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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 18, 2011

Tokyo: What are your tips for making the most out of life in Tokyo as a foreign resident?

Jonathan Gaspar
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / WEEK 3
Jan 16, 2011

Living in a house of longevity

When New York-based artist Shusaku Arakawa died in May 2010 at the age of 73, it caused a sensation — not only because of his influence on many creators, scientists and philosophers, but also because of the gaping contradiction his passing left behind.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 14, 2011

Blackwell takes stock of sweep by Phoenix

How a team responds after a key series can be a defining moment in a season.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 14, 2011

Following Monet to the country

The charm of Impressionism was that it allowed a great deal of artistic freedom and expressiveness without losing touch with realism. A good Impressionist painting allows us to recognize a scene, while encouraging us to see it in new ways. This quality of blending the real with something more ethereal...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jan 12, 2011

Kobe Bryant speaks out about his condition, Lakers

NEW YORK — Kobe Bryant "does phone interviews about as often as Osama bin Laden strolls through Central Park," John Black, Lakers VP of public relations, responded by e-mail to my request for an interview. "But I will ask him if he wants to call you."
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 11, 2011

Wall between rust and creativity in Chile

SANTIAGO — Chile celebrated 200 years of independence in 2010. Only 20 of the 198 countries on Earth have reached that age. Therefore, it has been, for Chileans, a time of assessment and of asking ourselves a very simple, yet profound, question: Have we done things right or wrong?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jan 9, 2011

The narrow roads of Senju

In the frantic yearend season known as shiwasu (lit. "teachers running"), when even dignified people grow harried, a friend invited me to play hooky from the madness and take a ramble together around her Tokyo neighborhood. Since the gift of time together is a great one, I hopped the next train to Senju...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 7, 2011

Youth movement underway on bj-league sidelines

The bj-league's youth movement — essentially a cost-cutting measure for a league struggling to make money — brought in several new coaches for the 2010-11 season.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 7, 2011

'The Social Network'

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year in December and his upfront portrait photo on the cover echoed the upfront portrait photo of the "Social Network" movie poster. Though both show well-groomed guys in their 20s, there's something a bit creepy about the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jan 4, 2011

Arudou's Alien Almanac: 2010

No. 5: Renho joins Kan's Cabinet Japanese politicians with international roots are few but not unprecedented. But Taiwanese- Japanese Diet member Renho's ascension to the Cabinet as minister for administrative reforms has been historic. Requiring the bureaucrats to justify their budgets (famously asking...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 1, 2011

Wheelchair pioneer out to change public perceptions

"You can't keep a good man down" is the darkly applicable phrase that springs to mind when listening to Yasuhiro "Mark" Yamazaki. The energy, conviction, sense of mission and utter absence of self-pity in this soft-spoken man is humbling.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2010

If U.S., China would listen

NEW YORK — In 2010, economic conflict between the United States and China became one of the most worrying global developments. The U.S. pressed China to revalue the renminbi, while China blamed the U.S. Federal Reserve policy of "quantitative easing" for currency market turmoil. The two sides are talking...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 30, 2010

Mad knitters take to Tokyo's streets

This November, people strolling through a park in Ebisu, Tokyo, were baffled: Several benches there had been covered with colorful knitwear, many wildly curling around the wooden poles of backrests and armrests. Next to the benches, more wondrous knitted entities were hanging from the branches of a tree....
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.

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