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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 9, 2009

All aboard for Drive to 2010

It's Aug. 28, 1979, and the audience dutifully files into the old Shinjuku Loft livehouse to take their places, seated on the floor in preparation for another night of quiet musical appreciation. This time, however, something strange starts to happen. People keep coming in, the audience have to shuffle...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 6, 2009

Valentine tight-lipped over rumors of Marlins post

CHIBA — Bobby Valentine's return to television may not last that long after all.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Oct 6, 2009

'Outsider' shares unique take on life, prejudices in the 'real' Japan

As a "blonde-haired, blue-eyed" American woman living in the rural farmlands of Tokushima Prefecture with a Japanese husband and their twin children, one with hearing disabilities, author and novelist Suzanne Kamata has gained a unique perspective on life in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2009

Grayer population

In its Respect for the Aged Day (Sep. 21) report, the internal affairs ministry made public its information about the population n Japan. As of Sept. 15, Japan's population stood at 127.56 million, down 120,000 from a year before. People aged 65 or over numbered 28.98 million (12.39 million men and 16.59...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 27, 2009

Denied bear necessities of life

About a week ago, while browsing the Internet, I came across a headline at the BBC Web site that made me pause: "Bear injures 9 at bus terminal." The first thought that crossed my mind was, "Why was a bear waiting for a bus?"
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2009

Etiquette 101 seminars a hit

How to enter a room with bamboo mats, where to place chopsticks, what not to wear — these are just some of the essential rules of etiquette young professionals are learning from Michiko Noguchi, a veteran restaurant mistress whose seminars on table manners are growing in popularity.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Sep 20, 2009

Mystery on the 'Dark Dinner' menu

One evening in mid-August, a dozen people gathered at Ryokusenji temple in Tokyo's Asakusa district for a meal. But this was to be no regular feast, as the diners sitting shoulder to shoulder with strangers would all be blindfolded and served a series of dishes the organizers would not disclose beforehand....
LIFE
Sep 13, 2009

Winning was the easy part for Hatoyama's DPJ

After generations of rule, the Liberal Democratic Party was trounced by the Democratic Party of Japan in last month's Lower House elections. Jeff Kingston weighs what went wrong, what went right — and what now for a nation whose voters are sick of 'politics as usual'?
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Sep 8, 2009

National service no solution

Following are a couple of readers' responses to the Aug. 18 Hotline to Nagatacho column headlined "National service stint could help Japan out of malaise" by Rick D. Marsh Jr.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 4, 2009

Denzel holds the lead

"I think it's hard to generalize," says actor Denzel Washington about movie remakes. He and John Travolta — as the villain — costar in a remake of the 1974 "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," which starred Walter Matthau and was much noted for its powerful score by David Shire. Comparisons between the...
EDITORIALS
Aug 31, 2009

Historic day for Japanese politics

In a historic change in Japan's parliamentary political history, the Democratic Party of Japan defeated the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito ruling coalition in Sunday's Lower House election. The DPJ has captured 308 seats out of the 480 seats in the all-important chamber.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 30, 2009

Japan at a crossroads of government and of its citizens' values

Charles de Gaulle, the magisterial president of France from 1959-69, was inordinately fond of the phrase, "Moi ou le chaos" — "Me or chaos." It was not much of a choice.
EDITORIALS
Aug 28, 2009

Face up to the pension crisis

Japan must prevent its pension system from being weakened by the low birthrate and the graying of the population, the pension records fiasco, the spread of poverty and the worsening employment situation. Yet, political parties' pension-related proposals contain many obscure points and need elaboration....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Aug 27, 2009

Publisher Yumiko Tsukuda

Yumiko Tsukuda, 45, is the founder of Anika Co. Ltd., a publishing house in Tokyo, that prints books about the town and residents of Tsukuda on Tsukishima Island. Originally from Chiba, Yumiko moved to Tsukuda in 1998, partly because the town shares her last name but also because she fell in love with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 21, 2009

Refashioning the J-pop scene

Yasutaka Nakata is bouncing around like some kind of postmodern electro Tigger in front of a sea of adoring fans, almost uniformly young, beautiful and well-dressed. His DJ set taken in large part from his group capsule's own music, with the odd track thrown in by electro-tinged idol pop phenomenon Perfume...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 15, 2009

Appreciating a sense of space — a Japanese fine art

"Your relax space," "Life style space," space this, space that. What was I saying?
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 9, 2009

'No public discourse' in Pakistan about its nukes

Kamila Shamsie is a Pakistan-born novelist who was educated in the United States and now lives in London, from where she recently gave the interview below. In her 2009 novel "Burnt Shadows," Kamila Shamsie explores the indelible mark that the larger sweep of history leaves on people caught up in its...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 2, 2009

No brains when it comes down to transplants

The bill to revise the Organ Transplant Law, which cleared the Upper House on July 13 and thus gained full Diet passage, is a rare example of bipartisan agreement. Known as Plan A, the new law has three significant features: It recognizes brain death as legal death, allows the harvesting of organs from...
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2009
Jul 29, 2009

Politicians tap Twitter to tweak profiles

At 6:44 p.m. on July 15, Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Seiji Osaka posed a question on his Twitter profile: "I think bringing the voting age down to 18 years old is OK. What do you think about it?"
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 19, 2009

To be human in today's Japan, is it best to be 'no longer human'?

On June 22, playwright and novelist Hisashi Inoue appeared on national broadcaster NHK's television program, "Close Up Gendai." The occasion was the centenary of the birth of the novelist Osamu Dazai.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 2, 2009

Whether to come out at the office

"Do you live on your own?"
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jun 30, 2009

Re: Something to sing about?

Following are some readers' responses to Nicholas Drapier's June 2 Zeit Gist article "Something to sing about?":
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jun 30, 2009

Hard work, honesty, ability to adapt seen as fundament of success

Satbhag "Paul" Warraich, president of the Moti chain, is, like his restaurants, somewhat of a Tokyo icon.
EDITORIALS
Jun 29, 2009

Preparing for disasters

The government's 2009 white paper on natural disaster prevention shows that 62 percent of people surveyed feel that the risk of death or injury in Japan during natural disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes has increased. In this Internet survey, conducted in February and March and covering 1,500...

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan