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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 5, 2011

"Nihonga in Kyoto: Past, Present, and Future"

The Kyoto Japanese-Style Painters' Association was established in 1941, during World War II, by Seiho Takeuchi, Keigetsu Kikuchi, Kansetsu Hashimoto and a number of other well-known nihonga (Japanese-style painting) artists. The association has since grown to include around 500 artist members.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 5, 2011

'Days of Heaven' / 'Nashville'

It's somewhat depressing to think that the two best films on offer this summer, by far, were made over three decades ago. Robert Altman's epic "Nashville" came out in the torrid summer of 1975, while Terrence Malick's sophomore film, "Days of Heaven," was released in '78 after two years in the editing...
BUSINESS
Aug 5, 2011

Mitsubishi Electric has high hopes for China, India

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. expects rising wages in China and India to fuel demand for its products, President Kenichiro Yamanishi said.
BUSINESS
Aug 5, 2011

Finance Ministry intervenes to stem gains in currency

Japan followed Switzerland in seeking to stem appreciating exchange rates that threatened to damage export competitiveness, selling the yen and pledging to inject ¥10 trillion ($126 billion) in funds into the economy.
BUSINESS
Aug 5, 2011

Okada: Cut in JT stake could pay for rebuilding

The government could reduce its stake in Japan Tobacco Inc. to a third from half to pay for reconstruction costs from the March earthquake and tsunami, a Democratic Party of Japan official said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 5, 2011

Art triennale to explore quake, life's mysteries

The summer just gets hotter and hotter for visual-art fans in Japan. Following on the heels of Art Fair Tokyo, which attracted 43,000 visitors to Tokyo International Forum last weekend, the nation's largest art event of all, the once-every-three-years Yokohama Triennale, opens Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 4, 2011

The Nadeshiko effect

Nadeshiko Japan, which became the first Japanese as well as the first Asian team to become the World Cup winner, irrespective of men's or women's soccer, will get another laurel. The team, which was victorious over the heavily favored United States in Frankfurt on July 17, will receive the prestigious...
COMMENTARY
Aug 4, 2011

A stinging defeat for Obama

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman nailed it right away: "Basically the Republicans [said] we'll blow up the world economy unless you give us exactly what we want, and the president said, OK. That's what happened."
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2011

Quake-rebuilding boon stretches across the Pacific

Longshoremen at ports in Washington state and Vancouver, British Columbia, are set to load more timber and lumber onto vessels bound for Japan as it rebuilds from the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2011

Firms using strong yen for offshore acquisitions

Kirin Holdings Co.'s purchase of a stake in Brazil's second-largest beer maker took Japan's overseas acquisitions this year to at least $46 billion as the stronger yen boosts companies' buying power abroad.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Aug 2, 2011

The loneliness of the long-distance foreigner

A few months ago I had beers with several old Japan-hand guys (combined we have more than a century of Japan experiences), and one of them asked an interesting question:
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2011

Nomura, Daiwa to slash jobs, costs as losses mount abroad

Nomura Holdings Inc. and Daiwa Securities Group Inc., Japan's largest brokerages, plan to cut costs as the faltering local economy, Europe's sovereign credit crisis and U.S. debt impasse weigh on earnings.
EDITORIALS
Aug 1, 2011

Energy plan shakeup

The government in 2009 announced the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020 from the 1990 level. The assumption was that nuclear power would play a central role. In 2010, the government's basic energy plan called for increasing the nuclear contribution to 53 percent of total...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2011

ASEAN rises to a challenge

Last week a sense of optimism wafted out of the Bali meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. ASEAN and China agreed on "guidelines" for implementing their previously agreed 2002 Declaration on Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC).
Reader Mail
Jul 31, 2011

Update of released radiation due

Regarding the July 28 article "Threat to food chain grows as contamination spreads": In this article, and in a number of others, I have seen the following statement: "On June 6, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the plant released about 770,000 terabecquerels of radioactive material into...
EDITORIALS
Jul 31, 2011

Rise in single-member households reflects concerns about income

For the first time, single people have become the largest category of household in Japan. A preliminary tabulation of last year's government census revealed June 29 that the number of single-member households exceeded 30 percent of the total 50.9 million households in the country.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 31, 2011

Literary sludge insults child abduction issue

IN APPROPRIATE: A Novel of Culture, Kidnapping, and Revenge in Modern Japan, by Debito Arudou. Lulu Enterprises, 2011, $10, 149 pp., (paper) That prickly gadfly of gaikokujins, Debito Arudou, has done it again, diminishing a worthy topic — in this case, international child abduction — into dross...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 31, 2011

Rail rivalry outcome hinges on speed vs. safety

Following the July 23 collision of two high-speed trains in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province — blamed on faulty signaling equipment — that killed at least 39 passengers and injured over 200, Japan's media, to their credit, suppressed any obvious overtones of shadenfreude. But in the weeks before the...
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2011

Films on late double hibakusha to air in London; BBC to get invite

KYODO Nagasaki Two Japanese documentary films on the late Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, will be screened in London on Aug. 16 and invitations will be sent to the BBC, which aired a quiz show in 2010 that joked about him, the films' director said Thursday....
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2011

Saudi Arabia's anti-Shiite policy empowers Iran

The old saying "lonely is the head that wears the crown" has literally taken on new meaning for Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. Not only has he watched close regional allies, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak and Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh, be toppled, but fellow crowned heads in Bahrain, Morocco, and Jordan...
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2011

Japan Tobacco buys Sudan firm Haggar Cigarette for $450 million

Japan Tobacco Inc. will pay $450 million for a cigarette maker that operates in Sudan and oil-rich South Sudan, which gained independence this month after a rebellion that lasted almost 50 years.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years