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EDITORIALS
Jan 3, 2010

Looking ahead with hope

We did not see the back of 2009 soon enough. In fact, it will be good to be done with the entire first decade of this century. "Double Aught" is more revealing than it might seem. Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman opines that the last 10 years should be called "the...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 3, 2010

SMAP day on Fuji TV, interesting money facts and Yukie Nakama's exploration of Okinawa

There are rumors that "SMAP × SMAP," the long-running variety show featuring Japan's most enduring boy band, will be ending sometime this year as its members increasingly follow individual paths. Moday is SMAP Day over at Fuji TV, which will be airing the group's 1994 theatrical film "Shoot" at 3 p.m....
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 1, 2010

Making Takeno starter keyed Niigata's charge

Niigata Albirex BB point guard Makoto Hasegawa, the league's second-oldest player, began the season in the starting lineup.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Japan Pulse
Dec 29, 2009

Trends in Japan 2009: changing gender roles

In 2009, traditional gender roles were tweaked slightly in Japan by herbivorous males and carnivorous females.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Dec 29, 2009

From two worlds apart they found one

American Leza Lowitz was ready to leave Japan when she met her future husband, Shogo Oketani, at a Yokohama jazz club.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 26, 2009

Be wild in the Year of the Tigress

The Year of the Tiger won't be as black and white as 2009, the Year of the Cow. But with the Tiger leading, it may be a year that promises more golf, sex and misadventure, which you have to admit, is something.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 26, 2009

Takahashi leads at nationals

OSAKA — Daisuke Takahashi finished first in the short program at the Japan National Figure Skating Championships on Friday, moving a step closer to earning a spot for the Vancouver Olympics.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 26, 2009

Be wild in the Year of the Tigress

The Year of the Tiger won't be as black and white as 2009, the Year of the Cow. But with the Tiger leading, it may be a year that promises more golf, sex and misadventure, which you have to admit, is something.
COMMUNITY
Dec 19, 2009

Group mentality — dressing to belong?

Japan's group mentality stumbles with frequent kicks from the Western mind.
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2009

LDP bedfellows out; no biz as usual

Takeshi Miyamoto is a man on a mission, but things haven't been going his way.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 11, 2009

To the cosmos and then back down to Earth

Artist Chris Bucklow has been many things: a writer, a curator and, just as relevantly, an amateur astronomer. A trip to Botswana to view Halley's comet was the impetus to finally leave London's Victoria and Albert Museum, where he had worked for 10 years, and take up art fulltime. The now 52-year-old...
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2009

Hong Kong looks to Japan's automated tombs

Hong Kong, one of the world's most densely populated areas, is looking to Japan for a solution to a perennial issue — what to do with the dead.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 8, 2009

Can Tatsuya Ichihashi get a fair trial under the new lay-judge system?

CULTURE / Film
Dec 4, 2009

Delivering a touch of Miyazaki, shot of 'Oz'

Bob Petersen, like so many of Pixar's talents, comes across like everyone's favorite uncle.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 4, 2009

Mario i Sentieri: A personal touch from super Mario

You're booking a table for a nice night out, so which is it to be: punctilious precision in a bubble of privileged privacy; or something a bit warmer and jazzier, with a personal touch, plenty of atmosphere and a hint of glamour?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 4, 2009

U.K. 'samurai' lands in Japan

When U.S. President Barack Obama bowed to the Emperor during his visit to Japan last month, the headline of The Japan Times read: "U.S. conservatives: Obama bowed too deeply to Emperor." While some Americans accused the U.S. commander in chief of "groveling to a foreign leader," however, the Japanese...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 29, 2009

Mystery lure of woodland lords

When Hideyuki Yoshizawa goes into the woods, he doesn't wear the usual silver bells meant to scare off bears. He's given up smoking, too, to eliminate that tell-tale human smell. That's because he wants more than anything else to meet a bear in the forest.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Nov 28, 2009

Even pawnshops got it rough

You'd think that pawn shops would be one of the business capitalizing on the recession, but that's not exactly the case.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 27, 2009

'8 Days' that shook Japan's art world

In the chronologies you find appended to Japanese art books, it looks something like this: Title: "Joseph Beuys Exhibition"; Dates: June 2 — July 2, 1984; Venue: Seibu Art Museum, Tokyo
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Nov 26, 2009

Cable guy Yasushi Sano

Yasushi Sano, 30, is a "cable guy" living and working in Tokyo. By his estimates, over the past six years, he has installed cable TV into about fives homes a day, averaging 25 hook-ups a week, 100 a month and 1,200 a year, bringing quality entertainment into a total of 7,200 households. Sano's passion...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Nov 25, 2009

U.S. online strategy holds clues for Tokyo

Imagine befriending Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Facebook. Or getting "tweets" from Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Twitter. It could happen if Tokyo follows Washington's lead.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2009

Couple's love story started in Africa

good faith. What language do you use to communicate with each other and your children?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 21, 2009

American bar, ski lodge owner puts the emphasis on fun

"The first question people ask when you say you're in the bar business in Japan is whether you have to pay money to the yakuza," says Matt Naiman, owner of several bars around Japan and a ski resort.
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,...
LIFE / Digital
Nov 18, 2009

Nature's fears extend to online behavior

It's hard work being prey. Watch the birds at a feeder. They're constantly on alert, and will fly away from food — from easy nutrition — at the slightest movement or sound. Given that I've never, ever seen a bird plucked from a feeder by a predator, it seems like a whole lot of wasted effort against...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 18, 2009

Let's kensaku — searching the Web in Japanese

Has this ever happened to you? A friend in another country e-mails a plea for help in finding information in Japanese due to their encountering any one of several obstacles. For instance, the operating system or software on the computer they are using might not be able to input Japanese or read it. Or...
Reader Mail
Nov 15, 2009

The political caste is the problem

Although I am a non-churchgoing Westerner, I am still at a loss as to how to respond to slurs — like that delivered by ruling Democratic Party of Japan secretary general Ichiro Ozawa — that Christianity is "exclusive and self-righteous" and that Western society is "stuck in a dead end."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 13, 2009

Tarantino returns to grind up Nazis

HOLLYWOOD — Quentin Tarantino is back, making another much-publicized and controversial splash similar to (but with more sociological implications) his one-two punch with "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" in 2003 and "Vol. 2" a year later.

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