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Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 14, 2009

New university library puts focus on the fans

Perhaps no single cultural product is held more dear in Japan than manga. It was a dominant form of pulp entertainment in the early post-World War II period, a forum for social dissent in the 1960s, then for female creativity in the '70s. By the '80s, manga was at the center of a mass market that outstripped...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 13, 2009

A passion for food, cars and aikido

You probably don't know where Ushigome is. Like many areas within Tokyo's Yamanote Line, it is somewhat anonymous — the kind of place where you expect to find nothing of interest and where the local people, as if oblivious to the size of the metropolis around them, shop in tiny old stores. It's the...
CULTURE / Film
Jun 12, 2009

'Seishin'

Mental illness, as Kazuhiro Soda notes in his documentary "Seishin" ("Mental"), is one of the big taboos of Japanese society.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 12, 2009

The first 'Japanese' opera?

Kabuki actor and designated Living National Treasure Sakata Tojuro (b. 1931) stages an opera, for the first time in his career, this month at the New National Theatre.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 10, 2009

The scent of poverty must be just so in Japan

When times are tough, the Japanese get going, or something to that effect. My grandfather always held that as a nation, we were much better at being poor than being rich — "Nihonjinga kane wo motsuto rokunakotoni naranai日本人が金をもつとろくなことにならない, Nothing good comes...
EDITORIALS
Jun 7, 2009

One every 15 minutes

For the last 11 years, one Japanese person has committed suicide every 15 minutes. This suicide rate, compiled by the National Police Agency, means that more than 30,000 suicides occur every year, a third of a million people in a decade. This astonishingly high rate, by far the highest for all developed...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jun 7, 2009

Kang Sang Jung: Born but not Bred

Kang Sang Jung is one of the most influential ethnically Korean residents of Japan (zainichi). A political science professor at the University of Tokyo, he also gives lectures around the country, is a regular television commentator and has a column in the prestigious weekly current affairs magazine Aera....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2009

Occupation orphan traces roots

For New Yorker Demian Akhan, 60, his recent visit to Japan marked the end of a decades-long journey to discover his roots.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2009

Refugees having big impact on North society

North Korea may be a hardline communist state, but it hasn't succeeded in eliminating the public's desperate urge for Hollywood entertainment.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jun 6, 2009

Ancelotti unlikely to last long with Chelsea

LONDON — How wonderful to have been a fly on the wall when Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich discussed with his advisers (whoever they might be) who should succeed Guus Hiddink as manager.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2009

Geithner's 'G-2' invitation

HONG KONG — Some Chinese see U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was in Beijing this week, as a repentant debtor humbly visiting his bank manager. Influential Americans, however, see the visit as the start of a beautiful friendship, perhaps even a tipping point in global finance — the overture...
CULTURE / Art
Jun 5, 2009

Striving for a more simple life

The paintings in "The Naxi Lifeworld: Native Painters in Northwestern Yunnan" by Zhang Yunling (b. 1955) and Zhang Chunting (b. 1958) proffer a simple and honest way of life, steeped in the seasons, nostalgia, and the pictographic Dongba script of the Naxi people of China's Yunnan and Sichuan provinces....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jun 5, 2009

Early summer flavors, aromas

The Hyatt Regency Tokyo in Shinjuku is offering special "Kunpu Kensai" early summer courses at its Jade Garden Chinese restaurant through June 30.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 5, 2009

Basque in great flavors at Txoko

It's no secret: Spain has some of the best food in Europe. But Tokyo is only starting to realize there's much more to it than just paella and sangria. That's why we were so pleased to hear about Txoko, the city's first restaurant specializing in the outstanding cuisine of the Basque Country.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 2, 2009

Supercomputers — infinity within reach?

From forecasting the weather to improving the earthquake resistance of architecture, supercomputers have become a vital tool in just the span of a few decades.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2009

DPJ submits bill to cut back on culture of hereditary politicians

The Democratic Party of Japan submitted a bill to the Lower House Monday aimed at cutting back on what many in the public believe is the unfair advantage enjoyed by so-called hereditary politicians.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 2, 2009

Should teachers be punished if they don't stand up and sing the national anthem at school events?

Reader Mail
May 31, 2009

Necessary evil in dangerous times

The May 15 AP article "Britain overzealous in terrorism arrests" was critical of the fact that Britons of South Asian descent are more likely to be detained in antiterrorism raids than any other ethnic groups. I agree that this is unfortunate and discriminatory, but it is nevertheless necessary.
Reader Mail
May 31, 2009

Hold the mantra on uniqueness

In " 'Manga': heart of pop culture" (May 26), manga critic Haruyuki Nakano is quoted as saying that "the established styles of drawing — the use of lines — to express a character's movements and emotions have become so engrained in Japanese readers that it is not easy for foreigners to 'crack the...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
May 31, 2009

Japan's wartime sentiment toward China

NEW YORK — What were the Japanese saying when their country plunged into a war in 1937 that would last eight years and end in utter defeat?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
May 31, 2009

Don't blame me, but I did do my bit

Born a son of a Japanese trading- company executive, and exclusively educated in Britain, Tetsuya Ishikawa got his first taste of life in the financial industry in the summer of 1998. That was during his pre-university "gap year," when he worked on the foreign-exchange trading floor at the Tokyo branch...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
May 31, 2009

Open mind key to Hillman's success

First excerpt in a two-part series of updated "You Gotta Have Wa"
Reader Mail
May 31, 2009

Adult manga has 50-year history

The May 26 article " 'Manga': heart of pop culture" has to be one of the most poorly researched articles I've ever had the misfortune to read in The Japan Times. The Japanese comic magazine industry's targeting of the adult audience has nearly 50 years of history. Titles targeting salarymen are published...
CULTURE / Books
May 31, 2009

The violence specialists of Japanese politics

Japanese voters are frustrated because even if they throw the bums out of office, they know the opposition is much the same. These days money is the root of political scandals and influence buying, but here we examine how violence became institutionalized in Japan's politics from the first parliamentary...
COMMUNITY
May 30, 2009

Writer answers ceaseless call for stimulation

Mark Schreiber was the first foreign writer in Japan to cover the wildly popular phenomenon of capsule hotels.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 29, 2009

Classical music lovers get set for Matsumoto

"Sending out high-quality Western classical music from Japan" was the goal for renowned cellist and conductor Hideo Saito (1902-74), who studied in Germany. In 1955, he cofounded the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, where he devoted the latter half of his life to music education and taught many...

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan