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COMMENTARY / World
Jan 16, 2012

Looking for a doomsday scenario to believe in?

You've probably heard about the Mayan carvings that predict the year 2012 will be our last. Supposedly, the war and creation god Bolon Yokte will return, bringing with him certain doom. Scholars have been trying to tamp down those claims, saying that's an erroneous interpretation of the Mayan calendar,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 14, 2012

Globe-trekker devotes self to kids needing special attention

German Birgit Zorb-Serizawa has lived and worked on four continents in her career in special education, and she has spent many years providing opportunities and support for international families in Japan with special-needs children.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 10, 2012

Local Japanese school is the obvious choice if you want your child to fit in

The first day of elementary school, a milestone in a child's life, brings a mix of emotions for parents. The pride and joy of seeing their child taking his first steps into the world are tempered with feelings of anxiety in moms and dads everywhere.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 8, 2012

Rock meets French cuisine in 'Hungry'; launch of 'Taira no Kiyomori'; Shin-Sereberu:

Synergy is the name of the game in the new drama series "Hungry" (Fuji TV, Tues., 10:15 p.m.), which incorporates two themes: rock music and French cuisine.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 8, 2012

Holding court on warped ideas of sex and love

LOVESICK JAPAN: Sex, Marriage, Romance and Law, by Mark D. West. Cornell University Press, 2011, 272 pp., $29.95 (hardcover) Nobody else explores the law in Japan quite like Mark West, bringing it to life and close to home. "Lovesick Japan" is an entertaining and insightful examination of the courts,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 6, 2012

'Perfect Sense'

Will the world end with a whimper or a bang? That may well depend on whether you're at the multiplex or the art house. While blockbusters continue to relish the visual bombastics of Armageddon (the most wanton example being "2012"), a number of smaller films are also delving into the dark dramatic potential...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 5, 2012

Exposing new spins on old-school photography

For a truly fresh outlook on Tokyo, run, don't walk, to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography to see Sohei Nishino's exciting photo-collages of Tokyo and nine other cities, on display through Jan. 29 along with works by other up-and-coming Japanese photographers.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 5, 2012

Exposing new spins on old-school photography

For a truly fresh outlook on Tokyo, run, don't walk, to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography to see Sohei Nishino's exciting photo-collages of Tokyo and nine other cities, on display through Jan. 29 along with works by other up-and-coming Japanese photographers.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jan 1, 2012

A breath of fire for nature this new Year of the Dragon

May I wish all our readers, in Japan and abroad, a very happy New Year. After 2011, I think we need one.
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2012

What 2011 means for Japan in 2012 and beyond

We asked three long-term foreign residents to give their thoughts about Japan's past year and the coming year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 30, 2011

Lacking powerhouses, it was a lean year for Japanese movies

Some years, the top four or five Japanese films quickly leap off my short list to my annual Best Ten. But this was not a great year for the local film industry, in terms of either box office or major awards winners. No masterpieces, in other words, though several have stayed with me, usually more for...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / LIGHT GIST
Dec 27, 2011

2011: a year of disaster in quotes

This year produced more than its share of memorable quotes, many of which were inspired by the March 11 disaster and its aftermath. But figures from other fields, from sports to entertainment, also said things worth repeating. Here is a sampling, in chronological order:
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 27, 2011

Many angles to acquiring Japanese citizenship

Nationality has long been a controversial issue in Japan. For most, it is something they are born with; for others, it is something they had to fight for. For some, nationality may be a source of pride, while for others, it may be the cause of discrimination.
EDITORIALS
Dec 24, 2011

Vaclav Havel, eternal dissident

The death of North Korea's supreme leader, Kim Jong Il, has obscured the passing of a truly heroic figure: Vaclav Havel. The Czech writer and dissident who became his country's first postcommunist president died Dec. 18. Mr. Havel was Mr. Kim's worst nightmare — an incorrigible and irrepressible dissenter,...
COMMENTARY
Dec 23, 2011

