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Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2008

Rightists' 'Yasukuni' preview gets thumbs down

At a special preview of "Yasukuni" demanded by rightwing groups, some of the 150 members criticized the controversial, but award-winning, documentary about the so-named Tokyo war shrine and even threatened to sue the state for subsidizing part of its production.
EDITORIALS
Apr 18, 2008

Safety comes first at nuclear plants

The Atomic Energy Commission's white paper on nuclear power for 2007 that has been adopted by the government says that a worldwide increase in nuclear-power generation is indispensable to fighting global warming. This is in line with the government's call for halving CO・emissions by 2050. But promoting...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Apr 18, 2008

The Great Japan Beer Festival, the Grand Hyatt hits 5, and Cantonese cuisine at the Mandarin Oriental.

Grand Hyatt's fifth anniversary The Grand Hyatt Tokyo will serve special dinner courses at all of its restaurants and one of its bars as part of "In celebration of the Five Senses of the Grand Hyatt Tokyo," which marks its fifth anniversary on April 25.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 18, 2008

'Paranoid Park'/'You, the Living'

Spree killer, rock star, average teenage skater. Director Gus Van Sant sees all three in much the same light: emotionless, affectless, blank. Numb characters for a numb generation? Or is Van Sant's penchant for an aesthetic — an aloof, arty minimalism — blinding him to things like personality, expression,...
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2008

Toyota's Hino Motors to end truck production at U.S. plant

Toyota's truck subsidiary, Hino Motors Ltd., will stop making trucks at one of its U.S. plants as surging oil prices and the credit crisis squelches demand, a company spokesman said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 18, 2008

'Shaolin Girl'

Chihiro Kameyama, Japan's most successful film producer, is not a man to miss an opportunity. When Stephen Chow's comedy "Shaolin Soccer" became a smash in Japan in 2002, Kameyama had the idea of joining with Chow to make a Japanese spinoff. Now, six years later, we have "Shaolin Shojo (Shaolin Girl),"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2008

How Cheap Trick put the Budokan on the map

The first pop group to ever play Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo was The Beatles in 1966, a concert that caused quite a scandal because of the auditoriums' semisacred status as Japan's premier martial-arts venue. Rightwingers protested the show but in the end the prerogatives of capitalism prevailed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 2008

A simulacrum of the city

'With love from . . ." — it's the kind of message an expatriate might pen. Implicit in it is the warmth in the offering, a written embrace.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2008

Designer's 'ecological fur' line slammed as 'green-wash' ploy

Basking in the runway spotlight at a Tokyo fashion show Monday, next to the ¥5 million Russian sable coat is a cape of lowly polyester sewn with chinchilla that's being billed as "ecological fur."
BUSINESS
Apr 17, 2008

Japan blocks TCI from upping J-Power stake

The government on Wednesday rejected a U.K.-based hedge fund's request to raise its stake in Japan's largest electricity wholesaler, citing a potential threat to national security.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 2008

Up close with images of faith

W ith its current exhibition of National Treasures from Yakushi-ji Temple, the Tokyo National Museum is offering a not-to-be-missed opportunity to see masterpieces of ancient Buddhist and Shinto art. For the first time ever, they are being displayed in a museum so that they can be studied much more closely...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2008

Enduring anime reveals Japan's ghoulish spirit

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the debut of "GeGeGe no Kitaro," an animated children's TV series about the supernatural that's become a Japanese institution.
EDITORIALS
Apr 16, 2008

G7's dim view of global economy

When financial chiefs from the world's leading economic powers met in Washington last week, they painted a dimmer view of the global economy than they did at their February meeting in Tokyo and endorsed a plan aimed at stabilizing the financial markets hit by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis.
EDITORIALS
Apr 16, 2008

Halting ODA's downward trend

Japan was the world's top foreign aid donor from 1991 to 2000, topping the United States. But faced with budget shortages, Japan has been reducing its official development assistance in recent years. A report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says that in 2007 Japan slipped...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 16, 2008

Omissions and risky commissions

For several years now I have been at work on a new book — to be titled "Field Guide to the Birds of East Asia" — that is due to be published later this year. You may think it would be an easy matter to put together such a tome; after all, ornithologists and birdwatchers have been studying birds for...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Apr 15, 2008

How hard should it be to get a ticket to see sumo?

Earlier this year, Kokonoe Oyakata, former yokozuna Chiyonofuji, was appointed head of the Nihon Sumo Kyokai's (NSK) Public Relations Department.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 15, 2008

TSE shrugs off pitfalls in quest to be a hit

It was reported earlier this month that Tata Motors Ltd., India's largest automobile company, plans to debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange this year.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight