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Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Nov 10, 2010

Sega's Kikuchi makes a killing with 'Yakuza'

"While making the first and second games in the series, I went drinking in Kabukicho with (Toshihiro) Nagoshi, the overall producer of the franchise, two or three nights every week," says Masayoshi Kikuchi, a veteran producer at Sega, as we discuss the latest entries in his smash-hit series "Ryu ga Gotoku"...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 7, 2010

Color me upbeat despite the pessimism now sweeping this land

As the year 2010 approaches its end, if I were to express the mood of today's Japanese nation in color it would be gray bordering on charcoal.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 7, 2010

Freedom, friendship and love: a recipe for true happiness

The challenge to which this installment of "Big in Japan" seeks to rise is that of happiness. Is it possible, in these grim, sad, threatening times, to write a happy story without doing violence to journalistic relevance?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 5, 2010

Architect's floating future vision

The inexorable rise of Tokyo Sky Tree on the city's skyline has once again raised the question of what a future Tokyo might look like. The exhibition "Sousuke Fujimoto Architects: Future Visions — Forest, Cloud, Mountain" at the Watarium Museum attempts to get people thinking along these lines, while...
COMMENTARY
Nov 4, 2010

Biodiversity and small mercies

Sometimes we have to be grateful for small mercies. The deal on biodiversity that more than 190 countries agreed to in Nagoya last Friday was, as these things usually are, "a day late and a dollar short," but it's a lot better than nothing. It's even better than most people expected.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 31, 2010

A rice farmer's crusade; Japanese-American drama by `Oshin' scriptwriter; CM of the week: Yahoo!/Kirin Fire

The subject of this week's "The Professional" (NHK-G, Mon., 10 p.m.) is rice farmer Minoru Ishii, who is leading the crusade for a more open-minded approach to Japanese agriculture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 30, 2010

Kyoto-based publication true labor of love for editor

JANE SINGER Special to The Japan Times It wasn't the taste of sushi or the kindness of strangers that hooked American magazine editor John Einarsen on Japan on his first visit in November 1974.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 29, 2010

'Raiou (The Lightning Tree)'

When Ryuichi Hiroki had a big hit last year with "Yomei 1-kagetsu no Hanayome (April Bride)," a drama about a young woman's struggle with terminal breast cancer, I was glad for him. In a directing career of two decades, he had never enjoyed this sort of commercial success and, unlike the hacks who serve...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 29, 2010

'When You're Strange'

Do The Doors still matter in 2010? That's the unstated question posed to anyone watching "When You're Strange," a new documentary that tracks the band's short and tumultuous career in the 1960s.
BUSINESS
Oct 27, 2010

Sony bids adieu to the Walkman

NEW YORK — The Walkman, the Sony cassette device that forever changed music listening before becoming outdated by digital MP3 players and iPods, has died. It was 31 years old.
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 24, 2010

Nagoya event can feel far distant from nature

I have been in Nagoya attending the U.N. biodiversity confrence, COP10, for nearly a week now (two if you count the pre-COP10 meeting on biosafety, MOP 5), and I think it's safe to say I haven't heard mention of an actual animal or plant yet.
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 24, 2010

Biodiversity inspiration

The value of biodiversity can be argued from various perspectives. Foremost, in practical terms, there's its ecological service value, as we depend on it to provide us with breathable air, useable water and productive soil, for filtration of global gases and liquids, and as the resource for all of our...
LIFE
Oct 24, 2010

Have we hit those 'limits to growth'?

Forty years ago, a team of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology raised the first warnings about possible "limits to growth."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 23, 2010

No hopes where next year never comes

I have a luncheon friend who has been deep in the dumps all week. He sits slumped over, picks at his food and won't speak. The only way to bring him to life is to stick him with the tab.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 22, 2010

Here be Vampires

V ampire Weekend bassist Chris Baio exudes a happy demeanor, albeit a slightly weary one. Weary thanks to an unyielding touring schedule that finds him traveling to San Diego midway through an extensive tour of the United States; happy because there can be no reservation that his band have dominated...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2010

'Wakiyaku Monogatari (Cast Me if You Can)'

When I hear rants from foreigners about the badness of Japanese acting, I don't rise to the defense of the hammy emoting or smarmy mugging I've seen on the screen here, of which there's been plenty. But I do run through the long list in my head of the Japanese actors, from stars to supporting players,...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2010

Return of a maverick

HONG KONG — On the way to the airport in early 1990, I saw a strange face among the profusion and confusion of election posters. Not a European grandee, or indigenous Indian, or mestizo, or mulatto. It was more like Chinese, but surely not in this heart of Latin America.
Japan Times
JAPAN / HANEDA COMEBACK
Oct 20, 2010

Ota Ward hopes hinge on airport

For many foreigners visiting Tokyo, places like Akihabara and Harajuku are the must-see spots.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 16, 2010

Professor finds meaning in silence

In Japanese there's a word for it, that prolonged silence that cuts into a conversation, bringing discomfort and interrupting flow: shiin. We've all experienced that dead-air tension, but surprisingly there are different levels of comfort with silence, depending on the language being spoken.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 15, 2010

'Cheri (Watashi no Kawaii Hito Cheri)'

"After 40, a woman doesn't need a lover so much as a good PR agent." That would be a great quote for the mythos surrounding Cleopatra, the global metaphor for ageless beauty of the past three millenniums. Besides her hefty cache of personal charms, she knew the value of self-promotion — you can't just...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2010

Homelessness declines despite global crisis

MIAMI — Many Americans were shocked last month when the U.S. Census Bureau announced that poverty was at a 15-year high in this country, with 44 million people lacking income to sufficiently secure basic resources. Some would probably be even more surprised to learn that Japan, with its image of equality...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Oct 12, 2010

Don't blame JET for Japan's poor English: responses

A selection of readers' views on "Don't blame JET for Japan's poor English" (Just Be Cause, Sept. 7) by Debito Arudou:
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2010

Don't count Thai Prime Minister Abhisit out

BANGKOK — For a man who has faced seemingly endless efforts to oust him by both parliamentary ballot and by bullet, by the slippery devious machinations that are meat and drink to Thai politicians and by street protesters who took over the commercial heart of Bangkok for more than two months, Prime...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Oct 11, 2010

Abdul-Rauf's passion for game keeps him young

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, the quintessential basketball lifer, is looking forward to the 2010-11 bj-league season with the same contagious enthusiasm that reminds one of a child waiting to visit Disney World for the first time.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 10, 2010

Contract loophole opened door for Nomo's jump

Second in a four-part series
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 10, 2010

Boys in the big house; modernity's trash heap; CM of the week: Aderans

The Matsumoto Boys Prison in Nagano prefecture is the only punitive facility in Japan with a public junior high school. It has been the subject of two TBS documentaries, and on Monday the network will present a true-life drama that takes place in the school.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 9, 2010

Photography fan ends up manager on floating hotel

James Deering planned on being either a professional photographer or a psychologist. Instead, it was the call of the sea that steered his life. For 16 years now, the American citizen and Tokyo resident has held management positions on the world's biggest cruise lines. In a few days, he will don his uniform,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 8, 2010

'Le Petit Nicolas'

For the defeated nations of World War II, the 1950s were a time of chaotic struggle, but for the victors, it was a time of stability, growing affluence and general cheerfulness (at least on the surface). Suited dads went to work and returned home for dinner, while moms stayed at home and could be relied...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2010

Rollins at 80 still wows loyal jazz fans in Japan

Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins — one of the last surviving legends of the golden era of jazz — has just turned 80. His hair is a burst of white, and he staggers a bit when he walks on stage.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo