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CULTURE / Books
Jan 10, 2010

How do writers come up with this stuff?

Reading Mieko Kanai's stories is an unsettling experience, like swimming underwater, existing in a new and shimmering medium, and coming up for air between stories just to make sure everything is still real — or as real as you remember it. Concurrently, it feels as if one were skating on a slippery...
COMMENTARY
Jan 8, 2010

Public hopes fade to fears over the DPJ's capabilities

The Hatoyama Cabinet's approval rating is falling rapidly. In the Lower House election last August, people in Japan rejected the Liberal Democratic Party's long years of reliance on vested interests in favor of the Democratic Party of Japan for a change of government.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 8, 2010

'(500) Days of Summer'

As a genre, the rom-com has all but died — what's a woman to do when at the end of a long working week she sits down in a theater hoping for solace and a thin but meaningful sliver of real romance and all that happens on-screen is a lot of preachy, self-helpy schlock? To all rom-com filmmakers —...
COMMENTARY
Jan 7, 2010

Obama on track in Asia

With one exception, U.S. relations with East Asian countries are better today than when the Obama administration took office. This is no small accomplishment since the Bush administration left Asia in good shape.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2010

Keys to keeping your New Year's resolutions

MELBOURNE — Did you make any New Year's resolutions? Perhaps you resolved to get fit, to lose weight, to save more money or to drink less alcohol. Or your resolution may have been more altruistic: to help those in need, or to reduce your carbon footprint. But are you keeping your resolution?
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Jan 6, 2010

Hatsu 2010 — time to rise and shine for Koto, Kise and Go

With holiday decorations now back in the box and vacations ending for most people, the 700 men active in sumo are once again warming up the muscles, stretching the limbs and preparing for combat.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 4, 2010

Checking out affordable resort condos in Chiba

If you're willing to look beyond the more well-known areas, a second home in Japan can come at quite a bargain.
JAPAN / Media
Jan 3, 2010

'Avatar'mastermind Cameron reveals opinions on alien species

LOS ANGELES — James Cameron offers what may be the most exotic planet full of aliens ever put on film in his sci-fi epic "Avatar."
JAPAN / LOOMING CHALLENGES
Jan 1, 2010

Diplomatic retooling needed in face of China

First in a series
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2010

2010 make or break for the DPJ

2009 will be remembered as a turning point in postwar politics, a time when voters ousted the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party and put the Democratic Party of Japan in power.
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2009

Fukushima strives to carve a pacifist path for the SDP

After being handed a fourth term as president of the Social Democratic Party without a vote, Mizuho Fukushima on Dec. 4 took her seat at the SDP's headquarters in Tokyo and faced reporters to give her victory speech.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Japan Pulse
Dec 29, 2009

Trends in Japan 2009: changing gender roles

In 2009, traditional gender roles were tweaked slightly in Japan by herbivorous males and carnivorous females.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2009

Governors cool to wooing U.S. bases

OSAKA (Kyodo) A Kyodo News survey of all prefectural governors except for Okinawa's shows they are reluctant to accept U.S. military facilities or host training exercises by U.S. forces.
COMMENTARY
Dec 29, 2009

Persuading China to put the screws to Iran

SINGAPORE — Will the world's leading powers act in a more united way on Iran's nuclear program than they have so far over climate change?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Dec 28, 2009

Trends in Japan 2009: fast fashion

A few high-end fashion names were forced to pull out of the Japan market in 2009, but the fast fashion outlets picked up the slack.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Dec 28, 2009

Trends in Japan 2009: celebrity drug busts

Following a brief period of reefer madness in 2008, celebrity drug busts in 2009 threw a searchlight on the availability of harder stuff in Japan.
Reader Mail
Dec 27, 2009

Land mine status quo disheartening

Who would be the eager attackers if all land mines were to vanish overnight? That's the question I had on reading Jody Williams' Dec. 5 article (from the Los Angeles Times), "Obama continues shameful land mine policy." Civilians continue to be maimed and killed by them, while China, India, Pakistan,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 27, 2009

Hatoyama and sex changes? Time for our media awards

Media person of the year: Noriko Sakai
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 27, 2009

Thank God the year's over

History has seen worse years than 2009. All the same, this Year of the Ox has been more than most of us born after World War II in the relatively privileged regions of the Earth were conditioned to cope with.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 26, 2009

Storyteller of implausible success

Imagine this: An Indian diplomat in London churns out his first novel during a two-month hiatus before his next posting. The novel becomes an international best-seller and is translated into 42 languages. Before the book is even printed it has been optioned for a film, which goes on to win eight Academy...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 25, 2009

' The Young Victoria'

"The Young Victoria" may be about a queen who lived some two centuries ago, but the film displays a very modern sense of schadenfreude. Whether it's Britney or Michael, Tiger or Amy, the only thing we love more than ogling the celebrity lifestyle is evidence that they are more messed-up and dysfunctional...
EDITORIALS
Dec 24, 2009

Holding steady on gasoline tax

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Tuesday decided to maintain the current rates on gasoline and other road-related taxes throughout fiscal 2010 even though the road-related tax system will be overhauled by April 2010. The abolition of surcharges on road-related taxes was a main campaign pledge of the...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2009

Isuzu seeks talks with GM with eye to exiting joint engine plant

Isuzu Motors Ltd. is seeking talks with General Motors Co. to review a joint engine-making factory in the U.S. that may operate at 30 percent capacity next year.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 22, 2009

Too innocent for prejudice?

Are kindergarteners racist? Do they discriminate between children with different skin colors?

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