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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 17, 2013

Patti Smith hopes 2013 is about rebuilding

By the time you read this, Patti Smith will have been in Japan for nearly a week. The iconic poet, author, painter and "Godmother of Punk" hasn't yet played a gig with her band; that will come later. First, Smith is reconnecting with a country with which her affinity runs deep.
BASKETBALL
Jan 14, 2013

Late-starter Rolle eyeing one more shot at NBA

Magnum Rolle didn't play organized basketball until his freshman year in high school.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 13, 2013

Exploring the past to makes sense of Meiji modernity

PILGRIMAGES TO THE ANCIENT TEMPLES IN NARA, by Tetsuro Watsuji, translated by Hiroshi Nara. Merwin Asia, 2012, 252 pp., $35.00 (paperback) In the Japanese original, "Koji Junrei" (1919), this book is a classic, much imitated and still quite widely read, although it has also been sometimes controversial....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 8, 2013

Online English studies benefit Japanese, Filipinos

Mohammad Moin tries to realize what he calls "intellectual fair trade" through his operation of an online English conversation school for Japanese — all taught by Filipino teachers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jan 1, 2013

The year for non-Japanese in '12: a top 10

Back by popular demand, here is JBC's roundup of the top 10 human rights events that most affected non-Japanese (NJ) residents of Japan in 2012, in ascending order.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 31, 2012

2013: Beginning of the U.S. economic recovery?

There is good reason to think that 2013 will finally be the year that the U.S. economic recovery really feels like a recovery: The biggest forces that have been holding the economy back finally seem to be subsiding.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Dec 31, 2012

Supreme copout: twisted justification for guns

Suppose a Seung-Hui Cho, Jared Lee Loughner, James Eagan Holmes or an Adam Lanza shot and killed or seriously wounded any of the families of John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Would any of them have given different opinions in their 2008 and 2010 decisions?...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 29, 2012

Textile scholar advocates sustainable fashion

Yoshiko Wada, textile artist and scholar, believes the word "sustainable" in foods and fashion shares the same philosophical taste. "Both are a holistic approach, about health, environment, and the community that supports it. We must recapture and rethink how we are going to sustain our Earth and society,...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2012

The rise of the attention economy

I was recently posed the following question: "The most important way in which the Internet and online social media are changing our world is [fill in the blank]."
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Dec 26, 2012

2012 in tech — and what it means for the year ahead

In the world of technology, the past year has seen a changing of the guard in almost every sector. Personal computers, mobile devices, gaming and Internet services have all seen incredible developments, with new challengers taking the place of old incumbents. As we move into the new year, we'll meet...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 25, 2012

Benshi Midori Sawato

Midori Sawato is a benshi, a unique kind of performer who provides live narration to silent films at the movie theater. The benshi brings the characters in films alive using different voices and vocal expressions. They sit to the side of the screen, watching the movie with the audience and using their...
LIFE / Travel
Dec 23, 2012

Award-winning Hakuba inn offers a warm and bespoke welcome to all

A report published this year by a national association of ryōkan (traditional inn) owners notes that one of the most common problems facing its several thousand members is a dearth of suitable successors — meaning there will be no one in line to run them when the current operators retire.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 21, 2012

Hatsune Miku goes highbrow

On her own, Japanese pop superstar Hatsune Miku can't sing. Nor can she rap, dance or DJ. She is drug- and alcohol-free because she can't indulge in either, and she can't have affairs or engage in offstage shenanigans fit for YouTube scandals or tabloid headlines. Now entering her sixth year as a beloved...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / Japan Pulse
Dec 20, 2012

2012: Food and drink trends in Japan

Hot beer, frozen soup, and haute cuisine on the cheap: the year in food in Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 16, 2012

Japan loses its cool as South Korea heats up

Last month, a nationwide survey of 3,000 people by the Cabinet office found that the percentage of Japanese who do not view South Korea on friendly terms rose to 59 percent, up by 23.7 points from 2011. The sharply negative shift appeared to reverse over a decade of warming relations between the two...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 15, 2012

Do young Japanese people dream big?

Do young Japanese people dream big? This was the question posed by Steven Kim recently on LinkedIn's "InStyle Tokyo Premier Networking" group.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 15, 2012

'Face of election' Kawamura of Nagoya now the odd man out

After deciding not to run in this weekend's Lower House poll, Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura's status as the "face of the election" has faded and his frustration is clearly growing.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 14, 2012

Golden Kings reign supreme in Western Conference

The Ryukyu Golden Kings, not unlike a well-oiled machine, are the best squad in the league. And this week we examine how they stack up with the other nine teams in the Western Conference over the past 10 games, or roughly one-fifth of the 52-game season.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 14, 2012

Here's to a veggie, merry Christmas

Every holiday has its meal, and in Japan at Christmas it's takeaway crispy chicken that rules the roost. For faithful, joyful and triumphant vegetarians in Japan, however, the roasted holiday bird is as appealing as the piece of coal left at the bottom of a stocking.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 13, 2012

Independent route pays off for jazz act Indigo Jam Unit

Whichever way you look at it, there's something a little bit different about Indigo Jam Unit. The Osaka-based band has succeeded on its own terms, eschewing the Tokyo club-jazz crowd, but at the same time carving out their own little niche within the scene. They've adopted a slightly different approach...
COMMENTARY
Dec 12, 2012

Coasting to climate disaster

They made some progress at the annual December round of the international negotiations on controlling climate change, held this year in Qatar. They agreed that the countries that cause the warming should compensate the ones that suffer the most from it. The principle, known as the Loss and Damage mechanism,...
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 9, 2012

The ends of the world

We are doomed. Are we doomed? December 21, 2012 is 12 days away. The world will end on that day, says the ancient Mayan calendar. Or does it say that? Whether it does or not (most experts now agree it does not) other dangers loom — a fatal "galactic alignment," a mysterious wandering planet on a collision...
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 9, 2012

Our deepest fears fuel the booming business of doomsday scenarios

Apocalypse 2012 was born in 1996.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 9, 2012

Granderson sharing passion for baseball on tour of Asia

Curtis Granderson doesn't have to be here. He's got money; he's got fame; he's been an MLB All-Star three times; and, well, he's a New York Yankee.
Reader Mail
Dec 9, 2012

Show the translation difficulties

Thanks for Paul McCarthy's Dec. 2 review of Fumiko Hayashi's novel, "Floating Clouds." But I have one request for next time: Could the reviewer say a few things about the interesting differences where the two languages, English and Japanese, meet?
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 7, 2012

Ishibashi steering Brave Warriors in the right direction

Takatoshi "Big Bashi" Ishibashi served as the Shinshu Brave Warriors' capable assistant coach during the team's inaugural season under Motofumi Aoki, the 2006-07 bj-league Coach of the Year.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers