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COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2011

Objective defense of why some things matter

Can moral judgments be true or false? Or is ethics, at bottom, a purely subjective matter, for individuals to choose, or perhaps relative to the culture of the society in which one lives?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 18, 2011

American woman pours self into noh

According to Rebecca Ogamo Teele, an American instructor, performer and mask carver for noh, falling asleep is a perfectly respectable response to attending such plays.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2011

Panel evaluates Tepco assets to assure redress footing

The government launched a panel Thursday to streamline the operations of beleaguered Tokyo Electric Power Co. and evaluate its financial assets as it prepares to pay massive compensation for the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 17, 2011

Tokyo and Yokohama festival celebrates the art of brevity

Short films have traditionally been seen as a director's starting block toward making their first feature. Yet with the art of filmmaking becoming ever cheaper, many have been sidestepping the short-film format, instead heading straight for a low-budget feature film. Yet short films are an art form in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 17, 2011

'127 Hours'

Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," released in 1960, famously terrified audiences to the point where a generation was checking the door locks before taking a shower. Stephen Spielberg's "Jaws," released in the baking summer of 1975, kept many people on the beach and out of the water. Now along comes "127 Hours,"...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 12, 2011

Barber's cutting comment denies others' humanity — and hers, too

It's depressing, I must confess.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2011

Noda emerges as likely Kan successor

With Naoto Kan's days as prime minister apparently numbered, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda emerged Thursday as a key candidate to succeed Kan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 10, 2011

New media keep old media honest

Ssecond of Two Parts
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 10, 2011

'X-Men: First Class'

After watching a movie such as "X-Men: First Class," you really don't want to sit down at some steel gray desk and write about it. Turning aerial somersaults while telepathically transmitting brilliant sentences into your laptop sounds more the thing to do.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 5, 2011

Exquisite designs for better living

TRADITIONAL JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE: An Exploration of Elements and Forms, by Mira Locher. Photography by Ben Simmons. Tuttle Publishing, 2010, 223 pp., $39.95 (hardcover) In Zen Buddhism there is a ceremony called "The Transmission." The ritual, both mystic and arcane, is little known in lay circles....
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2011

Japan's costly lesson in risk management

The basic principle of financial risk management is sharing. The more broadly diversified our financial portfolios, the more people there are who share in the inevitable risks — and the less an individual is affected by any given risk. The theoretical ideal occurs when financial contracts spread the...
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2011

Tepco debt swaps facing 53% chance of defaulting

The cost of protecting Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s debt shows the likelihood of a default increased to 53 percent after the utility's credit rating was cut to junk status by Standard & Poor's.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 2, 2011

Chasing dreams in gold and silver

You've probably heard of Japan's quaint custom of designating some people as Living National Treasures. Usually it's applied to exponents of a traditional art, craft or performing art in their twilight years. Luckily, nobody has ever come up with the idea of "stealing" these national treasures. While...
COMMENTARY
May 31, 2011

Business bent deflates the sails of India's left

A common joke used to make the rounds in Kolkata, where I grew up and found my footing in journalism. The joke was that West Bengal, whose capital city is Kolkata, was more Marxist than China — this in the heyday of communism. While China retained its Marxist model of governance, it was shrewd enough...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
May 29, 2011

A garden pictogram lives on

Japanese gardens are often associated with temples, feudal estates or castles. Genkyu-en in Shiga Prefecture is certainly no exception, sited as it is adjoining a detached palace in the grounds of Hikone Castle, one of only a handful of the nation's feudal fortresses to have survived in its original...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 26, 2011

Will the 'morning-after pill' make gynecologists obsolete?

The morning-after pill is finally available to Japanese women.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 26, 2011

Gellers find a new balance with 'Guatemala'

The story behind Gellers seems like the stuff of made-for-TV movies. A bunch of kids meet one another on the outskirts of the city, and eventually form a band. They stick together and, despite a few setbacks, release an album and tour the country as adults. There are no scripts to be found here, though....
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 23, 2011

Phoenix claim second straight title

The beast of the East proved once again it is the bj-league's best team.
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
May 23, 2011

Opposites attract in these kanji compound words

Some Japanese words are written with a single kanji, but countless others are compounds comprised of two (the majority), three, or more kanji. These compound words (jukugo) are not composed randomly; a limited number of patterns govern their construction, and today we will explore one of these: two-kanji...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 22, 2011

Extreme nationalism may emerge from the rubble of the quake

Destruction, when massive but not total, engenders rebirth, or reinvention, or both. Japan after World War II is a prime example, a model from which Japan in the wake of March's earthquake-tsunami-meltdown is sure to draw inspiration.
SOCCER / J. League
May 21, 2011

Kashima's Iwamasa trying to make the best of a difficult situation

The effects of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami have reached into every corner of Japanese soccer, but Kashima Antlers defender Daiki Iwamasa is determined not to let them smother his team's title challenge this season.
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2011

Democracy's dawn in Middle East?

With protests fading in Tunis and seeming to have peaked in Cairo, it is time to ask whether Tunisia and Egypt will complete democratic transitions.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2011

Bin Laden bled U.S. of a cool trillion

Osama bin Laden must be laughing from his watery grave. In announcing a new policy of "bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy," he mockingly declared in a 2004 video that "It is easy for us to provoke and bait. ... All that we have to do is to send two mujaheddin ... to raise a raise a piece of...
EDITORIALS
May 15, 2011

Japan's rich heritage

At long last, Japan received a bit of bright news May 7, when it was announced that two sites in Japan, the historic Hiraizumi area in Iwate Prefecture and the Ogasawara Islands some 1,000 km south of Tokyo, were almost certain to be designated as World Heritage Sites at meetings next month of the UNESCO...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 14, 2011

Life as an ambassador

"An American yacht has come into the port. They don't speak any Japanese. Come help."
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
May 9, 2011

Standridge keeps Ala. citizens close to heart

Trussville, Ala., is a typical southern U.S. city. Spread out along the Cahaba River with scenic streets lined by trees that help form a picturesque escape in the northern half of the state.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 9, 2011

A further understanding of how money talks

In my previous column on the subject of 金 (kin or kane), alternatively meaning money, gold or metal, I realized that I'd barely scratched the surface of this vast subject. What forms does money take? How is it handled? Or, for that matter, how is it mishandled?
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2011

Mental care for children

Many schools in areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami have started the new school year. Some schools, though, have no choice except to begin classes in early May because school buildings were damaged or were being used as temporary shelters for disaster survivors.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 2, 2011

Lakestars oust Hannaryz to make West semifinals

Playoff basketball brings out the best intensity among fierce competitors. Just ask anyone who wore a Shiga Lakestars or Kyoto Hannaryz uniform on Sunday, or loyal supporters who screamed their lungs out for either team.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.