Search - collection

 
 
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2006

New traffic plan aims to cut deaths to 5,500 per year

The government said Tuesday it has drawn up a five-year plan for bringing traffic deaths under 5,500 a year by calendar 2010.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 12, 2006

Business in India the focus of TV Tokyo's "Dawn of Gaia" and more

NHK has done an excellent job of providing in-depth coverage of China's economic situation for the past 20 years, but, for some reason, that other potential Asian powerhouse, India, has been overlooked by the Japanese media.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Mar 10, 2006

Bisty boys invade Omotesando Hills

Nothing makes my heart skip a beat like the discovery of a great new wine. Yet the prospect of paying for a full bottle of something new, only to discover on first sip that it's definitely a not- for-me style, can prove daunting for even the most adventuresome. Fortunately for wine lovers in the Tokyo...
EDITORIALS
Mar 6, 2006

Long-term costs of education reform

In the largely classless society of postwar Japan, educational qualifications, particularly at the college level, have been the key determinant of career opportunities. Hence, standardized admission and low tuition fees ensured that anyone with brains had a chance to attend the top national institutions...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 4, 2006

Investor, philanthropist gives new name to jet set

It is 7:30 a.m. and Takaaki Kawashima has less than one hour to spare before leaving for Narita airport. He's due to take a midday flight to London, arriving in time for dinner with Prince Charles, Camilla and a small group of intimates at Clarendon House. He will leave for Japan again Friday morning,...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 3, 2006

Rhett Miller "The Believer"

Once again, Rhett Miller, lead singer-songwriter for The Old 97s, exorcises his pop demons on his new solo effort, "The Believer." A collection of mostly upbeat songs about the redemptive power of love, the album is much like his underrated 2002 debut, "The Instigator."
EDITORIALS
Feb 28, 2006

Fueling trust in rocket science

In the short span of one month, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has successfully launched three rockets, each carrying a satellite. This success has increased trust in JAXA's technological capability, raising Japan's hopes of entering the commercial rocket business.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Feb 27, 2006

Criticism of Japan skips the finer points

NEW YORK -- By way of criticizing Taro Aso as "Japan's Offensive Foreign Minister," a Feb. 13 New York Times editorial came up with a sweeping condemnation of the Japanese and their society by asserting that "public discourse in Japan and modern history lessons in its schools have never properly come...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Feb 24, 2006

A guide for doing the Nakameguro stroll

Naka-Meguro is one express stop southwest of Shibuya on the Tokyu Toyoko Line. And, like its one-stop counterparts on other commuter lines, the shopping streets closest to the station tend to attract a high concentration of eateries and bars all vying for your post-work cash. But like anywhere in Tokyo,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 24, 2006

You can't get too much snow up here

Glaciers are in retreat, global weather patterns are going haywire and the Earth's climate is the warmest it's been in a millennium. Nonetheless, every winter, as regular as clockwork, winds from Siberia howl across the Sea of Japan, siphon up moisture, and dump it on Hokkaido as some of the world's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Feb 21, 2006

Party round-up: Chloe, Maison Martin Margiela, Bernhard Willhelm, Alexander Lee-Chang . . .

It's been a busy month for the Tokyo style scene, with a flurry of high-profile store openings culminating in an unveiling of the monumental Omotesando Hills that coincided with extravagant 100th anniversary bashes for luxury pen brand Mont Blanc and jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels. All this meant a punishing...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 19, 2006

Women writers opened window on Heian life

OBJECTS OF DISCOURSE: Memoirs of Women of Heian Japan, by John R. Wallace. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2005, 326 pp., with VII illustrations, $65 (cloth). The four major court memoirs written in the late 10th and early 11th century are the "Kagero nikki" (translated...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 18, 2006

Winesburg, Japan, and the will of God

Sherwood Anderson once charmed America with a collection of short stories focused on the fictional town of Winesburg, Ohio. The stories portrayed normal people in the normal agony of their normal lives, tales that made Winesburg a hometown for everyone. One story in particular told of a modest clergyman...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 17, 2006

Various Artists "Congotronics 2"

One of last year's great discoveries was the "Congotronics" album by Konono No. 1, a Congolese group that's been around since the 1970s. Founded by electrician Mawangu Mingiedi, Konono No. 1 produces music with likembe thumb pianos amplified through microphones and amplifiers rebuilt from old junk, and...
EDITORIALS
Feb 16, 2006

Help for loan victims

The Supreme Court has made a ruling helpful to those who have borrowed money from consumer and "shoko" (industry and commerce) loan firms -- which lend operating funds to small companies -- as well as from illegal loan sharks. The ruling will affect the practice of having borrowers pay interest rates...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 16, 2006

"ART/ROOM -- Bedroom"

Art Front Gallery Closes in 13 days
CULTURE / Music
Feb 10, 2006

Richard Ashcroft "Keys To The World"

After years of toiling on the edge of the mainstream, The Verve finally achieved commercial success in 1997. Unfortunately, their "Bittersweet Symphony" was not meant to last and the British group parted ways in 1999.
SUMO
Feb 9, 2006

Bulgarians get sumo equipment

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso on Wednesday presented popular Bulgarian wrestler Kotooshu with a collection of sumo loin clothes and sumo equipment that Japan is donating to the Bulgarian Sumo Federation to upgrade the country's sumo infrastructure.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2006

CDs of juicy classical snippets a big hit

A CD series bringing together short, catchy parts of 100 pieces of classical music has recently become a surprise blockbuster at CD shops across the country.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 5, 2006

Fashionista with attitude

Raised on the mean streets of Brooklyn's Brownsville district, Gene Krell is a self-proclaimed tough guy who cites as one of his heroes a little-known but highly colorful "Dadaist professional boxer" called Arthur Cravan.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 29, 2006

Sifting through the geeks -- that's all of us -- to identify the perverts

Less than a week after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki on Jan. 17, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia had not only recorded the ruling in its entry on Miyazaki, but had added an incisive note. When the Miyazaki case was dominating the headlines in 1989, he...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 24, 2006

DoCoMo's D902i phone, Signeo's MP3 player, Rooshopper tote bags, TEPCO's cooking heater, Stand Kamimakiki

It's the start of a new year and that often means making changes in your life. Want to be an eco-friendly shopper? Looking to make some much needed improvements in the household? Or maybe you just want to make the people around you exhibit signs of envy by sporting some new 2006 gear. Here are a few...
EDITORIALS
Jan 22, 2006

Something wiki this way comes

'W ikipedia": Anyone looking for information online in the last few years is bound to have come across this funny word. Type any search term into Google, and a Wikipedia entry will probably pop up somewhere on the first page or two. On "Japan," for example, the Wikipedia entry comes in an impressive...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 15, 2006

Spreading the word on popular literature

THE BAMBOO SWORD AND OTHER SAMURAI TALES by Shuhei Fujisawa, translated by Gavin Frew. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2005, 254 pp., 2,400 yen (cloth). Japanese critics have long made a distinction between taishu bungaku, "popular literature," which is simple entertainment, and jun bungaku, "pure literature,"...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 10, 2006

Men retreat from 'hassle' of loving relationships

We're told that the nation's economy is in its best shape in a decade. While this is "roho (good news)," other things are happening in this country that are not so hot. Literally.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2006

Tokyo talent sings about kids rights in U.S. debut

Agnes Chan wears many hats -- singer, actress, child-rights activist, academic, and mother of three.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami