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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 1, 2006

Tale of the tape

Tapes 'n Tapes, this year's designated Internet-sparked American indie band are, for the moment at least, enjoying their rocket trip to notoriety. Touring their butts off since self-releasing their debut album "The Loon" about a year ago, the Minneapolis-based quartet have already achieved a certain...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Nov 28, 2006

Keiko Hisano

Keiko Hisano, 25, is a production controller for Nakabo Japan Co. Ltd., an Osaka-based knitwear manufacturer that produces clothing for many famous brands. Hoping to eventually become a designer, she is happy now just to be at the base of the design pyramid, whether running up and down Omotesando with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Nov 23, 2006

Suspended in abstraction

'Maybe there are too many things in Tokyo," says Katsuhiro Saiki, "because for me, New York City is the only place where I can relax -- although I think it could be said that there are too many artists in New York City."
COMMENTARY
Nov 20, 2006

Ideological laundry unfurled

Japan's neo-nationalistic rightwing is its own worst enemy. It sees itself as the defender of Japan's global reputation. But by its own actions it besmirches that reputation.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 19, 2006

When in Rome, do hug granny as the Romans do

Last night, at Theater X (Cai) in Ryogoku, Tokyo, we finished a short season of plays I'd written, and eight of us -- Japanese cast and staff, with myself as director -- leave tonight on an adventure to present stagings in Sydney and Adelaide. I call this tour an adventure because doing the two plays,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 16, 2006

An ambassador of enlightenment

When I was a teenager living in New York some 20 years ago, I bought a tiny introduction to Zen Buddhism from a bookstore in midtown Manhattan. A $1 clearance-sale copy, it was so small that I could slip it into my back pocket.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Nov 14, 2006

Masatoshi Uchiumi

Masatoshi Uchiumi, 64, is a landlord in Tokyo's trendy Jiyugaoka area. Divorced and living alone, six years ago he lost most of his eyesight due to a hormone imbalance. Although despondent at first, he soon focused on enriching his life, through lessons in karaoke, voice-activated computers, haiku, English...
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 12, 2006

Alien star flies off the shelves

Children's books typically feature anything from frogs or cats or pigs to dinosaurs and sometimes even people. Those authored by Tatsuya Miyanishi have all those -- but he's also written several books featuring Ultraman.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 7, 2006

Pulling the wool

I s the world's second-largest economy, Japan feels it deserves the respect and privilege accorded the club of rich countries.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 7, 2006

Driving and social security

As everything get more convenient, things also, in other ways, become more difficult.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Nov 7, 2006

'When Santa Fell to Earth,' 'Brooklyn Rose'

'When Santa Fell To Earth,' Cornelia Funke, Chicken House; 2006; 173 pp. Timeless. That's the word for fiction of this sort. How else can a story originally published in German in 1994 Eand now translated into English for the first time Emake for such great reading? Cynics might say that it's got to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 2, 2006

Love, Peace & Money?

Tokyo Design Week brings together international and local designers, manufacturers, retailers and entrepreneurs for a raft of exhibitions, gatherings and design-related events, and, of course, parties -- wherever designers get together, a party is not too far away. But apart from the civilized pleasure...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 29, 2006

Is the sun setting on the future of Japan?

SHUTTING OUT THE SUN: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation, by Michael Zielenziger. New York: Doubleday, 2006, 352 pp., $24.95 (cloth). The strength of this book lies in its sensitive and poignant portraits of hikikomori, Japan's recluses. Their stories of withdrawal are etched with pain and anomie....
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 28, 2006

Morimoto caught up in moment

SAPPORO -- Hichori Morimoto is no Doug Mientkiewicz.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 24, 2006

Woods carries big bat, winning attitude

SAPPORO -- Japan was just a place on a map for Tyrone Woods oh so many years ago.
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2006

Britons bridle over veil

The phrase "straw poll" has acquired some nuance in Britain this month. It used to mean asking people what they think about an issue -- any issue. Suddenly it seems to mean asking people what they think about Straw -- Jack Straw, that is, the former British foreign secretary -- and in particular his...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 21, 2006

Astrologer reaches out with readings of counsel

His certification as an astrologer reads Tatsuhiro Percival Nakajima. Why? The gentle Japanese -- still coolly dressed for summer -- replies smiling: "Because I am the Fool."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 19, 2006

Playing with energy

Though on the surface it's easy to think everyone else has got it sorted out, things are not always what they seem. From time to time we all feel like a blip in the universe, trapped by things beyond our control -- whether unbending social powers, finicky laws, monetary limitations or annoying office...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 19, 2006

Shomei Tomatsu retrospective traces post-war experience

At age 15 in 1945, Shomei Tomatsu was working at an aircraft assembly plant in Nagoya. U.S. B-29s were bombing the industrial city so relentlessly that by the end of World War II, nine out of 10 of its buildings were destroyed -- compared with five out of 10 in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 14, 2006

Tetsuya Noda

The College Women's Association of Japan is holding its 51st Annual Print Show Oct. 20 to 22 at the Tokyo American Club. As well as exhibiting 211 new prints, the show features demonstrations, activities and lectures, and an associate show focusing on two young prize-winning women.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 14, 2006

English language disaster in the making

"Hello!" said a smiling boy next to me on the train. "Well, hello," I said, startled that anyone should actually use this phrase unaccompanied by at least a giggle and at most rolling on the floor laughing.
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2006

North Korea: Asia's pouting paper tiger

LOS ANGELES -- One mustn't make too light of the presumed North Korean underground nuclear test, but the fact is that whenever instruments detect a lot of ground-shaking in North Korea, it could be because of almost anything.
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 8, 2006

LONDON CALLING

Home to some 50,000 people born in Japan, London has been well served for some time with aspects of culture and lifestyle from the Land of the Rising Sun.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 6, 2006

Warrior Charge, Dry & Heavy and icchie

'The most talented producers in Britain. . . . the Sly and Robbie of 2006" is how rapper Tricky has described the rhythm unit of Perry Mellus and Wayne Nunes, better known as Warrior Charge.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 6, 2006

Beat is back

Spawned by the energy of punk, a new crowd of British bands known collectively as the ska revival, or the two-tone movement, emerged in the late 1970s around the Midlands area. Unlike the mainly white punk groups, bands such as The Specials, The Selecter and The Beat were comprised of both black and...
EDITORIALS
Oct 2, 2006

A few words about golf

What is it about golf? Such a silly game when you think about it -- traipsing thousands of meters cross-country to whack a tiny ball into teeny holes with a skinny stick. Whoever invented it -- probably the Scots -- had a diabolically twisted sense of fun. And yet, as we are constantly reminded, no other...
SOCCER / J. League
Oct 1, 2006

Sato thrice as nice in Sanfrecce draw

KAWASAKI -- Hisato Sato scored a brilliant hat trick in front of Japan coach Ivica Osim as Sanfrecce Hiroshima drew 3-3 away to Kawasaki Frontale in the J. League on Saturday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 1, 2006

Stars strive to be normal guys . . . and you buy it

During the 1980s bubble era it was almost obscene how much money Japanese companies overspent on things they didn't really need. In the media world, this extravagance was manifested in the hiring of foreign celebrities to appear in TV commercials.
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2006

Young and tech-savvy, India's market remains largely untapped

Japanese companies increasingly look to India for business opportunities, but they have yet to fully tap the potential of one of the world's fastest-growing economies with its vast pool of skilled human resources, said participants in a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2006

J-cool factor struggles to woo NYC

For someone who stands to gain from the hot topic of Japan's "Gross National Cool," Taeko Baba ought to be the last to pop the phenomenon's bubble.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb