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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 2, 2011

'Hanezu no Tsuki (Hanezu)'

Naomi Kawase is the most lyrical of Japanese directors now working. As both a documentarian and a feature filmmaker, she discovers in the common materials of everyday existence — sun, wind, water, trees, insects, people — a beauty and transcendence that is always present, seldom noticed. Set mostly...
Reader Mail
Sep 1, 2011

Pioneering efforts in Tohoku

Regarding Dreux Richard's Aug. 23 Zeit Gist article, "Peace Boat-Rolls talks lay bare ethical minefield": It is not easy to stir up controversy and cast doubts on the motives of a small group of selfless volunteers working to help Tohoku, where more than 5,000 volunteers have spent days and weeks at...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Aug 30, 2011

Winning: 'The Alien': readers remember life in '90s Japan

The following are a selection of the winning submissions in response to last month's Zeit Gist competition to win copies of "The Very Best of Neil Garscadden's Alien Humor," a collection of many of the pieces Garscadden wrote while editor of the humor section of The Alien magazine.
EDITORIALS
Aug 28, 2011

Global citizen Haruki Murakami

Recently the cover of the British magazine The Economist showed German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Barack Obama in kimono (with an erupting Mount Fuji in the background), to illustrate its feature story, "Turning Japanese: Debt, default and the West's new politics of paralysis."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 27, 2011

Mask maker keeping Shimane tradition alive

Hanging on the walls of Jake Davies' home are around 20 artifacts that seem at odds with the idyllic village in Sakurae, Shimane Prefecture where his rustic abode is set.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2011

Sendai's jazz festival keeps the beat

For the past 20 years, the streets of Sendai have resonated with live music during the annual two-day Jozenji Streetjazz Festival, gathering crowds of hundreds and thousands from across the nation in what has become a staple mid-September feature in the city of 1 million.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 26, 2011

"Urushi Exhibition: Style Of New Lacquer"

Exploring new possibilities of expression in lacquerware, this show presents works by Nobuyuki Tanaka, a professor at Kanazawa College of Art, and Natsuki Kurimoto, an associate professor at Kyoto City University of Arts, as well as pieces by 27 rising artists recommended by Tanaka and Kurimoto.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 26, 2011

Curry — it's more 'Japanese' than you think

To many people in Japan, summertime is synonymous with hot and spicy food. Spices are believed to cool you down by making you perspire, as well as stimulating an appetite dulled by the sweltering weather. The quintessential spicy dish in Japan is curry, which is so popular that it's regarded, along with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 25, 2011

Tsuneo Enari Exhibition — Japan and its Forgotten War: Showa

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography Closes Sept. 25.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 25, 2011

Red Bull invests in tomorrow's dance-music stars

Thirty-two-year-old Yoshiyuki "Yosi" Horikawa from Ibaraki, Osaka, couldn't believe his eyes when he went online the morning of July 16.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2011

Toyota, Ford join in hybrid autos

Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co. said they will collaborate to develop a hybrid system for light trucks and sport utility vehicles.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Aug 23, 2011

Helping Brazilian kids master local life

Tetsuyoshi Kodama, a second-generation Japanese-Brazilian, became the first foreign national to pass the taxi driver test in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1991.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Aug 21, 2011

Emergency escape routes: Publisher maps the best way home

The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 brought death and destruction on an horrific scale to a vast area of the northeastern Tohoku region.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 19, 2011

'Kung Fu Panda 2'

So we've been told by news programs and eyewitnesses that the pandas at Ueno Zoo have been snacking and dining instead of diligently procreating, and now Tokyo's best-loved cubs from China are too hefty to do much more than lie around and chew. Bad.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 19, 2011

"Gaka Murata Makoto 'Sekai No Kyosho Seriese' "

Makoto Murata is an art writer who also serves as principal of the Bank ART School in Yokohama. In the 30 years since he graduated in painting at Tokyo Zoukei University he has contributed numerous sharply intuitive articles on art to various journals.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 19, 2011

Children's art depicts quake

More than 200 paintings, drawings and sculptures by students from elementary and high schools in Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, will be on display in Tokyo at the Fukushima Kids Art Exhibition. The works help shed light on their experiences in dealing with the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 19, 2011

"Leo Rubinfien: Wounded Cities"

The terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, are imprinted on the memories of people around the world. Now, after 10 years, the physical damage in New York seems to be gradually mending. But what about the psychological recovery in society?
EDITORIALS
Aug 19, 2011

An economic dark cloud ahead?

An Aug. 15 preliminary report by the Cabinet Office shows that Japan's gross domestic product (GDP) in real terms in the second quarter of 2011 dropped 0.3 percent or an annualized 1.3 percent from the previous quarter — for the third straight quarter of minus growth.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 19, 2011

'Usagi Doroppu (Bunny Drop)'

Movies about single guys who become suddenly burdened with the responsibilities of parenthood, whether from Hollywood ("Three Men and a Baby") or Japan (the underrated "Yukai Rapusodi [Accidental Kidnapper]"), follow a pattern set in stone: After rising to various patience- and character-testing occasions,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 19, 2011

DevilCraft: Dying for a crafty pint? Head down to Kanda

The craft beer revolution in Japan is picking up pace. The main event of this summer has been the opening of DevilCraft, an excellent brewpub-to-be that is already serving some of the finest, hoppiest, maltiest, tastiest microbrews around.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 18, 2011

Dommune goes outside for summer

Naohiro Ukawa, creator of live-streaming microclub Dommune, is pulling out all the stops this weekend with Freedommune 0 (Zero) in aid of victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, when he takes the studio outdoors for a full day and night of dance music.
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Aug 17, 2011

Why do Japanese advertisers suggest Internet-search keywords?

It seems that everywhere you look in Japan these days, printed advertising has Internet-style "search buttons" somewhere in the design, with Japanese text inside a box indicating the term to be searched. And many TV commercials end with a short phrase "such and such de kensaku" ("search on the Internet...
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2011

Venture to push 'anime' in LA

Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, a semipublic body tasked with enhancing the value of the nation's businesses, announced Monday it will establish a new firm to remake existing domestic "soft" content, including movies, "anime" (animation), TV dramas and songs, to sell them to Hollywood, aiming...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 14, 2011

Delving into 'white matter'

Last week I watched "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," a new film about superintelligent chimps that bust out of captivity and rampage across San Francisco in a bid for freedom.

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