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Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 29, 2010

Anyone for tennis?

If you've ever had a tennis lesson, your coach likely told you to block, rather than swing at your volleys. That knowledge makes it all the more thrilling to watch someone like the athletic 16-year-old Sanae Ota rush in from the back of the court, leap up to a high, floating ball — before it bounces...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 27, 2010

Orchestra taps dancer Kumagai for cross-genre concert

Thirty-three-year-old Kazunori Kumagai started tap dancing when he was 15. Four years later, he went by himself to New York to attend special training for a role in "Noise/Funk," a Broadway show that traced black history in the United States through tap, hip-hop and funk rhythms. His Broadway dream was...
LIFE / Digital
Aug 25, 2010

Twitter delivers creative way for ad agencies to play

While Twitter itself is still struggling to find a profitable business plan, Japanese ad agencies have quickly embraced the micro-blogging service to create innovative campaigns.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 22, 2010

Of forests and floods

Last week I enjoyed the sublime luxury of watching a sunrise from the middle of a lake in Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, Maine.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2010

Mikimoto clues kids in on pearl cultivation

MISAKI, Kanagawa Pref. — It was a long way from the high-class jewelry showrooms of Paris, London or Tokyo's Ginza, but on Thursday at Misaki, on the windswept tip of Kanagawa Prefecture's Miura Peninsula, 20 elementary school children were treated to a rare, hands-on look at pearls and how they form....
COMMENTARY
Aug 11, 2010

Can Japan's politics change people's despair to hope?

The outcome of the July 11 Upper House election symbolized voters' distrust of national politics in Japan. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan led by Prime Minister Naoto Kan took only 44 of the 121 contested seats against its pre-election share of 54 seats due for contention and the DPJ-led coalition...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2010

A lesson in global civics

ISTANBUL — The reality of the world's epic interdependence is well known. We have seen how financial engineering in the United States can determine economic growth in every part of the world; how carbon-dioxide emissions from China end up influencing crop yields and livelihoods in Vietnam, Bangladesh,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 6, 2010

Corgan hails Summer Sonic's '90s vibe

"The positive reaction to what we're doing right now musically and the emotion coming off the stage has just lit a fire back up," says Billy Corgan — guitarist, vocalist and sole remaining original member of alternative titans The Smashing Pumpkins. "I haven't seen a reaction to the band like this...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Japan Pulse
Jul 27, 2010

Hot drugstore finds for quick cool-downs

They call it 'moushobi': an extremely hot day. Japanese have always had ways beat the heat but drugstores now offer an array of quick cool-downs.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jul 23, 2010

Players spread gospel in summertime

Players hone their skills on basketball courts near and far in summer months. They also lend a helping hand to youngsters who are learning the game.
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 2010

U.K. eyes welfare reform

The cost of providing welfare benefits in Britain has risen by 45 percent in a decade and could rise from £87 billion annually to £192 billion by 2015. These costs are a major element in the national budget.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 16, 2010

Sexual empowerment with a large dose of Grey matter

Sasha Grey is not the sort of movie star you normally see discussed in these pages. With a resume that includes "Oral Supremacy" and "Sex Toy Teens," Grey has risen to become one of the top porn stars in the United States, appearing in more than 180 films in a three-year period starting when she was...
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Jul 12, 2010

Kan now faces gridlock, internal revolt

Voters handed a painful loss to the ruling Democratic Party of Japan on Sunday, with all signs indicating that more political instability — and even an internal revolt — could be in store for Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 9, 2010

DJ Towa Tei "Motivation H"

"Motivation H" compiled by DJ Towa Tei is the latest addition to this local DJ's long, international career in dance music. This CD is the eighth in his Motivation series — this one coinciding with the swanky Hotel H parties he began last summer at Fai Aoyama in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 4, 2010

Japanese betray some blinkered views of their foreign coworkers

On June 6, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper ran a feature on Japanese people's attitudes to non-Japanese colleagues at their places of work. The article included the results of a survey that explored those attitudes.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2010

Self-defeating equivocation on democracy

MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insists that "without normal democratic development, Russia will have no future." We Russians are pleased to hear these enlightened words, yet Putin adds a "but" to his argument that renders his points senseless.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2010

Experts find tax pledge wanting

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has begun to advocate raising the consumption tax to 10 percent, attacking the political hot potato head-on.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 22, 2010

BBC World Service's vices

HONG KONG — If there is one global voice that has a deserved reputation for truth, honesty, fairness, awareness, understanding and balance, it is the BBC, as almost everyone knows the British Broadcasting Corp., and its World Service radio programs.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 20, 2010

Pulp fiction raunch with a happy ending

Yoshihiro Tatsumi was, when young, a fan of Mickey Spillane, the poor man's — the very poor man's — Raymond Chandler, and Spillane's fingerprints are all over "Black Blizzard," a page-turner in the best pulp style, published in 1956.
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jun 19, 2010

Aichi industry groups unsure which way to vote

Vote-gathering moves by industry groups are likely to draw much attention in the July House of Councilors election as it is widely said "gaining the organizational support is the key" to winning the vote.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 19, 2010

White gets nod as bj-league's best

Second in a two-part series
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 18, 2010

'Outrage'

Takeshi Kitano went to the Cannes Film Festival this year hoping to snag the big prize that had so far eluded him: the Palme d'Or. He left with little more than a stack of negative reviews from the international media for his competition entry, "Outrage." One panel of critics, for the trade magazine...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 18, 2010

'Paris-Kyoto': Two very different cities, one vibrant vision

Color photography, once thought of as the crass, poor cousin of the more aesthetically pleasing monochrome, is now firmly established as a valid art form. We have William Eggleston and his vivid images of rural America to thank for that.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2010

Large-scale agriculture won't cure hunger

BRUSSELS — The World Bank, U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and U.N. Conference on Trade and Development Secretariat recently presented seven "Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment."
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jun 14, 2010

South Koreans show split over what sank their ship

Despite the confident and harsh manner in which President Lee Myung Bak condemned North Korea for attacking and sinking a South Korean naval vessel, his country is deeply split between the conservative anti-Pyongyang forces and the opposition forces favoring promotion of closer ties with the North.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Jun 5, 2010

Kan needs to balance U.S. ties, China's clout

The new administration Prime Minister Naoto Kan will form next week won't have much time to act when it comes to foreign affairs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 4, 2010

Brothers brought together by differences

Takejiro Inagaki was a nihonga (Japanese style) painter who later turned to crafting gold and lacquer wares. These artistic skills were shared by two of his sons, whose bodies of work are the subject of "The Inagaki Brothers: Chusei and Toshijiro" at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2010

Thai 'multiparty' turmoil not lost on China's rulers

BEIJING — Whatever the effects of political turmoil in Thailand, they have not helped the cause of democracy in China. The images of prodemocracy protesters and the subsequent military crackdown in downtown Bangkok have been openly shown in Chinese media without any apparent bias. Indeed, there is...
BASEBALL / MLB
May 26, 2010

Veteran star Hunter impressed by Matsui's influence on Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The impact of "Godzilla" cannot be measured just by his contributions during the course of a game, but in the totality of things he does — both on the field and in the clubhouse.

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.