Search - long form

 
 
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Jun 24, 2008

Mag racks, Issey Miyake watches and a tidy little cellphone buddy

Label of love With pretty much anything now just a quick printout away, is there really still a place in the office or at home for the humble label writer? Looking at the Tepra Pro label writer from King Jim — a company mostly known for its colorful binders and filing systems — it becomes apparent...
COMMENTARY
Jun 21, 2008

Security versus freedom

How to maintain a fair balance between national and individual security and traditional freedoms and human rights is an important political issue in Britain. We have been forced to accept increasing intrusion into our private lives by government agencies. Some fear we are living in a world similar to...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 14, 2008

Pilgrimages done on the run

Welcome to the hood: the Buddhahood. Some sects of Buddhism believe you can attain Buddhahood by chanting certain purification chants over and over. Others, such as Shingon, use pilgrimage as a method of achieving divine enlightenment and understanding of the world.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 11, 2008

Luminescent mushrooms cast light on Japan's forest crisis

'Look over there! Turn out your flashlights," exclaimed Kunihiko Otsuki one recent Sunday night as he stood in an area of broadleaf mixed woodland with five other forest enthusiasts.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 11, 2008

Of Darwin and Mishima . . .

If I said that I met Darwin last week, you might think I'd gone crazy.
Reader Mail
Jun 8, 2008

Invest in counseling, not weapons

Regarding the May 30 article "Japanese found hanged on KAL jet": It's a sad statement of a country's culture that so many Japanese people's ultimate form of expression is suicide. It must be hard for many non-Japanese to understand why this anomaly has persisted for so long.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / GRAND OLD HOTELS
Jun 6, 2008

A grande dame on the waterfront

Urban planning can be a zero-sum game. A case in point is Yokohama. The city redeveloped the waterfront to create Minato Mirai (Port of the Future), where visitors shop in boutiques, revolve on a Ferris wheel and whoosh in one of the world's fastest elevators to the top of Japan's tallest building, the...
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Jun 5, 2008

Japan's stylish display against Oman leaves critics little ammunition

If there was a question mark hanging over national team manager Takeshi Okada before Monday's World Cup qualifying match against Oman, his side's comprehensive 3-0 win went a long way toward providing the answers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jun 4, 2008

Tokyo upstart offers freeters mobile flexibility

Ryoji Kaneko is always looking for work. It's been six years since the 25-year-old aspiring actor moved to Tokyo from his home in Hyogo Prefecture, and he's still waiting for his big break. He can't get a regular side job because the auditions and the occasional gig require him to have a flexible schedule....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 30, 2008

Love 'em or hate 'em

Usually bands this challenging are doomed to wallow in dank flea-pit venues idolized by a few brave souls and sustained only by belief in their own genius.
Reader Mail
May 25, 2008

Better answers are out there

As a member of the diplomatic corps in Tokyo, I would like to share my thoughts on Peter Singer's article. Singer obviously capitalizes on the recent catastrophes in Myanmar and China to deliver to the distraught public a classical piece of atheist propaganda. It always strikes me how reliable anti-religious...
Japan Times
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 25, 2008

Morozov blames agent for breakup with Takahashi

When you have been in the business as long as I have, you develop a kind of sixth sense about when something is not right.
JAPAN
May 22, 2008

Tokyo Station face-lift adds old, new looks

JR Tokyo Station is in the midst of its first major reconstruction work since the end of the war as part of efforts to revitalize the heart of the capital.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2008

'Selling women's nakedness'

Asagi Ageha meets me on a back street in Kabukicho in dramatic fashion, sirens blaring from two arriving ambulances just as she steps out of the shadows.
EDITORIALS
May 22, 2008

A dispiriting Middle East tour

I t is often said that U.S. presidents go overseas when their domestic standing goes down. With U.S. President George W. Bush's approval ratings hitting record lows, it should come then as no surprise that he seems to be racking up the miles as his term in office winds down.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 20, 2008

U.K. home-schoolers come to Tokyo for robot comp

Donning T-shirts of all colors and designs, some of the world's brightest science-minded boys and girls met in Tokyo in late April for the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Open Asian Championship, an international robotics competition for children aged 9 to 15.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 19, 2008

Early election plot thickens

The ripples of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's hint in a recent speech at an early dissolution of the Lower House and a general election seems to have spread to leading figures in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
May 17, 2008

Shimoyanagi's renaissance having impact for Tigers

For Hanshin Tigers pitcher Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi, the last two seasons have been more or less average.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
May 16, 2008

Into the Land of the Dead

Second of two parts
EDITORIALS
May 13, 2008

Yet more tragedy for Myanmar

The tragedy that is Myanmar worsens. A country that was once Southeast Asia's richest and most promising has steadily deteriorated. It is now a corrupt military-run tyranny, an economic basket case and an international pariah. The man-made disaster in Myanmar was horribly compounded this month when cyclone...
BUSINESS
May 13, 2008

JPMorgan to start yen inflation swaps as prices increase

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has hired Takuma Kitajima from Merrill Lynch & Co. to start trading yen inflation swaps as Japan emerges from a decade-long bout of deflation.
COMMENTARY
May 12, 2008

Neglect of sex education threatens Indians

MADRAS,, India — India is a land of strange contradictions. It is where the "Kama Sutra" was written centuries ago. It is also where some of world's most renowned erotic sculptures are found in sacred Hindu temples. Yet, kissing is frowned upon in cinema, and any form of man-woman intimacy is discouraged...
SOCCER / J. League
May 12, 2008

Honda's strike leads S-Pulse past Kashima

SHIZUOKA (AP) Struggling Shimizu S-Pulse survived a late onslaught to stun fading Kashima Antlers 1-0 in the J. League on Sunday.
SOCCER / J. League
May 11, 2008

Edmilson lifts Reds over Frontale

KAWASAKI — A single moment of skill lit up an otherwise dreary game to give Urawa Reds a 1-0 win over Kawasaki Frontale on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2008

1968 French revolution left an elusive legacy

BRUSSELS — "Dany, you have been so successful. But don't let yourself be manipulated by those far-left forces that would lead you to destroy everything that could arise from what you are creating."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 10, 2008

Documenting the divide between rich and poor

She was 3 when she first stood in the spotlight — on the stage of Tokyo's National Noh Theater — as the apple of her father's eye.
COMMENTARY
May 10, 2008

Britain's next government must beat mood of retreat

LONDON — Has the political tide in Britain now turned? And is the Labour Party under Prime Minister Gordon Brown now heading for defeat?
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2008

Thou shalt not steal . . . books

On the surface, Japan appears to be a relatively crime-free and comparatively safe society. One crime, though, is on the rise — shoplifting. A recent survey by the Japan Book Publishers Association for Information Infrastructure Development found that nearly ¥4 billion in books are stolen every year,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 2, 2008

'Suna Dokei'

Japanese films based on manga (Japanese comics) are so common now that if I were a young Japanese writer ambitious for a big movie payday, I'd skip the scriptwriting classes and learn how to draw.

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.