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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 21, 2011

Okamoto's plot new album release before summer

After being courted by record labels while still in high school in Tokyo, inking a deal with Sony subsidiary Ariola Japan was an easy decision for Okamoto's.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 21, 2011

Universal meanings of a poet's personal grief

Apart from glitzy musicals and kabuki, most theatrical stagings in Japan finish their run after a couple of weeks or even a few days. With no long-run system as the norm, unlike Broadway or the West End, by the time a buzz has got around that something is good, it will almost always have closed or be...
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2011

U.S. alliance vital for national security: Kan

Prime Minister Naoto Kan stressed Thursday the importance of the Japan-U.S. alliance and the importance of the continued presence of American forces in Okinawa for the national security.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 21, 2011

Fujiya Honten Grill Bar: cheap and tasty eats on your feet

Now that the holiday feasting is just a fast-fading memory, it's time to tighten the belt and rein in the spending. No more high-end splurges: These days we're staying strictly street level.
Reader Mail
Jan 20, 2011

No inducement to return islands

Regarding the Jan. 14 Kyodo article "Territory settlement 'impossible' now": This is a very sad situation, especially for those Japanese wishing to return to the place of their birth. If you look at any of the media sites for Russian television, the point of view of the Russian populace is that the "Northern...
COMMENTARY
Jan 20, 2011

The price of climate change?

SINGAPORE — Generations of Australians have learned that their island-continent is a land of alternating droughts and floods. Recent prolonged rain and devastating flooding across eastern Australia, particularly in the state of Queensland, underscore this heartbreaking cycle.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 20, 2011

J-REITs predicted to double down as bond spreads narrow

Japan's real estate investment trusts may double property purchases in the next fiscal year to ¥1 trillion by boosting bond sales amid the lowest borrowing costs in three years, Credit Suisse said.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 19, 2011

Paying respect to the Japanese toilet god

One of the mildly disconcerting surprises awaiting the foreign visitor to Japan is the sheer abundance and creativity of its toilet facilities, public and otherwise.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2011

Borders of India's latest outreach to Iran

LONDON — As India takes its seat on the U.N. Security Council as the new nonpermanent member after nearly a two-decade hiatus, its latest move vis-a-vis Iran has signaled New Delhi's desire to be viewed as a responsible rising power and a potential permanent member of the Security Council.
BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2011

Rise of fiscal reformist Yosano good sign for debt

Prime Minister Naoto Kan's decision to bring former Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano into his Cabinet signals a return to fiscal reforms that helped send benchmark bond yields to a seven-year low last August.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2011

Film 'Peepli live' outstanding as a spotlight on shortcomings

HONG KONG — One of the hot topics among India's chattering classes is when their country will surpass China and become the fastest growing country in the world.
COMMENTARY
Jan 17, 2011

Experts worth listening to

Each of the government's ministries and agencies has its own deliberative council. Before the fiscal 2001 ministerial reorganization — on April 27, 2000 — the government adopted the basic plan for abolishing and integrating these councils and the like. (The expression "and the like" was added because...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2011

Of Taiji, activists know nil: curator

A curator of the Taiji Whale Museum on Friday criticized opponents of the town's dolphin slaughter for their lack of knowledge about Taiji, which was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove."
Reader Mail
Jan 16, 2011

No country for traditional values

The Jan. 11 Kyodo article "In a first, new adults under 1% of population" made me think afresh of my daughter's Adults Day ceremony, still two years away.
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2011

Yen may spur shift offshore: Toyoda

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda acknowledged that shifting output abroad may be inevitable to ward off damage from a rising yen, a reversal of course for the carmaker.
COMMENTARY
Jan 16, 2011

Political biases trash lauded Ph.D. research

SEATTLE — Deepak Tripathi's most recent book, "Breeding Ground: Afghanistan and the Origins of Islamist Terrorism" (Potomac Books) raises several issues, both within and outside of its content. It is based on research for a doctoral dissertation that did not qualify.
BASKETBALL
Jan 16, 2011

Steady Satterfield leads Broncos past Evessa

KASUKABE, Saitama Pref. — There's no doubt that Kenny Satterfield has had a stabilizing presence for the Saitama Broncos this season.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 16, 2011

Mirrors are nothing but eyes

FOREST OF EYES: Selected Poems of Tada Chimako. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Jeffrey Angles. University of California Press, 2010, 164 pp., $19.95 (paper) These are the lines from which the title of this poetry collection comes:
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 16, 2011

Back to the future of a 'hotel for 2001'

The year was 1979. His Imperial Majesty Emperor Hirohito was in the 54th year of his reign. Japan's prime minister was Masayoshi Ohira. In 1979, people still paid for goods with ¥500 bills. There was no consumption tax or Internet, there were no cell phones and no Japanese were playing in the U.S. major...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 16, 2011

Osaka: mecca for foodies, and more

A visit to Osaka is all about enjoyment, entertainment and indulgence — particularly in the fine fare to be found everywhere around its historic sites and along the buzzing neon streets of Japan's food-fueled second city.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 15, 2011

More independent women taking out insurance

The number of women buying life insurance is on the rise. Should we be surprised?
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2011

Israel's nuclear option in Iran

LOS ANGELES — Revelations in former U.S. President George W. Bush's recently published memoirs show that he declined an Israeli request to destroy Syria's secret nuclear reactor in the spring of 2007. While the revelation may appear merely to be a historical footnote, more profoundly it raises new...
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2011

Gates: U.S. presence keeps North in check

North Korea is less able now to invade the South than it was a decade or more ago but has become a more lethal threat to Asia and the world, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Jan 15, 2011

Keidanren, S. Korea business lobby oppose start of carbon trading

Japanese and South Korean companies, adopting arguments that helped block carbon trading in the U.S., are opposing government plans to set up emissions markets worth a potential $212 billion by 2020.

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’