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Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Oct 30, 2012

Tokyo Designers Week: Say hello to the best again

Something old, something new Halloween is here, which means Tokyo Designers Week is, too. The latter is, of course, what we're particularly interested in, and since you are reading this on the day it kicks off, we forego our regular product-recommendation format and instead offer some guidance on what...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Oct 30, 2012

Science tells us that dolphins are something special

Dear people of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture,
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LIGHT GIST
Oct 30, 2012

The world according to Toru Hashimoto

Loved by his supporters for his fiery rhetoric — which often involves bashing the Tokyo-centric status quo, overpaid local bureaucrats, utility executives, teachers' unions or, indeed, anybody who disagrees with him — Hashimoto's critics charge that he's a dangerous rightwing demagogue seeking a...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 29, 2012

Game 1 hero Bowker appreciates opportunity to play in postseason

One has to wonder what was going through John Bowker's mind as he rounded the bases after hitting a three-run home run during the fourth inning of Game 1 of the Japan Series.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 28, 2012

You can't choose your (invisible) neighbors

Some animals are solitary. Others live in flocks or herds. Human beings are somewhere in between. Our sociability and our economic needs force us into communities, where our misanthropy, meanness and selfishness — or maybe it's an instinctive craving for solitude — can make our neighbors' presence...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 28, 2012

Japan Series helps put Canada on baseball map

Baseball is hardly the first thing that springs to mind when Canadian sports are discussed. Hockey is king in Canada, and slap shots and glove saves stoke the nation's fire more than home runs or diving catches ever could.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 28, 2012

Shaken, stirred puzzle that fits

SUBDUCTION, by Todd Shimoda, illustrated by L.J.C. Shimoda. Chin Music Press, 2012, 279 pp., $25 (hardcover) How to adequately describe "Subduction," the new work by husband and wife team Todd and L.J.C. Shimoda? A psychological thriller framed by gorgeous artwork? A beautifully bound collection of abstract,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 28, 2012

Hashimoto needs a much thicker skin

There is a breed of political reporter that thrives on misanthropy. These journalists have no use for empathy when trying to understand issues or individuals. They are only stimulated by acrimony, by the need to reveal the darkest impulses of human endeavor. H.L. Mencken, the most eloquent of this ilk,...
Events / KANSAI: WHO & WHAT
Oct 27, 2012

Big international festival in Kyoto on Nov. 3

The Kyoto City International Foundation is hosting Open Day 2012 on Nov. 3.
EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 2012

Nation honors an athlete

The government will bestow the People's Honor Award on Ms. Saori Yoshida — a wrestler who has won three Olympic gold medals and 10 world championships — "for bringing hope and courage to society." As Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said in announcing the government's decision to give her the...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 23, 2012

IMF-World Bank meet was weak: co-op head

The annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group in Tokyo earlier this month saw strong messages delivered on ending poverty and food scarcity, but the gathering failed to map out a solution to these issues, the president of the International Cooperative Alliance said....
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 23, 2012

Doctors discuss a face-lift for Japan's plastic surgery societies

Though it's hardly talked about in public, cosmetic surgery appears to be an increasingly popular option in Japan for people trying to enhance their looks and defy the signs of aging.
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Oct 23, 2012

Tokyo: Has U.S. President Barack Obama impressed or disappointed you over the past four years?

Patrick Coulon, 33Environmentalist (French)I think he has impressed more than disappointed. For the French, it seems like he is trying to create a solid social security system like we have in France, but that is really the only thing I know about his first (term to date).
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Oct 23, 2012

Think 'white South Africa,' not 'Black Ships'; in unions' defense

Japan must play by the rules Re: Edward Moreno's letter "Bring back the Black Ships?" (Have Your Say, Oct. 2) in response to "Our mixed-race children deserve better than this, so why bother with Japan?" by Colin P.A. Jones (Zeit Gist, Sept. 4):
CULTURE / Music
Oct 18, 2012

