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CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2009

'Quantum of Solace'/'Elegy'

As a teen, I spent some time involved in youth theater, and auditions weren't always the most pleasant experience. I was a skinny youth, and one director — deciding to mess with me — requested that I act, in open audition, as if I were the strongest man in the world. I thought about that for a moment...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2009

'Quantum of Solace'/'Elegy'

As a teen, I spent some time involved in youth theater, and auditions weren't always the most pleasant experience. I was a skinny youth, and one director — deciding to mess with me — requested that I act, in open audition, as if I were the strongest man in the world. I thought about that for a moment...
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2009

Japan aims to be seated when Obama resets diplomatic table

Barack Obama's inauguration as the 44th U.S. president may have gotten a new era for Tokyo and Washington under way, but the Japanese government is unlikely to be given the luxury of taking the relationship slow and easy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 20, 2009

Breaking the silence on burakumin

For those who don't know — and you would be forgiven considering the lack of coverage the issue receives — a buraku is the term used to describe an area where some, but not all, of the residents have ancestral ties to the people placed at the bottom of feudal society in the Edo Period. These people...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 18, 2009

Dialing up the decider one last time before he leaves the Oval Office

With only days left in office for the 43rd president of the United States of America, George W. Bush, I decided, on a lark — or a duck, if you will — to Skype the soon to be ex-commander in chief to find out what preoccupies his thoughts as he bids us a solemn farewell. I want to share this very...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2009

'Zen'

I was one of those hippies who got into things Japanese via Zen back in the 1970s. I spent two years practicing zazen in Michigan and I had a first-row seat when Alan Watts — that early explainer of Zen to the West — spoke on campus. I even taped a photo of Shunryu Suzuki, the author of "Zen Mind,...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 16, 2009

School's out

Matilda isn't waltzing. She's sprinting toward me outside Shinsaibashi Station in Osaka with the speed of a Jamaican Olympian chewing cheetah gonads. A meter from me she screams "Simon!" and takes a flying leap, so I instinctively reach out and I'm holding this tiny 18-year-old in my arms like she's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 16, 2009

School's out

Matilda isn't waltzing. She's sprinting toward me outside Shinsaibashi Station in Osaka with the speed of a Jamaican Olympian chewing cheetah gonads. A meter from me she screams "Simon!" and takes a flying leap, so I instinctively reach out and I'm holding this tiny 18-year-old in my arms like she's...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2009

Step up nonproliferation efforts

Every year, Japan submits a resolution on nuclear disarmament to the United Nations General Assembly. This year was no different; the 15th such resolution was submitted in October. As the only country in the world against which nuclear weapons have been used, Japan understands the horror and devastation...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 13, 2009

Graduate job search in full swing, despite recession

Each year, the cherry blossoms of April are accompanied by the nervous march of over 400,000 fresh-faced graduates on their way to their new jobs.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Jan 11, 2009

Offseason moves give BayStars hope for 2009

For a team that couldn't do anything right during the season, things sure seem to be going well for the Yokohama BayStars this offseason.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 4, 2009

Cars no longer coveted by young

To get around the city, Yutaka Makino hops on his skateboard or takes the trains. Does he dream of the day when he owns his own car? Not a chance.
COMMENTARY
Jan 3, 2009

China key to U.S. foreign policy success

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, asked about his foreign policy priorities when named Person of the Year by Time magazine, listed nuclear proliferation, climate change and global poverty as well as Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, the trans-Atlantic alliance, Russia, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — and...
SOCCER / World cup
Jan 1, 2009

'Not everything goes right'

On Nov. 19 in Doha, in its final match of the year, the Japan national team turned in one of its best performances of 2008 to beat Qatar 3-0 and consolidate second place in World Cup final Asian qualifying Group 1.
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2009

Aso set to lead LDP's last stand?

In 2007 it was Shinzo Abe. In 2008 it was Yasuo Fukuda and in 2009 it is Taro Aso.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 31, 2008

Japan's science in '08

In Chinese astrology, rats are said to hunger for power and to be unpredictable, and in 2008 — a Year of the Rat — both those characteristics were clearly in evidence. What with the financial crisis that is changing the established order of things, and the food and fuel crises that have sent shock...
COMMENTARY
Dec 30, 2008

No sign of a 'peace agreement'

More than six months have passed since the presidential election in Taiwan. After a hiatus of eight years, the Kuomintang is in power. This actually represents the restoration of the mainland-lineage forces for the first time in 20 years — if you count the Lee Teng-hui era as rule by non-mainland-lineage...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Dec 29, 2008

Suppressing more than free speech

I recently read a book that, a decade ago, created a controversy in Japan about homosexuality. In it the prize-winning writer Jiro Fukushima described his sexual relationship with Yukio Mishima dating from 1951.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Dec 28, 2008

ONE for ALL

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 28, 2008

The swift strokes of 'no-brush' calligraphy

KEN-ZEN-SHO: Zen Calligraphy and Painting of Yamaoka Tesshu, with a foreword by Rupert Faulkner, introductions by Sarah Moate and Alex Bennett, an essay by Terayama Tanchu and an afterword by Takemura Eiji. Bunkashi International (Kendo World Publications), 2008, 200 pp., 33 color plates, 67 b/w pictures,...
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2008

Fuji Heavy widens output cut plan

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., maker of Subaru cars, said it will expand domestic production cuts in February and March as the global economic downturn cools auto demand.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 23, 2008

What's the best Christmas present you've ever given?

Midori Tsunekawa HousewifeI made a scarf for my husband 35 years ago. It took a while to knit, but it turned out really well. It's now my daughter's favorite winter item. She loves it.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WEEK 3
Dec 21, 2008

Mums team up to make Holland a happy home far away from home

AMSTERDAM — No friends or acquaintances, cold winters, a hard-to-learn language and the depression that comes with all that.
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2008

Chinese reporters push bad-news envelope

HONG KONG — Strange things are happening in the Chinese media. Articles that would normally be expected to be censored have appeared in the establishment press, exposing the possibly illegal behavior of Communist Party officials.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 17, 2008

D'Antoni proud of time with Suns despite team's failure to win a title

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Mike D'Antoni openly admitted Monday night's return to Phoenix, his home for six seasons, is a "big deal" to him.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 16, 2008

MLB salaries surviving downturn

It may be strictly coincidental, but that doesn't make it any less interesting. About the same time the New York Mets were spending millions on the closer they so desperately need this week, the owner of the team was facing possible losses of millions of his own as the victim of a fraud scheme even more...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 11, 2008

Was that the sound of the China art bubble bursting?

As quickly as it appeared, the Chinese contemporary art boom ended last week in Hong Kong.
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 7, 2008

Antlers repeat as champs

Defending champions Kashima Antlers held their nerve to clinch the 2008 J. League title with a 1-0 win over Consadole Sapporo on Saturday.

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