she was pregnant with her second baby, she went on a diet.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 31, 2010

Odd tales, torments

In the 120 years since Lafcadio Hearn first arrived on these shores, Japan has traded superstition for Super Mario. Were Hearn to disembark in Yokohama today and travel through the country, would he be able to compile contemporary "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan" or "Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2010

'Meres et Filles (Kakusareta Nikki)'

Films about women almost always turn out to be magnetic fields of stereotype and generalization — mostly because it's so much easier to categorize and define the collective female experience (comprised of familiar landmarks such as endless chores and thwarted desires). We've heard that famous line...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 25, 2010

It's a dog's world — cute and crazy

I don't feel old and don't look old either, although my wife and bathroom mirror both disagree. Yet, I am approaching the age where I would not mind a grandchild.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Sep 19, 2010

Chinese media on Korean annexation, Shinto will survive after man achieves immortality, 9 percent growth, schools must sing Kimigayo

100 YEARS AGOSunday, Sept. 4, 1910
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 12, 2010

Late P.E.N. Club president sets tone of Tokyo global writers' meet

This month, The Japan P.E.N. Club hosts the annual International PEN Congress, whose wide variety of lectures, readings and symposia will feature guests from Japan and overseas.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 12, 2010

Budget cuts dooming diners to plumpness

"The destiny of a nation depends on the manner in which it feeds itself," wrote French epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) in his famous treatise, "The Physiology of Taste: Or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 3, 2010

Korean artist Kim Siyeon opens house on personal struggle

For her first solo exhibition in Tokyo, Seoul-based artist Kim Siyeon brings her home to Gallery Foil in the form of photographs of installations that she created inside her house. Though she is known as an installation artist, the delicate nature of Kim's work and its location, which is an important...

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