Learning about dignity

On Dec. 19 the United Nations General Assembly, meeting in New York, adopted a historic new U.N. Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 18, 2011

Education for all from '60s Tokyo tale

J-BOYS: Kazuo's World, Tokyo, 1965, by Shogo Oketani. Stone Bridge Press, 2011, 211 pp., $9.95 (paperback) Like an affliction that allows you to function in an apparently normal manner but seditiously disables the sufferer, the dark legacy of war, never far from the minds of the adults in the story,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 11, 2011

It takes a supersize brain to drive a London taxi

Visitors to Japan often comment on the way taxi doors open as you approach — at the touch of a button by the driver; and that those drivers generally wear smart white gloves. I apologize for the competitive tone, but there is something far more remarkable about London taxis: their drivers.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2011

Without U.S. funds, UNESCO strikes downbeat

I cannot imagine a world without music, art, film, dance, theater and books. It would be a dreary and colorless existence, with little cooperation and communication among citizens. The arts are the glue that holds us together, the cultural fabric of our lives, and they sow the seeds for inventive, universally...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 9, 2011

'Elle s'Appelait Sarah'

Elle s'Appelait Sarah," like so many films these days, uses the device of multiple narratives. First you've got a story set in the present, where journalist Julia (Kristin Scott Thomas) is investigating a bit of repressed French history: the 1942 roundup of Parisian Jews, where thousands of people were...
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2011

Owners bet on Tohoku revival, restart businesses along coast

The day Masahiro Osada reopened his Chinese restaurant, the mayor showed up for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 2, 2011

'Yubiwa wo Hametai (Looking For a True Fiance)'

An average guy, I once read, could have a reasonably happy married life with any one of the thousands of single women out there on the streets of Tokyo. This, of course, is the opposite of the Platonic ideal embraced by Carrie, the heroine of the American series "Sex and the City," who, through dozens...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 2, 2011

'The Mill and the Cross'

Bombarded as our brains are with visual images from digital screens that dominate most aspects of life, an encounter with "The Mill and the Cross" triggers a kind of shock reaction.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Dec 1, 2011

Restless Arab region presents curatorial challenge

In mid-February, Mori Art Museum Associate Curator Kenichi Kondo noticed an article on the Nafas website, which specializes in art news from the Middle East. Egyptian media artist Ahmed Basiony, it said, had gone to Tahrir Square in Cairo to join the protests against president Hosni Mubarak. He had been...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 27, 2011

Jewishness infuses the works of Ben Shahn — even his Japanese ones

What does it mean to be a Jewish artist or writer? Is one obliged to assert one's Jewishness — ethnically, religiously, culturally — in order to be seen as such? Or are all Jewish creators by definition "Jewish" creators, even those who create little with what can be considered "Jewish content"?...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 22, 2011

POWs, young expats struggle to reconcile Japan of then, now

"It cost three cigarettes if you wanted someone to break your arm for you. So you could have a few days off." The shaky voice of an American POW from a World War II Japanese internment camp.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 20, 2011

A lost gem found confirms who was the father of Japanese filmmaking

In July 1959, Japan's leading film magazine, Kinema Junpo, published a list of what it hailed as "The best 10 Japanese films of all time." This list included works by such acknowledged masters as Mikio Naruse, as well as the young but by then amply acclaimed Akira Kurosawa.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 18, 2011

'George Harrison: Living in the Material World' / 'Under Control'

Director Martin Scorsese was one of the first to score big with the rockumentary format with his 1978 film "The Last Waltz," which covered the farewell concert by The Band and their musician friends such as Neil Young and Van Morrison. He's kept a hand in it ever since, making boomer rock docs on Bob...
Japan Times
CULTURE
Nov 18, 2011

Proud love pervades NHK's 'Madame Butterfly'

"Well, little Chrysanthème, let us part good friends; one last kiss even, if you like. I took you to amuse me; you have not perhaps succeeded very well, but after all you have done what you could: given me your little face, your little curtseys, your little music; in short, you have been pleasant enough...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years