Search - entertainment

 
 
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2005

Cabinet OKs bill to tighten controls on the sex industry

The Cabinet approved a bill Tuesday to revise the law covering the sex industry, featuring a measure against human-trafficking that would require operators of such businesses to confirm that foreign women employed for "entertainment services" have work permits.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 1, 2005

Liverpool-Chelsea rematch unlikely to feature many thrills

LONDON -- Sequels are rarely as good as the original but English football is hoping Sunday's Premiership showdown between Liverpool and Chelsea is better than the goal-less, soul-less Champions League draw at Anfield on Wednesday night.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2005

Chubu economy's future seen bright with boost from expo

NAGOYA -- As Nagoya's big coming-out party winds down, thoughts turn inevitably to what's next. The issue of how the prefecture can capitalize on the Aichi Expo is on everyone's mind.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 24, 2005

Despite popularity of Premier League, fans have complaints

LONDON -- Appropriately enough for the country that pioneered football hooliganism during the 1970s and 1980s, English supporters are revolting, though, this time in a more positive way.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2005

Sony plans workforce, plant cuts in bid to stem losses

Sony Corp. announced Thursday it will slash 10,000 employees, or about 7 percent of its global workforce, and close 11 production facilities as part of a sweeping restructuring plan in a bid to revive its fortunes.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2005

'Manga' publishers see cell phones as the future

Cartoon-strip publishers, whose printed-matter sales have been losing steam, are actively embracing mobile media because cell phones are what young people are spending their time and money on.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Defying record companies, musicians look to iTunes

Japanese musicians under contract with Sony and other labels that haven't joined Apple's iTunes Music Store are starting to defy their recording companies by trying to get their music on the popular download service.
Japan Times
Features
Jul 31, 2005

Retail mecca reborn

Many of Japan's thousands of shotengai (mom-and-pop retailers' districts) are struggling these days as customers desert them for major department stores, discount shops and suburban malls. The Osu district of Nagoya, though, is a notable exception. Bucking the nationwide downturn, this area is popular...
COMMUNITY
Jul 27, 2005

Comedienne Tomochika is quite a character

Along with comedy duos who do manzai (two-man standup) or short skits, a rise in "pin geinin (solo comedians)" is another dimension to the current owarai boom.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 27, 2005

You think you're pretty funny, huh?

On a Saturday evening in late May, at an auditorium in NHK's headquarters in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, preparations for the recording of a popular show called "Bakusho On Air Battle" were underway.
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2005

TBS, Tsutaya video chain link up

Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. and Culture Convenience Club Co., which operates Tsutaya, Japan's largest video rental shop chain, said Wednesday they will set up a DVD planning and sales company in early August.
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Jul 17, 2005

Taking it easy in the urban jungle

These days, "relaxation" spots are as ubiquitous as Internet cafes and pachinko parlors. As people seek a quick fix for the stress of modern life, businesses offering anything remotely "therapeutic" or "healing" are springing up everywhere. Whether it's reflexology (foot massage) salons in office buildings,...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Jun 24, 2005

F. Marinos manager Okada content working at club level

Been there. Done that. Got the gray hair to prove it.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 12, 2005

It keeps coming back to haunt us

JAPANESE HORROR CINEMA, edited by Jay McRoy, preface by Christopher Sharrett. Edinburgh University Press, 2005, Traditions in World Cinema Series, 220 pp., £16.99. (paper). Latest among the packaged movie trends is the Japanese horror film. Every month more samples appear, all of them scrutinized for...
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2005

Asahi fails to declare 1.18 billion yen

Asahi Shimbun Co. said Tuesday it failed to declare about 1.18 billion yen in taxable income during the seven years through March 2004 due to inappropriate accounting.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 22, 2005

Fuji TV dramatizes Naoki Prize winning novel "Kuchu Buranko" and more

This week's "Friday Entertainment" special (Fuji TV, 9 p.m.) is a dramatization of the 131st winner of the Naoki Prize for Literature, Hideo Okura's novel "Kuchu Buranko (Flying Trapeze)."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 8, 2005

TV show scrapes bottom of barrel in bringing Asia to Japan

One of the hoariest cliches of international politics is the idea that governments only have beefs with other governments, not with their citizens. The tragic irony is that the citizens suffer anyway. Maybe the majority of Iraqi people didn't like their tyrant, but one has to wonder how much they accept...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 8, 2005

The urban underclass of a modernist Tokyo

THE SCARLET GANG OF ASAKUSA, by Yasunari Kawabata, translated by Alisa Freedman, foreword and afterword by Donald Richie. Berkeley and Los Angeles: The University of California Press, 2005, 231 pp., $17.95 (paper). "Art is bad," Guy Davenport posited, "when it is poor in news," and it is not surprising...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Apr 21, 2005

Fast, furious -- and frustrating

In "Meteos," a new puzzle game for the Nintendo DS handheld, the denizens of the universe greet you with a plea (in earnest, broken English): "We want you, save our planet!"
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2005

Toshiba EMI to end ring-tone cartel

Toshiba EMI Ltd. said Monday it has accepted a Fair Trade Commission order to end a cartel in mobile phone ring-tone services.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2005

Sony passes over brash star Kutaragi

Known as the "Father of the PlayStation," Ken Kutaragi seemed to many a logical choice to take Sony Corp.'s helm as it struggles to turn around its stumbling electronics business and regain its past glory symbolized by the Walkman.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 13, 2005

Japan makes great genres, but . . .

THE MIDNIGHT EYE GUIDE TO NEW JAPANESE FILM, by Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp, foreword by Hideo Nakata. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press. 366 pp., 151 b/w photos, $22.95 (paper). The authors of this very interesting new compendium on recent Japanese cinema would agree, I think, that the "new" in their title...
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2005

Tougher restrictions on foreign entertainers to be enforced in March

The planned restrictions on foreign entertainers, mostly affecting women from the Philippines, will be put in place during the first half of March, government officials said Sunday.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Dec 17, 2004

Book Trade Booms in 2004

2004 was a prosperous year for the Japanese book trade with revenues exceeding the previous year's figures for the first time in seven years. Despite many small bookstores going out of business, innovative marketing from publishers and book retailers produced several million-sellers.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami