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CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 4, 2013

NHK spotlights gunslinging daughter of the north in yearlong Sunday drama

How to rebuild when you've lost everything? In the immediate aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, as many thousands of people in northeastern Japan sought to answer that question for themselves, public broadcaster NHK began looking for a historical figure whose story might...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Jan 1, 2013

Spoon & Tamago

Raised in Japan, the Brooklyn-based artist and writer who goes by the moniker Johnny Strategy has been blogging about Japanese art and design at Spoon & Tamago since 2007. Having studied art education and art and visual technology, he also has a background in pottery and hones the craft when not generating...
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 31, 2012

Fed's policies more risky than 'cliff'

In the short term, Washington lawmakers are understandably preoccupied with trying to avoid the "fiscal cliff."
EDITORIALS
Dec 23, 2012

Facedown over privacy

In and around Tokyo, face-recognition cameras have started to take photos of passersby at various locations. Supermarket chains, shopping malls and vending machines inside JR East stations all have been using face-recognition software to identify the sex and age of individuals who come within line of...
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Dec 19, 2012

2012 has been a big year on the Japanese social-media scene

Twitter continues to ride high. Facebook has grown a lot, but newcomer Line seems set to overtake it. Social game companies Gree and Mobage have shifted their overseas expansion into high gear. And Mixi finally admits that it needs to try harder to understand what its members want. In this month's column,...
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2012

Eco-, charity-awareness tied to newspaper readership

People who are daily inclined to read newspapers for long periods tend to have a strong sense of charity and environmental awareness, market researcher Video Research Ltd. and advertising agency Dentsu Inc. have said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Nov 3, 2012

Free magazines zoom in on all things Japanese

While English-language magazines in Japan are fast becoming a species in danger of extinction, Europe is experiencing a renewed interest in this country thanks to a veteran French journalist who since 2010 has been publishing Zoom Japon (and its English version, Zoom Japan), a free monthly magazine about...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 7, 2012

Shigesato Itoi shares lots of 'delicious life'

Shigesato Itoi is an established name in the Japanese cultural scene, but what he is known for may differ depending on who you ask.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 28, 2012

Stage tribute to Jackson hits all the right notes

Like many people in the 1980s, Adrian Grant was a huge Michael Jackson fan. He was so fond of the "King of Pop" that he started a Jackson fan magazine titled "Off The Wall" in 1988. Grant says he wrote and designed the entire first issue by himself — in total, he published a scant 200 copies.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 16, 2012

Japan's depressing increase in psychoactive drug use

In July, the British pharmaceutical behemoth GlaxoSmithKline reached a $3 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over the company's illegal marketing of several drugs in the United States. One of these, the antidepressant Paxil, was pushed by GSK salespersons for treating children, even...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 9, 2012

It will take more than a pop group to save Fukushima's reputation

Last March, Tatsuya Yamaguchi of the idol group Tokio told the media that he was determined to someday reopen Dash Village, the farm that he and his bandmates built from scratch as an ongoing project on their long-running Nippon TV series "The Tetsuwan Dash." The farm is in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture,...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2012

Why do American junk food giants feel the urge to force-feed us tidbit sermons on social issues?

Since when does serving up junk food give someone a license to preach?
COMMENTARY
Aug 17, 2012

Ryan invites a 'conversation'

The selection of Paul Ryan — chairman of the House Budget Committee — as Mitt Romney's vice presidential candidate has the potential to turn this dreary presidential campaign into a meaningful debate over the size and role of the federal government.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2012

Five myths about Obama's economic stimulus

President Barack Obama's February 2009 stimulus bill, the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was a political disaster. It helped fuel the Republican revival of 2010 and now stars in Mitt Romney's ads. The president even stopped uttering the word "stimulus."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Jul 24, 2012

Psychology, counseling interests unite couple

Japanese-American John Shiomi, 40, and his wife, Misako, 32, met in the city of Fukuoka in January last year. Misako had posted a message about wanting a friend in the online version of Fukuoka Now, a free publication for foreigners in the area.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 10, 2012

Readers lament the ever-shrinking eikaiwa salary

Some readers' responses to "The curious case of the eroding eikaiwa salary" by Patrick Budmar (Zeit Gist, July 3):
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2012

Mazda ends rotary output, takes the fuel-efficient route

Many people of a certain age remember Mazda Motor Corp.'s catchy ads from the 1970s. "Piston engines go boing-boing," they said. "Mazda goes hummmm." The voice-over sang: "There's nothing like it on the road today; the rotary engine is here to stay."
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 17, 2012

Job-hunting tips; history of Cook Islands; CM of the week: Clorets

As everyone knows, the job market is tight — even for young people just entering the workforce. This week, the NHK "real life" information program, "Otona e Tobira TV" ("The Door to Adulthood TV"; NHK-E, Thurs., 7:25 p.m.) offers advice for job seekers, who are confronted with an economic environment...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 17, 2012

Watami under scrutiny after karōshi

Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto has been compared to Adolf Hitler in the media for his authoritarian governing style, but on a realistic level he seems more like an overbearing boss. The famous tattoo controversy comes down to the notion that, as mayor, he employs city workers, and since the city's residents...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 3, 2012

Time travel to eco Edo; AKB48 elections; CM of the week: Masami Hisamoto for Kao

June 3 through 10 is Eco Week on Nippon TV, so it is airing some specials emphasizing environmental issues. One is "Chotaiken! Time Warp Ryokosha Oedo-hen" ("Super Experience! Time Warp Travel Agency Oedo Edition"; Tues., 9 p.m.).
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
May 29, 2012

Your haiku: the good, the bad and the ugly of Japan

The following are the winners of the haiku competition launched to mark the Community section's 10th anniversary. The five recipients of the top prize, a copy of Debito Arudou and Akira Higuchi's "Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants and Immigrants," are marked by an asterisk. Other winners will receive...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 20, 2012

TV: no longer the drug of the people

Last week, Japan's fifth largest discount electronics retailer, Bic Camera, announced it would soon obtain a 50 percent share of Japan's sixth-largest discount electronics retailer, Kojima, thus making the combined companies Japan's second-largest electronics retailer. Bic operates 34 stores in large...
CULTURE / Music
May 18, 2012

Will the world soon wake up to the scent of Perfume?

When the Nippon Budokan was built in 1964, its architects probably never envisaged it one day resembling a massive nightclub filled with hundreds of laser beams in every shade of neon as three women in lightup minidresses danced like finely tuned robots to the sound of the bassiest bombast imaginable....
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 13, 2012

'Where are they now' special; celebrities battle it out; CM of the week: Tokyo Gas

The variety show "Bakuho the Friday" (TBS, Friday, 7 p.m.) expands from an occasional special to a weekly series. The title is a mashup of Bakusho Mondai, the comedy duo who act as hosts, and jōhō, which means information. The theme is in-depth information about showbiz people, in particular those...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
May 1, 2012

Who you buy a home from can make a big difference in price

We met the real estate agent at Honda Station on the Sotobo Line in Chiba Prefecture. As we drove to the property we talked about the area. Though a typically cramped Japanese bedroom community, it's a bit older than most, so the houses were more varied in shape and size, with wider spaces between them,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 29, 2012

Erika Sawajiri is an "Evil Woman"; controversial DaVinci paintings; CM of the week: Lotte Ghana

She's back, and badder than ever! Actually, before her monumental fall from grace, actress Erika Sawajiri rose to fame on her innocent image and ability to weep on cue. But after dissing her own film at a press conference she became poison.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Apr 23, 2012

Land grabs raise security issues

A foreign-capital property buying spree that has extended to areas in and around facilities of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and the American armed forces could pose a threat to Japan's security.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers