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BUSINESS
Jan 15, 2009

Grandson to inherit a carmaker in decline

Akio Toyoda, grandson of Toyota Motor Corp.'s founder and the company's next president, will confront a challenge largely unknown to his ancestors — decline.
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Jan 13, 2009

Women's Group kicks off with lucky tour

Members of the Tokyo American Club Women's Group participated in the Seven Lucky Gods Tour in Tokyo's old and picturesque district of Yanaka on Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Jan 13, 2009

Road map for construction

The infrastructure and transport ministry has worked out a medium-term plan for road construction — a revision of a plan drafted in November 2007. The new plan is better because it makes more realistic projections of future public demand for additional and improved roads. The government should do its...
COMMENTARY
Jan 12, 2009

Darkest hour is just before green

The impact of the current global financial crisis, which originated with U.S. subprime loans and was exacerbated by the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September, has gone far beyond the financial markets, as entire economies are now suffering from sharp declines in demand due to tighter reins on credit,...
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2009

Activists hold Gaza peace rally in Tokyo

As the number of victims continues to climb in Gaza, a crowd of more than 1,500 people rallied in Tokyo on Saturday to call for an immediate ceasefire in the war-torn area.
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2009

Somali kidnappers release Japan doctor, Dutch nurse

Somali kidnappers have freed a Japanese doctor and a Dutch nurse after holding them in captivity for more than three months, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 9, 2009

In the space

Synesthesia is a condition in which stimulation of one sense triggers sensation in another. While very few people have it, most of us are able to understand it at the level of analogy. Musicians, for example, use "chromatic" scales (derived from the Greek word for color), while visual artists routinely...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 6, 2009

Lessons from when the bubble burst

With the current global financial crisis, there is much talk in the international economic communities about how to prevent the kind of prolonged slump that hit Japan after the end of the bubble economy years.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 4, 2009

A nation adrift cries out for new visions fired by anger and sorrow

Every era in the life of a country begs for creators to define it and give it momentum for its society to progress. Politicians, economists and bureaucrats seem to believe that culture rides on the wave of the economy — but the opposite is true. It is on progressive waves of culture that economic achievement...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 1, 2009

Hidenori Inoue takes a stab at Richard III

During his final year at Osaka University of Arts in 1980, Hidenori Inoue founded the Gekidan★Shinkansen theater company with several classmates. The 48-year-old native of Fukuoka in Kyushu hasn't looked back since.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 1, 2009

Words as images

On a single white sheet, the kanji for "snow" — yuki — printed in black, is repeated exactly 1,352 times in a symmetrical grid formation. A 1970 work by Niikuni Seiichi, "flowery snow" (1970) is at once calligraphy, poem and picture. In the Chinese literati tradition — which was influential on...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 31, 2008

Japan's science in '08

In Chinese astrology, rats are said to hunger for power and to be unpredictable, and in 2008 — a Year of the Rat — both those characteristics were clearly in evidence. What with the financial crisis that is changing the established order of things, and the food and fuel crises that have sent shock...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Dec 30, 2008

For hotelier, budget prices at resorts are an easy sell

Naoki Yamanaka, president of hotel operator Shiki Resorts Co., wants more Japanese to appreciate the seasonal changes that bless this country.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 28, 2008

More parents send kids to Indian, Chinese schools

As China and India increasingly flex their muscles as economic powerhouses, many Japanese parents are beginning to send their children to international schools run by Chinese and Indian educators with hopes of churning out more competitive kids.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 28, 2008

Folklore meets detection in Asia

CURSE OF THE POGO STICK by Colin Cotterill. New York: SOHO Press Inc., 2008, 240 pp., $24 (cloth) Some mystery series adopt a backdrop in which indigenous cultures are forced to deal with the incursion of a more modern and powerful civilization. One example would be Eliott Pattison's of mysteries set...
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Dec 27, 2008

Couple's multinational backgrounds make 'good match'

Although Tomoko and Riki Melwani both hold Japanese passports, by background they are multinational.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2008

Frogman's unique slant on politics

Animator Ryo Ono, a 37-year-old Tokyo native, achieved his dream of making films by changing his career as a movie production assistant.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Dec 25, 2008

People Tree products pioneering fair trade in Japan

The hand-knit sweaters and scarves and hand-woven bags with an ethnic look are nothing like the products sold to the masses of consumers in most big shopping malls.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 23, 2008

Children say the darndest things

Another holiday season is upon us. There is a nip in the air, lights of all colors twinkle throughout neighborhoods and cityscapes across the country, and holiday cheer radiates throughout our schools, workplaces and communities. During this festive time, friends and families often come together in true...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 21, 2008

Japan threatened by social divide

POVERTY AND SOCIAL WELFARE IN JAPAN, edited by Masami Iwata and Akihiko Nishizawa. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2008, 323 pp., A$54.95 (paper) Recent commotions on financial markets have underscored the fact that neoliberal reforms and destatization have not brought us the advantages of competition,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Dec 21, 2008

The auto trade gears up for a revolution

The automotive world is under assault from two storms that will lead to a watershed in its century-old history.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 21, 2008

Southern All Stars-inspired drama; Takeshi as Tojo; and communal living

Though they officially retired a few months ago, Japan's most beloved rock band, Southern All Stars, just won't go away. On Monday, Nihon TV will present a special two-hour drama, "Za Naminori Resutoran" ("The Wave-riding Restaurant") (8:54 p.m.), which is built around 30 SAS songs.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 21, 2008

A trove of fiction, all for the love of women

SPARKLING RAIN and Other Fiction From Japan of Women Who Love Women, edited by Barbara Summerhawk and Kimberly Hughes, with introductions by Hitomi Sawabe and Mieko Watanabe. Chicago: New Victoria Publishers, Inc., 2008, 216 pp., $16.95 (paper) As editor Barbara Summerhawk writes in her introduction...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2008

Budget won't spark growth, experts warn

The fiscal 2009 draft budget unveiled Saturday isn't likely to help Japan recover because the recession will probably accelerate the ongoing decline in tax revenues, economists warn.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 20, 2008

Blackburn makes smart decision by naming Allardyce new manager

LONDON — We will probably never know why Sunderland did not consider Sam Allardyce to be the right man to succeed Roy Keane, who resigned (by mobile phone text to chairman Niall Quinn) earlier this month.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?