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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 26, 2010

Back to those gold soundz

Last fall, when the American rock band Pavement announced it would reunite for a series of concerts in New York's Central Park one year hence, nobody seemed surprised. Though the group stopped touring and recording 10 years ago, it never officially called it quits. The feeling was that Stephen Malkmus,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 26, 2010

'Cassandra's Dream'

Woody Allen has often commented that "making a movie is a great distraction from the real agonies of the world." While he's got a point, some days I wish he'd take up model trains or something else instead. You don't make films just to pass the time (unless you're Andy Warhol); you should be driven by...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Mar 18, 2010

Driving schools cope with an auto-immune generation

Driving schools used to be on easy street but they're struggling these days and trying to get control of the wheel.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Mar 18, 2010

Dump-truck identification numbers

Dear Alice,
COMMENTARY
Mar 13, 2010

Dim future for bluefin tuna

Everybody in the business knows that the Atlantic population of bluefin tuna is in worse trouble than the Pacific population, but how much worse?
COMMENTARY
Mar 9, 2010

Hatoyama's growth strategy for economy raises questions

Responding to the criticism that the Hatoyama Cabinet lacks a growth strategy, the government on Dec. 30 unveiled the basic policy of its new strategy for economic growth titled "For a Shining Japan."
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2010

Zero tolerance for bullying

The British media have given prominence recently to allegations that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is a bully who intimidates those who work for him. It has also been alleged that some of his staff have briefed against Cabinet ministers with whom Brown disagrees. The government has dismissed these charges...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 26, 2010

This acting lark is elementary for Downey Jr.

HOLLYWOOD — When one beholds the billboards touting the first movie in the new "Sherlock Holmes" franchise, one sees the slim, natty, Anglo-looking Jude Law and imagines he is Holmes and that the less buff, older and somewhat rumpled Robert Downey Jr. is his Dr. Watson. Wrong, of course, and despite...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 24, 2010

Don't expect an assertive Toyoda

Americans are likely in for a surprise if they expect Toyota President Akio Toyoda to put on a show of authoritative "the-buck-stops-here" clout at Wednesday's congressional hearing on the automaker's massive recalls.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2010

No. 1 automaker pitching trust amid the repercussions of recall

As the impact of Toyota Motor Corp.'s massive vehicle recalls to make free repairs unfolds on the world's automobile markets, at issue are not only the irregularities found with the Toyota models concerned but also the company's very systems for handling complaints and managing crises. Consumers are...
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2010

Can 'prince' Toyoda cut the mustard?

Toyota President Akio Toyoda, known as "the prince" in Japan, was groomed for years to head the automaker his grandfather founded.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Feb 21, 2010

Feeling the heat

Winter whiteouts, freezing weather and power outages everywhere from Europe to Washington and Beijing have been making headlines these last few months, but as fingers by the million have been going numb, Japan has one nifty weapon of mass defrostation to alleviate the seasonal problem: self-warming pads....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 13, 2010

Computer whiz turns 'strangeness' into asset

From his early days in Japan as a destitute student sleeping in train station stairwells to living in a 3-mat room that cost him ¥10,000 a month, Richard Northcott went on to head a mobile software company that now enjoys sales of $2 million a year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 12, 2010

'Shokudo Katatsumuri'

Movies about women in crisis who find their mojo through the restaurant/food business are a thriving subgenre in Japanese films, from Naoko Ogigami's Japanese-soul-food-in-Helsinki hit "Kamome Shokudo" ("Seagull Restaurant," 2006) to Mitsuhiro Mihara's "Shiawase no Kaori" ("Flavor of Happiness," 2008)...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2010

Sunday's stakes in Ukraine

MOSCOW — "A pox on both your houses" may be an appropriate individual response to frustration with the political candidates on offer in an election. But it is a dangerous sentiment for governments to hold. Choice is the essence of governance, and to abstain from it — for whatever reason — is to...
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2010

Mojo eludes Disney in Hong Kong

HONG KONG — In sharp contrast with the long-running success story that is Tokyo's Disneyland and DisneySea, the Hong Kong version is struggling.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2010

Google walkout will expand the possibilities

NEW YORK — Usually, disclosure statements go at the end of an article, but let me start with mine. I sit on the board of Yandex, a Russian Internet search company with a roughly 60 percent market share in Russia, compared to Google's 20 percent or so.
Japan Times
BASEBALL
Jan 24, 2010

Valentine's philosophy brought Marines glory, money

Second in a four-part series
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2010

Bargain-price retailers leading deflationary trend

Mieko Watanabe wanted to buy a soft white dress to wear around the house, but the ¥6,000 price tag at apparel shops put off the 23-year-old office worker. Then she saw what she wanted at a Uniqlo outlet for less than ¥3,000.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years