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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 25, 2010

Happily lost in the 'empire of signs'

Signs and symbols play an ever-growing role in our increasingly complex society. In this respect, Japan — the "empire of signs," as French semiologist Roland Barthes called it back in 1970 — strikes and confounds the foreign visitor with a vast array of alphabets, shapes and designs.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Dec 20, 2010

Small, Murakami offer opinions on MLB, NPB business strategies

Japanese baseball had trouble finding broadcast partners for the 2010 Japan Series between the Chiba Lotte Marines and Chunichi Dragons. That was a perplexing turn of events in a nation where the sport is king.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 19, 2010

Final word on the year's best reading

In making available this account of Japanese who are forgotten, by an author who, in English, is unknown, translator Jeffrey Irish has done us a tremendous service. Anyone interested in how things used to be in rural Japan will want to read ethnologist Tsuneichi Miyamoto's tales of his travels on foot...
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Dec 15, 2010

Social gaming frenzy sees two Godzillas play rough

On Dec. 8, the Tokyo-based Internet company DeNA received an on-site investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) due to suspected unfair trade practices. DeNA had allegedly interfered with their third-party game providers' development of games for DeNA's competitor, Gree.
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Dec 14, 2010

Saito poised to provide boost on, off field for Fighters

Has there ever been a meaningless pitch that could end up being so meaningful?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 14, 2010

Mail-order buyer, be aware

In retrospect, I didn't really need a new baseball cap. But this one, advertised by the publisher of a nationally circulated magazine, had a humorous logo in Japanese that tickled my fancy, making it — like much of the merchandise sold via mail order — a novelty item not sold in stores.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2010

Global goodbye for singer Utada

Pop star Hikaru Utada, one of Japan's best-selling artists of all time, is calling it quits at the end of the year, but not before performing for fans this week in a concert that will be streamed live online.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Dec 7, 2010

MOFA gets E for effort in 'with or without U' farce

My Japanese passport expired last month, meaning I've been a citizen here for a full decade now. Hooray.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 5, 2010

Privacy is losing its very meaning

Words come and words go. Times change, language evolves.
COMMENTARY
Dec 5, 2010

How low will Obama go to appease Israel?

SEATTLE — The Middle East policies of U.S. President Barack Obama may well prove the most detrimental yet, surpassing even the rightwing policies of President George W. Bush.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Nov 30, 2010

Frenchwoman's passions realized with Japanese help

Florence Roca, 45, is a French mother of three married to a fellow countryman who has lived on and off in Japan for 10 years. Aside from family, she has a passion for painting porcelain and making jewelry.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 26, 2010

The 'weird' world of techno's Ishino

"Salarymen are fantastic," says DJ and producer Takkyu Ishino. "If there weren't so many of them doing their thing, then people like me would not be able to exist. If more people acted like me (outside the norm), then I wouldn't have had the life that I've had."
CULTURE / Music
Nov 26, 2010

Accordionist brings his Argentine roots to French musette

Sitting in the same room with Argentine accordionist Raul Barboza, you start to notice that even the way he speaks is musical.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Nov 25, 2010

Showa Women's University President Mariko Bando

Mariko Bando, 64, is the president of Showa Women's University in Tokyo. She is also a best-selling author with more than 30 books under her belt, including "The Dignity of a Woman," which has sold over 3 million copies. An advocate of women's rights, Bando is director of the Japan National Committee...
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Nov 23, 2010

Wada's PL MVP triumph should raise familiar questions

If the selection of Fukuoka Softbank Hawks hurler Tsuyoshi Wada as Pacific League MVP proves anything, it's that there isn't a clear-cut right answer when the it comes to choosing MVPs.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 20, 2010

Loss to France another setback for Capello's England

LONDON — It was a good week for Joe Hart, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 19, 2010

Envy take 'Recitation' out on the road again

Tokyo-based Envy issued their fifth full-length album, "Recitation," in September. To celebrate its release, the quintet embarked on their first North American tour in four years. On this, their longest international trek, the postrock and hardcore hybrid act played 25 shows in the span of a month. ...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 18, 2010

Worlds of Flavor conference adds Japan to its menu

Japan's ailing economy may lack the impact it once had on global finance, but there's one area of influence where the country's significance is on the rise: the world of gastronomy. Earlier this month, a team of 39 top-tier Japanese chefs wowed an international audience with dazzling displays of technique...
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2010

Media bent on derailing ruling DPJ: van Wolferen

The domestic media's penchant for focusing on political power games instead of policies is hampering the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's attempts to govern, veteran correspondent and Japan expert Karel van Wolferen said Tuesday.
COMMUNITY
Nov 13, 2010

Dream becomes reality for Scottish manga creator

It sits in a place of beauty, incongruously bordered between Japanese stone art and a vivid blue ink painting: "2000 A.D.," a classic British comic book from the 1980s. The apocalypse orange cover shrieks "Revenge of the Warlock" but — muted by a plastic overlay to protect its condition — the sci-fi...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 13, 2010

Getting around the soul of Japan

I go to Kyoto once a year. I get lost in Kyoto once a year. Kyoto makes no sense to me. I'm more of a Tokyo girl. Give me a handful of subway lines and trains to navigate and I'm fine. Give me just two and I'm lost.
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 12, 2010

Theater with a hint of human truth

Yumi Suzuki co-founded the Jitensha Kinqureat theater company with friends at Nihon Joshi Daigaku (Japan Women's University) in 1982, and it was not long before the Tokyo troupe gained a prominent reputation and a keen following for its true-to-life plays in colloquial language about the lives of young...
CULTURE / Film
Nov 12, 2010

'Ghost — Mo Ichido Dakishimetai (Ghost: In Your Arms Again)'/'Paranormal Activity Dainisho: Tokyo Night (Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night)'

Hollywood has been remaking Japanese films for decades, but now Hollywood studios — as part of a worldwide strategy to boost box office in overseas markets — are starting to remake their own films for Japan, with Japanese talent.
COMMENTARY
Nov 10, 2010

Revenge, Australian style

Australia at times does some contradictory things in its foreign affairs. It says it seeks a global role, yet it recently dismissed a prime minister, Kevin Rudd, partly because he had been too prominent in seeking a global role. It says it is proud of its role in creating the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 6, 2010

An index finger pointing . . . where?

My wife cannot tell a story.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 5, 2010

Architect's floating future vision

The inexorable rise of Tokyo Sky Tree on the city's skyline has once again raised the question of what a future Tokyo might look like. The exhibition "Sousuke Fujimoto Architects: Future Visions — Forest, Cloud, Mountain" at the Watarium Museum attempts to get people thinking along these lines, while...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 5, 2010

Portrait of the artist's mother as a young woman

Even today, you'd have to go far to run into a radical individual like Leonie Gilmour. But in America in 1901, to meet a young woman like her must have been on par with witnessing a comet.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb