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Japan Times
JAPAN
May 9, 2009

Indian consultant orchestrates Sichuan earthquake relief effort

This summer, near the first anniversary of the massive, deadly earthquake that hit China's Sichuan Province, Somasundaram Soma, an Indian management consultant in Tokyo, plans to hold a charity concert in the capital to raise funds to build schools for children in the devastated region.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 5, 2009

Go with the flow at classic 'sento'

Not simply as a means to get clean, "sento," or public baths, have traditionally been places where communication flowed. Bathing and chatting together with one's friends and neighbors in the buff exemplifies the off-guardedness of the most informal relationships.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 5, 2009

Mean streets feared under Tokyo's new safety law

Last month a group of activists called Dystopia Tokyo called a protest against what they described as a "Draconian" new city ordinance by conservative Gov. Shintaro Ishihara.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 3, 2009

It's tough times for type — but too soon to write off newspapers yet

Back in the early 1990s, my wife, children and I were visiting my in-laws when one of my daughters, then aged 6, pointed to something on the table and exclaimed, "Daddy, what's that?"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 3, 2009

Manabu Miyazaki: Outsider looking in

Born the son of a yakuza boss in Kyoto, Manabu Miyazaki is now a best-selling author. His life may read like fiction, but he raises social, political and media facts in a manner that's as frank as it is hard-hitting
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 1, 2009

A rosy way to spend Golden Week

T he rose-blossom season is coming up, and many places are offering visitors a chance to admire the flower seen in many cultures as a symbol of love and beauty at its best.
BASKETBALL
Apr 30, 2009

Tabuse shooting for spot on national team

After a nearly 20-month absence from action, the Japan men's basketball team is back with a big attraction in Yuta Tabuse, and is trying to move on to the next level with the one-time phenom.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2009

Cheap tolls may worsen traffic jams

Prime Minister Taro Aso's economic stimulus measures are about to unleash the nation's worst highway traffic jams, toll operators and police say.
EDITORIALS
Apr 24, 2009

Tokyo by-law threatens freedoms

Street performances are fun for many people and give character to streets and communities such as Tokyo's Shibuya, Harajuku, Akihabara and Kichijoji areas. But now such activities may be restricted or banned due to a revision of the Tokyo metropolitan by-law for "the building of safe and secure communities,"...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 24, 2009

Sake goes abroad, brings back fans

Times are tough for the sake industry. Gone are the days when Japan's once-beloved national beverage held a place at every table; now, in a market flooded with beer, wine and shochu, sake struggles to compete. Domestic consumption has fallen every year since 1995, hitting a record low of 700,000 kiloliters...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 21, 2009

Japan's many roads to ruin

While there are many roads to democracy and prosperity, in Japan it is roads that may take the country in a different direction. In their latest book on construction in Japan, "Doro o do suru ka" ("What to do about the roads?"), lawyer Takayoshi Igarashi and journalist Akio Ogawa paint a bleak picture...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 21, 2009

Kaneko's streak gives Fighters double vision

If Nippon Professional Baseball is serious about speeding up games this season, it should stop Makoto Kaneko from batting.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 19, 2009

On the trail of the ancients

Today, most visitors to Kamakura reach the former shogun's capital by rail. But the railway was not blasted through hills until 1889, and in shogunal days travelers arrived via the seven kiridoshi, passes cut through hills as entrances to the city. Deciding to enter Kamakura like the ancients, we took...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Apr 19, 2009

Potting the pink in Saitama

Thumbing through any of the dozen Tokyo sex-service recruit magazines reveals ads for shops, indexed by region, seeking young ladies to serve in various fuzoku (sex-related) clubs and bars.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 18, 2009

Imagine no possessions

Everyone has heard how the Japanese have no furniture in their houses and how they sit on the floor and sleep on futons.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 2009

Darkness at the opera

Say the word "opera," and a string of flamboyant images spring to mind, from vivid stage sets to dramatic divas — unless it's the world of opera as seen through the singular gaze of artist Sophy Rickett.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 2009

Man in a suitcase . . . with camera

"I love contemporary art, I like a lot of conceptual art. I've followed it for years, endlessly. I mean where do you want to start really?" asks Andy Summers in an interview conducted last week. "I spent quite a few years painting and all I did was think about art and go to museums. I was enmeshed in...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 17, 2009

Yokohama becomes creepy — and crawly

Rumor has it that a giant spider has taken up residence in the Bayside area of Yokohama — just across the road from the famed Red Brick Warehouse. "As big as a four-story building," they say it is, with giant brown-metal legs and 2-meter-long pincers. Worse still, information acquired by The Japan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2009

'Slumdog' Boyle celebrates beating the odds

At first glance, you could hardly find a more unlikely candidate for a Best Picture Oscar than "Slumdog Millionaire." With no stars and a cast of mostly Indian unknowns, a director best known for a controversially hip film about junkies, and — God forbid — subtitles, that would normally be three...
EDITORIALS
Apr 14, 2009

Record-breaking stimulus

The government has compiled the largest-ever economic stimulus package in the form of a fiscal 2009 supplementary budget, involving actual spending of ¥15 trillion. This is much larger than the past biggest stimulus package of ¥7.6 trillion, which the Obuchi administration compiled as a third supplementary...
COMMENTARY
Apr 11, 2009

The peacemaking process has a cultural dimension

Peace is not simply an absence of military conflict. It is a long process in which potential or actual opponents can deepen their understanding of each other and correct misperceptions or misunderstandings. If this aspect is lacking, military conflict can easily break out again.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2009

Ranks of homeless swell in Osaka

OSAKA (Bloomberg) Within two months of losing his job packing shelves at a cold-storage company in Osaka, Toshiyuki Miki said, he was homeless. He counts himself among the many people worldwide whose life has been turned upside down in the wake of the "Lehman Shock."

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami