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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 26, 2010

Back to those gold soundz

Last fall, when the American rock band Pavement announced it would reunite for a series of concerts in New York's Central Park one year hence, nobody seemed surprised. Though the group stopped touring and recording 10 years ago, it never officially called it quits. The feeling was that Stephen Malkmus,...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Mar 21, 2010

Can doggy bags save the world?

It can be a bit embarrassing at a restaurant to say that you'd like to take your leftovers away with you. That's probably why people the world over often ask for the food to be put in a "doggy bag," whether or not they have a hungry pooch waiting at home. The cute expression also helps them to avoid...
LIFE / WEEK 3
Mar 21, 2010

Moves afoot to make Japanese holidays a pleasure not a pain

It's a seasonal phenomenon in Japan: lines of cars 40-km long and more clogging expressways; super- jammed shinkansen terminals and airports; and hot-spring resorts besieged by visitors crammed cheek to cheek in the steaming baths, imo-arai-style (literally, "washing potatoes in a bucket").
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 19, 2010

Japanese bureaucracy can be incredibly frustrating, but it also makes great entertainment

In the early summer of 2008, Japan's theater world was agog as details emerged of a decision by senior board members of the New National Theatre Tokyo (NNTT) to replace Hitoshi Uyama, its acclaimed artistic director, barely a year into the job, with the mainstream director Keiko Miyata from September...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 19, 2010

Man behind the masks

HOLLYWOOD — Sacha Baron Cohen is perhaps the unlikeliest British movie star since the plain, self-effacing and rather asexual Sir Alec Guinness. But like the brilliant knight — who happened to be half-Jewish — Baron Cohen seemingly becomes the character he plays, even to the point of declining...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Mar 18, 2010

Driving schools cope with an auto-immune generation

Driving schools used to be on easy street but they're struggling these days and trying to get control of the wheel.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 16, 2010

Guerrilla comics wage war on the humdrum

If you'd gone down to Shimokitazawa that day — the Saturday before Christmas, around 3 p.m. — you'd have been sure of a big surprise. No, not a teddy bears' picnic, though in Shimokita you never know; instead, among the usual bustling crowds of hipsters, a load of people just stopped moving. For...
EDITORIALS
Mar 12, 2010

Exposure to tobacco smoke

Five years have passed since the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control went into effect (Feb. 27, 2005). The FCTC, the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organization, has 168 parties and covers 86 percent of the world population. Nevertheless, tobacco products remain the...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Mar 8, 2010

Tax deductions and the myth of the "no-donation culture"

With few incentives to give to charities and few that qualify as NPOs, it no surprise that Japan has a bum rap as a 'no-donation' culture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 7, 2010

Yoshiharu Fukuhara: 'Mr. Shiseido' blends beauty and business

In July 1942, seven months after the attack on Pearl Harbor that started the Pacific War, Tokyo hosted one of the most ambitious exhibitions of art the world had ever seen. "Leonardo da Vinci," staged in an exhibition hall in the central district of Ueno, featured 600 exhibits by and related to the Italian...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2010

Needs of Haiti and the limits of generosity

MELBOURNE, Australia — All over the world, people have responded generously to the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti. In just three days, more than a million Americans had donated $10 by sending text messages from their cell phones. People with very little themselves, like Maria Pacheco, an...
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2010

Expat in H.K. envoy of taste

HONG KONG — Hong Kong is a city of gastronomy, every year attracting millions of food-loving travelers from across the globe.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 19, 2010

DJ Krush spins some tales

After 20 years in the DJ game, DJ Krush is widely acclaimed as the king of Japanese hip-hop, and, as a much sought after turntabilist, his impeccable skills have impressed crowds all over world.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2010

Teacher gives dropouts free helping hand

Shotaro Namekata is one of many who believe education holds the key to stepping up the social ladder and obtaining a better job. But in reality, children from lower income households end up in low-paying jobs themselves because of their limited schooling.
COMMENTARY
Feb 14, 2010

Ignorance about Iraq in 2003 echoes today

LONDON — At the Iraq inquiry in London on Jan. 29, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair found a new way to defend his decision to join George W. Bush in invading Iraq in 2003: the what-if defense. What if they hadn't invaded Iraq, and Saddam Hussein had remained in power there?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 12, 2010

Phoenix fired up for Japan

"If I knew the answer to that, I would have done it earlier," jokes Thomas Mars, singer with French electro- poppers Phoenix, when asked how his band of perennially stylish underachievers has been transformed into a mainstream, gloriously out-of-place Grammy winning act of the moment.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Feb 11, 2010

Rights activist Chiyoko Tanaka

Chiyoko Tanaka, 81, is a volunteer lobbyist for the rights of disabled people in Japan. For the past 49 years, together with her daughter, Mariko, she has been working tirelessly to ensure that all people — regardless of the nature of their disabilities — have equal rights in education, housing,...
LIFE / Lifestyle / Japan Pulse
Feb 8, 2010

Japan by the numbers (02.08.10)

What's going on in Japan, by the numbers.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 7, 2010

To resolve its 'core issue' Beijing needs to take heed of Dalai Lama

"From the perspective of Chinese Communist Party ideology, China was a victim of Western imperialism from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, and, as a result, the Chinese tend to remember the humiliations they suffered while rarely considering their own nation to be an imperial power."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 6, 2010

Journalist gives voice to voiceless

Shin Yamaaki is not familiar with the story of David and Goliath, but she has long understood the plight of the underdog. A chance experience in her 20s forged Yamaaki, 38, into who she is today: a woman who takes on global issues by giving voice to people who might go unheard.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2010

Mojo eludes Disney in Hong Kong

HONG KONG — In sharp contrast with the long-running success story that is Tokyo's Disneyland and DisneySea, the Hong Kong version is struggling.
EDITORIALS
Jan 31, 2010

To protect and enhance life

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose administration is 4 1/2 months old, opened his policy speech for the coming year with words that bore his colors: "I want to protect people's lives. This is my wish. . . . I want to protect the lives of those who are born, of those who grow and mature."
LIFE / Digital
Jan 27, 2010

Japan's techies strive to bridge culture gap

In November, more than 100 people met in Yokohama for a daylong "unconference" on technology and the Internet. Attendees addressed each other on topics of their choosing — the roster of speakers determined solely by whoever signed up fastest for time slots on a whiteboard.
LIFE
Jan 24, 2010

Secrets and lies

Japan marked the 50th anniversary of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty on Jan. 19 amid calls for an inquiry into the dispatch of Japanese Self-Defence Forces to Iraq, which critics say was illegal. But in contrast to the fierce debates over the origins and legitimacy of the 2003 Iraq invasion in both the...
Japan Times
BASEBALL
Jan 24, 2010

Valentine's philosophy brought Marines glory, money

Second in a four-part series
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 23, 2010

Tips on how Japan can solve its aging problems

By 2015, it is said that one in four Japanese citizens will be 65 or older. Many worry that these elderly people will burden the health and pension system. There just aren't enough young people to prop up the old.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 19, 2010

Resolve to get involved this new year

It's that time of year when a lot of us make resolutions — many of which last only a few days. 2010 offers you the opportunity to do something new and get more involved in the community.

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