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Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 13, 2012

It's music to children's ears

"I got this idea from children," said Japanese pianist Mayumi Tokugawa when asked about her upcoming performance — a collaborative effort involving poetry and music. "When we have concerts for children and we read out stories, they respond better," she said, explaining that she has always wanted to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 13, 2012

'Big Miracle (Japanese title: Daremo ga Kujira wo Aishiteru)'

Can a relationship expert also be an environmentalist? The answer is yes, if he's director/writer Ken Kwapis, who has done an unlikely hopscotch jump from the chuckle-inducing love story "He's Just Not That Into You" in 2009, to an outright saving-the-whales vehicle three years later. "Big Miracle" is...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 12, 2012

"Studio Mumbai: Praxis"

This exhibition brings together the work of a wide range of Indian architects and craftsmen, all resident artisans of Studio Mumbai, headed by Bijoy Jain, one of India's top architects.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2012

Can Obama avoid losing like Jimmy Carter?

At this point in 1980, U.S. President Jimmy Carter was on the path to oblivion but didn't know it. President Barack Obama may share Carter's fate if he doesn't change course soon. The 1980 presidential race was neck and neck until the end. It finally broke for Ronald Reagan when voters concluded that...
COMMENTARY
Jul 10, 2012

Completing one's education

Until only a few years ago, Japan prided itself on leading the world in the field of manufacturing. Industry as a whole is usually classified into four sectors: agriculture-forestry-fishery, mining, manufacturing, and services. (The mining industry is virtually nonexistent in resource-poor Japan, and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jul 6, 2012

Famed patissier to visit the Cerulean

From July 11-31, the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel in the Shibuya area of Tokyo will hold a special Laurent Jeannin Promotion featuring special lunch and dinner courses at the restaurant Coucagno on the hotel's 40th floor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 2012

'Kueki Ressha (The Drudgery Train)'

Directors often find themselves boxed in by fan expectations. If a filmmaker who is known and loved for quirky pieces does a serious film or two, fans tend to complain he or she is sliding down a slippery slope toward dreaded respectability.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 2012

Director Nobuhiro Yamashita's commercial film departure

Starting with his first film "Donten Seikatsu (Hazy Life)" from 1999, director Nobuhiro Yamashita explored slackerdom, Japan-style, with a laconically knowing eye and a laidback sense of humor. Rejecting the broad approach of so much local comedy, he developed gags from off-beat, spot-on observations...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 5, 2012

"Invitation to the Monster World: Tales from Mythic Past"

When it comes to mythical monsters, our wild imaginations often envision human-animal hybrids involving intimidating creatures such as lions, snakes and eagles. Such creatures served as inspiration for folk tales and artwork worldwide. Some of these beasts were seen as gods to be worshiped in order to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 5, 2012

"GUTAI: The Spirit of an Era"

Founded by Jiro Yoshihara and Shozo Shimamoto in 1954, the Gutai was an avant-garde group of Kansai-based artists. "Gutai" literally means "embodiment" and it reflected the young artists' goal to allow the nature of their materials to help embody a spirit of artistic freedom. The group's manifesto prohibited...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 3, 2012

Strong winds linger from the microaggressions tempest

Readers' responses to Debito Arudou's May 1 Just Be Cause column, "Yes, I can use chopsticks: the everyday 'microaggressions' that grind us down," his followup June 5 JBC column, "Guestists, Haters, the Vested: Apologists take many forms," and Colin P.A. Jones' counterarticle, "Much ado, but microimportant"...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 1, 2012

Often-ignored immigration issue raised in new film

Several weeks ago, U.S. President Barack Obama said that he wants to allow younger undocumented immigrants who came to America as children to stay, and last week the Supreme Court struck down some provisions of Arizona's controversial law requiring police to check individuals they suspect of being in...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 1, 2012

Feline fine in Iriomote's unspoilt wilderness

For the jaded traveler, arrival in one place in Japan can often seem suspiciously like arrival in any other. After quitting a station building, you can find yourself viewing thoroughfares lined with familiar-looking stores, with it all appearing instantly similar to other places beheld elsewhere the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 30, 2012

British artist/chef finds happiness by keeping all of his options open

Cooking can be art and art nourishes, but what really connects the two for chef and artist Johnny Miller is the act of creation itself: "It's the physicality of it — both are directly related to your body and how your body moves. In cooking, you've got to touch things, touch hot and cold things. You've...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Jun 30, 2012

Amateur sumo in crisis: Europe and Japan go head to head

For the past 20 years amateur sumo has been bidding for full and formal IOC recognition. Making its way through the IOC's various levels of acceptance, it was, according to many, doing rather well.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2012

Annan eyes Putin for Syrian settlement

Kofi Annan must strike a deal with the devil to end the sickening atrocities being committed by the Syrian Army. But the devil Annan has in mind is Russian President Vladimir Putin, not his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 28, 2012

"The Nude"

Toward the end of the 19th century, a series of avant-garde art movements in Europe experimented with new ways to express the female nude. In Japan, however, the naked woman remained taboo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 28, 2012

"Japanese Ghosts and Eerie Creatures"

This exhibition invites visitors into a world of "comical horror" and highlights spooky works from the collection of well-known painter Kanpo Yoshikawa (1894-1978).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jun 26, 2012

Social-media manager Lin Qing Xiang

Lin Qing Xiang, 33, is the social-media manager of the "The Ruby Alan Show" (also known as "The RA Show"), a video blog that explores both Singaporean and Japanese culture. Lin creates travelogues of his journeys around Japan and also films Japanese-culture events in Singapore. A die-hard fan, he loves...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 26, 2012

Japanese business isn't working: What would Shima do?

A Ponzi scheme. Alleged yakuza ties. Accounting scandals. Executive misuse of company funds for gambling. A record-breaking bankruptcy. Callous disregard of public health and safety.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2012

Clarity in the conflict of austerity versus growth

It seemed clear that Germany (or at least this rather large gathering of government, business, and labor leaders) remains committed to the euro and to deeper European integration, and recognizes that success will require Europe-wide burden-sharing to overcome the ongoing eurozone crisis. The reforms...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 25, 2012

Ii ne! Facebook is a perfect place for Japanese immersion

Facebook has grown at a tremendous rate in Japan over the past four years, jumping from just over 200,000 users in 2008 to more than 6 million by the end of 2011. In the process, Japan has generated one of the social network's highest annual growth rates of 254 percent, second only to Brazil.
EDITORIALS
Jun 24, 2012

Law school enrollment blues

Recruitment failed to meet enrollment goals at 63 of Japan's 73 law schools in 2011. The number of students enrolled was less than half the quota at 35 law schools, compared with only 14 under-filled schools last year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 22, 2012

'One Day'

They say that the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young. "One Day" is all about that need, and how two people (subconsciously and otherwise) hold on to that for 23 long years.
Reader Mail
Jun 21, 2012

New taxes are not the answer

Regarding the June 5 front-page article "Noda replaces censured ministers," what is Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda thinking? Japan doesn't have a revenue problem; it has a spending problem. The last thing you want to do is raise taxes during a time of deflation — particularly a tax that will...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2012

Japan also has stake in universal rights, says ex-Congo child soldier

Michel Chikwanine, a university student in Canada who was once a child soldier in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has suffered things no ordinary Japanese child will ever have to.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb