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COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Mar 10, 2009

Please teach us how to fit in

Dear Prime Minister Taro Aso,
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 8, 2009

Gay rights in Japan blurred on TV

When Sean Penn won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk two weeks ago, he used his acceptance speech to rail against supporters of California's Proposition 8, which last November repealed a State Supreme Court ruling extending marriage rights to same-sex...
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2009

Aso's kanji conundrums spur self-reflection, textbook sales

Reading Japanese isn't easy — even for Japanese.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 6, 2009

'Yattaman'

Hollywood superhero movies are often not only thrill rides with flights and fights designed to elicit a collective "wow" but comments on the rotten state of society, metaphors for the fallen nature of humankind, and so on. Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker as a psychotic in "The Dark Knight" won...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2009

Calderons hopeful as end game approaches

The clock is ticking for an undocumented Filipino couple in Warabi, Saitama Prefecture, who must decide by Monday whether to leave the country with or without their 13-year-old Japan-born daughter.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 6, 2009

Edo to Meiji

The popularity of ukiyo-e (genre painting) woodblock prints is partly due to aesthetic reasons and partly symbolic ones. In terms of sheer beauty, there is much to recommend in the better examples in the genre, from bright blocks of color and sinuous lines to lively compositions and intriguing details,...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 3, 2009

Working holidays and Amerasian roots

Mareen, an 18-year-old German citizen, spent three weeks in Japan, loved it, and now wants to come back.
Japan Times
Rugby
Mar 1, 2009

Sanyo captures national rugby championship with win over Suntory

The Sanyo Wild Knights made it three in a row against a big rival, winning Saturday's All-Japan Rugby Championship.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 28, 2009

'Hafu' focuses on whole individual

"I always found it really strange," says Natalie Maya Willer, 30, a photographer based in London, "how I thought I could spot half-Japanese people in the street. . . . Then at the same time, with me not really looking Japanese, I also wondered if there really isn't a half-Japanese look after all!"
CULTURE / Music
Feb 27, 2009

F-cked Up

To promote the release of their sophomore album, last October's blistering "The Chemistry of Common Life," Toronto punks F-cked Up played a free gig in a New York boutique store. So what's the big deal you're wondering? The sextet's performance lasted a punishing 12 hours and saw them collaborating with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 27, 2009

F-cked Up

To promote the release of their sophomore album, last October's blistering "The Chemistry of Common Life," Toronto punks F-cked Up played a free gig in a New York boutique store. So what's the big deal you're wondering? The sextet's performance lasted a punishing 12 hours and saw them collaborating with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 27, 2009

Linking video games to their visual history

Think of post-World War II popular culture in Japan as it relates to contemporary art, and you invariably arrive at Murakami Takashi and his Kaikai Kiki company/studio. But a new generation that draws from Japanese pop culture — and yet has no close connections to Murakami's art stable — has emerged...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Feb 26, 2009

Jazz Taxi driver Toshiyuki Anzai

Toshiyuki Anzai, 67, is a cabbie in central Tokyo whose love of jazz drove him to start a unique Jazz Taxi service. His 90-minute cruises pair cityscapes with the most fitting music. Anzai plays songs that match not only the view but his passengers' moods — though he is partial to jazz, he sometimes...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Feb 24, 2009

What would the locals do? Readers offer their views

Following are readers' responses to Paul de Vries' Feb. 3 Zeit Gist article, "What would the locals do?":
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2009

Success of Kosovo is Europe's responsibility

PRAGUE — On Feb. 17, 2008, Kosovo declared its independence and has so far been recognized by more than 50 countries representing close to 60 percent of the world's economic power. Interethnic violence — which many feared — has largely been avoided and the mass exodus of Serbs that some also predicted...
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2009

State of the world's children

With the media paying so much attention to the casualties of the economic slowdown, it would be easy to overlook a vital report on the grave situation faced by the world's two most vulnerable classes of citizens — women and children in impoverished countries.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 22, 2009

'Sustainability' in a Japanese way

Takeshi Hara is an accomplished journalist, author and educator, and at 70 years of age he could easily choose to rest on his laurels.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2009

Infants at risk as government drags feet on vaccines

Kenta Morioka, 4, died last year from suffocation caused by a bacterial infection. But the vaccine that could have saved his life, in use for 16 years and offered in 120 countries, wasn't available in Japan.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2009

'Halfway'

"Halfway" ("Harufuwei") has one of those katakana titles that is supposed to sound vaguely exotic and mysterious to its intended audience — Japanese of about the same age as its teenage protagonists — but may strike native speakers as prosaic, even boring.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 2009

Snow yaks and yetis — an ice man cometh

Fans of Pop Surrealism were no doubt tickled pink to hear of their messiah, painter Mark Ryden, making an appearance in Tokyo for the opening of "The Snow Yak Show" at the Tomio Koyama Gallery. The solo exhibition features eight new works from the masterful painter, each exquisitely detailed in his characteristic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 20, 2009

Worst Taste: as stupid as they wanna be

"I like bands that are energetic and stupid. And with no sense of fashion. We hate fashionable bands whose music is no good."
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 2009

Israel's resurgent right

It still is not clear who will be Israel's next prime minister, but the winner of last week's vote is plain: Israel's right will now pace the country's politics. The violence and insecurity of daily life pushed Israeli voters toward hardline solutions to national security. They have tired of promises...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 19, 2009

Tokyo Taste summit provides food for thought

These days, the mere mention of Tokyo is enough to make gourmands drool. After garnering a staggering 227 Michelin stars this year, the city became the focus of the culinary world. So for several internationally renowned chefs who look to Japan for inspiration, traveling here last week to participate...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2009

Stunned Australia starts searching for answers

SYDNEY — The worst natural disaster in Australian history has killed at least 200 people, destroyed 7,000 houses and a dozen villages, and left a nation agonizing over the question — why did we let this happen?
CULTURE / Books
Feb 15, 2009

From a master of versatility

The last page of Donald Richie's most recent offering, "Botandoro," reveals that he has, in his long and productive life, published no fewer than 35 books. The word "prolific" is unavoidable.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 15, 2009

From a master of versatility

BOTANDORO: Stories, Fables, Parables, and Allegories — a Miscellany, by Donald Richie, edited and with an introduction by Leza Lowitz. Printed Matter Press, 2008, 272 pp., $20 (paper) The last page of Donald Richie's most recent offering, "Botandoro," reveals that he has, in his long and productive...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 14, 2009

Hauling in the souvenir binge

An Australian friend and I recently had the opportunity to show two of our good Japanese friends around Australia. Even though my native country is the United States, just being a gaijin who can speak Japanese was good enough for my Japanese friends, a couple (both 53 years old) who had traveled to other...

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