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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 31, 2010

Groping pregnant women shouldn't be what's it about

On Jan. 14, 36-year-old comedian Sayaka Aoki made her last TV appearance before taking some time off to have a baby. The appearance was on Fuji TV's noontime variety show "Waratte Ii to mo" ("It's OK to laugh"), where she was a semiregular. The show's host, Tamori, placed his hands on Aoki's belly as...
JAPAN / Media
Jan 31, 2010

Study finds government support for media is rapidly shrinking

NEW YORK — Government subsidies for the media, which are not widely known but are a long-running source of revenue for publishers, are quietly vanishing just as the industry is struggling to remain commercially viable, according to a new report released Thursday.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 31, 2010

Bright lights, big city, book-loving ninja

In 2008, prolific novelist Andrew Vachss (it rhymes with "tax") brought down the curtain on his series of 18 novels featuring the protagonist Burke, "an ex-con turned avenging angel for hire." Vachss' newest work, "Haiku," lacks the urban mercenary's charismatic presence, but it does return to familiar...
BASEBALL
Jan 31, 2010

Resentment of Valentine's power factored in downfall

Third in a four-part series
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2010

Hatoyama sets agenda in Diet

Drawing on Gandhi quotes for inspiration, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama called on his colleagues Friday to make 2010 "a new start for Japan" in his first administrative policy speech at the ordinary Diet session.
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2010

Shots across the bow

North Korea fired field artillery rounds near the de facto maritime border between North and South Korea on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On Wednesday alone, it is estimated that the North fired more than 100 rounds into North Korean waters 2 to 3 km from the Northern Limit Line. It is the first time...
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2010

Why are Toyota gas pedals sticking? It's complicated

WASHINGTON — For a century, the basic idea behind pressing the accelerator on a car has been pretty straightforward. What's going wrong with some Toyotas isn't simple.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 30, 2010

The culinary art of feeding the soul, with zest of Zen

Soothing sunlight fills the peaceful living space; arrayed atop a bamboo leaf, a slice of yuzu and mikan tart beckons, complemented by a steaming cup of herbal tea. In the Spartan abode of Valerie Duvauchelle, a French cooking teacher and zazen practitioner, nothing indicates her former life as an executive...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Japan Pulse
Jan 29, 2010

Which e-reader will conquer Japan?

The time for e-readers has finally arrived, but which one will prevail? Or more importantly, which one will attract manga-readers?
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 29, 2010

Golden Kings confident despite losing Newton

The Ryukyu Golden Kings' championship aspirations took a major hit last weekend when Jeff Newton sustained a dislocated left shoulder in Saturday's game against the Kyoto Hannaryz.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 29, 2010

A bully pulpit for Obama's financial reforms

BERKELEY, Calif. — President Barack Obama has not had an easy first year economically. He inherited a financial system on the verge of collapse. He was bequeathed an economy in recession and an unemployment rate destined to rise. And he faced a Congress and an economics profession with a tendency to...
/ Sarah Furuya Coaching
Jan 29, 2010

Google, China and the facts of life

Google's motto is "don't be evil." Some assert that such sentiment — common sense for most human beings — is irrelevant for a corporate entity dedicated to the pursuit of profit. Yet Google is no jordinary company. It provides the infrastructure through which a significant portion of the world's...
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Jan 29, 2010

Toyota's image ills long-term: experts

Toyota Motor Corp.'s accelerator pedal problem isn't likely to have much of an impact on its bottom line this year, but the damage to its image will undermine it in the long term, analysts said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 29, 2010

'The Lovely Bones'

Director Peter Jackson's latest, "The Lovely Bones," has been out in the United States for a while now, and the critics have been pretty merciless. It relies too much on special effects, it lacks key elements of the novel it's based on (Alice Sebold's best seller), some of the performances fail to connect...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 29, 2010

Florence and the Machine

If 2009 was billed as the year of the girls, then Florence Welch was undoubtedly the eccentric, free-spirit-made-good.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2010

Blooming successes flower in artwork

East Asian flower-and-bird painting emerged as a genre in China around the 8th century and the tradition has survived through to the present. Its resonances for modern and contemporary Japanese artists are currently the theme of two very different exhibitions: "By the Water-lily Pond" at the Asahi Beer...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 28, 2010

Fruit vendor Takahiko Takahashi

Come rain or shine, Takahiko Takahashi, 69, is outdoors joking with customers and packing delicious peaches, mikan (mandarins), nashi (Japanese pears), apples and melons into their shopping baskets. Though he's a Tokyo fruit vendor, he knows and loves his vegetables, too. He even grows his own spinach,...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jan 27, 2010

Van Gundy the definition of disingenuous

NEW YORK — Jeff Van Gundy's insincerity, his most important product, was on full display Friday throughout ESPN's coverage of the Lakers' victory over the Knicks.

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