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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Sep 21, 2008

Low and slow — Nagoya's slice of Southern California

Second of two parts
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Sep 14, 2008

'American Graffiti,' Japanese style

First of two parts
CULTURE / Music
Sep 12, 2008

Various "Fresh Cuts from Japan — Hardcore — Volume 1" (JapanFiles.com)

American online MP3 store JapanFiles.com has done a commendable job of bringing lesser-known Japanese musicians to the attention of listeners around the world. After two well-received forays into indie, punk and hip-hop, its latest "Fresh Cuts" compilation turns its attention to heavier concerns.
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2008

Vale seeks to hike iron-ore price extra 12%

Cia. Vale do Rio Doce, the world's biggest iron-ore producer, is asking Nippon Steel Corp. and its Japanese rivals to pay 12 percent more for the material on top of a 65 percent increase agreed to in February, according to two sources familiar with the negotiations.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2008

Make-my-day T-shirt craze gives unsung Fukuda belated celebrity

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's public support was pretty weak for most of his roughly one year in office. But since announcing his resignation Monday, his popularity seems to be recovering — at least for T-shirts bearing his likeness.
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2008

Sony Financial aims to boost policy sales to ¥36 trillion

Sony Financial Holdings Inc. aims to boost policy sales 15 percent to ¥36 trillion by March 2011 as Japan's insurers struggle to counter declining demand.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2008

Quakes inevitable — so prepare

Last of two parts Are you ready for the Big One?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 2, 2008

Urawaza — quirky, everyday Japanese tips — head West

Two years ago, a mysterious 20-second video clip triggered some unexpected buzz on the Web site YouTube. In the segment, an ordinary-looking housewife draws an invisible line across the chest of a shirt with her finger. Then she pinches the shirt under the armpit and at the shoulder, does a quick flipping...
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2008

Tokyo tries to gird for major quake

Every Sept. 1, Tokyo residents are reminded of the tragedy of the Great Kanto Earthquake, which claimed more than 100,000 lives that fateful day in 1923. Now designated Disaster Prevention Day, it is a time for annual quake and fire drills.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 26, 2008

Tattoos come out of hiding

'There are tattoos that you can show and ones that you should hide," says Shura, an Osaka tattoo artist. "Traditional tattoos are only OK to show at festivals, certain public baths and during fights.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 24, 2008

Biomimicry: Natural by design

I magine being able to maintain a perfect temperature and humidity in your home year round, without spending a single yen in electricity or gas bills. That's exactly what Professor Emile Ishida of Tohoku University in northern Japan is striving to achieve — and he got the idea from termites.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WEEK 3
Aug 17, 2008

Akihito Ito: Keeper of the tales of a nuclear hell

Has George W. Bush ever heard of Akihito Ito? Dismayed at Pentagon plans to develop a new generation of "tactical" nuclear weapons — so-called mini-nukes — Ito sent Bush a gift: a box of CDs carrying the recorded voices of 284 atomic-bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 16, 2008

Geeks I have known

The meeting itself is not unusual. I have had students seek my consul before — on all kinds of topics.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 15, 2008

Firms strop goods as facial hair finds favor

Japanese men have long shunned facial hair, as many companies frowned on employees with beards or mustaches, or even prohibited them in the workplace.
BUSINESS
Aug 14, 2008

MUFG may have to up ante as UnionBanCal shares surge

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan's largest bank by market value, may have to raise its $3 billion bid for control of UnionBanCal Corp. after the Californian lender's stock surged.
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2008

Reactor at Hamaoka back online

Chubu Electric Power Co. restarted a reactor at its Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka Prefecture after taking it offline Sunday to replace a malfunctioning water valve at one of the low-pressure heaters.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Aug 12, 2008

Jimmy Choo, Mickey Mouse, Fred Perry and more

Fashion mouse Disney has inspired a lot of people, from little girls to Superbowl champions. Even designer Vivienne Tam has now taken inspiration from her childhood and decided to pay tribute to the famous mouse with a capsule collection of playful dresses for this fall/winter season.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 12, 2008

It's ghost season in Japan — who you gonna call?

If there are eerie goings-on in the neighborhood — and Halloween is still two months off — it could be because Japan's traditional "ghost season" maxes out at this time of the year.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 12, 2008

It's ghost season in Japan — who you gonna call?

If there are eerie goings-on in the neighborhood — and Halloween is still two months off — it could be because Japan's traditional "ghost season" maxes out at this time of the year.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Aug 5, 2008

Once a 'gaijin,' always a 'gaijin'

Gaijin. It seems we hear the word every day. For some, it's merely harmless shorthand for "gaikokujin" (foreigner). Even Wikipedia (that online wall for intellectual graffiti artists) had a section on "political correctness" that claimed illiterate and oversensitive Westerners had misunderstood the Japanese...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 3, 2008

Jiang Rong: Writing in a world of wolves

Jiang Rong (pen name of Lu Jiamin), who is now 62, was born in Jiangsu Province, China, and educated in Beijing. In 1967, at age 21, he volunteered to go and work in Inner Mongolia, where he'd heard about the practice of people there paying homage to "wolf totems" erected in the rolling grasslands that...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 1, 2008

Runner Yamauchi excited about opportunity to compete in Beijing

The essence of one's competitive spirit often comes from this: a joy in participating in the process. And it would be difficult — nearly impossible, in fact — to find another marathon runner who reveres the process as much as Mara Yamauchi.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 30, 2008

Waribashi: Waste on a gluttonous scale

I f I were writing about one of my favorite Tokyo eateries for the JT's Food Page, this story would mostly focus on its delicious fare. However, as this is the Nature Page, my verbal meanderings here are not about the nosh at cheap and cheerful Shokudo Shogetsu in Tamachi, but about the tools used to...

Longform

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