Fans of the GazettE spread news abroad

the GazettE celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, and what better way is there to spend an anniversary than with a trip abroad. Well, sort of.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 18, 2012

Kentaro makes hip-hop personal

Almost the whole of Kentaro's life has been devoted to dance — in particular to hip-hop dance — ever since he first saw it on television as an elementary school boy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 16, 2012

Niseko puts faith in powder to revive tourism boom

Throughout most of the 2010s, the meteoric rise in popularity of Hokkaido's ski resorts among foreign visitors was widely documented in both the domestic and overseas media.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Oct 16, 2012

Labor law protects expectant and new mothers — to a point

I had a labor consultation with a woman who said: "The other day I told my company I was pregnant. My boss asked me to quit because the firm can't afford to give me time off. One of my coworkers once resigned before giving birth but I want to stay on. Do I have to quit now that I am pregnant?"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Oct 16, 2012

Tokyo: What's the most overrated place in Japan?

Sho Hara
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 16, 2012

Shale oil vein raises energy, tech hopes

For the first time ever this month, shale oil was extracted from a Japanese oil field.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 14, 2012

Spirits linger on storied Kudaka Isle

The 25-minute hop from Azama Port to Kudaka Island provides just enough time to glimpse back at Okinawa's receding coast before turning to gaze at the shoreline looming — not that I expected a great deal from an island so easily and frequently linked by ferries to the much-developed mainland.
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2012

Lagarde warns of 'wartime level' debt

Cutting public debt while encouraging economic growth will be vital in stabilizing the global economy, which is showing a slower than expected recovery, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Oct 13, 2012

Manga artist wields 'fude' brush in samurai epic

Illustrator and comic book artist Mulele Jarvis came to Tokyo just as he reached adulthood. It was five years after he had first discovered manga near his home in San Francisco, at Kinokuniya Bookstore, next door to Japantown: "That's where I found Katsuhiro Otomo's 'Akira.' I was so impressed by it,...
EDITORIALS
Oct 13, 2012

Tehran feels the squeeze

Iran is hurting. Economic sanctions imposed by Western governments designed to push Tehran back into nuclear negotiations have triggered a virtual collapse of Iran's currency, and the effects are being felt throughout the entire economy. While there are reasons to be concerned about the impact of sanctions...
JAPAN / IMF-WORLD BANK IN TOKYO
Oct 12, 2012

KKE starts consultations for evacuation planning

One lesson learned from the tragic Great East Japan Earthquake disaster on March 11, 2011, is that hardware alone does not suffice to save the lives of so many people in affected areas.
JAPAN / IMF-WORLD BANK IN TOKYO
Oct 12, 2012

Project lends helping hand to industry, small brewers

Sake, like Japanese fashion, anime or even sushi, can be an acquired taste. Just like those other cultural exports from Japan, sake comes in a wide variety of different styles and flavors, and while your first taste may not be precisely what you're looking for, it can be rewarding for those who keep...
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Oct 12, 2012

Sake-making mission, part two: the harvest

The instrument I was given to harvest sake rice was a small sickle, about 20 cm in length, with a thin, curved blade and a serrated edge. It was, essentially, the agricultural equivalent of a pair of children's scissors: If used improperly, you could nick yourself badly but were unlikely to do great...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Oct 12, 2012

Iwate likely to emerge as power in Eastern Conference

In the rapidly changing bj-league, the Eastern Conference welcomes a pair of new franchise — the Gunma Crane Thunders and Tokyo Cinq Reves — to the fold this season, while the mighty Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix, a three-time finalist and two-time champion, shift to the Western Conference....
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Oct 9, 2012

Let Inoue's antinuclear Jizo, forged in Hiroshima, guide Japan's future

Dear Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda,
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 7, 2012

Shigesato Itoi shares lots of 'delicious life'

Shigesato Itoi is an established name in the Japanese cultural scene, but what he is known for may differ depending on who you ask.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb