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EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2009

When cops drink and drive

Aug. 25 marked the third anniversary of a tragic traffic accident in the city of Fukuoka that caught nationwide attention. On that night in 2006, a car driven by a drunken Fukuoka city government worker rear-ended a sports utility vehicle carrying a family of five — a couple and their three children...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Sep 1, 2009

Students from around Asia team up at GPAC

Students from across Asia gathered last week to promote friendship and discuss some of the world's pressing issues at the Global Partnership of Asian Colleges 2009 event.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2009

A dose of common sense for the crisis in capitalism

HONG KONG — The global economic turmoil has sparked international debate over whether we are witnessing the death throes of capitalism or signs that a "new capitalism" needs to be devised. French commentators have gloated over the end of the Anglo-Saxon way of doing business, citing the need for the...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 1, 2009

A license to drive: Readers take the wheel

Japan resident Dee wrote in our last column that she had lost her U.K. driving license and couldn't get a new one from the British licensing authority because she is no longer living in the country.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2009

Komeito, LDP crash in Kansai

OSAKA — The Kansai region's most prominent members in the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito lost their seats to younger challengers Sunday, part of the overwhelming national trend in favor of the Democratic Party of Japan and the other opposition parties.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2009

Victor puts on the glitz, with dash of humble

The Democratic Party of Japan victory was large enough to leave a grin even on the face of "iron-armed" deputy leader Ichiro Ozawa.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2009

Voters, fed up with LDP, say it's time for change

As the Democratic Party of Japan's stunning victory and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's resounding defeat was reported Sunday night, many voters on the streets of Tokyo said they savored their chance to vote for change.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 30, 2009

War over whaling takes to Japan's airwaves

In early August, director Louis Psihoyos told The Toronto Star that his documentary, "The Cove," had been submitted to the Tokyo International Film Festival and rejected. In the article he quoted an unnamed TIFF "director" who said that the festival receives funding from the Japanese government, which...
LIFE
Aug 30, 2009

Family lore tells a remarkable tale of the charmed life lived by a young survivor of the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923

Just before noon on Sept. 1, 1923, after severe shaking in a small wooden house in Kyobashi, an old Tokyo district east of the Imperial Palace, my father-in-law, then a 6-month old baby — along with a steaming pot of rice — was scooped up by my father-in- law's mother as she dashed into the street....
Reader Mail
Aug 30, 2009

Live dolphins, whales add value

Regarding the Aug. 25 article "Taiji told to stop dolphin carnage or sister ties end (with Broome, Australia)": I recently saw the film "The Cove" and would like to suggest to the people who kill dolphins in the port of Taiji that the dolphins and whales that visit the area are worth more alive than...
EDITORIALS
Aug 29, 2009

Which path to recovery?

For voters, the biggest issue by far in the Aug. 30 Lower House election is the economy. Strong economic growth underpinned the Liberal Democratic Party's many years of rule. By distributing wealth to various interest groups, the LDP was able to satisfy most sectors of Japanese society.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2009

Jumbo SMAP ad pro-LDP?

SMAP, the pop group that has dominated the nation's music scene for more than two decades, urged voters to support incumbent politicians as the ruling party faces likely defeat in Sunday's Lower House election.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 28, 2009

Sadao Watanabe

Age is just a number, but for 76-year-old alto saxophonist Sadao Watanabe, some numbers matter. September sees Watanabe — fans and admirers refer to him as "Nabesada" — celebrate the 25th anniversary of Sadao's Club, his yearly concert series. Watanabe started Sadao's Club to introduce new, usually...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 28, 2009

'Martyrs'

What exactly is the definition of a horror film these days? The genre seems to have moved from its traditional goal of scaring the viewer to a more decadent phase in which extreme depictions of brutality and degradation seem to be its raison d'etre. Suspense and fright have been replaced by torture and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 28, 2009

Arctic Monkeys "Humbug"

Hard to believe, but it is nearly four years since Arctic Monkeys were a precociously talented teenage quartet on the cusp of releasing the fastest selling U.K. debut album in history, "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 28, 2009

'Ballad: Namonaki Koi no Uta'

Takashi Yamazaki was known primarily as a computer-graphics whiz when he directed the ensemble drama "Always Sanchome no Yuhi" ("Always: Sunset on Third Street," 2005). True to form, the recreation of 1950s Tokyo by Yamazaki's team at the Shirogumi effects house was hyper-realistically detailed, while...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Aug 28, 2009

Accommodation, Tsukiji Tour plan

The Royal Park Hotel in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, is offering accommodation with a guided tour of Tsukiji's fish market.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 28, 2009

Expo has designs on shoppers

Considering the heavy hit corporate Japan has suffered from the current economic downturn, it was only to be expected that entries for the nation's leading industrial design prize, the Good Design Award, would be down this year.
Reader Mail
Aug 27, 2009

'Right' remarks do enough damage

Regarding Satsuo Matsumoto's Aug. 20 letter, "Left keeps trying to disgrace Japan": Let us assume that Matsumoto's arguments are correct and that Japan bore no culpability for World War II. Why stop there? Why not also admit as fact that the Japanese people are actually descended from the sun goddess...

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes