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Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Nov 20, 2011

Sarobetsu's a stopover to count on for wonders

Gray predawn light suffuses the eastern horizon before crawling slowly across the landscape — but not before a rich clamoring reaches my ears.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 20, 2011

Memories of Mount Takao

Sometimes in the Japanese autumn, when the days are still warm and the air is beginning to smell of persimmons and fallen leaves, my mind stumbles across a day nearly 20 years ago now, and I turn the memory over and over as I try to make sense of how the time since then has passed.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 20, 2011

The B-class-food boom reveals true Japanese cuisine

Two weeks ago, an advisory panel to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries recommended it apply to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for recognition of Japanese cuisine as an intangible cultural asset. The panel made its suggestion after UNESCO granted...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 20, 2011

Paradoxes pervade gender issues' public face in Japan

Transgender people are popping up everywhere in the current Japanese media landscape. Whether it's appearing on variety shows or hawking soft drinks or makeup in TV ads, the current crop of "new-half" celebrities have established themselves in the mainstream in a way that has surprised many onlookers....
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Nov 19, 2011

Fallen soldiers' kin visit Saipan to meet U.S. vet

Relatives of Japanese victims of World War II in Aichi Prefecture visited Saipan to meet a U.S. veteran in October.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 19, 2011

Okinawa shutterbug captures varied reactions to Hinomaru

Situated alongside a rundown strip club and a tailor's store that sews screaming eagles onto the backs of military jackets, Gallery Rougheryet in the city of Okinawa might well scare away potential artists — but not Mao Ishikawa. Dressed in a bright red Spiderman T-shirt and gold sandals, the 58-year-old...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 18, 2011

Dvorak opera to make debut

Czech composer Antonin Dvorak's (1841-1904) symphonies, such as Symphony No. 9 "From the New World," are well known to Japanese audiences. However, his operatic works have not been performed that often in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 18, 2011

'Koi no Tsumi (Guilty of Romance)'

How can a film shock today's jaded audiences, for whom blood spurts and flying body parts prompt laughter instead of gasps? How can a filmmaker transgress when nearly everything is allowed? Taken far enough, this line of inquiry can lead to the attention of the police. It can also be the starting point...
Japan Times
CULTURE
Nov 18, 2011

Proud love pervades NHK's 'Madame Butterfly'

"Well, little Chrysanthème, let us part good friends; one last kiss even, if you like. I took you to amuse me; you have not perhaps succeeded very well, but after all you have done what you could: given me your little face, your little curtseys, your little music; in short, you have been pleasant enough...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2011

Time to ban world's deadliest recreational drug

U.S. President Barack Obama's doctor confirmed last month that the president no longer smokes. At the urging of his wife, Michelle Obama, the president first resolved to stop smoking in 2006, and has used nicotine replacement therapy to help him. If it took Obama, a man strong-willed enough to aspire...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 17, 2011

Saori Yuki wants a kayōkyoku wave

Defining kayōkyoku is like trying to nail down konnyaku.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Nov 17, 2011

The embodiment of Buddha Shakyamuni through art

"What is national treasure?" wrote Saicho (767-822), the founding monk of Tendai Buddhism, in his 818 "The Essential Teachings for Tendai Lotus Sect Priests," which he presented to Emperor Saga to bolster the standing of his esoteric order. His answer was pursuing the Buddhist path, and that "shining...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 17, 2011

Songwriter's album touches on quake

It might still be too early to understand the effect of March 11's Great East Japan Earthquake on musicians living in the stricken Tohoku region, but as lives get back to normal artists will no doubt find ways to express themselves.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 16, 2011

Smartphones new security battlefield

Smartphones have become a global phenomenon and in Japan in particular people are rapidly replacing their old cellphones with new handsets that are more like small computers with ever-increasing applications.
COMMENTARY
Nov 16, 2011

Who in America gets to judge political truth?

The Stolen Valor Act of 2005, a compound of political pandering and moral exhibitionism, was whooped through the Senate, aka the "world's greatest deliberative body," by unanimous consent; the House, joining the stampede, passed it by a voice vote.
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Nov 15, 2011

Corporate brands drawn to anime's selling power

Care for some Pepsi and Cup Noodles with your anime?
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2011

Shape of Osaka takes center stage in election

The long awaited Osaka mayoral race, which takes place Nov. 27, kicked off Sunday with former Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto, 42, pitted against the incumbent, Kunio Hiramatsu, 63.
COMMENTARY / World / ABE'S PROMISES
Nov 15, 2011

Investing in legal power for people

Inspired by Anna Hazare's hunger strike, thousands of people recently gathered at Ramlila Grounds in New Delhi to protest governmental corruption. Protesters from here and around the country pressed for specific political change — a new institution to combat corruption. In principle, they won. Parliament...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Nov 15, 2011

Tatemae as truth, culture clashes and Arudou's dangerous myth

Some responses to Debito Arudou's Nov. 1 Just Be Cause column, headlined "The costly fallout of tatemae and Japan's culture of deceit":
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 15, 2011

If you could meet any living Japanese person, who would it be?

BUSINESS
Nov 15, 2011

Olympus hid balance sheet hole with sale of growing unit

Olympus Corp.'s 2009 sale of a profitable diagnostics unit it spent four decades building up for what appeared to be a bargain price is beginning to make sense as the company admits covering up decades of losses.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan