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Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Sep 3, 2009

Has Tokyo's art-fair scene got the goods?

Credit crunch be damned. Tokyo art fairs are going strong, with more coming to the roster. And now Tokyo Photo is coming into focus.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2009

A dose of common sense for the crisis in capitalism

HONG KONG — The global economic turmoil has sparked international debate over whether we are witnessing the death throes of capitalism or signs that a "new capitalism" needs to be devised. French commentators have gloated over the end of the Anglo-Saxon way of doing business, citing the need for the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Aug 31, 2009

Historic sea change at polls product of frustrated public

For better or worse, history has been made.
LIFE
Aug 30, 2009

Family lore tells a remarkable tale of the charmed life lived by a young survivor of the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923

Just before noon on Sept. 1, 1923, after severe shaking in a small wooden house in Kyobashi, an old Tokyo district east of the Imperial Palace, my father-in-law, then a 6-month old baby — along with a steaming pot of rice — was scooped up by my father-in- law's mother as she dashed into the street....
JAPAN / ELECTION 2009
Aug 29, 2009

Game almost up for LDP in Aomori

AOMORI — Perched on the upper tip of Honshu, Aomori Prefecture is tired of being left behind.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2009
Aug 28, 2009

LDP heavyweight Koga running for his life

OMUTA, Fukuoka Pref. — For decades, voters in the Fukuoka No. 7 district, which encompasses the southern part of the prefecture, have always said, "Makoto ni arigato gozaimasu" come election time.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2009
Aug 28, 2009

Even Aso can't rely on shoo-in notion

IIZUKA, Fukuoka Pref. — Given his nationwide unpopularity, not a few candidates from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party would prefer that their leader, Prime Minister Taro Aso, not visit them during the election campaign lest this worsens their chances.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 2009

Dipping into modern art at Naoshima's bathhouse

At 2 p.m. on July 26, operations commenced at the first public bathhouse on the island of Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea between the mainland of Honshu and Shikoku. Titled Naoshima Bathhouse "I Love Yu" (the "Love" represented by a heart symbol and "Yu" in kanji form) and designed by artist Shinro Ohtake...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / LIQUID CULTURE
Aug 28, 2009

Crawling back down Center Gai

My Little Pony and Throbbing Gristle make strange bedfellows. No, not in that way. The plastic horse and a poster of the industrial noiseniks both decorate Shirokuma, a funny little bar on Shibuya's Center Gai.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 28, 2009

Arctic Monkeys "Humbug"

Hard to believe, but it is nearly four years since Arctic Monkeys were a precociously talented teenage quartet on the cusp of releasing the fastest selling U.K. debut album in history, "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 2009

Bathing in timeless memories

Artist Shinro Ohtake discusses with The Japan Times "inside-out" buildings, private memories, public meanings and other inspirations underlying the "I Love Yu" bathhouse at Naoshima.
Reader Mail
Aug 23, 2009

American off-color humor is rare

I am grateful to have Rick H.'s Aug. 13 letter, " 'Sexcentric' jokes abound in Japan," and agree with him that Japan, like any other nation, is far from pure. Space in my recent Counterpoint articles did not permit going into a host of other forms of humor, such as rakugo and manzai, which are still...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 23, 2009

Obama hails Lincoln — but is he on course to fail the LBJ way?

"Some of our bankers had shown themselves either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the people's funds. They had used the money entrusted to them in speculations and unwise loans. . . . It was the government's job to straighten out this situation and do it as quickly as possible, and the job...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 23, 2009

Rich material found in penury

It is 1995, that defining year of the Kobe earthquake, the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, the year a man in Osaka confesses to dismembering the bodies of three women at his home in Osaka; the year a Buddhist priest is arrested for raping over 100 women. The times are out of joint, and the author...
COMMENTARY
Aug 22, 2009

The decline of policymaking

I have misgivings about the decline of Japanese policymaking abilities.
EDITORIALS
Aug 21, 2009

Devolution moves forward

In past elections, "devolution" was hardly an issue because political parties thought the subject would not rouse voter interest. Even if local government leaders made demands, political parties did not seriously heed them. Things are different ahead of the Aug. 30 Lower House election.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2009
Aug 21, 2009

Decentralization picking up steam?

OSAKA — Imagine, if you will, Japan in 2018. Following the historic Lower House election in 2009, the country passed legislation that abolished the 47 prefectures and thousands of smaller local governments.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 21, 2009

'Clean'/'Patti Smith: Dream of Life'

To feel "clean," if you're a junkie, is to be in a state free of addiction, but more than that, it also implies a clean slate, a life wiped clean of its past temptations, joys and pain, in order to allow new beginnings to emerge.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 21, 2009

Aimee Mann clicks into a disturbed world

The title of Aimee Mann's latest album, "@#%&*! Smilers," does a good job of conveying the tone of the singer-songwriter's output, not to mention her wry sense of humor; which isn't to say Mann has nothing to smile about. After years of hassling with major record labels about the direction of her music,...
JAPAN / Q&A
Aug 19, 2009

Ultimately, it all comes down to numbers

All signs seem to indicate Prime Minister Taro Aso and his Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling coalition face a tough battle in trying to hold onto their Lower House majority in the Aug. 30 election.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Aug 19, 2009

Sharp rides the Blu-ray; iPhone catches up

More bang from the Blu-ray: Sharp aims to beat a storage restriction problem with its second-generation Aquos DX series of LCD televisions. Notable for combining a built-in Blu-ray recorder with an LCD TV, the key improvement for the new range is a 7× extended HD recording mode. Sharp claims that this...
JAPAN / ELECTION 2009
Aug 16, 2009

'Telepolitics,' polls shake up status quo

Japanese politics has been in a chaotic state for the past few years, perplexing millions of voters. The country has seen four prime ministers in the past three years, and the latest — Taro Aso — could be forced out if the Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition force, grabs power in the...

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan