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LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 11, 2010

Death lingers throughout Japan's hottest month

August is the month of death in Japan, what with commemorations marking the 1945 atomic bombings (原爆記念日, genbanku kinenbi) of Hiroshima (the 6th) and Nagasaki (the 9th) coming early in the month, the shūsenkinenbi (終戦記念日, end-of-war memorial day) on the 15th and the Bon holiday (お盆,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 10, 2010

Makeup Japan-style: Dark to light

Makeup for many women is a vital component of their appearance and one they take great pains to apply, even to the point of dolling themselves up during the crowded morning commute, working through the routine starting with a foundation, then eyebrows, mascara and finally lip gloss.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Aug 10, 2010

Of Charisma Men and Western Women

Last month, The Japan Times invited readers to send in their thoughts on "Charisma Man," originally a comic strip that ran from 1998 in The Alien, a Nagoya-based magazine, but lately something of a byword for the stereotypical nerdy Western guy with the beautiful Japanese girlfriend.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2010

Yen hurting Toyota's low-cost exports to U.S.

Toyota Motor Corp., the biggest exporter of autos to the U.S., is trying to cut production costs for Yaris and Corolla cars as the rising yen makes it unprofitable to build economy cars in Japan for sale abroad.
JAPAN / History
Aug 8, 2010

Kanagawa Allied POW cemetery rites held

To commemorate soldiers who died as prisoners of war in Japan during World War II, about 130 people attended the 16th annual memorial service Saturday at the British Commonwealth War Cemetery in Hodogaya, Kanagawa Prefecture, where 1,873 Allied service members are buried.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2010

Salvaging Britain's failed rights revolution

LONDON — The budget-cutting austerity program of Britain's new coalition government has been claiming all the headlines, but David Cameron's Cabinet is breaking with its Labour predecessor in another key area as well: human rights. Indeed, the human rights experiment that Tony Blair's Labour government...
EDITORIALS
Aug 8, 2010

Russia's new war anniversary

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on July 25 signed into law a bill designating Sept. 2 as "the anniversary of the end of World War II." The bill had been approved by the State Duma (lower house) on July 8 and by the Federation Council (upper house) on July 14.
COMMENTARY
Aug 8, 2010

Let's talk about an attack on Iran

LONDON — When Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest-ranking American officer, was asked recently on NBC's "Meet the Press" show whether the United States has a military plan for an attack on Iran, he replied simply: "We do."
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / WORLD UNIVERSITY BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Aug 8, 2010

Cleanup hitter Ito makes solid impact for Team Japan

While Team Japan's pitchers were getting much of the spotlight, some hitters were worthy of attention, too.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / WORLD UNIVERSITY BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Aug 8, 2010

Despaigne's heroics carry Cuba to championship

On a day the mighty Cubans finally looked beatable, Alfredo Despaigne looked invincible.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 8, 2010

Rash of MLB no-hitters recalls NPB gems from past

Much has been reported and written about the year of the no-hitter in Major League Baseball this season, with no less than five thrown in the American and National Leagues in 2010.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 8, 2010

Lost worlds of Japan

The sound of bells echoes through the monastery at Gion Shoja, telling all who hear it that nothing is permanent. The flowers of the sala trees show that all that flourishes must fade. Proud men, powerful men will fall, like dreams on a spring night, like dust before the wind.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 8, 2010

Japan's dismal dearth of new heroic figures

"Created in response to deep popular needs, the legendary hero survives long after his death. . . . While the positive aspects of the hero's life and character come to be emphasized (or even created out of whole cloth), less attractive features are passed over in silence and remain forgotten until they...
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 8, 2010

Axed railroads signal nostalgia

The Miyanoharu Line that connected Oita and Kumamoto prefectures in Kyushu was a scenic wonder when it opened along its entire route in 1954, winding for 27 km through mountains and valleys and across no fewer than seven bridges in the town of Oguni in Kumamoto alone.
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2010

Rhetoric belies atomic policy

HIROSHIMA — At Friday's ceremony to mark the 65th anniversary of Hiroshima's atomic bombing, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the city's mayor, Tadatoshi Akiba, urged Japan to do its bit to realize a nuclear weapons-free world.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 7, 2010

Kamakura expat at one with all Buddhist deities

Mark Schumacher's home in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, requires a journey, both on foot and for the spirit.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 6, 2010

Coming of age with Hiroshima's mourning

GREENVILLE, Calif. — I arrived in Hiroshima looking for a party on Aug. 6. I was 23 and starved for American jokes, American English, American company. For the past year I had been living with a Japanese family and teaching English in Wakayama, where the only other American women I knew of were an...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 6, 2010

Hippies and hipsters brave a soggy Fuji Rock

When you're talking about a music festival whose inaugural event was literally wiped out by a typhoon, it can feel a bit petty to complain about the weather. All the same, campers arriving at Fuji Rock Festival in Naeba on Thursday last week might have hoped for a warmer welcome than the torrential downpour...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 6, 2010

'The Men Who Stare at Goats'

Reality, wrote Philip K. Dick, is what's still there even after you stop believing in it. Thus an enlightened man in our age of science may well speculate on the notion that our bodies, like the walls of the room we are in, are all made up of atoms. And atoms, for their part, contain a lot of empty space....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 6, 2010

Thoughts on Fuji — Dirty Projectors, Ozomatli, !!! and Yeasayer

Dave Longstreth, Dirty Projectors You mentioned during your show that it felt pretty early to be rocking out . . .
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 6, 2010

'Kinako — Minarai Keisatsuken no Monogatari (Kinako — The Story of an Apprentice Police Dog)'

Animal movies are a thriving genre of Japanese films that foreign critics, scholars and viewers by and large cordially detest. It's similar to the typical gaijin reaction to natto (fermented soy beans) — i.e., disgust at a humble, but beloved, made-in-Japan specialty.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 6, 2010

Feel the heat of Cuban beats

August's heat can often leave you lethargic, but Havana Rakatan has a Cuban cure for the summertime blues.
BUSINESS
Aug 5, 2010

Toyota logs quarterly profit, raises forecast

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it logged a ¥211.66 billion group operating profit for the April-June period, reversing a ¥194.86 billion loss in the same quarter last year, due mainly to brisk sales in emerging Asian markets, including Thailand and Indonesia.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / WORLD UNIVERSITY BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Aug 5, 2010

Japan reaches semifinal round

Team captain Shota Ishimine went 5-for-5 and drove in three runs to help Japan advance to the semifinals of the 5th World University Baseball Championship with a 13-0 victory over Taiwan on Wednesday at Yokohama Stadium.

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’