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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2009

Swamped by laughter

I'd met Satoshi Miki several times before interviewing him for "Instant Numa." Our senses of humor mesh well enough that the recording of the interview often sounds like a sitcom laugh track.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2009

'Instant Numa'

Comedy is big box office in Hollywood now, with such comic odes to male immaturity as "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" grossing north of $100 million. In Japan, on the other hand, making the locals laugh in a movie theater is still the hardest job in the industry — and the returns for comedies...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / LIQUID CULTURE
May 22, 2009

A purist at work behind the bar

"A bar is no place for a woman. The important characters are always men."
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
May 22, 2009

Phoenix's Nakamura looks back on team's first season in bj-league

Despite a 36-win regular season, the best record in the Eastern Conference, and a trip to the Final Four, Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix coach Kazuo Nakamura didn't describe his team's first season in the bj-league as a resounding success.
MORE SPORTS
May 21, 2009

'Cowboy Shingo' tips hat to Masters achievement

The first thing you notice is the hat.
Reader Mail
May 21, 2009

Symbolic cleanliness vs. hygiene

In her May 17 letter, "First things first to fight the flu," Susan Menadue-Chun hits directly at one of Japan's polite fictions. Contrary to its reputation, Japan is very doubtfully the most hygienic country in the world. Washing hands is for show more than for hygiene. It's only symbolic cleanliness....
Reader Mail
May 21, 2009

Simpler, shorter review, please

I read professor Jeff Kingston's May 10 book review entitled "Continuing controversy of 'comfort women'" with some degree of interest. It and the book it reviews ("The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan" by C. Sarah Soh) deal with a topic usually not addressed in...
JAPAN / History
May 21, 2009

Apologize on record, ex-POW urges

Former prisoner of war Raymond Heimbuch told members of the Democratic Party of Japan at a hearing Wednesday that he wants an official apology from the Japanese government extended to him and to other POWs.
JAPAN
May 21, 2009

Step up to plate, Dalai Lama envoy tells Japan

Japan should have the courage to play a constructive role in realizing a mutually acceptable solution with China for Tibetan autonomy, an envoy to the Dalai Lama said Wednesday in Tokyo.
JAPAN
May 21, 2009

Flu infiltrates Tokyo as patient tally leaps to 267

Two female high school students who live in Hachioji, western Tokyo, and Kawasaki were confirmed Wednesday as having H1N1 swine flu — the first people in the Tokyo area to catch the contagion.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 21, 2009

Fashion up from Down Under

When Myf Shepherd, the next "It girl" model, stepped out onto the runway at Rosemount Australia Fashion Week in a slinky jumper, it wasn't only camera flashes that lit up the room — so did the glow of computer screens and handhelds. Not only did pens record notes like lightning on paper — keyboards...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
May 20, 2009

Aerial mice, speaker/stands and hi-def Macs

Wave your hands in the air: Wireless is just the headliner in the campaign to free computers from electric cords. While touch screens threaten to make the mouse extinct, some are trying to give traditional pointers a new lease on life. Filco has crafted the recently released BTLS900 Air Mouse (¥9,200),...
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2009

Poverty: the winner in war on global warming

PRAGUE — I am surprised at how so many people nowadays in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere have come to support policies underpinned by hysteria over global warming, particularly cap-and-trade legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and subsidies for "green" energy sources. I am convinced...
BUSINESS
May 20, 2009

Yosano brushes aside upgrade

Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said Tuesday that the decision by Moody's Investors Service Ltd. to raise its rating of the government's yen-denominated bonds doesn't alter the country's fiscal problems.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 19, 2009

IC you: bugging the alien

When the Japanese government first issued alien registration cards (aka gaijin cards) in 1952, it had one basic aim in mind: to track "foreigners" (at that time, mostly Korean and Taiwanese stripped of Japanese colonial citizenship) who decided to stay in postwar Japan.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
May 19, 2009

Tackle gender gap in mathematics, reading

Dear ministry of education,
COMMENTARY
May 19, 2009

Parliament under attack

LONDON — The Mother of Parliaments at Westminster is in deep trouble. Housed in its venerable Thames-side palace — an instantly recognized icon of democracy around the world — it is today filled with anxious legislators who feel a mixture of anger, apprehension and bewilderment.
JAPAN
May 18, 2009

Domestic H1N1 flu cases increase to 42

The number of domestic swine flu cases hit 42 on Sunday after 34 high school and college students as well as their family members and teachers in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures were confirmed to have been infected.
Reader Mail
May 17, 2009

First things first to fight the flu

Japan is undoubtedly the most hygienic country in the world. The national fetish for clean hands is symbolized in the honorary wet towel. Most foreigners like to poke fun at this fixation for clean hands, but we do secretly admire the custom and miss it when we return to our home countries.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
May 17, 2009

Don'ts for ladies, hunting pickpockets and Tokyo named Olympic host

100 YEARS AGO
JAPAN
May 17, 2009

Kinder, gentler society pledged

For newly elected Democratic Party of Japan President Yukio Hatoyama, it's all about the love.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 17, 2009

1989: A year of hopes turned sour that we all must live with today

Anniversaries do sometimes matter, but it's not often that the anniversary of an entire year deserves noting and celebrating. However, the year 1989, now 20 years past, marks a crucial turning point in history.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 17, 2009

Mayhem, madness and bumps in the night

Picture this: Darkness; a strong wind blowing; fog thickening and swirling; the ceaseless crashing of waves against a rocky shore. Not a night for nature observation you may think, but think again.

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’