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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2011

Sony NGP no threat: Nintendo chief

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said Friday that rival Sony was taking a different tack from his company and so he remains upbeat about his 3-D portable game machine going on sale next month.
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2011

The U.S. president's vision

In the runup to U.S. President Barack Obama's third State of the Union address, the White House emphasized how different the speech would be. Mr. Obama would eschew the usual catalog of initiatives that was dismissed as "small ball" by his predecessor, and focus instead on a vision for the nation. The...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2011

Kan defends being S&P-blindsided

Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday defended his remarks on the downgrade of Japan's sovereign credit rating by Standard & Poor's, saying he had yet to be informed of the news when he said he was "not familiar with the matter."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 29, 2011

New Yorker finds success within himself in Kyoto

American restaurateur Charles Roche, 62, credits his love of feting others to having grown up in the warm and noisy embrace of an extended Italian-American family in the Bronx. As part of a food-loving clan he jokingly refers to as "the Sopranos without the crime," he remembers splitting chestnuts and...
COMMENTARY
Jan 29, 2011

The task awaiting Tunisia

SEATTLE — Hunger strikes. These were the last resort for Tunisian activists as they fought against a brutal and highly oppressive regime. Prior to the ousting of Zineal-Abidine Ben Ali by an unprecedented people's uprising on Jan. 14, there seemed to be no end in sight to the regime's wide-ranging...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CAREER-SEARCH CRISIS
Jan 28, 2011

Foreigners solicited, hard-pressed to stay

Despite sending his resume to more than 15 companies, Bryan Cheng, a Taiwanese graduate student at Waseda University in Tokyo, hasn't received any positive replies.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CAREER-SEARCH CRISIS
Jan 28, 2011

Flawed recruiting system sparks some to fight back

When it comes to job hunting in Japan, there is something called a "naitei," an informal promise of employment given to students who pass the applicant screening, written tests and mind-crunching interviews.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 28, 2011

Sapporo's winter wonderland

Winter has been a treacherous affair overseas recently. The use of terms such as "snowmageddon" and "snowpocalypse" conjure up images of the worst the season has to offer. But while many in the West suffer from the stresses of snow, the city of Sapporo will revel in it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2011

'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'

There was a time when an Oliver Stone film would approach its topic in much the same way that a pit-bull would approach a burglar's meaty calf. Films such as "JFK," "Natural Born Killers" and "Salvador" knew exactly who their targets were, and didn't mince around trying to be "fair" or objective; it...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2011

'Copie Conforme (Japan title: Tosukaana no Gansaku)'

"Copie Conforme" is intimate without being intrusive, blending insight and cynicism to portray the dynamics of a marriage that never was.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2011

Greed is good again in 'Wall Street' sequel

BEVERLY HILLS, California — After having announced a week earlier that he had beaten cancer, Michael Douglas took the stage at the Golden Globes awards ceremony in Beverly Hills, California, on Jan. 16 and was greeted with a warm round of applause.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2011

Sony unveils NGP portable game console

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. on Thursday took the wraps off its new hand-held game device, which has features never before seen on portables, including dual analog joysticks and front and rear touch pads.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jan 28, 2011

Japan's indie acts need to break domestic scene's 'glass ceiling'

There's a feeling in the air these days, not least on these pages, that Japan is becoming more culturally insular. Japanese video games are losing out to South Korea and the West in the race to explore the online frontier; animation, once the standard-bearer of "cool Japan," has retreated into a self-congratulatory...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 28, 2011

Saving the individual in times of conflict

The Japanese Western-style painter Saburo Aso (1913-2000) came of age as an artist during Japan's crescendo of militarism that began with the Manchurian Incident of 1931 and came to an ignominious end in 1945. But he refused to be drawn into the officially promoted propaganda painting of the time. The...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2011

Watershed moment for U.S. space exploration

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — More than 50 years ago (1957), the Soviets launched the world's first orbiting satellite, beating the United States into space. For Americans, the "Sputnik moment" was a wakeup call that pushed the U.S. to increase investment in technology and science education. Months later,...
COMMENTARY
Jan 27, 2011

The nature of the next Mideast war

LONDON — The release by the Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera of 16,000 leaked Palestinian documents covering the past 10 years of peace negotiations has driven a stake through the heart of the already moribund "peace process."
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2011

Leaf reverses carmakers' flight abroad

YOKOSUKA, Kanagawa Pref. — The Leaf electric car is rolling down the bustling assembly line at Nissan's Oppama plant, taking the place of a gasoline-powered compact whose production was moved abroad last year.
EDITORIALS
Jan 27, 2011

Mr. Hu's successful visit

It is not even one month into 2011 and relations between the United States and China are picking up in intensity. Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made a long-awaited trip to China to restart stalled military to military dialogue. That ice-breaking visit was followed by a state...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Jan 27, 2011

Designs that are tidy, clean and stylin'

Tidy brand squeezes out another good design
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 27, 2011

Champion itasha drivers Rei and Cloud

Rei Densetsu and his sister Cloud are champion itasha (decorated car) drivers. At the 2010 Fuji Speedway itasha event, where Japan's best-decorated cars are judged on their designs, Cloud won the Impact Prize and Rei received the Special Award for their outrageously decked-out vehicles. The term "itasha"...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2011

Short supply may force wheat price hike

Japan, Asia's second-biggest wheat importer, may increase prices for flour millers by the most since 2008 as weather problems from Australia to North America curb supply, said Nobuyuki Chino, president of Unipac Grain Ltd.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Jan 26, 2011

Hakuho on top again

Prediction correct from the pre-basho Sumo Scribblings in that Hakuho did indeed win the yusho. He did so yet again with a day to spare as his challengers gradually fell away during the second week. Maegashira and future sanyaku man Okinoumi (11-4) were the best of the chasing bunch, before being beaten...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2011

Economics for the people

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — We are in the midst of a boom in popular economics: books, articles, blogs, public lectures, all followed closely by the general public.
COMMENTARY
Jan 26, 2011

Why did Duvalier return to Haiti?

LONDON — A confidential 2006 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Haiti, made public by WikiLeaks, said the United States viewed the possible return of either of the two exiled Haitian ex-presidents, Jean-Bertrand Aristide or Jean-Claude Duvalier, as "unhelpful." But one of them, former president-for-life...
EDITORIALS
Jan 26, 2011

Mr. Kan sets his agenda

Prime Minister Naoto Kan, in his policy speech before the Diet on Monday, expressed his determination to carry out unified reform of the social security and the tax system, which would include raising the consumption tax, and "opening the nation" in the 21st century through large-scale trade liberalization....

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