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EDITORIALS
Apr 27, 2007

Remembering Mr. Yeltsin

Standing atop a tank in August 1991, appealing to Muscovites to defy a coup attempt by old-guard politicians against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev -- this is the image of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin that will remain embedded forever in our memories. Although Mr. Yeltsin, who passed away...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 27, 2007

Maximo Park "Our Earthly Pleasures"

This year marks about the fifth birthday of the post-punk revival that has seen tightly dressed lads in Europe and cosmopolitan hipsters in America playing danceable rock. Of this clique, Maximo Park are the eccentric artsy and intellectual guys from northeast England who come across as not giving a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 26, 2007

Art imitates life, waking or otherwise

Wildly creative film director Michel Gondry unveils the delightful oddity of his inner selfin his latest movie, 'The Science of Sleep'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 26, 2007

Take a peak inside Henry Darger's mind

Outsider artists often present a pathetic spectacle to the world: forgotten inmates of mental institutions; shuffling, muttering loners; or misfits, like Henry Darger, who spent his workdays as a low-paid janitor and his free time writing and illustrating an unpublishable 15,145-page novel about a vast...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Apr 26, 2007

The satellite in the room

The NSAT-110 is a Japanese telecommunications satellite built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems and launched in October 2000 from French Guiana on an Ariene 4 rocket into a geostationary orbit some 35,000 km above Indonesia.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 26, 2007

'The Science of Sleep'

There's something tread-mill repetitive about conventional on-screen romance. It seems as if we've seen phone-call/e-mail angst, candlelit dinners, fights, reconciliations and sex ad nauseum (and engaged in by the same beautiful people again and again). But Stephane (played by the always amazing Gael...
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2007

KDDI reports 16% profit jump in 2006

Crediting the recently introduced number portability system, KDDI Corp. said Tuesday its group operating profit for the 2006 business year to March jumped 16.2 percent from a year earlier to 344.7 billion yen.
EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2007

Elections bolster Mr. Abe

Unlike opposition Democratic Party of Japan leader Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should be relieved by the results of Sunday's Upper House by-elections. Mr. Abe will now likely have the support to push through the Diet a bill for a national referendum procedure for a constitutional revision...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Apr 25, 2007

'Manga' meets 'keitai': a match made in Japanese technology heaven

We've all been there: squashed onto a rush-hour commuter train with barely enough room to breathe, let alone open up a book to while away the journey; trying desperately to crush a book into an overstuffed backpack before a long trip; or cursing our own lack of foresight while bored at school or work...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2007

The taming of 'speculative capitalism'

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Nicolas Sarkozy, the leading contender in the French presidential election, recently lashed out against what he called "speculative capitalism," and says he wants to "moralize the financial zone" created by the euro. What does Sarkozy mean by "speculative capitalism?" Something immoral,...
BASKETBALL
Apr 23, 2007

Evessa claims second straight bj-league c'ship

The joy of winning never grows old.
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2007

Progress in abduction probes

The National Police Agency, investigating the 1973 disappearances of a mother and her two children, has concluded that the two children were abducted by North Korean agents. The NPA will obtain a warrant for the arrest of a woman suspected of having masterminded the abduction and put her on an international...
BASKETBALL
Apr 22, 2007

Five Arrows down Albirex in semifinal

The regular season was no fluke.
Reader Mail
Apr 22, 2007

Peril in denying China's past

I hate to rain on everyone's parade, but Japan shouldn't be so readily taken in by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's recent speech in the Diet. This is because China, despite the flowery good language forwarded by Wen, is still a totalitarian regime willing to interfere in another country's domestic politics. ...
EDITORIALS
Apr 20, 2007

Tragedy in Nagasaki

A nightmare has descended upon the city of Nagasaki again. On Tuesday evening, a gangster shot and mortally wounded Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito. The mayor was campaigning for a fourth term in a Sunday election. Seventeen years ago, Mr. Ito's predecessor Hitoshi Motojima was seriously injured after being...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 20, 2007

'2:37'

A moment of stillness -- that's what "2:37" chooses for its opening shot, the camera pointed skyward, a canopy of green leaves framed against the gray sky beyond. It doesn't last long. Soon the camera moves earthward, and we enter an Australian high school where the calm is soon shattered when a student...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 20, 2007

Adventures in folk

'At a festival like this, where you're collaborating with highly talented, colorful artists during a short, intense time period, there is always a risk. But the wonderful thing about 'La Folle Journee' is that the artists are given the opportunities to work with partners who they would not have otherwise...
BASKETBALL
Apr 19, 2007

Sparks provides comic relief, big plays for team

Rasheed Sparks delivers passes and takes them away with equal precision. He also delivers some of the best punch lines in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 19, 2007

'Babel'

What surfaces in "Babel" is a feverish, desperate desire for communication. Comprised of four segments spanning three continents in locations as disparate as Morocco and Tokyo, the characters make phone calls, text message, weep, kiss and clutch at each other's arms. The need to reach out is so palpable...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 18, 2007

Outlook not very promising for Knicks

NEW YORK -- A presence in the paint, Eddy Curry is even more of a presence at the plate. He's the only player I've ever seen gain weight on a break and I don't mean commercial.
SUMO
Apr 17, 2007

Springtime sumo: giving it back to the people

Sumo in late March and throughout April each year is about pressing the flesh -- literally.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 16, 2007

Jockey Tanaka, Victory triumph in Satsuki-sho

FUNABASHI, Chiba Pref. -- The clue was in the name Sunday for those seeking this year's Satsuki-sho winner at Nakayama. In fact, the clue WAS the name -- Victory.
EDITORIALS
Apr 16, 2007

Ten years later, East Asia is back

East Asia's emerging economies have come roaring back since the 1997 financial crisis. They have recouped losses caused by that trauma, but regional governments now face new challenges that require still more creative policies and deeper reform. In fact, the difficulties will intensify as China continues...
COMMENTARY
Apr 16, 2007

Preserving the countryside

LONDON -- In Britain we have not yet quite lost the battle to preserve the countryside, but it is far from won. In Japan, however, it looks to many outsiders as if preservation is a lost cause.
Reader Mail
Apr 15, 2007

Levity relieves biases

If the image of Hachiko on his way to China on a junk freighter brought a smile at the expense of any "minority group" in Japan -- as Eve Campbell alleges it might have in her April 8 letter, "A joke that can fan prejudices" -- the only group that would qualify as the butt of such humor would be an international...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji