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CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
May 31, 2012

Perfume needs to walk a fine line on its path overseas

As Japanese pop culture is increasingly dominated by insular subcultural groups with little interest in what's happening outside Akihabara's otaku haven or Shibuya's gyaru mecca, the news that electro-pop trio Perfume had moved to major label Universal and made its music available online to overseas...
BUSINESS
May 31, 2012

Tokyo Grain Exchange to dissolve at shareholders' meeting, switch bourses

The operator of the Tokyo Grain Exchange, the nation's second-largest commodity bourse, will seek its dissolution at a shareholders' meeting next March due to shrinking volumes.
BASEBALL
May 27, 2012

Injuries, departed players present challenges for Hawks early in season

The Fukuoka Softbank Hawks had hoped to absorb the loss of three top pitchers and their starting shortstop to free agency and maintain their high standards, but it appears the defending Japan Series champions may be sinking into mediocrity as the 2012 season approaches its one-third mark.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 27, 2012

Japan has a role to play in environment and rights issues in Belize

"The United Nations' largest-ever conference, billed as a historic opportunity to create a greener future, appears to be going up in smoke."
BUSINESS
May 24, 2012

Sony, Samsung ask U.S. retailers to curb TV discounts

Sony Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. have asked U.S. retailers to maintain minimum prices for TVs to boost profitability as global demand declines.
BUSINESS
May 23, 2012

Toshiba LCD price-fixing trial gets under way in U.S.

Toshiba Corp. conspired with rivals to fix the price of display screens, forcing businesses and consumers to pay more for televisions and laptop computers, a U.S. jury was told at the start of an antitrust trial.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 22, 2012

Once one and only, Sony seeks to regain that status

Despite reporting a record ¥457 billion annual loss last year, Sony Corp. earlier this month said it would return to the black in fiscal 2012 with a ¥30 billion profit.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 22, 2012

Foreigners disqualified as blood donors for wide range of reasons

From the many responses to our April 3 column, "Less-than-fluent foreigners may have trouble giving blood," it seems that Japanese language ability is an issue at some centers, but not all. Other factors sometimes took precedence, such as medical conditions and other rules.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 19, 2012

Comedians find creative outlet for simmering anger

For Okinawa comedian Masamitsu Kohatsu, Aug. 13 is synonymous with the 9/11 terrorist attack in the United States.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 17, 2012

Maccabees rise above indie's fall

So indie-guitar music in Britain is in the doldrums, is it? Try telling that to The Maccabees.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 17, 2012

There is trouble on Kafka's shore

Seventy-six-year-old theater director Yukio Ninagawa is famed and honored the world over for his magnificently visualized stagings of Shakespeare and Ancient Greek tragedies — as well as modern Japanese plays.
JAPAN / 40 YEARS AFTER REVERSION
May 16, 2012

U.S. defense shift keeps Okinawa in strategic mix

The 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan came with a price — the continued use by the United States of sprawling military bases and other facilities in the prefecture to protect Japan and maintain peace in the Asia-Pacific region.
BUSINESS
May 16, 2012

Mixi founder seen set to unload stake

Domestic social network pioneer Mixi Inc. has stumbled and the once rising star has been eclipsed by its giant U.S. competitor Facebook and domestic social game operators.
LIFE
May 13, 2012

What awaits Okinawa 40 years after reversion?

On May 15, 1972, Okinawa became a prefecture of Japan once again. Up until then, for 27 years since World War II — when the islands endured some of the most intense fighting of the entire brutal conflict — Okinawa had been under U.S. military administration, so reversion to Japanese rule should have...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 11, 2012

Clooney comes of age as land and loves collide

Of all the descriptors actor George Clooney gets pegged with, "father" is not usually among them. Academy Award-winner? Sure. Activist? Yes. Sexiest Man Alive? You bet. It was his turn as a dad in "The Descendants" last year, however, that earned him a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
May 11, 2012

How I learned to stop worrying and love the shochu

Nearly 10 years ago, shōchū was all the rage in Japan. In 2004, shipments reached an all-time high, and producers were struggling to keep up with the exploding market. Everyone was drinking it — everyone, it seems, but me.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 11, 2012

Tao goes back to Japan's roots for new shows

Energetic? Aesthetic? Maybe acrobatic? No single adjective is enough to describe the versatility of a Tao performance.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 11, 2012

'The Descendants'

If you were an actor, middle-aged or older and looking to revamp your career, landing a role in an Alexander Payne movie could be just the thing. On the other hand, collaborating with the man who brought to the world the twin masterpieces of midlife pathos "About Schmidt" and "Sideways" may mean that...
JAPAN
May 10, 2012

Ozawa faces appeal over his acquittal

Prosecutors on Wednesday appealed a lower court ruling acquitting former Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa of conspiring with his former aides to falsify financial reports for his political funds management body, Rikuzankai, in 2004 and 2005.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 10, 2012

Japan selects Suzuki to lead men's basketball team

The Japan Basketball Association officially introduced Kimikazu Suzuki as the new head coach for the men's national team on Wednesday in Tokyo.
JAPAN
May 8, 2012

Low autopsy rate seen abetting murderers

Kanae Kijima, recently sentenced to hang for killing three boyfriends, may have been arrested before the second and third murders if police had conducted an autopsy on the first victim, Takao Terada, who was found dead in his Tokyo home in 2009.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 8, 2012

Efforts to save Japanese crested ibis take flight

Japanese spirits were uplifted recently by the news that three "toki," or Japanese crested ibis, chicks were hatched in the wild for the first time in 36 years, the culmination of a ¥300 million project that was started in 1999 to breed the endangered wading birds outside captivity.

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