Search - mobile

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 26, 2007

Art imitates life, waking or otherwise

Wildly creative film director Michel Gondry unveils the delightful oddity of his inner selfin his latest movie, 'The Science of Sleep'
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Apr 24, 2007

Yuji Sato

Marine, a 5-and-a-half year-old black Labrador retriever, just might be one of the world's most unexpected heroines in the fight against cancer. Marine's nose is capable of detecting 18 different types of cancer on a person's breath and has already been mechanically replicated as a sensor the size of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Apr 24, 2007

Conof, One Percent and Panasonic's new mini-speakers

Shredding mystery When I first laid eyes on the Conof by n.o.l., I had no idea what it was but immediately developed a unprovoked yearning for it. So when I eventually figured out that it was a paper shredder, there was a moment of disappointment -- secrecy and sensitive documents play no part in my...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2007

Toyota cars get real-time traffic data to map smartest routes

New Toyota cars will have up-to-date map and traffic information for electronically determining the quickest routes in an upgrade of network-linking technology now offered mostly in luxury models.
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Apr 11, 2007

Music player goes swimming

Jogging might be good for your body but just how many brain cells die of boredom in the process? Swimming laps is perhaps a more palatable exercise method but it doesn't lag running by too much in the boredom stakes. What serious pool lappers need is a waterproof iPod, or some facsimile thereof. Century...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2007

At 6.6 trillion yen, gay, lesbian market no small niche

Japan has an estimated 2.74 million people who are either lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, and in terms of targeting a niche market, they have a combined purchasing power of 6.64 trillion yen -- the equivalent of the nation's liquor consumption.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 6, 2007

Asakusa Jinta march into history

Unless in search of a cheap, dusty souvenir for a relative, Tokyo's historic Asakusa district isn't on the radar of too many folks under the age of 70. But Asakusa Jinta, a seven-piece band that mixes elements of ska, swing, punk and chindonya (traditional street performance), is hoping to bring the...
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 1, 2007

"Rebel" cartoonist Rieko Saibara

Rieko Saibara is a catoonist known for her work that has both a lyrical and "rebellious" side to it. While regarded as a rebel in the cartoonist world, at times shocking her readers with indecent expressions, she also brings them to tears by her portrayal of hopeless poverty, affection to her children...
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2007

PAC-3 Patriot missiles debut at Iruma air base

A Patriot PAC-3 missile system, the first element of Japan's planned missile shield, was deployed at the Air Self-Defense Force base in Iruma, Saitama Prefecture, early Friday, ASDF officials in Tokyo said.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 30, 2007

Up, up and away

For the length of the Occupation of Japan, from defeat in 1945 to the return of sovereignty in 1952, the skies belonged to the Allies.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 29, 2007

Globalization made manifest at Midtown

Hooray. Another high-rise office tower. Another five-star hotel. Another premium shopping mall. Another Starbucks. And don't forget culture. With this new development, Tokyo will show the world the richness of Japan's civilization and society.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Mar 28, 2007

Good vibrations: Turning your skull into a speaker and manga electric guitars

VIBRATING BONES: Call me old-fashioned, but I feel attached to speakers. Innate pieces of metal and plastic vibrate in harmony to produce sound waves to caress the ear. The idea of substituting my body parts to carry out the vibrating bit of the business just doesn't hit the right note for me. But hey,...
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2007

February trade surplus up 7.7% on auto, steel exports

Japan's merchandise trade surplus in February expanded 7.7 percent to 979.6 billion yen from the same month a year ago, thanks to increased exports of automobiles and steel and a decline in crude oil prices, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report Thursday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 10, 2007

Bernard Krisher

One interviewer called him "a mobile office." Others called him "a pusher, a hyperactive bundle of energy and ideas, a class act." Magazines referred to him as "a Japanese institution," and "a one-man United Nations."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 8, 2007

Confusing the categories

Maybe it's just as well that the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura was as deserted as it was, because the sculpture of Wakiro Sumi is art that whispers rather than shouts. At one of Tokyo's busier museums or galleries, with your head still abuzz with the screech of traffic, the blitz of advertising, and...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Mar 6, 2007

Who to watch at the upcoming Haru Basho

Who is going to take a fall in the Haru Basho?
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2007

CPI remains level with last year

Japan's core consumer price index was unchanged in January from a year earlier due to cheaper crude oil prices, the government said Friday, fueling speculation that the Bank of Japan may hold off on raising interest rates in the near future.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Feb 27, 2007

A grab bag of affordable products

Great design ideas do not necessarily need to cost an arm and a leg -- even though some manufacturers would like you to think so. With that in mind, this month's picks are a grab bag of affordable products, all under 10,000 yen (the small version of the Oblong clock excepted). Also, you should be able...
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 25, 2007

Law and disorder

I was surprised when Jaime Xavier Lopez, the head of Sacred Heart, a notorious "martial-arts" group, told me to meet him at the government's Office of Cadastral Surveys and Property, where he has his day job. Or that's where he did work, since he is now imprisoned.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 24, 2007

Nobody willing to take blame for fiasco with fans in France

LONDON -- Supporters are told they are the most important people in football . . . the sport's biggest sponsors . . . yet when they are randomly batoned and bloodied by French policemen, as around 500 Manchester United fans were at the Champions League tie against Lille, nobody seems responsible.
COMMENTARY
Feb 23, 2007

Airports foretell the future

LONDON -- It is at airports that one can tell that most of East Asia is merging into one gigantic business and market entity, a crisscrossed latticework flow of people, goods, ideas, lifestyles, relationships -- of such size, speed and intensity that it is beyond the power of any governments to check...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 22, 2007

Breaking into an insider's tea-drinking club

The term "gaijin artist" can be something of an insult to those who make Japan their home. It is, after all, parochial and old-fashioned to differentiate artists strictly on the basis of what passport they carry.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.