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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.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 8, 2009

Eco-tourism the camel-dive way

It's 4 a.m. and I wake up on a beach on the Sinai Peninsula of eastern Egypt. The moon has set and the mountains of Saudi Arabia just 18 km away across the Gulf of Aqaba are silhouetted against the stars. The camel I rode here is sleeping nearby, and it is still so warm even in late October that a single...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 7, 2009

Kamei takes heart from home run

Yoshiyuki Kamei trotted into the interview space with an ecstatic expression on his face, as if he still couldn't believe what had happened moments before.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 7, 2009

Japanese — a language of tall tales

At times, Japan seems to be an alarmist country. Topics like immigration, terrorism, and the latest strain of influenza can be blown out of proportion and reactions can appear over the top. But is it any wonder when you consider the Japanese language?
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
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 5, 2009

Ogasawara busts out but keeps poker face

Watching Game 3 of the Japan Series must have been a bitter pill to swallow for Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters fans.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Oct 31, 2009

Frenchman finds ideal in temple's 'better half'

Anthony Deville always dreamed of marrying an Asian woman.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 31, 2009

Keane facing uphill battle with Ipswich Town

LONDON — Last April Ipswich Town sacked manager Jim Magilton and brought in Roy Keane for the last two games of the season. Ipswich's new owner Marcus Evans, who likes publicity as much as Superman enjoys kryptonite, wanted a big name. Instead, Ipswich is in a big mess.
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2009

Feudal warlords' noblesse oblige model for today's execs: novelist

Japan's top corporate executives can glean many useful ideas and hints from feudal warlords on how to manage their teams and find and foster able successors, according to Masashi Hisaka, a noted historical novelist.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 30, 2009

Grouses get off to fast start after years of frustration

Triple overtime wins give a team a healthy dose of confidence — and plenty of exhaustion, too.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 30, 2009

Rockers turn it up to 11

Metallica. Slayer. Anthrax. The Scorpions. Even a casual fan of rock music knows that these names make up the pantheon of modern heavy metal, the bands that rose to the top and never looked back when metal swept away all before it in the 1980s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2009

Beneath a city of chaos lies a dark psychological realm

At times, Tokyoites appear to be some of the most poker-faced people on the planet. But what exactly is going on behind those apparently emotionless expressions? The art of Mikiko Kumazawa suggests maybe quite a lot.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 30, 2009

m-flo's Verbal spreads the love

"It's like a meteorite flow" says Verbal of his group's name. "I spelled it 'mediarite' because I thought we would hit with a big impact in the media and surprise the unsuspecting masses with some good music. I think it worked better than I anticipated."
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 28, 2009

Be careful not to bend your gender in Japanese

One of the biggest omissions in Japanese textbooks, classes and one-on-one lessons is gendered language. Ignore it and at some point you will wind up sounding like a little Japanese girl — or a guy — when you didn't intend too.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 28, 2009

Be careful not to bend your gender in Japanese

One of the biggest omissions in Japanese textbooks, classes and one-on-one lessons is gendered language. Ignore it and at some point you will wind up sounding like a little Japanese girl — or a guy — when you didn't intend too.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Oct 26, 2009

Warped triangles show global economy being pulled toward ruin

I have triangles on the mind lately. I used to think that economic activity was a triangle with growth, competition and distribution making up its three sides. The perfect triangle is equilateral. That is to say, its three sides are identical in length.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 18, 2009

Classic tales of newsprint noir

While a senior at Tokyo's Sophia University, 23-year-old Missouri native Jake Adelstein was heading home from a Shinjuku cinema when, on a whim, he dropped into a game arcade and popped u00a5100 into the slot of a fortunetelling robot for some mystical career advice.

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