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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 2012

'Kueki Ressha (The Drudgery Train)'

Directors often find themselves boxed in by fan expectations. If a filmmaker who is known and loved for quirky pieces does a serious film or two, fans tend to complain he or she is sliding down a slippery slope toward dreaded respectability.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 5, 2012

Big theater names and 'Super Kabuki'

At the start of the performances at Tokyo's Shimbashi Embujo Ichikawa theater in June this year, Kamejiro II (born Takahiko Kinoshi), 36, took the name Ichikawa Ennosuke IV, while his uncle Ichikawa Ennosuke III, famously known as the founder of "Super Kabuki," took the name Ichikawa En'o II.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 2, 2012

After 15 years, Mainali is a free man

Freed June 7 from 15 years' imprisonment for a murder he apparently never committed, Govinda Prasad Mainali declared himself full of gratitude. Speaking through his lawyer, he said, "Mujitsu, shinjitsu wo shinjite kureta saibankan ni deaete yokatta. Kansha no kimochi de ippai desu," (「無実、真実を信じてくれた裁判官に出会ってよかった。感謝の気持ちでいっぱいです"」"It's...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 1, 2012

Ryuichi Sakamoto reminds Japanese what's the score on nuclear blame

"Keeping silent after Fukushima is barbaric," is how composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto recently made clear his proactive stance toward Japan's ongoing nuclear disaster.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jul 1, 2012

Lesley Downer: Love, war and geisha

Lesley Downer's seven books range widely in genre and subject. Here she reflects on their inspiration and her experiences writing them.
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
Jun 29, 2012

Digging in: the rise of B-kyū gurume

Everyman Eats is a new column about the phenomenon of B-kyū gurume (B-grade gourmet) — inexpensive, down-home cooking that reflects local culinary traditions. This first installment considers 10 moments that helped shape the recent B-kyū boom.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2012

Posco a Toyota 'top supplier'

Posco became the first non-Japanese steelmaker to enter a group comprising less than 1 percent of the suppliers to Toyota Motor Corp., rivaling domestic auto sheet providers, including Nippon Steel Corp.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2012

Tax hike risks stunting growth in '14

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda risks stalling the economy by pushing through his consumption tax increase, which may dampen spending even as it aids efforts to tame the world's largest debt burden.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2012

Mazda ends rotary output, takes the fuel-efficient route

Many people of a certain age remember Mazda Motor Corp.'s catchy ads from the 1970s. "Piston engines go boing-boing," they said. "Mazda goes hummmm." The voice-over sang: "There's nothing like it on the road today; the rotary engine is here to stay."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jun 22, 2012

Bubby's new store in Tokyo Station

The American cafe and restaurant Bubby's is opening a new branch in the Yaesu underground shopping mall of Tokyo Station, known as Yaechika, on June 22.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 21, 2012

The photographs that leave a paper trail

In today's complex world, in which we are routinely overburdened with data, intuition and a visceral response to imagery is increasingly trumping rational discourse, according to Thomas Demand. But this is something the German artist, whose work is the subject of a major solo show at the Museum of Contemporary...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2012

Japan also has stake in universal rights, says ex-Congo child soldier

Michel Chikwanine, a university student in Canada who was once a child soldier in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has suffered things no ordinary Japanese child will ever have to.
Jun 21, 2012

Why Pakistan won't back America's Afghan policy

Afghanistan's future matters much more to Pakistan than to the United States. This basic truth is forgotten in U.S. deliberations on how best to leverage Pakistan to achieve a political settlement in Afghanistan.
Jun 21, 2012

Drone warfare clashes with law, human rights

As in other aspects of human life, the march of military technology has greatly outpaced the laws and institutions to regulate the behavior they make possible. The Obama administration has so greatly expanded the Bush policy of drone strikes as to leave neutral observers queasy about the legal regime...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 17, 2012

Resident of last Dojunkai laments passing of '20s icons

"One of the members of the residents association once told me that we shouldn't talk to journalists, but I have nothing to lose now."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2012

Agent Orange at base in '80s: U.S. vet

The U.S. Marine Corps buried a massive stockpile of Agent Orange at the Futenma air station in Okinawa, possibly poisoning the base's former head of maintenance and potentially contaminating nearby residents and the ground beneath the base, The Japan Times recently learned from interviews with U.S. veterans....
Reader Mail
Jun 14, 2012

Article 9 has stood by Japan

As a member of the Sagami Group to Protect Article 9, I am appalled by Andreas Kolb's June 10 letter. Kolb says Article 9 did not protect Japan from the Cold War and won't protect Japan from terrorists and fascists. But if Japan keeps its war-renouncing Constitution and refrains from suppressing other...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 14, 2012

Rocker Hotei hears London calling

Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee celebrations are never complete without a rock star wielding an axe to inaugurate proceedings. For the Golden Jubilee in 2002 it was Queen's Brian May atop Buckingham Palace. And for The British Embassy in Japan's Diamond Jubilee party this month, the sword fell on the broad...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 14, 2012

To Uhnellys, anything more than two is a crowd

Uhnellys' Naoki Kaneko (who goes by the stage name "Kim") says journalists often ask him the same question in interviews: "Do you ever plan on adding more members?"
MORE SPORTS
Jun 11, 2012

With Suntory win, Kim becomes youngest title winner on Japan LPGA Tour

South Korean teenage amateur Kim Hyo Joo embarked on a birdie rampage to pull off an astonishing come-from-behind victory at the Suntory Ladies Open on Sunday, becoming the youngest ever title winner on the Japan LPGA Tour in the process.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 8, 2012

'My House' takes Tsutsumi home

"Auteur" is not the first word that leaps to mind to describe Yukihiko Tsutsumi. In a directing career that began with a segment of the 1988 comedy anthology "Bakayaro! I'm Plenty Mad," the prolific Tsutsumi has made films in a variety of genres — mystery/thriller ("Spec: The Movie"), dystopian fantasy...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jun 8, 2012

Hyatt Regency Tokyo summer plan

The Hyatt Regency Tokyo in Shinjuku is offering a special Summer Stay accommodation plan, through Sept. 30.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan