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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 31, 2008

Can poetry in translation ever be as poetic in its new language?

A friend who was visiting recently from Germany posed me a difficult question: How can poetry be translated?
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2008

Stimulus package ready for Diet OK

Hammered out in lengthy negotiations among ministries and the ruling parties, the government put forward an ¥11.7 trillion economic stimulus package Friday financed by a ¥1.8 trillion supplementary budget to be submitted to next month's extraordinary Diet session.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 24, 2008

Biomimicry: Natural by design

I magine being able to maintain a perfect temperature and humidity in your home year round, without spending a single yen in electricity or gas bills. That's exactly what Professor Emile Ishida of Tohoku University in northern Japan is striving to achieve — and he got the idea from termites.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 21, 2008

'Parallel Worlds'

Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 21, 2008

Betting on Beijing

In late April this year, two Tokyo galleries set up shop in Beijing just in time for the Olympic fervor, believing that Beijing, rather than Tokyo, was the place to bring contemporary Japanese art to an international audience. Sueo Mitsuma of Mizuma Gallery in Nakameguro opened Mizuma & One and Yumie...
Japan Times
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 20, 2008

Beach volley provides good fun for everyone

BEIJING — I think I've discovered a very important fact: The public-address announcer at the Olympic women's beach volleyball matches considers himself to be the luckiest man on the face of the earth.
OLYMPICS / 2008 BEIJING OLYMPICS: SWIMMING
Aug 15, 2008

Double glory as Kitajima repeats feat

BEIJING — Fifteen minutes after repeating as a double gold medalist at the Water Cube on Thursday morning, these were the final words of breaststroke specialist Kosuke Kitajima: "Ashita oyasumi."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 14, 2008

Shock tactics return

"The only thing humans, rats and crows have in common is garbage," announced Ryuta Ushiro, leader of artist unit Chim ↑ Pom, with a mischievous smile.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Aug 12, 2008

Cool Wade sparkles in return to spotlight

BEIJING — I've attended hundreds of basketball games at the high school, college, and professional level in the United States, as well as the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan and a few dozen bj-league games over the past two seasons.
OLYMPICS / 2008 BEIJING OLYMPICS: JUDO
Aug 10, 2008

Tani falls short in quest for gold

Her fighting spirit never wavered and her effort was never less than stellar, but judoka Ryoko Tani came up short in Beijing on Saturday in her quest to capture a third straight Olympic gold medal.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 9, 2008

'Hyakunin' translations capture commission prize

In the same way that few British people have read all of Shakespeare's sonnets but many can quote at least a few lines of the lyric tradition, any adult who has gone through the Japanese school system is familiar with the Ogura "Hyakunin Isshu."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 8, 2008

Taking the Japan Wine Challenge

Despite the countless half- finished bottles of wine that lined the walls, the atmosphere in the plush function room of Tokyo's Sheraton Hotel was decidedly tense rather than tipsy. Japanese and Westerners were sitting around tables deep in concentration, thoughtfully holding a glass up to the light...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 8, 2008

Atami's Kiunkaku ryokan: The art of a great garden

You enter Kiunkaku through a beautiful, tile-roofed wooden gate flanked by tall trees, reminiscent of some temple gates, which gives a hint of the purpose:historical grandeur you will find within.
OLYMPICS / 2008 BEIJING OLYMPICS
Aug 3, 2008

Japan hopes for repeat of glory in Beijing

As a nation, Japan collected a record 37 medals at the 2004 Summer Games, including 16 golds, which matched the nation's all-time record set at the 1964 Tokyo Games. And so it's only natural for people to be curious if Japan can duplicate that level of success or achieve a higher medal count at the 2008...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Aug 1, 2008

Stories that go bump in the night

Stories that go bump in the night In the Edo Period (1603-1867), getting together and telling ghost stories (kaidan) at night was a popular summer pastime. As a hotel located in the middle of Nihonbashi, the historical town that preserves the culture of Edo (Tokyo), the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo is reviving...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jul 30, 2008

New compact Lumix makes room for better summer memories

More sensor: Increasing the number of pixels in a digital camera's sensor without increasing the sensor's size is an underhanded act designed to sell more cameras, and in that regard, Panasonic is as guilty as any compact camera maker. But the Japanese electronics giant is earning early points for parole...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 25, 2008

Photographer finds affection in the Arctic

Love's warmth can be found in the coldest of places — and among the wildest of creatures.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 24, 2008

Bettye LaVette brings her triumphant soul battle to Fuji

Few artists could have struggled through a career as thoroughly frustrating as that of American soul singer Bettye LaVette and still continue to display the strength and good humor that she does.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2008

Scorched-manager policy

MONTREAL — Signs of the American economy's perilous condition are everywhere — from yawning fiscal and current-account deficits to plummeting home prices and a feeble dollar.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Jul 22, 2008

A head-turning umbrella and other designer treats

Electric bean
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2008

Supreme Court acquits LTCB trio

The Supreme Court on Friday reversed a lower court ruling and acquitted three former executives of the now-defunct Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan who were charged with window-dressing the bank's earnings reports for fiscal 1997.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Jul 19, 2008

My Life as a Gaijin, Kimono Reincarnate

My Life as a Gaijin and Kimono Reincarnate are two different blogs written by Melanie Gray Augustin. The former centers around the experiences of an Australian native living and teaching English in a foreign land, while the latter offers a taste of her artistic interests and entrepreneurial efforts...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 18, 2008

Pop Levi goes slightly wrong

"It was a very obsessive thing," says Jonathan Pop Levi about the recording of his new album of warped pop music, "Never Never Love." "It took six days a week for 12 hours a day for four months to get it to sound that way. Especially in the vocals; if a computer could do a perfect impression of a human,...
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2008

Shinsei's CEO sees consumer finance rebound

Shinsei Bank Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Thierry Porte, whose firm is buying General Electric Co.'s Japan consumer finance business for $5.4 billion, said the industry is about to recover from its two-year slump.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 13, 2008

Beauty of the beasts: mythological and real

A BRUSH WITH ANIMALS: Japanese Paintings 1700-1950, by Robert Schaap, with essays by Willem van Gulik, Henk Herwig, Arendie Herwig-Kempers, Daniel McKee and Andrew Thompson. Leiden: Society of Japanese Arts (distributed by Hotei/Brill), 2007, 206 pp. with 275 color illustrations, $117 (cloth), $81 (paper) This...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2008

'Hot Fuzz'

Hercule Poirot once proclaimed that "the police in England are only adequate, but the English detective is a thing of marvel!" Sherlock Holmes would have agreed, having put up with the uninspired adequacy of Scotland Yard for most of his career. But no more: The English police or rather "the fuzz in...
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2008

Confectioners spice things up with hot chili, soy sauce sweets

The Japanese sweets scene is heating up and getting salty to boot.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight