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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 4, 2007

Nanae Aoyama: Office worker takes exalted literary status in her stride

Nanae Aoyama only turned 24 in January, but already she has won literary prizes for each of the two books she has published.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 4, 2007

Shooting arrows to the end of the universe

Zen Bow, Zen Arrow: The Life and Teachings of Awa Kenzo, the Archery Master from "Zen in the Art of Archery", by John Stevens. Boston/London: Shambahala, 2007, 104 pp. with photographs, $12.95 (paper). Archery, or kyudo, "the Way of the bow," has a venerable Asian history. Confucius recommended it as...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 3, 2007

That's OK. I thought it was the horse

Here's a joke I once read in a worn volume of rib ticklers. A bit off color, but my ribs loved it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 2, 2007

'Matsugane Ransha Jiken'

Nobuhiro Yamashita is one of the great comic talents working in Japanese films and also one of the most unusual. Unlike the many directors and actors here who equate "funny" with "over the top," Yamashita is low-key, ironic and very sharp. If he were an American he might have written for "Curb your Enthusiasm,"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 2, 2007

'The Last King of Scotland'

If you're thinking that "The Last King Of Scotland" is some kind of fantasy-sequel to "Braveheart," well, guess again. The "king" of the film's title is 1970s Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada, who was a former barracks boy with the King's Highlanders, and liked to boast that his defiance of Uganda's British...
JAPAN / Q&A
Mar 1, 2007

Ministry takes charge of bankrupt city

This month, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry is expected to designate Yubari, Hokkaido, as a "municipality under rehabilitation." Following are questions and answers outlining what that means for the city:
EDITORIALS
Mar 1, 2007

Warning to the power industry

Two and a half years after an accident in a nuclear power plant killed five workers and injured six others, police have sent up papers to public prosecutors on five employees of Kansai Electric Power Co. and an employee of the utility's subsidiary. It is rare for police to pursue criminal responsibility...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Feb 27, 2007

Yoko Sagae

Yoko Sagae, 57, is the vice principal of the Toyomi Public Kindergarten in Tokyo's Chuo Ward. Ms. Sagae has taken care of more than 1,700 children -- and their parents -- during her 31 years in early childhood education, and she is not about to stop. Loved by generations in the neighborhood where she...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Feb 27, 2007

A grab bag of affordable products

Great design ideas do not necessarily need to cost an arm and a leg -- even though some manufacturers would like you to think so. With that in mind, this month's picks are a grab bag of affordable products, all under 10,000 yen (the small version of the Oblong clock excepted). Also, you should be able...
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 25, 2007

Insider lashes 'lip service to human rights'

Written laws are like spiders' webs; they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 25, 2007

Japanese NGOs focus on relief, reconciliation -- and coffee co-operatives

The violent troubles in 2006 drove many staff of Japanese nongovern- mental organizations out of East Timor. The NGOs I visited had modest offices and accommodations, and the staff lived frugally -- unlike the "lords of poverty" I have encountered elsewhere in the international development community....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 25, 2007

Women who give a rise to the man below them; it must be love

The big show business news last weekend was the wedding of model-actress Norika Fujiwara to comedian Tomonori Jinnai at a shrine in Kobe. The press were not permitted to attend the Shinto ceremony, but Fujiwara and Jinnai did come out a few times in their costumes to talk to reporters, which was nice...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 23, 2007

'The Secret Life of Words'

There are some things that defy and/or reject the use of words, some occurrences in life that just refuse to be caged within the frames of meaning and logic. Still, philosophers and writers stake their faith in words and its cathartic effects; Jean-Paul Sartre once wrote that to "speak and express oneself...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 23, 2007

'A Prairie Home Companion'/'Bobby'

Director Robert Altman checked out of this world last November at age 81, and he was working right up till the end. His last film, "A Prairie Home Companion," is a cinematic spinoff of the popular show on American public radio, and while it's not up there with Altman's best -- "Short Cuts" or "Nashville"...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 18, 2007

Strange stories from Canadian suburbs

Nectar Fragments, by Michael Hoffman. AuthorHouse, 2006, 564 pp., $23.49 (paper). In the manner of the anthropologist, Michael Hoffman, in his latest collection of short stories, stakes out a small piece of terrain then proceeds to examine the life within its coordinates. The name of this plot is Nectar,...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 16, 2007

An update on hogaku

Orchestra Asia Japan presents an innovative interpretation of traditional Japanese sounds on March 1 in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Held in commemoration of the Japan-China Exchange Year of Culture and Sports 2007, the concert features a world premiere of a work by Chinese composer Tang Jian Ping.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 16, 2007

People power decides best film shorts

The world's largest international video contest, Tokyo Video Festival, opens its doors to the public from Feb. 24-28 to screen a wide variety of video shorts made by professionals and amateurs from around the world.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 16, 2007

Fired up for a Chinese celebration

The bunting and decorations are in place. The fatted calf has been slaughtered, the fatted lamb, piglet, chicken and duckling, too. The Chinese New Year is upon us, and close to a third of the world's population is ready to party.
COMMENTARY
Feb 12, 2007

Still the clean-growth model

In terms of economic development, Japan, South Korea and China have achieved in two or three decades what it took Western countries more than a century to accomplish.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 11, 2007

Gore's charge unlikely to skewer Japan's traffic plans

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore was in Japan a few weeks ago promoting "An Inconvenient Truth," the documentary film version of his traveling power-point presentation on the dangers of global warming. He made the rounds of the news shows at the time, but due to the extra time required to edit entertainment...
EDITORIALS
Feb 10, 2007

Mr. Yanagisawa does it again

Language sometimes masks what one really thinks or feels. It also sometimes exposes what is really on one's mind, consciously or unconsciously. The second case appears to apply to the two statements health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa has made in relation to the nation's falling birth rate. In a Lower House...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 9, 2007

Russell Gunn "Plays Miles"

One of the "young lions" coming up in Wynton Marsalis' wake, Russell Gunn received acclaim for his "Ethnomusicology" series that combined hip-hop and jazz with daunting bravado. Gunn now releases an album of reworkings of Miles Davis tunes, perhaps to nail down more trad jazz cred. It works. Gunn digs...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 9, 2007

'My Super Ex-Girlfriend'

People tend to talk about "chick flicks" a lot, you know, the kind of film that stars Anne Hathaway or Holly Hunter and has people stressing a lot about their relationships. There's an assumption that certain sort of films will only play to female audiences, but you never hear about the flip side of...

Longform

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