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Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 26, 2007

Japanese comic storytelling in English

Rakugo story-teller Katsura Kaishi will give an English-language performance on Nov. 7 in Shimokitazawa, Tokyo. Originating in the Edo Period (1603-1868), this traditional form of Japanese entertainment sees a lone rakugo-ka (story-teller) sitting on a stage in kimono relating a long and complicated...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 25, 2007

'Afro Samurai': anime international

On paper, the making of "Afro Samurai" reads like a recipe for an identity crisis. An animation about an African-American swordsman in a futuristic feudal Japan, it sprang from the mind of a Tokyo illustrator and was brought to fruition in English by a Japanese-U.S. production team, A-list Hollywood...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 25, 2007

A feel for beauty

English potter-artist-writer Bernard Leach (1887-1979) was lucky to have lived in Japan — during his early childhood and on later occasions — when, even though change was coming rapidly, many centuries-old traditions continued unaltered.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2007

EU as Mideast player, not just a payer

PRAGUE — The European Union's policy in the Middle East is the litmus test of its common foreign and security policy. Many Europeans share this belief, but as the EU considers entering the fray of Middle East peace talks, it must respond to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's jibe that in...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 21, 2007

TV in cahoots with the shamed Kameda boxing clan

In the fuss over the Oct. 11 WBC flyweight title match between 33-year-old world champion Daisuke Naito and 18-year-old contender Daiki Kameda, the media has been the object of criticism as much as Kameda, who has since been punished with a one-year suspension by the Japan Boxing Commission for rules...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 19, 2007

'Stardust'

"People who know" say that fantasy is the next big thing in Hollywood. "People who know" obviously haven't seen "Stardust" yet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 19, 2007

'Scoop'

"Scoop" is not exactly Woody Allen back in top-notch comedy form, but there's a giddy, debonair humor to it that makes you think he was really happy when making this film. And that is probably due to the fact that he was working with Scarlett Johansson for the second time in a row after the dark, stylish...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 18, 2007

A film director in the theater

Daisuke Tengan is an acclaimed filmmaker, but search for him on the Internet and the first thing you'll discover is that he's the son of director Shohei Imamura, who won the Palme d' Or at the Cannes Film Festival for "Narayamabushiko" in 1983 and "Unagi" in 1997.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Oct 18, 2007

Who killed Takashi Saito?

That any life should be lost during sport is tragic, and sumo is no exception.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / 2007 NPB PLAYOFFS
Oct 16, 2007

Marines level series

SAPPORO — The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters posed for their Pacific League Championship picture after Game 2, but all the in-game glamour shots belonged to Tomoya Satozaki.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 14, 2007

Nagai Kafu's geisha: expurgated, revised, then finally fully exposed

Rivalry: A Geisha's Tale, translated by Stephen Snyder. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007, 166 pp., $24.95 (cloth) Komayo, widowed young, resumes her life as a geisha, taking up with a former patron who wants to redeem her. She, however, falls in love with a young actor specializing in female...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2007

Videotaping interrogations worth a look?

When the Toyama Prefectural Police announced in January they had found the real culprit in two rape cases in 2002 — for which 40-year-old Hiroshi Yanagihara had already been convicted and served time — it was no surprise to legal experts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 11, 2007

Little friends for the other world

Tomb artifacts have a powerful effect over their viewers, reminding us of the grandeur of the past. The design of tombs and funeral vaults on a monumental scale and with luxurious details stand as symbols of a desire for immortality.
Japan Times
Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR
Oct 10, 2007

Hellcat bent for leather — a navy flyboy's tale

From 26,000 feet he punched through a hole in the overcast over Tokyo early on a freezing Feb. 12, 1945, rolled into a roaring 60-degree dive and fired his rockets at a Mitsubishi engine plant.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 9, 2007

ODA shrinking but still key tool

Official development assistance is an important diplomatic tool for Japan, which relies heavily on other countries for resources, food and many other economic necessities.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 6, 2007

Jumping mullets, it's the season for fire prevention!

Ahh, autumn on Shiraishi Island when I wake up to quacking ducks paddling around in the port in front of my house waiting for me to open the Duck Cafe.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 5, 2007

Greek tragedy raises 3,000-year-old questions

Here's a three-act play with a difference or three — or four, or more. For starters, "Performing Women" comprises three standalone plays, each about a different Ancient Greek tragic heroine, each under a different director and each linked not just by their common theme but also by a fourth director's...
Reader Mail
Oct 4, 2007

Middle names stop the show

When I saw the title of Thomas Dillon's Sept. 30 article, "The curse of the middle name," I just knew what to expect. And, I wasn't wrong. Mr. Dillon, I hear you!
Japan Times
BUSINESS / DECENTRALIZATION SYMPOSIUM
Oct 3, 2007

Revitalizing Japan through 'doshu-sei'

Introduction of the so-called "doshu-sei" system of reorganizing Japan into several regional blocs is the "ultimate structural reform" that will fundamentally change the nation's administrative, fiscal and political systems, Fujio Mitarai, chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren),...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / DECENTRALIZATION SYMPOSIUM
Oct 3, 2007

More government money won't close urban-rural divide

Any attempt to close the widening gap between urban and rural areas by increasing public-works spending and subsidies from the central government will only cover up the root cause of the problem, Yoshitsugu Hayashi, an economics professor at Kwansei Gakuin University told the Sept. 18 symposium.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / DECENTRALIZATION SYMPOSIUM
Oct 3, 2007

Bureaucracy resists change, fights to retain its power

Public support for the "doshu-sei" system will depend on whether people can realize the benefits of ongoing efforts at decentralizing the nation's administrative powers, but the efforts have so far been hampered by the strong resistance of the central bureaucracy, panelists told the Sept. 18 symposium....
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 2, 2007

Kanji, kana trip search engines

Like the rest of the world, people in Japan rely on search engines every day to tap the ocean of information that is the World Wide Web.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 30, 2007

Bilingual blanks are nothing to kobosu your guchi about

Last week in this column, I addressed the trials and tribulations of bringing up a child to be bilingual — both for parents and children. As anyone who has been down that road knows, it's what Japanese people would call shinan no waza (an arduous task).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Sep 29, 2007

Putting the red light on human trafficking

"Neary grew up in rural Cambodia. Her parents died when she was a child, and in an effort to give her a better life, her sister married her off when she was 17. Three months later, they went to visit a fishing village. Her husband rented a room in what Neary thought was a guest house. But when she woke...
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2007

Death during 'training'

The death of a young sumo wrestler is shaking Japan's sumo world, which is still reeling from the yokozuna Asashoryu scandal. Tokitaizan, a 17-year-old wrestler, died shortly after a practice session, apparently because of exhaustion and a beating he received from his stable mates.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 23, 2007

Nomura deserves credit for making Eagles respectable

A few words of praise this week for the 2007 performance of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
EDITORIALS
Sep 22, 2007

Aiming for the moon

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the "Kaguya" (Shining Princess) lunar exploration probe Sept. 14. It is now on its way to the moon, 380,000 km away. Kaguya marks the biggest moon mission since the 1969-72 U.S. Apollo flights. It is hoped that the probe, launched by an H-IIA rocket,...

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.