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Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 20, 2010

Imperial Palace resides in otherworldly expanse

Like a nature reserve surrounded by Tokyo's concrete jungle, the Imperial Palace, or Kokyo, home to the Emperor and Empress, is a moated, otherworldly forested expanse where once stood a castle.
EDITORIALS
Jan 20, 2010

DPJ drawn into Mr. Ozawa's pickle

A regular Diet session started Monday — less than a week after the chief secretary and two former secretaries of Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, the secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, were arrested. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad arrested the three on...
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2010

Treaty withstands strains of time, politics

OSAKA — A half century after it was signed, the 1960 Japan-U.S. security treaty remains the foundation for bilateral cooperation, even as the world it was forged in has changed drastically.
COMMENTARY
Jan 19, 2010

Military spending — for what?

WASHINGTON — The United States dominates the globe militarily. The threats facing America pale compared to its capabilities. Why, then, is Washington spending so much on the military?
MORE SPORTS
Jan 19, 2010

Phelps beats Sano in Long Beach

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) Olympic superstars Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff won 400-yard individual medleys on Sunday night at the Long Beach Grand Prix.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 16, 2010

Calm reflections on a turbulent life

In a diminutive wooden house tucked behind the tile-topped white walls surrounding Tenryuji Temple, a World Heritage site in Kyoto's Arashiyama district, lives Henry "Seisen" Mittwer, 91, a Japanese-American Buddhist priest, author, ikebana and ceramic artist.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 15, 2010

Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro "Uhuru Peak"

A mere few weeks old, 2010 is already shaping up to be a hell of a year for Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro. To get primed for the release of their new "Uhuru Peak" sophomore full-length, the Saitama sextet started off January with a three-week live jaunt of Australian clubs and summer festivals. Familiar...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jan 14, 2010

Smokers escape the gas chamber

Smokers in Japan are losing ground, but Japan Tobacco is doing what it can to find safe havens for puffers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 12, 2010

Italian culture rep probes parallels

Umberto Donati, the 65-year-old director of the Italian Institute of Culture, is a force of nature when it comes to seizing every opportunity to introduce his country's paintings, books, art exhibitions and language courses to Japanese.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jan 12, 2010

Sincerity of future Nanjing visit must not be in doubt

"Reconciliatory value of a visit to Nanjing" (Hotline to Nagatacho, Dec. 29) by Brian A. Victoria:
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 9, 2010

Portsmouth a black eye for Premier League

LONDON — The Premier League has fit-and-proper-person criteria that anyone wanting to take over a club must pass. Ali al-Faraj, a Saudi businessman, assumed control of Portsmouth in October after fulfilling the criteria, yet each month since then the players' wages have not been paid on time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 8, 2010

' Bandage'

Shunji Iwai was once Japan's hottest young director following the smash success of "Love Letter," a 1995 film about a woman who writes a letter to her dead lover — and gets a reply.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 8, 2010

'(500) Days of Summer'

As a genre, the rom-com has all but died — what's a woman to do when at the end of a long working week she sits down in a theater hoping for solace and a thin but meaningful sliver of real romance and all that happens on-screen is a lot of preachy, self-helpy schlock? To all rom-com filmmakers —...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 8, 2010

Yang Fudong on the beauty of living

Based in Shanghai, Chinese artist Yang Fudong has gained worldwide recognition for his multimedia installations incorporating material shot on richly textured, black-and-white 35 mm film. His five-part film cycle "Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest" (2003-07) was one of the defining works in the...
JAPAN / LOOMING CHALLENGES
Jan 6, 2010

Japan urged to exploit its tech, pop culture

Last of five parts
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 5, 2010

Florist sees seeds of change in Japan

Hans Damen came to Japan from his native Holland 16 years ago, attracted by the traditional aspects of Japanese culture, like "taiko" drumming and ikebana flower arrangement. After teaching flower design at a school in Tokyo for a year, he landed a job with the major flower retailer U.Goto Florist and...
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2010

2010 make or break for the DPJ

2009 will be remembered as a turning point in postwar politics, a time when voters ousted the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party and put the Democratic Party of Japan in power.
COMMENTARY
Dec 30, 2009

Iran the challenge in 2010

Of all the pressure points on the international scene in 2010 the Iran problem looks the most dangerous. Iran could come to an explosive boiling point in the coming months, sending shock waves through the global system.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2009

Is Britain really breaking London's bankers?

NEW YORK — The plot of the morality play set in motion by the United Kingdom's announcement of a 50 percent tax on bankers' bonuses has now taken form. And it is a play that holds an important lesson about how politicians are managing — or mismanaging — demands for financial reform.
COMMENTARY
Dec 30, 2009

The Japan-India partnership to power a multipolar Asia

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's India visit is part of Japan's growing economic and strategic engagement with that country. Given that the balance of power in Asia will be determined by events as much in the Indian Ocean rim as in East Asia, Tokyo is keen to work with New Delhi to promote peace and stability...
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2009

The past year of newness

The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation's annual kanji of the year for 2009 is, appropriately, " " (shin), meaning "new." This kanji, chosen by national ballot and announced in December at Kyoto's Kiyomizu temple, reflects the win of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which ended a half-century...
MORE SPORTS
Dec 28, 2009

Mao wins nationals

KADOMA, Osaka Pref. — Mao Asada won the women's Japan Figure Skating National Championships on Sunday to secure a place in the Vancouver Olympic team.
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 27, 2009

Koza remembered

It's October 2009, and I'm sitting in the parking lot of a convenience store in Koza city, taking photographs of the sidewalk. I've been here for close to an hour — surrounded by a dozen old photographs, four maps and reams of photocopies all weighed down with chunks of brick to stop them blowing away...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 25, 2009

Cuts fear clouds a year of diversity and innovation in Japan theater

Following the landmark change of government in August, meetings of its Budget Screening Committee have for the first time been opened to the public. Sadly, though, when that committee got round to arts financing in November, many members harshly criticized the amount awarded to the public theater sector....

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes