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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 9, 2007

Pottering around with pop music

When Tori Kudo was a 13-year-old growing up in Matsuyama, Shikoku, he didn't spend his evenings at cram school like classmates, but instead played cheesy piano in nightclubs as a member of a professional big band.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 8, 2007

Brilliant choices reveal seldom seen masterpieces

Despite oft-heard subversive remarks to the contrary, the Japanese have a very highly-developed sense of humor -- it's just different, that's all. While Westerners are baffled by TV comedy shows here, or -- at a higher level -- traditional kyogen stage performances, Japanese will blink through a Monty...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 6, 2007

Innocence is presumed but bail is not a given

There are some things money can't buy, but to get out of jail, bail can be an option for some.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 4, 2007

Princess Tenko: conjuror of pure mystery

The life of illusionist Tenko Hikita -- better
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 4, 2007

Whatever befell Japan's heady '60s hopes?

Over the past two weeks in this column, I have looked at Japanese society in the 1980s and '90s in order to trace how the nationalistic policies of the current Shinzo Abe administration, particularly in the educational and military spheres, are the outcome of developments in the preceding decades.
BASEBALL / MLB
Feb 2, 2007

Cashman, Levine take show from China to Japan

The New York Yankees were global even before Kei Igawa, Wang Chien-ming and Hideki Matsui donned the pinstripes, but diversifying the roster is only the beginning for the well-known club.
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Feb 2, 2007

Cabbages and kings

Those who live and work in Itabashi are hesitant when it comes to tallying up the highlights of this northwestern Tokyo ward. "There's really nothing remarkable here," says ballerina and homemaker Chieko Muraoka, 37. "It's quiet and small-scale, but we like it that way."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 2, 2007

'Shooting Dogs'

When Hitler got his collaborators together and proposed the genocide of Jews, one of the things he said to justify the act was that before long the world will forget the whole thing. He is famed for having cited the example of the Armenian Genocide (1915-1917, in which around a million people were estimated...
MULTIMEDIA
Feb 2, 2007

No need to shell out for these oysters

No prizes for guessing what's on the menu at Tokyo Oyster Bar. The name is succinct, businesslike, almost generic. You would imagine it to be sleek, perhaps a bit impersonal, and definitely a bit pricey -- after all, that's the image most other oyster bars in the city aspire to. You'd be wrong.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2007

Tokyo's dark side

Welshman John Williams first came to Japan in 1988, intending to stay two years, write a script and return to Britain to make a movie. He ended up making eight shorts, a documentary and finally a feature film -- the drama "Firefly Dreams" -- all in Japan and with Japanese casts and crews. Released in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 1, 2007

"Where to for the Big Museums -- A New Strategy for Survival"

Mori Art Museum Feb. 9, 5-9 p.m.
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2007

Inconveniences of truth

This January, whether golfing in the snow country of Niigata, butterfly-watching in the Alps or skating over the ice in Texas, the weather is obviously stranger than ever before. The observation of the senses, or at least the quick read of a few news articles, should be enough evidence of global warming...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 28, 2007

What evil lurks in the hearts of men?

The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril: A Novel, by Paul Malmont. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006, 371 pp., $24 (cloth) DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED by Colin Cotterill. New York: Soho Press Inc, 2006, 247 pp., $23 (cloth) I must confess a pronounced weakness for well-crafted mysteries spun around real historical...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2007

SpongeBob soaks up young fans in Japan

Square and loud, SpongeBob wasn't supposed to have much chance for success in Japan, a nation famous for its love of more cuddly characters like Hello Kitty and Pikachu.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2007

Empathizing with an enemy

LOS ANGELES -- In a resonant scene from film director Clint Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima," soldiers find a letter on the person of a just-deceased enemy. Upon learning that the letter is from his mother, sharing her hopes and fears and wisdom, they are haunted by their shared humanity with this...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 25, 2007

Modernizers of Japanese art tended toward tradition

In the drive to modernize Japanese art in the 19th century, artists frequently attempted to create a fusion of Eastern and Western styles of painting. But what at first sight seemed to be radical combinations of the two, now actually appear to be more happily at home within pre-existing Japanese traditions....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 23, 2007

Gender identity transformed from 'freak' into rights issue

'When I was a child, I had a feeling I wasn't satisfied with being a human being. To be a human being didn't seem like a beautiful existence to me," says Otojiro Toriyama.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2007

TV entertainer voted Miyazaki governor

," said Higashi, 49, an apprentice of comedian Beat Takeshi, after learning he had won. "We must change Miyazaki together." Higashi, 49, whose real name is Hideo Higashikokubaru, apparently attracted voters by shedding his image as a comedian and receiving no backing by any political party.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 21, 2007

Dig in at this genuine cantina

OSAKA -- Osaka likes to brag that it is the kitchen of Japan, where the stomach is the most important body organ. But as the guidebooks might say, "Cheap and cheerful is the rule" when it comes to establishing a decent greasy spoon in this city, which prides itself on its working-class, merchant roots....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 20, 2007

Dr. Manny Sultan and Yasuko Emmei-Sultan

Three people have had major influences on the life, character and career of Dr. Manny Sultan, Cairo-born architect, interior architect, and space planner.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 19, 2007

U.S., Japan gymnasts benefit from exchange

They spin and tumble, twist and turn, and bend their bodies, whipping them into shapes that often look like caricatures of pretzels.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 19, 2007

Recital reunites teacher with pupil

The contrabassist Isao Fukazawa will perform a bass recital to celebrate 20 years as principal bassist of Kyushu Symphony Orchestra, at Kioi Hall, Tokyo, on Jan. 25. The program, quipped the "ultimate" contrabass concert program, presents masterpieces spanning many musical eras.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 18, 2007

"The World of Immortals"

Kyoto National Museum Closes in 11 days
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 13, 2007

English foibles bear humorous and educational manga

It's New Year's Day and the Yamada family, dressed in kimono, gather around the table for a feast, and to review English phrases they learned the previous year, like "take a breather" or "playing hooky."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jan 11, 2007

Rooms for art

The hotel, be it flophouse or five-star, is what distinguishes cosmopolitan man from the nomad. Yes, it may be a humdrum need for shelter and food that brings us to hotels. But when we slip into that unfamiliar room, and for one night make it our own, we can also find ourselves transported to a different...

Longform

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