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EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2010

Adapting to the Digital Age

The pervasive influence of digital media was highlighted on June 7 by the announcement of recommendations for changes in the authorized list of kanji for everyday use. A government advisory panel has proposed adding 196 kanji and removing five for a total of 2,136 characters.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2010

A presumptuous command of oil

HONG KONG — Bosses of Big Oil have solemnly assured a U.S. congressional inquiry that they would never, ever, be as reckless or negligent as BP in causing the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Jun 19, 2010

Why can't sumo ever seem to get a break?

Sumo is once again under attack in the domestic media — this time on the back of twin allegations. First of all, there's the one involving seniors in the sport, known as oyakata, rubbing shoulders with the Japanese underworld and supplying choice tickets to their contacts at times. The other scandal...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 18, 2010

Lack of funds fail to stop Tokyo's young theater brigade

As a promising playwright, director and actor, 31-year-old Junichi Hirota highlights a cruel fact running through Japan's theater world — namely that once technicians such as lighting engineers, sound people and set-builders are paid from box-office profits, there's often little or nothing left for...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2010

Nomura eyes world stage with U.S. hires

Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan's largest brokerage, may hire as many as 35 bankers in the U.S. this year, part of a push to become a global securities firm rivaling Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 18, 2010

Whatever you do, don't call it 'chillwave'

An online buzz began circulating last summer about a new style of music being created by underground acts in the United States. Labels used to describe the hazy tunes included "hypnagogic pop," "glo-fi" and "chillwave."
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2010

Can Kan survive the leadership gauntlet?

Japan has gone through prime ministers at a dizzying rate — Naoto Kan is the sixth in the last four years, and 14th over the past two decades — the highest turnover among the major industrialized countries.
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2010

Readers, the next generation

The launch of the iPad in Japan on May 28 was a highly anticipated event, greeted by extensive media attention and long lines of customers eager to buy Apple's latest digital gadget. While Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader have both been lauded as next-generation reading devices, the iPad does that and...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 10, 2010

Can Kan revive Japan?

HONG KONG — Naoto Kan, Japan's new prime minister, pledged to make the country's sickly economy his first priority and to pull Japan from its "quagmire of an ever- bulging debt." But that is easier said than done. It is not merely a question of when to stop the government stimulus and where to put...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 8, 2010

Whether covered or brazen, tattoos make a statement

Tattoos have long occupied a place in Japanese society, generally in the shadows of the underworld and the realm of taboo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 8, 2010

Futenma divides Okinawa's expats

Peter Simpson had just left his students at Okinawa International University and was on his way home when a helicopter slammed into the campus administration building. That no one was killed or seriously injured in the crash was remarkable given that the three-story concrete building had to be demolished...
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Jun 5, 2010

Kan needs to balance U.S. ties, China's clout

The new administration Prime Minister Naoto Kan will form next week won't have much time to act when it comes to foreign affairs.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2010

Quiet end to a vexed tenure

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama returned to his office Wednesday minutes after announcing his resignation and was greeted by hoards of reporters expecting a comment from the once-popular leader.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 4, 2010

Red and black and spread all over

The avant-garde generally gravitates toward absolutes; you're either with them or against them. But how often in history has progressive art been created in service of the state's one-size-fits-all ideology? Not many, and perhaps the best-known example is the group that appeared in a brief window of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 3, 2010

Who's subscribing to Tokyo's new creative Tabloid?

If you want to launch a new cross-discipline creative space, you could do worse than invite pop diva Lady Gaga and flamboyant New York-based artist Terence Koh.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 29, 2010

Hordes greet iPad debut in Tokyo

Apple Inc.'s much-awaited iPad debuted in Japan Friday with hundreds of people lining up for the device and celebrating its arrival at retail stores in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 28, 2010

Rising star set to shine

In September 1984 — three years after MTV: Music Television had kicked into life with British electro-pop duo The Buggles' appropriately titled 1979 classic "Video Killed the Radio Star" — Madonna strode onto a New York stage for the fledgling channel's first Music Video Awards.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 26, 2010

Veteran star Hunter impressed by Matsui's influence on Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The impact of "Godzilla" cannot be measured just by his contributions during the course of a game, but in the totality of things he does — both on the field and in the clubhouse.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 23, 2010

Can celebs cut mustard in rough-and-tumble politics?

TAs the July 11 Upper House election draws near, the parties add more candidates to their slates and, predictably, many turn out to be athletes and showbiz personalities with no political experience. Celebrity candidates have been a fixture of Japanese elections as long as there have been Japanese elections,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
May 23, 2010

Experts fear Taiji mercury tests are fatally flawed

On May 10, in a front-page lead story headlined "Taiji locals test high for mercury," The Japan Times reported the results of tests by the National Institute of Minamata Disease (NIMD) that found "extremely high methyl-mercury (MeHg) concentrations in the hair of some residents of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 21, 2010

Globally minded director goes native

It's sad but true that Japanese directors with big reputations abroad are often odd men (or women) out back home.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 18, 2010

Yoshimoto Kogyo: Entertaining the nation

One would have to be a hermit, literally shut off from all media, to avoid exposure in Japan to the comedians and other entertainers managed by Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., the nation's oldest and arguably most powerful entertainment agency.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 14, 2010

Gelmatica

In 2001, Alexander Gelman was awarded the title of one of the "world's most famous modern and contemporary artists in all media" by New York's Museum of Modern Art. The artist has since chosen Tokyo as one of his bases and often works here on projects such as TV commercials, music videos, publications...
JAPAN
May 13, 2010

Pot a long way from legalization

In early April, an Okinawa man in his late 20s visited activist Yusuke Sawada's office in western Tokyo. He had just finished serving his latest prison term, one of many that have kept him behind bars for most of the past decade, depriving him of the formative years of his life.
COMMENTARY
May 12, 2010

Democracy far from perfect

Prime ministers refusing to leave, political parties with a large number of votes being excluded and dubious coalitions being negotiated — which country are we in, the United Kingdom or Iraq?
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
May 12, 2010

Buffalo accelerates in speed and price; Sony's mug pours out more sounds

Revving up the hard drive: Solid-state discs (SSDs) are the sports cars of external hard drives. But running an SSD on USB 2.0 is akin to buying a Ferrari with only three gears. Buffalo is putting the foot down by revamping its lineup of external SSDs to run on the much faster and newer USB 3.0 connections....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 11, 2010

Japan zines: Never mind the bloggers

Koenji is a nice, quiet place in the suburbs, but venturing along its Kitanaka Street one weekend last March, you could not have missed the commotion coming out of Shirouto no Ran No. 12. Crammed inside this small rental space, dozens of people were poring over, discussing and exchanging piles upon piles...

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear