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Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 25, 2009

Cuts fear clouds a year of diversity and innovation in Japan theater

Following the landmark change of government in August, meetings of its Budget Screening Committee have for the first time been opened to the public. Sadly, though, when that committee got round to arts financing in November, many members harshly criticized the amount awarded to the public theater sector....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 25, 2009

' The Young Victoria'

"The Young Victoria" may be about a queen who lived some two centuries ago, but the film displays a very modern sense of schadenfreude. Whether it's Britney or Michael, Tiger or Amy, the only thing we love more than ogling the celebrity lifestyle is evidence that they are more messed-up and dysfunctional...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 13, 2009

Tragedy exposes need to care more for carers' mental well-being

Shortly after 1 p.m. on April 21, 2009, a worker at Fuji Reien cemetery in Gotenba City, Shizuoka Prefecture, discovered the body of a woman on its grounds. Nearby, a semi-conscious elderly lady sat shivering in a wheelchair.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 13, 2009

How to survive a 'fearful age'?

The other day I attended a preview screening of "The Road," the new film of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic 2006 novel of the same name.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Dec 8, 2009

Vietnamese physicist thrives in Japan

Nguyen Dinh Dang didn't choose Japan so much as Japan chose him. The Soviet-trained Vietnamese nuclear physicist and painter first came to live here in 1995 at the invitation of Riken, a semigovernmental science and technology research institute.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 28, 2009

Five is a beehive in this country

"Two's company, three's a crowd and four is a party."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 27, 2009

The Italian art of making wine and painting

Imagine the colors of a vast Tuscan vineyard drenched in a September sun — emerald green leaves, gnarled brown vines, deep purple grapes, shale earth, azure sky — an artist's inspiration for both palette and palate. For renowned Italian artist Sandro Chia, 63, these Tuscan colors, soaked into the...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 22, 2009

Beyond Copenhagen there's more than just cutting CO2

Imagine for a minute that global warming is not changing our planet's biosphere and the ecosystems that sustain life on Earth.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2009

Globalization: a culture killer

SEATTLE — A Muslim family sits across from me in a cafe, in a largely Muslim Asian country. An older woman shyly hunches over, desperately trying to avoid eye contact with the giant-screen TV blazing loud music on MTV. The scantily dressed presenter introduces her "top song" for the week. Beyonce,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 20, 2009

'Tsumuji Kaze Shokudo no Yoru'

Take a quaint European-looking restaurant in a quiet Hokkaido town in the dead of winter. Add quirky regulars who are treated to nightly disquisitions, philosophical and otherwise, by the avuncular owner of a local hat shop. Toss in scrumptious- looking "set menus" of steaks, croquettes and other Western-...
Japan Times
Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR
Nov 19, 2009

Demons still haunt Christian soldier

26th in a series
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2009

Invading jellyfish put hurt on fishermen, swimmers

ECHIZEN, Fukui Pref. — A blood-orange blob the size of a small refrigerator emerged from the dark waters, its venomous tentacles trapped in a fishing net. Within minutes, hundreds more were being hauled up, a pulsating mass crowding out the catch of mackerel and sea bass.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 13, 2009

No longer going straight to video

In addition to exhibition and workshop components, the recently opened International Festival for Arts and Media Yokohama 2009 (also known as CREAM) features a monthlong screening program of international feature-length and short films as well as prize-winning submissions to the CREAM Competition, which...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 6, 2009

'The September Issue'

Meryl Streep's dragon-lady fashion-mag editor in "The Devil Wears Prada" was widely assumed to be based on real-life Vogue editor in chief, Anna Wintour. Known by some in the industry as "Nuclear Wintour" for her frosty and regal attitude toward the peons (and peers) around her, Wintour has earned respect...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 6, 2009

Cultivating a way for egoless art

Perhaps the strangest experience I've had at an exhibition this year was being led into a small room by a polite museum attendant, shown to a desk with a sheet of paper and some colored pencils, and being asked to draw — just as soon as the lights were switched off!
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 3, 2009

Marriage ever-changing institution

Marriage may be an institution, but it's permutations have run the gamut from polygamy, a practice that dates to ancient times but is still allowed in certain areas, to the recent legalization in some places of same-sex partnerships, with everything in between.
JAPAN / Media
Nov 1, 2009

It's big or bust in eyes of Japanese cinema

Now in its sixth year, the Japanese Eyes section of the Tokyo International Film Festival, has evolved from its beginnings as a showcase for the middle range of Japanese films — that is, ones not readily classifiable as hardcore indie or commercial mainstream, though made, in some cases, by well-known...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 25, 2009

'Mao's Last Dancer' inspires with his leaps and honest grounding

I was down in Sydney a few weeks ago and managed to catch the world premiere of Australian director Bruce Beresford's film, "Mao's Last Dancer." It is a beautiful story, beautifully told, in a film that combines the personal and the epic in an era of traumatic change for China.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 16, 2009

'Becoming Jane'

"Becoming Jane" catches Anne Hathaway at a dip in her career — in the valley terrain where the "Get Smart" series stands like midrate hotels in a remote holiday resort, situated between the high-profile "The Devil Wears Prada" and the deceptively low-rent, indie-sheen of "Rachel Getting Married." She's...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 11, 2009

Looking at the origin of bird's nest soup, the dearth of OB-GYNs and Yamazaki's 'Fumo Chitai'

Have you ever wondered about the origins of the things that surround you in your everyday life? Where did they come from and how did they get here? Those questions are answered on the new variety show "Za Gyakuryu Risaachaazu" (The Reverse-Flow Researchers; TV Tokyo, Mon., 8 p.m.).
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 11, 2009

Japan's No. 1 playboy hardly a lady- killer

Talk-show host David Letterman obviously did the right thing when during a recent monologue he confessed to having had sex with some of his female staff. He made the admission to pre-empt news that he had been blackmailed for his indiscretions, but whatever the revelation said about Letterman's lack...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Sep 29, 2009

The man who delivered pizza to Japan

Earnest Higa's life is all about being bicultural in Japan and the United States. He has used this aspect of his character in his career, spending the past 24 years making sure U.S.-based Domino Pizza fits in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2009

Grayer population

In its Respect for the Aged Day (Sep. 21) report, the internal affairs ministry made public its information about the population n Japan. As of Sept. 15, Japan's population stood at 127.56 million, down 120,000 from a year before. People aged 65 or over numbered 28.98 million (12.39 million men and 16.59...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2009

Making sure nothing is lost in translation

"The Coast of Utopia" a 10-hour-long trilogy of plays — comprising "Voyage," "Shipwreck" and "Salvage" — was originally written in 2002 by Tom Stoppard for the National Theatre in London. An award-winning English playwright, Stoppard first shot to fame with "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead"...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2009

JRP grads bridge cultures

A group of young foreigners who visited Japan as part of a study program and mastered the language announced their favorite Japanese words Tuesday to an admiring domestic crowd.

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