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COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2010

A presumptuous command of oil

HONG KONG — Bosses of Big Oil have solemnly assured a U.S. congressional inquiry that they would never, ever, be as reckless or negligent as BP in causing the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 20, 2010

Is Japan going loopy in a world so alien

"Loopy," "hapless," "embarrassing" — such is the world's, and Japan's, verdict on the short unhappy prime ministership of Yukio Hatoyama. In retrospect, this 21st-century Japanese Don Quixote seems to have been doomed to failure from the start. What he attempted was honorable, but impossible. What...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 20, 2010

I left my bloody heart in London

A complicated tale, simply and well told, "King Death" is Toby Litt's 12th work of fiction, the "K" in his alphabetic collection and the second of his novels to be set mostly in a hospital.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 18, 2010

'Hearts and Minds'/'Winter Soldier'

There has been a lot of informed opinion lately suggesting that the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan has already become a "new Vietnam."
COMMENTARY
Jun 15, 2010

Poor grades for U.K. schools

LONDON — The new British government has declared its intention to do all it can to improve standards of education in Britain. This was also a high priority for the previous Labour administration. As prime minister, Tony Blair used to declare that his mantra was "education, education, education."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 13, 2010

Brides, boats and blooms

The bride in the garden is a vision in white, her snowy dress contrasting sharply with the brilliant purple of the irises around her.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 11, 2010

'Kokuhaku'

Japanese films featuring school ijime (bullying) are as common as cherry trees in Ueno Park, and for good reason. When I was teaching at a boys' high school in Kodaira, western Tokyo, I would sometimes see signs of ijime, such as the returnee kid whose natively fluent English inspired titters from his...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 11, 2010

'Iron Man 2'/'The Last Song'

There's an old piece of industry wisdom that says, when casting your leads, the audience has to either want to be them or sleep with them. (Actually, they use a coarser term, but my editors do so hate it when I lead off with an f-bomb.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 11, 2010

From pretty-boy star to grizzled veteran

HOLLYWOOD — "My next movie is a sequel to the one I did where I play a guy trapped inside a video game," says Jeff Bridges, veteran of over 60 films.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 11, 2010

China's modern art that grieves for the old

The art on display in "From the 11th Chinese National Art Exhibition 2009: Contemporary Fine Art from China" at the Nara Prefectural Museum of Art is of a different species than the headline-grabbing pieces that have propelled Chinese art into a much sought-after commodity frequently at the forefront...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 8, 2010

Whether covered or brazen, tattoos make a statement

Tattoos have long occupied a place in Japanese society, generally in the shadows of the underworld and the realm of taboo.
COMMENTARY
Jun 8, 2010

One of the worst places on Earth for women

NEW YORK — In spite of moderate progress in some areas, women's health needs continue to go unmet in Afghanistan.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Jun 8, 2010

Farewell haiku for Hatoyama

Dear Yukio Hatoyama,
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 6, 2010

Dancing for joy in Japan

As I sipped my vin rouge last week during an interval in "The Sleeping Beauty," K-Ballet's latest Tokyo production, a woman at the next table said to her companion: "I can't believe that evil fairy was a man! I just naturally thought it was a woman dancing that role."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 5, 2010

Haishima — abandoned islands

It's springtime on the island and the fishermen have their boats up on stays above the water. During high tide, they can drive their boats onto the stay and tie it down. As the tide goes out, the boat is left on the stay, exposing the bottom of the boat for cleaning. As they scrape off the fuzzy green...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 4, 2010

'Entre les murs'

Times may have changed, but a few things remain stolidly the same — and one of them is the middle- school classroom. Whatever else is happening out there, the classroom continues to pack a bunch of teenagers into a confined space, prop a teacher at the head of the room, and shut the door hoping for...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 4, 2010

Singer-songwriter Nozuka's 'train' picks up speed

In the fall of 2007 and 2008, the Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA) hosted Asian Trade Missions in Tokyo to cement stronger footholds in Japan for Canuck music companies and acts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 4, 2010

Mika

Even in an age where Lady Gaga's flamboyant extravagance has made all her contemporaries seem dull and plaid, it is fair to say Michael "Mika" Penniman is not your average pop star.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 4, 2010

Artistic daring from a retired prime minister

This story may sound like the ultimate anecdote about "slumming it," a phenomenon in which the rich and privileged willingly choose to endure conditions much harsher and more squalid than they are used to. About 10 years ago, following his retirement from politics, ex-Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa...
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Jun 3, 2010

Resignation deepens unease about country's direction

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's surprise announcement that he is stepping down before the July Upper House election is likely to deepen uncertainty about Japan's politics and raise more concerns about its still fragile economic recovery, economists and analysts said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 1, 2010

Yet another nuclear success

For the first time in a decade, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference was a success. The 189 nations that met for a month at the United Nations headquarters reconfirmed their commitment to the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons, and to that end agreed to hold a regional conference...
Japan Times
LIFE
May 30, 2010

How can it get too late to learn?

Professor Ryusuke Yoneyama was in the middle of explaining to the members of his music-production class why Baroque-era violin bows, which resembled loosely strung archery bows, produced a weaker sound than their contemporary counterparts when he paused to ask a question.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 28, 2010

The goddesses are protecting Araki

"Is my shirt OK?" asks Nobuyoshi Araki as he straightens it to give me a good view. "I looked through my things, but this was the most newspaper-appropriate one I could find."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 28, 2010

Contemporary works created in loving memory of the 'now'

"Memory does not belong to the past; it is the continuous present and future." Artist Kimio Tsuchiya's words speak volumes about "Plastic Memories — to illuminate 'now,' " currently showing at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. Her work "Fragments of the Moon" (2004) features old bits of chipped...
JAPAN
May 22, 2010

Reference guide of Japanese 'useful phrases' released

An expert panel from the Cultural Affairs Agency has publicized a conversation phrase reference for Japanese-language teachers of nonnative learners that details the minimum necessary expressions in everyday life.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 21, 2010

'Haru tono tabi (Travels with Haru)'

Masahiro Kobayashi is a unique figure in the Japanese film business. His knotty, idiosyncratic films, starting with the 1996 film "Closing Time," have never made much at the box office in Japan, though they have become favorites of foreign festival programmers. Four have screened at Cannes, including...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 21, 2010

'Brothers'

"There are those who go to war and those who are left behind, with each experiencing a different kind of hell." This is a translation of an excerpt from a letter found among the possessions of a Nagasaki woman widowed when her husband was killed in action during World War II. Though it was displayed...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 16, 2010

'Mito Komon'; 'Divorce Cohabitation' drama; CM of the week: Suntory's Protein Water

In this week's episode of Japan's longest-running historical drama series, "Mito Komon" (TBS, Mon., 8 p.m.), about an itinerant nobleman who travels the land incognito righting wrongs, the white-haired hero and his retinue enter the town of Hamamatsu and encounter the procession of the Lord of Tsuyamaon,...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
May 16, 2010

One of a kind

A young Japanese woman in colorful African clothes appeared on the stage at a small club in Tokyo's central Roppongi district on April 25. She sat down on a low chair in front of an eight-stringed wooden instrument.

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