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JAPAN
Jan 1, 2009

Aso set to lead LDP's last stand?

In 2007 it was Shinzo Abe. In 2008 it was Yasuo Fukuda and in 2009 it is Taro Aso.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 1, 2009

J-pop prepares an assault on the West in '09

I wouldn't want to shout about it (since it might upset your New Year's hangover), but 2009 might just be the year that J-pop goes global. Several heavy hitters have set their sights on Western domination this year, and more than ever, their chances seem good.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2009

Is Aso only postponing the inevitable?

The political news that will have the most far-reaching repercussions into the new year is the plummeting approval rating of Prime Minister Taro Aso and his Cabinet, and his delay in dissolving the Lower House of the Diet for a general election.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 1, 2009

Hidenori Inoue takes a stab at Richard III

During his final year at Osaka University of Arts in 1980, Hidenori Inoue founded the Gekidan★Shinkansen theater company with several classmates. The 48-year-old native of Fukuoka in Kyushu hasn't looked back since.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 1, 2009

The battle for 2009's box office starts here

The Japanese film industry — particularly at the top, where Toho and the TV networks dwell — had a terrific 2008. Boosted by Hayao Miyazaki's animation "Gake no Ue no Ponyo" ("Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea"), which earned a splendiferous ¥15 billion, Toho passed the ¥70-billion box-office mark...
BUSINESS
Dec 31, 2008

Foot-to-the-floor Toyota now suddenly has to downshift

Amid the worldwide economic downturn and the dollar's nosedive against the yen, Toyota Motor Corp. is facing a turning point in the aggressive overseas strategy that until now has powered its growth.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 30, 2008

Half century on, Tokyo Tower still dazzles as landmark

Tokyo Tower, a long-standing landmark of the capital, celebrated its 50th birthday on Dec. 23. It still attracts about 3 million visitors a year and has provided the metropolis with good TV reception for decades.
BUSINESS
Dec 30, 2008

Premium burger sales sizzle in recession

Despite of, or maybe because of, the recession, hamburger chains are doing a brisk business as they introduce premium fare.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 30, 2008

Foreign university faculty face annual round of 'musical jobs'

Universities in Japan force most of their foreign instructors to play an unnerving version of musical chairs. Every year the music starts and instructors with expiring contracts scramble for an opening at a new school. University administrators force teachers to play "musical jobs" by offering limited-term...
Reader Mail
Dec 28, 2008

Apartment hunt shows the score

I am an American who has lived in Japan for the past eight years — five years in Osaka and three years in Tokyo. For the most part it has been a positive experience, but recent events have shown me Japan's underlying legalized racism toward foreigners living in Japan.
Reader Mail
Dec 28, 2008

Be prepared to save yourself

Even as an economist it happened to me: I got stuck in Japan during a serious endaka (high-yen) recession. I managed to scrape by teaching, but when work came to the end, I made the terrible and serious mistake of not leaving Japan. I went through terrible stress and somehow found a job at a firm for...
LIFE / Lifestyle / 2008 MEDIA ROUND-UP
Dec 28, 2008

Making sense of the strange changes of 2008

Every year, the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation selects a "kanji of the year." This year's is "hen," meaning "change" or, equally, "strange, peculiar."
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2008

CPI falls again as commodities ease, recession deepens

Inflation slowed for a third month in November as oil and commodity costs tumbled and the deepening recession weakened demand.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 26, 2008

Ishikawa scoops award

Golf sensation Ryo Ishikawa received a huge present on Christmas Day and flashed his signature bashful smile one last time before the end of the year.
EDITORIALS
Dec 25, 2008

Preventing child pornography

In late November about 3,500 people from some 170 governments and from international and nongovernmental organizations attended the third World Congress Against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents in Rio de Janeiro. The conference declared that accessing, downloading, storing or viewing child...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 23, 2008

Tight budgets or not, the year's hit products roll on

As the year rushes toward its finale, Japan's media devotes a lot of coverage to identifying hitto shōhin (ヒット商品, hit products) that have succeeded in capturing consumers' hearts and minds over the previous 12 months.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2008

Site started for European researchers

The Network of European Researchers in Japan has launched a Web site to provide information to European researchers based here.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Dec 22, 2008

Dollar must be more than convenient to run global economy

The dollar is strengthening against all major currencies except the yen. That the currency of the nation where the subprime crisis originated — and where the Big Three automakers are begging for federal help to survive — should get stronger appears strange.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 21, 2008

A trove of fiction, all for the love of women

SPARKLING RAIN and Other Fiction From Japan of Women Who Love Women, edited by Barbara Summerhawk and Kimberly Hughes, with introductions by Hitomi Sawabe and Mieko Watanabe. Chicago: New Victoria Publishers, Inc., 2008, 216 pp., $16.95 (paper) As editor Barbara Summerhawk writes in her introduction...
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Dec 21, 2008

Burning temples, busted black marketeers, golf boom and discriminatory bookshop

100 YEARS AGO
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2008

NPO chief helping out other charities

Daigo Sato, the man who founded the NPO that set up Japan's first political internship program, Dot-JP, 10 years ago, has embarked on a new mission this year to help the nonprofit organizations themselves.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 20, 2008

Remembering the ghost of a Christmas past

I prefer this season not as one of tinsel, lights and storefront carols, but rather as one of quiet — a season of soft-falling snow, a season of anticipation, a season of memories.
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2008

Nation's auto market could see lowest sales in 31 years: JAMA

Vehicle sales in Japan next year may fall to their lowest level in 31 years as unemployment and the economic slowdown keep drivers out of showrooms.
Reader Mail
Dec 18, 2008

Asylum seekers sidelined

In the past two decades, the number of successful asylum seekers to Japan has barely averaged in double figures, while the handful of countries that were rich and humane enough saved some 75,000 refugees from the brutality of their own countries last year alone. Admittedly the world is in recession,...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years