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Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 7, 2010

World's top chefs forage locally for inspiration

Earlier this September, chef Yoshihiro Narisawa of the Michelin-starred restaurant Les Creations de Narisawa, in the Aoyama district of Tokyo, joined 15 of the world's top chefs to make dinner in Levi, Lapland, 170 km above the Arctic Circle.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 5, 2010

Decade-long wait takes toll on asylum seeker

Most foreigners in Japan know the horror of waiting for a residency permit or visa. A few hours in the queue at the Shinagawa immigration office can feel like a lifetime.
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2010

N.Y. gets 'one hand clapping' Zen debut

NEW YORK — The publication of J.D. Salinger's "Nine Stories" introduced a new generation of Americans to a Zen Buddhist koan roughly translated as, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 3, 2010

Architect triumphs in defeat

Kengo Kuma might be the most self-effacing architect around. His trademarks are not large monumental forms or breathtaking sculptural shapes, but finely wrought details such as elegant stone cladding on a high-rise tower, an unlikely pitched roof or a superbly framed view on a garden.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 1, 2010

'Eccentricities Of a Blonde-Haired Girl'

Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira should be listed in the dictionary under "antiaging" — at 100 years old, he has released the wonderfully titled "Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl" (released in Japan as "Blonde Shojo wa Kagekini Utsukushiku"), which is packed with romantic loveliness and...
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 30, 2010

Katayama: Empowering local governments is key

From the time he started his career as an official at the old Home Affairs Ministry, and then as governor of Tottori Prefecture, Yoshihiro Katayama has been pushing for decentralization of government power.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2010

Matsumoto to focus on global green efforts

With less than a month to go before the convention on biological diversity in Nagoya, newly appointed Environment Minister Ryu Matsumoto said he is doing his best to make the international meeting a success.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Sep 28, 2010

Hokkaido: What do you think Nibutani will like 100 years from now?

In Nibutani, Hidaka Subprefecture, Hokkaido, roughly 80 percent of residents are of Ainu descent.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2010

Metamorphosis in Britain reveals empathizing pope

HONG KONG — Pope Benedict XVI is the antithesis of a pop star, elderly, shy, set in his ways, even finding it hard to hold a note. Yet in the United Kingdom the week before last, he received massive pop-starlike adulation, with successive crowds of 120,000 lining the streets of Edinburgh merely to...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 26, 2010

Home truths: To buy or not to buy?

During a recent sojourn in the United States, I talked with friends and relatives about the housing situation, specifically the value of their homes in the wake of the subprime fiasco of 2007-08. Those who bought high just before the bubble burst are feeling queasy now that property values have descended...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 25, 2010

English teacher brings joy to orphans

Young kids running amok, dancing crazily, jumping on adults' backs demanding piggyback rides.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 24, 2010

'A Single Man'

Oh to live in 1962, when people guzzled gin guilt-free and dragged innocently on cigarettes, when they drove huge great cars without worrying about global warming, when women (and men for that matter) had silhouettes instead of mere shadows. This is on the condition that it's a 1962 drawn up by Tom Ford,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 24, 2010

Women of quiet strength

Female artists play a significant role in Japan's art world today, but a century ago, only a few women made a mark in the then male-dominated field. Shoen Uemura stands out as one of the most successful, a status she earned through the relentless study and perfection of her chosen theme of bijin-ga —...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2010

Exposure abroad key to success for youths

As universities struggle to enroll more foreigners and internationalize their student bodies, some are raising concerns about a growing number of Japanese who are choosing to stay closer to home rather than studying abroad and tackling new challenges.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2010

Group urges APEC to support career women

The APEC Women Leaders Network ended its three-day meeting Tuesday in Tokyo by calling on APEC leaders to recognize women's economic contributions to the Asia-Pacific region and implement policies to support female career development and entrepreneurship.
EDITORIALS
Sep 22, 2010

Lay judges and the celebrity

The trial of actor Manabu Oshio, charged with aggravated abandonment leading to death in a case in which a 30-year-old woman died after taking the illegal drug MDMA or Ecstasy, was the first trial involving a celebrity under the 1-year-old lay judge system.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Sep 21, 2010

Towns, cities need vision to halt decline

Dear Prime Minister Naoto Kan,
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Sep 19, 2010

English school Web series debuts

A group of foreign filmmakers in Aichi Prefecture has been working on a Web series, which are still unusual in Japan, by joining forces with 10 students at the Nagoya University of Foreign Studies.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2010

Lay judges handle pressure of Oshio trial

The recent court case of actor Manabu Oshio shows that ordinary people can do a good job judging a high-profile trial despite wall-to-wall media coverage and intense pressure to understand technical evidence, according to legal experts and the lay judges themselves.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 19, 2010

Dastardly doctor with a mean scalpel and a heart of gold

It is probably not excessive to say that every Japanese male between the ages of 15 and 40 knows Black Jack, the outlaw surgeon who features in the series of comics that Osamu Tezuka created in the 1970s and early 1980s — comics that remain (thanks in part to movies and TV) popular today.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 19, 2010

Let's samba!

Despite Tokyo's record-breaking summer heat, half a million spectators packed downtown Asakusa on Aug. 28 to watch the 30th Asakusa Samba Carnival, with many having arrived in the morning to be sure of getting a good view.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 18, 2010

The pot of gold and the expat rainbow

Life as a foreign resident has its trials. Some problems are giant-size, such as issues with communication, while others are more mundane, like how to deal with bugs. Which in Japan can also be giant-size.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2010

Medical care shoppers bet on diagnosis, benign bugs

HONG KONG — The reception area is welcoming, open and airy with tropical green trees and plants. The rooms have sofas, tables and chairs, well-chosen paintings, as well as the bed. Menus are prepared by international chefs who compete for the privilege of being chosen for a month at a time. But you...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 17, 2010

Cultural gems host theater's treasures

There are currently 14 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Japan, ranging from the pristine Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido's north to Okinawa's Ryukyu castles.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 17, 2010

'Kimi ga Odoru, Natsu (The Summer You Danced)'

Melodramas have been a staple of Japanese film for decades, proving over and over the observation that Japanese audiences, more than anything else, love a good cry. I've gone to screenings where the women sitting around me take out their handkerchiefs even before the lights go down. The men start blubbing...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 17, 2010

Shedding some light on shadows

What follows you around nearly everywhere but you never notice?
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2010

Scarred lay judges battle stress

In late November last year, Iwao Takasu, 55, became one of the first six people in Ibaraki Prefecture to serve as a lay judge in a criminal trial.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2010

Prosecutors demand six-year term for Oshio

Prosecutors demanded on Tuesday a six-year prison term for actor Manabu Oshio, who is on trial for allegedly failing to call for medical help when a woman became seriously ill and died after taking the illegal drug MDMA, often known as Ecstasy, with him in August 2009.

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