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Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 5, 2007

Nuclear hell revisited

Two years ago, Michel Pomarede, a French journalist working for France Culture, a French national radio station, visited Japan for the first time. He came with the aim of making a mammoth, 17-hour program about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945, to accompany the 60th-anniversary...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 3, 2007

'Kaidan'

Following his smash success with "Ring" (1998) and "Ring 2" (1999) — films that launched the worldwide J-horror boom — Hideo Nakata went to Hollywood, where he was hyped as the next Asian directing phenomenon — a Japanese version of John Woo and Ang Lee. But instead of churning out blockbusters,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 2, 2007

DanDans meets Coco Chanel

Artists' lives are seldom easy, but the reality they face in Japan can be particularly daunting.
Reader Mail
Aug 1, 2007

Child's identity can't be forced

I read Debito Arudou's July 17 Zeit Gist article, "Schools single out foreign roots," with compassion for the teen daughter of immigrants who suffers from the inanities of what appears to be a narrow-minded bullying high school teacher in Shizuoka. There was no mention, though, of her parents' actions...
EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2007

Quake shakes nuclear power industry

News reports continue to shed light on the damage inflicted on Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant by the magnitude-6.8 earthquake that struck Niigata and Nagano prefectures July 16. Most worrying is a report that the tremors were more than double the quake-design benchmark...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 27, 2007

'Human maggots in a glass'

Dance fans could be excused for, well, dancing in the streets thanks to the fancy footwork of Saitama Arts Theater in luring some of the world's best contemporary troupes to its stage made famous as the home base of international theater titan Yukio Ninagawa.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 27, 2007

A lounge bar for the people

One of Naka-Meguro's best features is the Meguro River. And though, like most of Tokyo's inner-city waterways, its riverbed has been concreted to aid with storm drainage, the banks are topped with cobbled walkways and planted with mile upon mile of cherry trees. The blossoms are breathtaking when in...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 25, 2007

Carpenter bee

* Japanese name: Kumabachi * Scientific name: Xylocopa appendiculata * Description: A large, stout, noisy insect, the carpenter bee spooks most people when they see one. It should not spook any reader of this column, though: the bees are mostly harmless. In fact, males are completely harmless, and females...
BUSINESS
Jul 24, 2007

KDDI ups profit in first quarter on reduced costs

KDDI Corp. said Monday its operating profit rose 15.6 percent to 140.9 billion yen for April to June year on year, thanks to cost-cutting and its mobile phone handsets with new features such as digital TV reception.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 22, 2007

Beauty beheld in huge concrete forms

Astonishingly, despite their unsightly impact on natural scenery, the Internet is full of geeks who appear to love tetrapods.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 20, 2007

Ryan Adams "Easy Tiger"

The latest offering from the prodigious Ryan Adams, "Easy Tiger," is a warning to slow down. Adams has been trying to kick a much publicized alcohol and drug habit, though the title just as easily refers to his output (he released three albums in 2005 alone).
CULTURE / Film
Jul 20, 2007

Tokyo hosts world's top refugee film fest

The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) counts about 33 million refugees in the world today. There is an even larger multitude saddled with the chillingly bureaucratic title "internally displaced persons."
EDITORIALS
Jul 19, 2007

Tremors spotlight nuclear plants

The earthquake that hit Niigata and Nagano prefectures on Monday brought to light safety problems that could arise at nuclear-power plants during a powerful earthquake. The magnitude-6.8 quake occurred in the Sea of Japan, only 9 km north of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear-power...
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jul 18, 2007

Mirror, mirror, in the phone and portable photo storage

Videophones might be the future of communication, but there is more than a whiff of narcissism about them. After all, whose self-image is such that they believe the person at the other end actually wants to gaze at their visage? Thanko is appealing to the powers of the ego with its Mirror WebCamera....
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jul 18, 2007

'Kane' gone? Try saving with these money boxes

Money — it makes the world go round, and it even talks. Or at least, these money boxes do.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 15, 2007

Bulbous hair gives 'Brand King' a head start

People aligning themselves with a unique hairstyle is nothing new. But Tsutomu Morita is likely the first pitchman via pompadour. "Some people don't believe it is real," Morita says in a back room of his discount luxury-brands store, referring to the black bulbous bob that hangs over his eyes. "Others...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 11, 2007

Rock swallow

* Japanese name: Iwa tsubame * Scientific name: Delichon dasypus * Description: The translation of the Chinese name for this bird is smoky-bellied hair-leg swallow. It is also known as the Asian housemartin. It's a small bird, some 12-cm long, and is colored a dark steel-blue above and is white —...
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jul 11, 2007

Digital graffiti lets you make your mark

Irony is a word that is no doubt found in every language. A case in point is the widely accepted view that English is the lingua franca of the Internet. Unfortunately, while this expression nicely captures the linguistic dominance of English, the term itself originates in Italian. Despite this quirk...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 8, 2007

Separated siblings family drama, young romantic comedy, melodrama of women competing for the same man

This summer's crop of drama series is dominated by young female leads as opposed to the usual bunch of cute boys. In its most crucial time slot, Monday at 9 p.m., Fuji TV is offering up "First Kiss," which is about a pair of siblings who were separated as small children when their parents divorced.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 6, 2007

Crystal Kay is all yours

"I've been on the Crystal Kay train," says the R&B diva sitting across the table. Twenty-one-year-old Crystal Kay isn't speaking figuratively, or in some sort of existential code; she's referring instead to Tokyo's Yamanote Line, whose carriages were recently plastered inside and out with her visage...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Jul 6, 2007

A very red-light district

You won't find many red lights larger than the enormous paper lantern at Taito Ward's Sensoji, or Asakusa Kannon Temple.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 6, 2007

Eating your way along the coast

The ocean sparkles; the beach beckons; a breeze stirs the appetite. And the Shonan coast — an hour or so south of Tokyo by train — looks mighty appealing, especially the secluded inlets down the peninsula in genteel Hayama. That's where you'll find the Food File.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 29, 2007

'Live Free or Die Hard'

Dear John:
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2007

Just who is Gordon Brown?

BRUSSELS — At long last, Gordon Brown is taking over from Tony Blair as Britain's prime minister, thus attaining his lifelong ambition, as if by right. That is his first problem. He has not been elected by anyone — not by the Labour Party, and not by Britain's voters; he has merely come into an inheritance...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2007

Einsteins of anime

Headquartered in a nondescript office building in Kichijoji, a Tokyo suburb with a bohemian flavor, Studio 4°C hardly looks, from the outside, like the epicenter of anything. Yet this animation production house, founded in 1986 by Eiko Tanaka, Koji Morimoto and Yoshiharu Sato, has made some of the most...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jun 27, 2007

Soft-shelled turtle

* Japanese name: Suppon * Scientific name: Pelodiscus sinensis * Description: This is a medium-sized turtle whose carapace (the upper part of the shell) grows up to 25-cm long, and is colored olive, gray, or mottled pale green/brown. It has a long head with a pointed snout and bulging eyes, giving it...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 26, 2007

The war according to Aso Co.

'Japan the Tremendous,' the new book by Foreign Minister Taro Aso, highlights the peaceful nature of postwar Japan and calls the country a "fount of moral lessons" for Asia. It might even help Aso become Japan's next prime minister.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji