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JAPAN
Dec 1, 2006

Film on Korean identity woes released in South

, yet feeling awkward about the country he supports. The filmmaker said in a recent interview in Tokyo that she loved her parents but chose to take South Korean nationality in 2004 because she felt uncomfortable with the North Korean regime, which has left many people destitute and starving.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 1, 2006

Journey into the mind of a musical genius

Agnieszka Holland has long been known for translating classical/historical material into pop-culture matter (in "Total Eclipse," for instance, she cast Leonardo di Caprio as a punkish Arthur Rimbaud) and her latest, "Copying Beethoven," is a fictional biopic of the famed composer during the last years...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 30, 2006

Moving beyond nonsense

Born Kazumi Kobayashi in Tokyo, 43-year-old Keralino Sandroviich -- or Kera, as he is best known -- started his career with the techno band Uchoten (Rapture) which he formed in 1982 when he was a student at the Japan Academy of the Moving Image. Although he had planned to be a film director, when Uchoten...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2006

John Toler, 75, unlikely Zen abbot bridging East, West, dies at temple

John Toler, abbot of Seisen-An Temple in Ouda, Nara Prefecture, died of heart failure on Nov. 14 at the temple. He was 75 years old and a key link in the history of foreigners living in postwar Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 28, 2006

Will changes to the education law foster nationalism in classrooms?

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 26, 2006

Dealing with death the Japanese ways

There is a quiet revolution taking place in the attitudes and practices concerning death and burial in Japan -- striking changes that shed light not only on how Japanese people today view death, but also life and the relationships that underpin it. So this week and next, I will explore contemporary issues...
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 26, 2006

The host with the most ... broken ribs

Take six Japanese, one Chinese, all young, female and studying law at Chuo University in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2006

Suicides lay bare bullying menace

Eight years ago, Shinichiro and Midori Komori's 15-year-old daughter, Kasumi, committed suicide.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2006

For entrepreneur, 21, being a 'gal' is pure fashion, not fringe

Shiho Fujita was once a typical "gal," as the tribe of deep-tanned, garishly dressed young women who wander the streets of Tokyo's trendy Shibuya district in search of the latest fashions are called. Now a company president, Fujita is at the forefront of what she calls a "gal revolution."
LIFE / Language
Nov 21, 2006

Net resources make light work of Japanese study

'When the tunnel where the border is long is passed through there was snow country."
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 19, 2006

Scourge of skinnies stands firm on fleshiness

A third of the models who appeared in Madrid's civic-sponsored Cibeles collections last year were banned from the same fashion event this September. The move -- which triggered debate in and beyond fashion circles around the world -- came after city officials declared that the women's extremely underweight...
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2006

What do you know about revising the law of education?

The government-backed bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education cleared the Lower House Thursday and was sent Friday to the Upper House. Here are some questions and answers about the revision.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2006

Education bill shifts power to the state

In the wake of Thursday's Lower House passage of the education reform bill, critics wonder whether news management may have been used to clear the path for what one commentator alleged to be a "fascist" power grab by the central government.
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2006

Abe education bill clears Lower House

The House of Representatives passed the controversial bill to revise the 1947 education law Thursday amid an opposition camp boycott.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 17, 2006

U.S. trade will stay same, Kentucky governor says

The governor of Kentucky said Thursday that the Democrats' decisive win in the U.S. midterm election will not cause any significant change in American trade policies.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2006

Islamic extremism threatens Bangladesh

MADRAS, India -- Bangladesh is the latest South Asian flash point where democracy stands threatened. Bloody street battles between two rival political parties -- led by two women who hate each other -- and other violence have swept the small country northwest of India in recent weeks. The military is...
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2006

Ruling coalition education bill nears passage

is my Cabinet's priority," Abe told reporters Wednesday evening after the committee vote. Yukio Hatoyama, secretary general of the DPJ, the largest opposition party, slammed the vote, which went ahead despite the opposition boycott.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 16, 2006

Al-Jazeera media revolution turns 10

JERUSALEM -- From its first appearance, the new satellite channel broadcast from Qatar lived up to its name. Al-Jazeera -- Arabic for "the island" -- represented a haven of professional, independent, current-affairs programming in a sea of one-sided, government-controlled Arab media.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 14, 2006

Van Cleef & Arpels' 'Treasures,' Kate Moss in Tokyo, Oakley on Cat Street . . .

Sleeping beauties When Estelle Arpels and Alfred Van Cleef opened their first boutique on Paris' hallowed Place Vendome in 1906, one of France's most revered jewelry maisons was born.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2006

Government had plants in five town meetings on education bill

The Cabinet Office admitted Thursday that it and the education ministry planted people at five out of eight town meetings on education reform to give government-authored statements supporting the controversial bill to revise the education law.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 10, 2006

Politics at heart of two 'new' plays

American-born Australian and long-term Japan resident Roger Pulvers presents a double-bill of his plays in Japanese at Theater X in Tokyo's Sumida Ward from Nov. 15-18.
EDITORIALS
Nov 10, 2006

The landslide in Washington

As anticipated, Democrats are the big winners in this week's elections in the United States. After 12 years, the party regained control of the House of Representatives with at least a 12-seat majority and, after a neck-and-neck race in Virginia, claimed 51 of the Senate's 100 seats.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami