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BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jul 19, 2010

DPJ, finances victims of own conspiracy, cock-up, complacency?

Conspiracy or cock-up? That is the question that invariably comes to mind when something goes very badly wrong in business or politics. As it has done in both of these two worlds in Japan lately.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jul 16, 2010

Big (only) in Japan? Free fans

When the dog days are upon Japan, there's always a good chance that somebody, somewhere will be passing out free fans.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2010

Rakuten's all-English edict a bold move, but risky too

Internet shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc. surprised the public by announcing early this year it will make English its official language by 2012.
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2010

Progressive agenda stuck in the mud

Happily for Yoko Sakamoto, she didn't have to argue with her husband — also a Sakamoto — about whose last name they'd use when they married.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2010

Okinawa's sole LDP lawmaker, now a Futenma foe, is returned

OSAKA — Okinawa voters returned the prefecture's only Liberal Democratic Party Diet member, Aiko Shimajiri, to the Upper House in a contest closely watched by Tokyo and Washington for its connection with U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2010

Your Party no party to ruling bloc

Your Party leader Yoshimi Watanabe said Monday that his group, which scored great gains in Sunday's Upper House election, has no intention of joining the ruling coalition and urged Prime Minister Naoto Kan to dissolve the Lower House.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 11, 2010

Japan's great gamble

Sheldon Adelson, crusading chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, was in Singapore last month to launch his company's latest casino-anchored mega-resort, the $5.5 billion Marina Bay Sands Singapore.
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jul 10, 2010

Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper' album cover mystery a piece of Japanese history

Who owns the Sony TV that appears on the cover of the Beatles' famous "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album?
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 10, 2010

Winning, confidence return to Fighters

The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters are showing people that once their cogwheels are engaged, they can once again be as good as any other team.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2010

Crisis a chance for consolidation

The European debt problem triggered by the Greek crisis this year provides a good opportunity for both Japan and Germany to start fiscal consolidation efforts in the face of mounting public-sector debts, experts from the two countries told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 9, 2010

Kreva keeps Japan's hip-hop heart beating

The last thing anyone expects one of the country's leading hip-hop artists to say about the scene he's part of is that it's uninspired. But for Japanese hip-hop veteran Kreva, that's the unfortunate truth. "There's not really anyone I'm excited to listen to right now," explained the artist offhandedly...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 6, 2010

Down — but not out — in Kotobukicho

Yokohama's Ishikawacho Station straddles the border between two worlds. Take a right turn from its south exit and you find yourself among the designer boutiques and Belgian chocolate shops of tourist Motomachi. Head left from the same station, however, walk three minutes and you discover a neighborhood...
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jul 5, 2010

Japan by the numbers (07.05.10)

Surveys say ... mabo-dofu and Softbank are in; unshaven legs are out.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 4, 2010

Playing spot the political difference

The central dynamic in politics is the tug-of-war between conservatism and liberalism, and while it's always been that way, the conflict is particularly contentious these days owing to a global media culture that sees nothing wrong with taking sides. Differences are starker and less rational. In America,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 3, 2010

Meet the party gods on our small island

I've always gotten along well with my neighbors on the island. This is especially important because my neighbors are all gods: the Mountain God, Kompira-san, Juichimen Kannon, Senju Kannon and Myoken-sama. I have to put up with a few loud parties every now and then, but overall, we get along extremely...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2010

Why is it OK to cheat in professional soccer?

MELBOURNE — Shortly before half-time in the World Cup elimination match between England and Germany on Sunday, English midfielder Frank Lampard had a shot at goal that struck the crossbar and bounced down onto the ground, clearly over the goal line. German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer grabbed the ball and...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2010

The G20's expensive party

HONG KONG — Leaders of the world's most powerful nations and a few less powerful hangers-on, like Canada and Italy, have just spent a few more billions of their taxpayers' money as they failed to devise a rescue plan for a world economy that is still perilously close to the cliff edge of disaster....
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2010

Canberra's bloodless coup

SYDNEY — Women rule. Or so it seems in Australia where the first female prime minister has ousted a male colleague, where a woman is the governor general, still another runs the main state, New South Wales, and another presides over that state's capital city, Sydney. Topping all, an Australian woman...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2010

Korean peace still elusive, six decades on

HONOLULU, EAST-WEST WIRE — The tragic Korean War, which began 60 years ago, resulted from the post-World War II division of Korea by the United States and the Soviet Union — intended to be temporary — and from the political struggle that developed between Seoul and Pyongyang. After the division,...
EDITORIALS
Jun 30, 2010

Mr. Kan meets Mr. Obama

At their Sunday meeting on the fringe of the G20 summit in Toronto, Canada, Prime Minister Naoto Kan and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed that the Japan-U.S. alliance is a cornerstone of peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. Their first meeting took place after bilateral ties had become...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 27, 2010

Indomitable Karen of Burma

This is an impassioned book, the story of an insurgency in Burma drawn from interviews with those who experienced it. The narrative tells how the writer, Mac McClelland, traveled to Thailand to work as a volunteer with a group called Burma Action, and stayed for several weeks, teaching English.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 27, 2010

Ongaeshi Project aims to give back to nature

Asahiyama Zoo's Jack, Lianne and 3-year-old Morito have whispy red fur, long graceful hands and eyes that are as searchingly intelligent as many a pair on the other side of their cage. These Borneo orangutans are likely the most frequently viewed members of their species in Japan — yet until last year,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2010

Appreciating the renminbi

HONG KONG — Global stock and foreign exchange markets were fast out of the blocks to lead the applause for China's decision to free the exchange rate of the renminbi. Clearly licking their lips at the prospect of greater foreign access to China's fabled market of 1.3 billion consumers, stock markets...

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan