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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 1, 2011

Conceptualizing old ideas into 'new' art

A persisting fear with conceptual art is that you are being made a fool of. Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook's 2008 video works are ostensibly about cultural preconceptions and the difficulties of interpretation, but her participants are often left looking ignorant and unsophisticated. For the videos, she placed...
COMMENTARY
Apr 1, 2011

Japan-China relations warming up in crisis

HONG KONG — If there is a rainbow behind the dark clouds currently blanketing Japan — the country's gravest crisis since World War II — it could be this: Relations with China, which were at their worst in decades last year, are taking a turn for the better.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 1, 2011

'Kigeki Konzen Tokkyu (Cannonball Wedlock)'

Hollywood screwball comedies have long been favorites of Japanese filmmakers, with many listing such genre masters as Frank Capra, Howard Hawks and Billy Wilder as influences. Screwball comedy heroines, however, are usually self-centered, hard-headed types, while the local feminine ideal on screen is...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 1, 2011

Second Harvest rallies support for Tohoku

By 9 a.m. on Thursday morning, March 24, several delivery trucks have deposited boxes of emergency supplies in front of the Taito Ward, Tokyo warehouse of Second Harvest Japan, a charity-based food bank.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 1, 2011

Designs on love, dreams and fun

The 20th century, with its emphasis on war and mass industrialization, favored the functionalism of modernism in architecture, design, and other areas. This saw such elements as decoration, embellishment, playfulness and humor pushed to the sidelines in design. The rise of a more consumerist economic...
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2011

Tepco investors may be wiped out

Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s shareholders may be wiped out by the cleanup costs and liabilities stemming from the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
EDITORIALS
Mar 31, 2011

Improving ties with Russia

Following Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's Nov. 1 visit to Kunashiri Island, one of the four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido, the Japan-Russia relationship has been in a chilly state. But Japan should carefully watch recent Russian moves and look for a clue to improving ties.
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2011

Nuke crisis scares foreign buyers off seafood

Exports of Japanese seafood have been canceled by foreign buyers on concern that the products may have been contaminated by radiation leaking from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, a government official said.
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2011

Coke may send S. Korea bottled water to Japan

Coca-Cola Co., the world's biggest soft-drink maker, said its bottled-water plants in Japan are running 24 hours a day to meet demand amid fears of tap water contamination from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Mar 30, 2011

This little kanji is, like, totally worth knowing

As a Japanese compound word-builder, the kanji suffix 的 (teki, -like) is a remarkably productive workhorse. In addition to serving in hundreds of compounds listed in Japanese-English kanji dictionaries, 的 is also heavily featured — for better or worse — in the patois of young Japanese.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Mar 29, 2011

Blackouts crippling Kanto when country needs it most

Dear Prime Minister Naoto Kan,
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2011

Season of special poignancy

The cherry trees will soon blossom in Japan.
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Mar 29, 2011

Arai plays vital role in helping baseball do right thing

Years from now, when fans look back at the 2011 NPB season, it should be noted somewhere that Hanshin Tigers third baseman Takahiro Arai's biggest hit came before the season, when the Central League finally relented and shifted its season openers to April 12.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Mar 28, 2011

Kokura finds inspiration, strength on football field

After the game, Noriko Kokura was going to end her life.
SOCCER
Mar 28, 2011

Saitama J. League clubs put skills to good use to lift evacuees' spirits

SAITAMA — Tuesday's charity match between the national team and a J. League select XI gives soccer a high-profile platform to contribute to disaster relief efforts, but beneath the radar the desire to make a difference is just as strong.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2011

Survivors strive to start picking up the pieces

A teenage boy is walking along the muddy road holding a rusty shovel, on which is perched what appears to be a notebook.
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2011

Shirakawa snubs '30s-style JGB-buying for rebuilding

Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa is under fire for refusing to consider 1930s-style purchases of government bonds to fund reconstruction from the nation's largest earthquake on record.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 25, 2011

'Time to Die (Japan Title: Komorebi no Iede)'

If the compensation of old age is wisdom, then 91-year-old Aniela (Danuta Szaflarska) has enough smarts to fill an iPad. In her case, however, that wisdom is neither spoiled by excessive intellect nor embittered by experience. She has simply reached that state where she knows only the things worth knowing....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 25, 2011

It's a woman's world inside manga

Bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women), long a staple of ukiyo-e (woodblock prints) and its erotic sub-genre shunga (spring pictures), is mostly moribund in contemporary art. A variant form, however, lives on in shojo manga, serialized comic books that are often flush with romantic narratives and target,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 25, 2011

'The Illusionist'

"The Illusionist," Sylvain Chomet's sentimental animated film about a fading vaudeville magician and the young runaway who comes under his wing, is a parable worth viewing, especially in these troubled times. For while it is a film about magic and the illusion that tricks can create, before the curtain...
COMMENTARY
Mar 25, 2011

'Protect' the Syrians next?

LONDON — March 18 saw the first nationwide protests against the Ba'ath regime in Syria. If these protests develop into a full-scale revolt, the regime's response may dwarf that of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.
Reader Mail
Mar 24, 2011

Foreign media pumped up fears

The international media should hang their collective heads in shame at the way they've reported the unfolding tragedy in Japan. It's an old cliche, but now that I live on the other side of the fence, it seems all the more clear: The media are willing to whip up more panic and put more people in danger...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’