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COMMENTARY
Mar 27, 2007

A Japanese sense of humor?

Japanese and Germans are thought by some "Anglo-Saxons" to have many similar qualities, including a lack of a sense of humor and a tendency to take themselves too seriously. I don't think the former is fair; the latter is closer to the mark.
EDITORIALS
Mar 25, 2007

Ambassadors manga and anime

Walk into any bookstore around the world and you will find a new, large section for one of Japan's best-known representatives -- manga. Likewise, in DVD stores, drama, comedy and action have been pushed aside for Japanese anime. All around the world, people of all ages are pouring over translations of...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 24, 2007

Metal, sweat and fire come together in elegant art

In a cavernous brick warehouse on a quiet block in Brooklyn, N.Y., a woman kneels near a row of furnaces that heave with glowing orange flames.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 22, 2007

Meeting his muse -- Tamasaburo Bando

'Iwrote this play with Tamasaburo Bando in mind for the role of Chujohime," says Haruo Moriyama. "I have been his fan ever since I saw him enacting Shiranuihime in Yukio Mishima's 'Chinsetsu Yumiharizuki (Adventures of Minamoto no Tametomo)' at the National Theater in 1969."
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 19, 2007

Advice for Japan as it returns to the jungle: Don't feed the animals

The Japanese economy is now a fully signed-up member of the global jungle.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 16, 2007

'Perfume'

"Perfume" is a film that comes to us with impeccable art-house credentials: It's a story about aestheticism, the appreciation of smells, and thus bathed in sensuality. Its director, Tom Tykwer, is responsible for the art-house hit "Run Lola Run," as well as an ethereal adaptation of a Krzystof Kieslowski...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 16, 2007

'Argentine Baba'

Movies about quirky, dysfunctional families are a thriving subgenre in Hollywood, "Little Miss Sunshine" being the most successful recent example. The Japanese make these films as well, but they tend to be more surreal -- or rather manga-esque, as seen in Katsuhito Ishii's "Cha no Aji (Taste of Tea),"...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2007

Empress is palace's latest stress victim

It's not easy being a woman in the Imperial family.
EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 2007

Japan's ambivalent English

The recent story about problems at an English school in Tokyo reveals perhaps more about Japanese attitudes to studying a foreign language than about the business practices of language schools. In Japan, signing up with enthusiasm too often leads to giving up in frustration. For many, learning to chat...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 9, 2007

'Paradise Now'

Just last week I was complaining about how rare it is to see a film on Africa that has an African, not Western, perspective. You could say the same thing about the Middle East, where even a well-intentioned film like "Syriana" views the region mostly through the avatars of George Clooney and Matt Damon....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 9, 2007

'Two Sons of Francisco'

At times the tried and true formula works best and this is certainly the case in "Two Sons of Francisco," a Brazilian box-office superhit that had the whole nation rushing to the theaters -- over 5.5. million.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2007

Overcoming Africa's north-south divide

PRAGUE -- The late President Mobutu Sese Seko of former Zaire once declared that the north African countries, which pride themselves on their Arabic descent, should be excluded from the then Organization of African Unity.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 6, 2007

Minagawa stays upbeat despite season-ending knee injury

He goes into the dining room, glances at the names of various dishes on the menu and selects one meal without hesitation.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Mar 6, 2007

"Double or Die," "The Skunk Code"

"Double or Die," Charlie Higson, Puffin Books; 2007; 390 pp.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 4, 2007

What is becoming of my grandfather's wisdom?

These days it's tough to be a journalist. This may sound like a whinge, but whinges may sometimes reflect a real situation. Oh, it's fine if you agree with the line of thought acceptable to governments, religious organizations or interest groups. But if you dare hold up a mirror to them, you may run...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 4, 2007

Shooting arrows to the end of the universe

Zen Bow, Zen Arrow: The Life and Teachings of Awa Kenzo, the Archery Master from "Zen in the Art of Archery", by John Stevens. Boston/London: Shambahala, 2007, 104 pp. with photographs, $12.95 (paper). Archery, or kyudo, "the Way of the bow," has a venerable Asian history. Confucius recommended it as...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 2, 2007

'Matsugane Ransha Jiken'

Nobuhiro Yamashita is one of the great comic talents working in Japanese films and also one of the most unusual. Unlike the many directors and actors here who equate "funny" with "over the top," Yamashita is low-key, ironic and very sharp. If he were an American he might have written for "Curb your Enthusiasm,"...
EDITORIALS
Feb 26, 2007

Baby-making brains

The "baby-making machine" comment by a senior politician continues to reverberate through Japanese society. One might forgive a slip of the tongue, yet whenever the age-old misunderstanding between men and women re-emerges, it always exposes more ironies and issues than, simply, whose turn it is to get...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 25, 2007

In fallen cities, where money trumps love

Love in a Fallen City, translated by Karen S. Kingsbury and Eileen Chang. New York: New York Review Books, 2007, 321 pp., $14.95 (paper) Money and the scramble to get it are at the center of many of our best novels, and this is nowhere truer than in the work of Jane Austen. The financial security that...
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 25, 2007

Back into the vortex?

East Timor is an ill-starred land that has endured more than its share of violence, neglect and deprivation.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 24, 2007

Toyoko Fry

Lady Fry, wife of British Ambassador Sir Graham Fry, is director of the Art of Dining Exhibition on March 7. All proceeds from this event go to Refugees International Japan, a volunteer organization with world-wide relief projects.
COMMENTARY
Feb 23, 2007

Airports foretell the future

LONDON -- It is at airports that one can tell that most of East Asia is merging into one gigantic business and market entity, a crisscrossed latticework flow of people, goods, ideas, lifestyles, relationships -- of such size, speed and intensity that it is beyond the power of any governments to check...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2007

Workers seek raises as firms plead need for competitiveness

Eager to share in the swelling profits of Japan Inc., unions are growing more aggressive in this year's "shunto" annual wage negotiations, seeking pay raises higher than those won a year ago.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 23, 2007

Roofs raised in prayer

Most people are only too aware of the devastating effects of global warming -- the breaking up of polar ice shelves, weather patterns going haywire, glaciers in retreat, that documentary starring Al Gore. But the thermal consequences of all the carbon that humans assiduously upload into the atmosphere...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 23, 2007

A spiritual conversation

The foreign music press has a weakness for weird Japanese music.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 23, 2007

Damo Suzuki networks with younger generation

'My home is everywhere. I am a nomad of the 21st century; my address is my e-mail address," writes Damo Suzuki in English via, naturally enough, e-mail.

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