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EDITORIALS
Aug 17, 2010

Redressing rights violations

In mid-June, Justice Minister Keiko Chiba and two lieutenants at her ministry — both Diet members — disclosed in an interim report the idea of creating a new commission to redress human rights violations. The report calls for setting up a new human rights protection commission as an extra-ministerial...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 17, 2010

Racist undercurrents taint whaling rhetoric

Sea Shepherd's Web site describes him as "the first New Zealander to be taken as a prisoner of war from the Southern Ocean to Japan," and there is no doubting Peter Bethune's popularity in this country. His trial in Tokyo earlier this year for interfering with Japan's annual whale hunt dominated New...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 16, 2010

Sexual empowerment with a large dose of Grey matter

Sasha Grey is not the sort of movie star you normally see discussed in these pages. With a resume that includes "Oral Supremacy" and "Sex Toy Teens," Grey has risen to become one of the top porn stars in the United States, appearing in more than 180 films in a three-year period starting when she was...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Jul 7, 2010

Nagoya Basho 2010 — a tournament that will live in infamy

For two months sumo has been rocked to its core by evidence of illegal gambling on baseball games, involvement with the Japanese underworld, and more recently claims by the man on the street that those in positions of power within the sumo association did precious little to stop this.
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2010

World's tweet is Japan's 'mumble' on hit Twitter

Twitter is a hit in Japan, succeeding where other social networking imports like Facebook have foundered as millions "mumble" — the translation of tweet — and give miniblogging a distinctly Japanese flavor.
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Jun 22, 2010

'Hafu' draws viewers into world of Japanese identity

"Hafu," the Japanese term for people who are half-Japanese, takes on a more intricate meaning through the unfolding of mixed-race Japanese lives in the documentary "Hafu." Those starring in the film and those behind the project identify themselves as a newly emerging community.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 13, 2010

Few TV surfers ride 'Korean wave' series 'Iris'

Two weeks ago, cast members of the South Korean TV drama series "Iris" appeared in concerts at Osaka Castle Hall and Saitama Super Arena. Some 60,000 fans of the star Lee Byung Hun bought tickets, but 1,400 at one of the Saitama events found themselves shut out after the organizers decided that the stage...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 13, 2010

Synthetic life zaps 'the soul'

I remember a couple of years ago the Vatican made a curious announcement about the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Clearly,the Roman Catholic Church was getting worried that any discovery of evidence of life on other planets would undermine its authority on Earth. It wanted to head off the impact...
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2010

Child sex in 'manga' — art or obscenity?: Graphic but healthy, free speech

The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly is deliberating stronger regulations on sexual images of minors in "manga" comic books, animation and video games.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2010

Freelancers OK at Tokyo prosecutor briefings

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office opened its news conference to nonpress club members Thursday, following the example of several ministries that have started allowing freelancers into their regular media briefings.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 6, 2010

Grappling with the gangsters

Some years ago, a Japanese friend suggested we have dinner together at a chanko-nabe restaurant because neither of us had ever been to one. Chanko-nabe is the fortifying stew that sumo wrestlers grow fat on, and they all learn how to make it. Many rikishi (sumo wrestler) who don't become stable masters...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 30, 2010

Does Miyazaki Pref. flap have silver lining?

The foot-and-mouth disease crisis that has ruined much of the livestock industry in Miyazaki Prefecture is akin to an apocalypse; or, at least, that's the feeling you get from the media coverage.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 14, 2010

Shibuya 109 eyes rebound

It's no surprise that retailers are hurting amid the economic downturn and deflation. What is shocking, however, is that one of them is Shibuya 109, one of Tokyo's most popular fashion complexes.
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2010

Democratic sidebar to U.K. polls

Britain is on the brink of its biggest political upheaval in a century. The general election that takes place this week has become an unofficial referendum on the electoral system itself. Britain's first-past-the-post (FPTP) system discriminates against small parties, wastes votes and encourages politicians...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Apr 13, 2010

Nutritionist praises traditional diet

Erica Angyal, the 40-year-old official nutritionist of Miss Universe Japan, is on a mission to bring balanced meals back to the Japanese table.
COMMENTARY
Apr 7, 2010

How Google got too hot for China's kitchen

It is one of the positives of my largely happy life that I never found myself in the field of public relations with a client like Beijing. It's not that there aren't many wondrously good stories about China — hundreds of millions of otherwise dirt-poor people moving up into a better economic life,...
JAPAN / ARRIVAL OF E-READERS
Apr 3, 2010

Apple turns the medium into the message

Amid the media hype over the iPad's potential to transform Japan's conservative publishing industry, experts say the tablet computer's potential is even broader: The gadget might change the way people view videos, play video games and music, or even how they get an education.
JAPAN / ARRIVAL OF E-READERS
Apr 3, 2010

Publishers don't see iPad revolution anytime soon

Many in the U.S. publishing industry feel Apple's release of the iPad, a multipurpose tablet computer with a built-in electronic reading device, will revolutionize the way consumers read and push the market into the digital age — just as the firm's iPod and iTunes did with music.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 14, 2010

Risk separates stars from actors

People in the same business slapping one another on the back should hardly be of interest to anyone outside that business, but to paraphrase "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" the business called "show" is an entirely different animal. That's why we display a disproportionate fascination with the Academy Awards,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Mar 12, 2010

How to make a Big Bang in show business

J-pop labels might learn a thing or two from Big Bang, a Korean boy band that gives it up for the fans.
COMMENTARY
Mar 8, 2010

New device apt to kindle greater interest in reading

The first thing that catches your eye when you open the yousho (imported books) section of Amazon Japan's home page is an advertisement for the Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device. The Kindle DX ad, which first appeared last summer, claims that a reader can perform a wireless download of any of more than...
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2010

Zero tolerance for bullying

The British media have given prominence recently to allegations that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is a bully who intimidates those who work for him. It has also been alleged that some of his staff have briefed against Cabinet ministers with whom Brown disagrees. The government has dismissed these charges...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 28, 2010

Feeling revulsion may signal you're finally home away from home

There is a curious and very telling phrase in Japanese to describe the feeling of hatred that people can have for family. It is kinshin-zoo, or "close-relative abhorrence."
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 9, 2010

Hatoyama says Ozawa can stay

Democratic Party of Japan kingpin Ichiro Ozawa on Monday was given the go sign to remain as the party's secretary general by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama despite mounting public calls that he step down over his fund management body's involvement in a shady Tokyo land purchase.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 7, 2010

Goodell says NFL remains committed to Asian market

Fort Lauderdale Fla. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the absence of the NFL from Asia at a news conference on Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 7, 2010

Taeko Tomiyama: Brushing with authority

I will never forget the day I went to a show titled "Embracing Asia: Taeko Tomiyama Retrospective 1950-2009," which was one of 370 art exhibits by creators from 40 countries comprising the fourth Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial staged over 50 days last autumn at locations across a huge area of rural Niigata...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 6, 2010

Appointing Terry captain a mistake from the start

LONDON — Fabio Capello will soon announce whether John Terry, England captain and alleged adulterer, will retain the armband.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2010

Kansai business chiefs lash out at Hatoyama

KYOTO — Kansai business leaders expressed strong dissatisfaction Thursday with the administration of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, charging that last summer's change of government has led to a lot of rhetoric but little action.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 4, 2010

Colts sweat on Freeney

MIAMI — Four-time MVP Peyton Manning might have felt a tinge of jealousy when most of the attention at Tuesday's Super Bowl XLIV media day went toward Indianapolis Colts Dwight Freeney, whose status for the game is uncertain because of a torn ligament in his left ankle.

Longform

Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?