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CULTURE / Books
Dec 27, 2009

First glimpses of a new world

THE LURE OF CHINA: Writers From Marco Polo to J.G. Ballard, by Frances Wood. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2009, 283 pp., £19.99 (hardcover) Not many readers follow the adventures of Robinson Crusoe as far as China, or even realize he went there. But the first volume of the famous story...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 27, 2009

The year's top news in brief, final `Hidden Talent' show, and Shinichi Hoshi's short stories

SMAP's leader, Masahiro Nakai, is not just this year's co-emcee of NHK's New Year's Eve song contest again. He's hosting specials throughout this week and next all over the TV dial.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 27, 2009

Decade's end abuzz and a-flutter with wist for a warm poetic past

At the end of the year — and, particularly, the end of a decade — an old man's fancy turns, involuntarily, to nostalgia.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 27, 2009

The year's top news in brief, final `Hidden Talent' show, and Shinichi Hoshi's short stories

SMAP's leader, Masahiro Nakai, is not just this year's co-emcee of NHK's New Year's Eve song contest again. He's hosting specials throughout this week and next all over the TV dial.
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2009

Hatoyama to seek progress on Russia-held isles

Obama," he said. On the dispute over the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture, Hatoyama said people might be worried that the issue may affect future bilateral relations.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 26, 2009

Storyteller of implausible success

Imagine this: An Indian diplomat in London churns out his first novel during a two-month hiatus before his next posting. The novel becomes an international best-seller and is translated into 42 languages. Before the book is even printed it has been optioned for a film, which goes on to win eight Academy...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2009

The day that Romania's 'bears' fought back

NEW YORK — The late Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu liked to hunt bear. With his retinue, he would retreat to a lodge in Transylvania and sally forth, locked and loaded. He was accustomed to good fortune, for his huntsmen took precautions. They would chain some poor beast to a tree, drug it to...
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2009

Panasonic boasts rise in lithium-ion output

Panasonic Corp. has developed more powerful batteries for use in everything from laptops to electric vehicles, the Japanese electronics maker said Friday.
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2009

Deflation dents consumer prices by 1.7%

Consumer prices fell for a ninth month in November, adding to signs that deflation will undermine growth in the world's second-largest economy.
COMMENTARY
Dec 25, 2009

Ever-widening pay gaps

LONDON — According to recent reports, chief executives of top British companies are now paid 81 times more than the average British worker. The pay gap has nearly doubled in the past decade. There is no justification for this trend.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 25, 2009

' Higanjima'

Hollywood likes its action movies fast and furious, their plot lines reducible to a phrase.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 25, 2009

' The Young Victoria'

"The Young Victoria" may be about a queen who lived some two centuries ago, but the film displays a very modern sense of schadenfreude. Whether it's Britney or Michael, Tiger or Amy, the only thing we love more than ogling the celebrity lifestyle is evidence that they are more messed-up and dysfunctional...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 25, 2009

Mexico Music Festival 2010

Yuriko Kuronuma, a renowned Japanese violinist based in Mexico, never gives up.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 25, 2009

Art world fortunes linked to the 'noughty' economy

Visual arts, theater, dance, classical music, craft — for all those cultural pursuits that are, for better or worse, largely dependent on the beneficence of public funding bodies, the end of the decade arrived about as suddenly and cataclysmically as a train crash.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Dec 25, 2009

Legendary, dirty samurai gets makeover

Singer and actor Masaharu Fukuyama hit the nail on the head when he said that Sakamoto Ryoma is the kind of person onto whom anyone can project themselves.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 25, 2009

Murakami's influence continues to prevail

If Japan's artists were aware of the largely meaningless meanderings of government arts policy during the noughties, and the gradual rebuilding of art-world infrastructure laid waste by the bursting of the bubble economy in the early 1990s, then they didn't let it distract them from their work.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Dec 24, 2009

Handy music, Eiffel Tower Jr., analog emoticons and peaceful weaponry

Music of the spheres
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Dec 24, 2009

Handy music, Eiffel Tower Jr., analog emoticons and peaceful weaponry

Music of the spheres
COMMENTARY
Dec 24, 2009

Aftermath of Copenhagen

"The city of Copenhagen is a crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport," said John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, on Friday night. "There are no targets for carbon cuts and no agreement on a legally binding treaty."
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 23, 2009

Yappa! Abbreviated Japanese ain't all that bad

"Ain't" ain't a word. My high school English teachers pounded that into my head. And they were right — "ain't" is not proper English. On the other hand, it is used colloquially by people all over the English-speaking world. Language is not just limited to those words found in reference books and textbooks....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2009

Using financial aid to curb suicides

KURIHARA, Miyagi Pref. — Four years ago, suicides in this city in the Tohoku region were running at nearly double the national rate, and as the global financial meltdown hit Japan they might have been expected to go even higher.
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2009

Battery boost

Electronics maker Panasonic Corp. has developed a rechargeable battery that can store 10 percent more power than a model it introduced last week, two people familiar with the product said.

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’