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CULTURE / Film
Dec 3, 2010

'Robin Hood'

Ridley Scott has never been one to cushion the blow when it comes to sticking it to modern consumerist society. From "Blade Runner" to "Thelma & Louise," "Black Hawk Down" to "American Gangster," the diseases of so-called civilization become exposed in tableaux of greed, discontent and a cunningly concealed...
EDITORIALS
Dec 3, 2010

Flu season is upon us

Vaccination against influenza started in October. This year's vaccine targets three types of flu: H1N1 influenza, which broke out last year, and the A/Hong Kong-type and B-type influenza. In the last flu season, the damage from H1N1 influenza was not as serious as had been feared, probably because its...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 3, 2010

Pole dancers descend on Japan for competition

The powerful, sensual and acrobatic performance of pole dancers is sure to titillate audiences at the International Pole Championship in Tokyo on Dec. 9.
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 3, 2010

Dancing on Mishima's waves

Childhood, a time of purest innocence, is also a spring of dark imagination. Maurice Bejart, French choreographer and collaborator with the Tokyo Ballet in the 1990s, took the childhood and life of writer Yukio Mishima as his muse when creating the original ballet "M" in 1993, but his imagination of...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2010

North Korea evokes pity and condemnation

UNITED NATIONS — Amid severe food shortages affecting up to a quarter of the population, horrific human rights abuses, and an expanding and costly nuclear weapons program, the United Nations has tried to respond to North Korea with a combination of carrots and sticks.
BUSINESS
Dec 3, 2010

Steel mills must unite to compete: Nisshin CEO

The nation's stainless steel mills must combine or ally to regain ground lost to rivals in China and South Korea, Nisshin Steel Co.'s chief executive officer said.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Dec 2, 2010

Deck the halls with bottles of plastic . . .

'Tis the season for grand Christmas displays in Japan, but this year Takashimaya department stores does it will style, thrift and eco-consciousness.
LIFE / Digital / Japan Pulse
Dec 1, 2010

Charismatic shop assistants are back in style

The returning popularity of store staff blogs show that strategic charisma can go a long way toward good PR and sales.
EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 2010

Vote of confidence for the KMT

Local elections in Taiwan are considered a bellwether for national politics. By that standard, the Kuomintang (KMT), the ruling party on the island, should be feeling good. KMT candidates won three of five mayoral seats in the local elections held Saturday. While a lot can change between now and 2012,...
LIFE / Digital
Dec 1, 2010

Lady Gaga goes offline for charity

Alicia Keys and Lady Gaga take charity work seriously, and they're going offline to prove it.
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2010

Toyota fixing Prius coolant pump

Toyota is fixing the pumps that cool the hybrid system in 650,000 Prius cars — the automaker's prized environmentally friendly vehicle — but is adamant the repair being carried out worldwide isn't another recall.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 30, 2010

Justice not served in navy abuse case

This summer, a U.S. Navy doctor, Lt. Cmdr. Anthony L. Velasquez, 48, walked free after serving seven days in the brig at the Yokosuka base in Kanagawa Prefecture. He had admitted to two counts each of wrongful sexual contact and conduct unbecoming an officer. He had, however, gotten off lightly, with...
EDITORIALS
Nov 30, 2010

Diet must focus on duties

Monday marked the 120th anniversary of the ceremony to celebrate the opening of the Imperial Diet, which was held on Nov. 29, 1890, with the Emperor Meiji attending and reading an imperial message. Under the Meiji Constitution, the Diet was composed of the House of Peers and the House of Representatives....
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 30, 2010

Tokyo: Who — if anyone — should be punished for the Senkaku collision video leak?

Olivia MokStudent, 21 (Chinese)I think no one should be punished because the navigator (who uploaded the video to YouTube) revealed the truth, and people have the right to know. I think what the government is doing by trying to hide the information is just another form of censorship.
BUSINESS
Nov 29, 2010

More work needed to fix global financial system

Despite the default risks being raised by the sovereign debt crisis, European unification as a political project will remain intact, and the euro will continue to make sense as a single regional currency in an era when financial markets and global trade are interconnected, a senior European economist...
EDITORIALS
Nov 29, 2010

Following up on biodiversity

The COP10 biological meeting in Nagoya, which ended Oct. 30, produced the Nagoya Protocol (governing access to genetic resources) and the Aichi Targets (aimed at greatly reducing biodiversity loss). Japan, the COP10 chair, and other countries will have to take steps to flesh out these achievements. ...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 28, 2010

It's time Japan shook off its past and stopped toadying to the U.S.

Allow me to introduce a Japanese word to those unfamiliar with it. It is the verb kobiru, which means "to flatter"; "to curry favor with"; "to play up to"; "to toady to." In more up-to-date parlance, it may be rendered as "to suck up to."
CULTURE / Books
Nov 28, 2010

Tales of a Heian Casanova

Ariwara no Narihira (825-880), a Japanese Don Juan, a Casanova of the Heian Period (794-1185), a poet, one of the prime authors of "Ise Monogatari," is the hero of these 125 interconnected tales written in verse with prose links.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2010

The Caucasus imperative in summit season

YEREVAN, Armenia — Following the Group of 20 meetings in Seoul and the NATO summit in Portugal, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will hold its first summit in 10 years in Astana, Kazakhstan's spanking new capital city.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Nov 28, 2010

Education profiteers and the public trough

NEW YORK — A college or university, especially of a private variety, may not be "an eleemosynary institution," as Sen. Sam Ervin, of the Watergate hearings, might put it were he alive, but the American insistence on free-market notions has brought the matter to the other extreme in higher education....
EDITORIALS
Nov 27, 2010

The luck of the Irish

In the aftermath of Ireland's decision to seek a rescue from the European Union and International Monetary Fund, two questions linger. The first is why wasn't this crisis anticipated. The second is which country is next. The European Union has struggled to contain its members' economic difficulties;...

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’