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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 15, 2007

'Zukan ni Notte Nai Mushi'

We all need to escape, once in a while, from being serious people in the real world, trying to ace the big test, land the big contract, or earn an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. Rinko Kikuchi, who accomplished the last feat for her turn as a hearing-impaired high-school girl in "Babel,"...
LIFE / Travel
Jun 15, 2007

A budget day in Kobe

"I'll meet you at 9.30 p.m. outside the convenience store at Hanshin Uozaki Station," said the pleasant voice on the other end of the phone. It belonged to Aiko, who one year ago founded Kobe Dears, a backpacker hostel a 10-minute train ride from central Kobe proper that she runs with her British husband,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 14, 2007

Europe, open your borders

PRAGUE — It is time for Europe's politicians to admit to voters that governments cannot stop people moving across borders. Despite efforts to build a Fortress Europe, over a million foreigners bypass its defenses every year; some enter covertly, but most just overstay their visas and work illicitly....
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jun 13, 2007

Dancing penguin ups the cute factor for iPods

Teddy bears might be the tradi tional cute characters of choice but the animal shape of the moment in Japan is undoubtedly the penguin. This is in no small part due to JR's Suica card advertising campaigns. Sega Toys are not a company to miss a trend and so, perhaps in tribute to the animated movie "Happy...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 12, 2007

It's a dog's life when you wear a cat on your head

Animals have always been prevalent in the Japanese language, perhaps more so than in other parts of the world, because Japanese people were for so long vegetarian, Buddhist or Shintoist.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / U.K. JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Jun 9, 2007

Sustained growth needs more access, ambition

Despite its demographic problems, Japan has room to aim at higher growth by pushing harder on reforms, opening up more to foreign capital and making better use of unused female labor, visiting journalists from Britain told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 8, 2007

'Kantoku Banzai!'/'Dai Nipponjin'

It was a marketing gimmick of the first order to open Takeshi Kitano's "Kantoku Banzai!" and Hitoshi Matsumoto's "Dai Nipponjin" on the same weekend. This head-to-head duel between films by the two reigning kings of Japanese comedy can only boost the box office of both.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 8, 2007

War and peace

No Japanese city outside of Tokyo holds as great a significance in global history as Hiroshima. A 15-minute tram ride from JR Hiroshima Station transports you from the lively bustle of the city to the calm of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. From the tram stop, the first monument you will see is the Atomic...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 7, 2007

Burger King stages return under new management, realities

Six years after withdrawing from the Japanese market, American fast-food chain Burger King is back, bringing with it the concept of a premium big hamburger in hopes of winning over consumers bored with typical fare.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 5, 2007

Camping, reflection and cream clover

Dropping off the kids Yoko, who is married to an American and recently returned to Tokyo from the U.S., asks about summer camps in Japan for their children.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 5, 2007

Headline-grabbing gun crimes mar safe image

Japan, whose strict gun controls have long helped its image as the safest industrialized nation, has recently seen its reputation slip in the wake of headline-making shootings.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jun 5, 2007

"The Great American Mousical," "Jake Cake: The Robot Dinner Lady"

"The Great American Mousical," Julie Andrews Edwards, Puffin Books; 2006; 133 pp. If you don't know who Julie Andrews is, ask your parents. They'll tell you how Andrews, the star actress of movie classics like "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music," brought cinema alive for children all over the world....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 1, 2007

Butagumi: In hog heaven with the pig gang

Gourmet tonkatsu. It sounds like a contradiction in terms, as implausible as haute cuisine hot dogs or Michelin-starred jellied eels. Surely those breaded, deep-fried "cutlets" of pork can be nothing but comfort food: fatty, filling and reassuringly easy on the budget.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
May 30, 2007

Japan refutes 'marine Darth Vader' charges

ANCHORAGE, Alaska Transformed by oil money from the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, and boasting probably more gas-guzzling SUVs per person than any other American city, on a bad day Anchorage can resemble a giant foggy parking lot.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2007

Dalai Lama's shattered dream for Tibet

MADRAS — Tibet looks like a dream shattered. You feel this when you hear the stories of horror told and retold by Buddhist monks and nuns who have escaped from Tibet and taken refuge in Dharamshala, the center of the Dalai Lama's government in exile in India.
SOCCER
May 25, 2007

Glory for AC Milan as Inzaghi nets double

ATHENS — AC Milan exacted revenge for the nightmare of Istanbul two years ago but it took the Italians a little bit of luck allied with a slightly superior creativity to beat a dominant but uninspiring Liverpool in the Champions League final on Wednesday night for their seventh European Cup crown....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
May 25, 2007

Sangenjaya's warm afterglow

Astrophysicists may bicker over whether the universe is exploding or imploding, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that in the microcosmic world of Tokyo, expansion is the overriding force at work. Proof of this would be clearly visible from space — especially at night — as one after...
Rugby
May 22, 2007

Suntory develops rugby talent

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — It was a bittersweet goodbye for Naoya Nomura and Takeshi Fujiwara, Suntory Sungoliath's two promising rookies who left the Wellington club team Western Subs last Friday after a two-month training session to return to their team in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
May 22, 2007

OVO, DateBlock, VAPE No. 1 NEO and DECO LAMP

Eggish timer
BUSINESS
May 18, 2007

Economy grew just 0.6% in quarter

The economy grew 0.6 percent in the January-March quarter for the ninth consecutive quarter of growth after corporate spending slowed, the Cabinet Office said in a preliminary report released Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 18, 2007

'Pacchigi! Love & Peace'

In 2004, Kazuyuki Izutsu made "Pacchigi! (Pacchigi! We Shall Overcome Someday)," a serio-comic Romeo and Juliet romance set in 1960s Kyoto. Starring Shun Shioya as a naive high school boy and Erika Sawajiri as the cute-but-tough zainichi (ethnic Korean living in Japan) girl whom he falls for, the film...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 16, 2007

Documentary traces 'ritual' of Japan election campaign

In Japan, candidates who run for office generally don't rise naturally from the grass roots. Many are molded into politicians by extremely organized election campaigns.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 15, 2007

Unique presents, being seen

Customized 'omiyage' Several of you have responded to the request for ideas for interesting personalized gifts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 11, 2007

An ear-rattling unholy alliance

Although virtually unknown at home, in 2005 the international release of "Pink" turned Tokyo's Boris into one of Japan's biggest underground exports in the new millennium.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan