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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 11, 2011

Theyyam: Trance dances in the Indian countryside

Watching the two whirling dancers' straw skirts aflame as they kept their balance under elaborate, 4-meter-high headdresses while circumambulating the central shrine of the village to the beat of drummers amid a buzzing throng, I did not expect a nudge from the local standing next to me as he said, "Watch...
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 11, 2011

God's own country

Everywhere around Kerala in southwest India there are signs emblazoned with the state motto: "God's Own Country" — and certainly no supreme deity could have chosen a better place to call home.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2011

'Terrorists' got redefined after 9/11

Ten years after al-Qaida attacked the United States on Sept. 11, Japan has strengthened efforts to combat domestic and international terrorism through new legislation, policy directives and tougher immigration procedures.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 10, 2011

The power of spiders in rural Japan

Although I have lived in Japan's countryside for well over a decade, I have only recently come to understand the power of spiders.
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2011

IPOs to boom on quake rebound

Initial public offerings in Japan will climb to the highest in three years as investors regain confidence sapped by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, according to Nomura Holdings Inc., the top-ranked arranger of Japanese stock sales.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 10, 2011

A guide to fortunetellers

Japan is a fortunetelling nation and so, to start, here is Truman Capote's famous line about fortunetellers . . .
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 9, 2011

Retailers around Japan with plenty of bottle

Aching for an antique aperitif, but Kyoto's not your neighborhood? Here are some other outlets around Japan specializing in vintage wines and spirits.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 9, 2011

'Countdown to Zero'

The original "Planet of the Apes" movie in 1968 posited the demise of mankind and civilization as we know it from a nuclear exchange; the series' reboot, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (opening in October), drops this premise in favor of a genetically modified virus. That makes sense: Virus scares...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 9, 2011

Going crazy for vintage wines

"Wine, the most agreeable of beverages, whether we owe it to Noah who planted the first vine or Bacchus who pressed the first grapes, dates from the beginning of the world ...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 9, 2011

Fukuoka fast becoming Asia film hub

During a speech to mark his receipt of The Japan Foundation Award for Arts and Culture late last year, there was one point that the widely respected film critic Tadao Sato was especially keen to convey to his Tokyo audience.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 8, 2011

America's post-industrial society going bust

Of all the lies that the American people have been told the past four decades, the biggest one may be this: We'll all come out ahead in the shift from an industrial to a post-industrial society.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Sep 8, 2011

Aki Basho: Normal sumo service resumes in the capital — almost

Sunday Sep. 11 will see the Sumo Association resume the closest thing to normal service they can hope for in the present era of post-scandal reflection. It will be he first tourney back in the Ryogoku Kokugikan after a summer of much discontent and thus "coming home" to the capital will offer the powers...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Sep 8, 2011

Japan hoping to earn respect on hardwood

Head coach Thomas Wisman said that the Japan men's national team has attempted to "regain respectability" since he took the helm last year.
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2011

BOJ to maintain 'zero' rate, sees second-half recovery

The Bank of Japan's Policy Board unanimously agreed Wednesday to maintain the current virtually zero-interest rate policy while shunning additional monetary easing to cope with impacts from the recent sharp rise in the yen.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Sep 8, 2011

True glimpses of the underworld

Cloaked in mystery and perhaps a certain degree of myth, the yakuza constitute one of the hardest subculture groups in Japan to infiltrate. But when Belgian photographer Anton Kusters and his brother, Malik, saw a gangster walk by as they were drinking at a bar in Tokyo's entertainment district of Kabukicho,...
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2011

JT seeking sale of government's 5 million shares

Japan Tobacco Inc. wants the government to sell its shares and use the funds to finance recovery efforts after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2011

China turns up the heat

As Chinese President Hu Jintao greeted his Philippine counterpart Benigno Aquino in Beijing recently at the start of a state visit, the official Xinhua news agency laid out terms for a sustained improvement in relations between the world's second biggest economy and its much smaller and weaker Southeast...
JAPAN / Q&A
Sep 7, 2011

Prestigious school seen as ticket to rise to the top of political ladder

Newly appointed Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda may compare himself to a "dojo" (loach), but in reality he is an elite politician with a diploma from the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, better known as Matsushita Seikei Juku.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 7, 2011

Hachiro hints at reactor restarts

New Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yoshio Hachiro hinted that some of the nuclear reactors currently undergoing stress tests will be brought back into operation before April if their safety can be confirmed.
EDITORIALS
Sep 7, 2011

With record rains comes misery

Typhoon No. 12 (Talas) has brought heavy rains mainly in western Japan. As of the night of Sept. 5, 37 people had died and 54 others were missing. Among the typhoons that hit Japan since 1989, when the Heisei Era started, the latest one caused the second largest number of deaths and missing victims,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2011

Law flawed but Noda should return donations: Fujimura

Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Monday that Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda should return any political contributions confirmed to have come from foreigners, who are barred by law from giving donations.

Longform

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The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan