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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 10, 2008

The Renaissance Man

Peter Greenaway's first film in eight years is every bit as enigmatic and tantalizing as the painting it takes its name from, Rembrandt van Rijn's "The Night Watch." Completed in 1642, this work in oils is considered by many critics to be the Dutch master's greatest and most mysterious work.
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2008

Open season on 1953

Japan's Supreme Court last month handed down a final decision in a dispute on whether copyrights on movies released in 1953 are protected by a 2003 revision to the Copyright Law. Although the revision extended copyright protection from 50 to 70 years, the top court concluded that it does not protect...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jan 9, 2008

At home with Dr. Nakamatsu: Japan's most eccentric inventor

The declining birthrate is a well-known issue in Japan, but for renowned inventor Dr. Yoshiro Nakamatsu, it is merely another challenge. Two weeks ago at a press conference in Tokyo, Nakamats, who prefers to drop the "u" from his name, unveiled a new bottle of Love Jet, a product first introduced nearly...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 8, 2008

How to avoid an attack of the new year blues

For as long as I can remember, Oshogatsu (New Year's) and me just haven't gelled.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 6, 2008

Why have Japan's bookworms turned?

Let's talk books this first Sunday of the new year.
BUSINESS
Jan 5, 2008

Rice cookers go upscale to bring male retirees traditional flavor

For the average Japanese, no day starts out right without a bowl of steaming, glistening white rice.
EDITORIALS
Jan 4, 2008

Few dare call it 'coercion'

The dispute over the screening of high school history textbooks to be used from April has come down to whether the Imperial Japanese armed forces used "coercion" in the mass suicides of local residents during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. During the process of the first screening, whose results were...
COMMENTARY
Jan 4, 2008

Global 'war' waged in vain

LONDON — The tragic killing of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan has sent a raft of shock-wave messages round the world. Most of these have been carefully and lengthily noted and analyzed — such as the concern that Pakistan, labeled a frontline state in the fight against terrorism, could now collapse into...
EDITORIALS
Jan 3, 2008

Greater challenge for political parties

Japan saw a great shift in the political landscape in 2007 when the ruling coalition suffered a crushing defeat in the July 29 Upper House election. Throughout the new year, the government and political parties will continue to move under the shadow of this change. It may mean more confrontation or compromise...
Reader Mail
Jan 3, 2008

Where is the whale research?

My work has brought me in touch with quite a few Japanese researchers who have been published in internationally recognized, peer-reviewed journals. Their institutions have ethics committees that review their proposals before they are permitted to begin animal studies or human trials.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 3, 2008

A new challenge to old traditions

Many visitors to Japan would love to buy an ukiyo-e (Japanese genre painting) woodblock print while here, and then put it on their wall. Dr. Lakra, an Oaxaca, Mexico-based tattoo artist, bought his own, and then added his own improvements to them.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2008

Japan stumbles its way toward a two-party system

2007 was a politically significant year. It is stirring to see how much the political terrain has changed from the beginning of the year to now.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 31, 2007

Brady, Moss make TD plays look easy

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Stripped to the essentials, it's just a throw and a catch.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Dec 31, 2007

'08 to see nightmare of globalization, or alert central banks?

Looking back at what I wrote in this space this time last year, I find that I was dreaming of a Japan of the United States, in which the regions become city states unto their own and make Japan a generally more interesting place. The dream still remains but a dream. But I keep hoping.
EDITORIALS
Dec 31, 2007

The falsity of 2007

The kanji for the Japanese word "nise," meaning fake or false, has been chosen by the Kyoto-based Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation as the kanji that most appropriately defines domestic events in 2007. Unveiled at Kiyomizu Temple in the ancient capital, the choice underscores flawed ways of thinking...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 30, 2007

Certain 'connotations' of Asian Americans

SHORTCOMINGS, by Adrian Tomine. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2007, 108 pp., $19.95 (cloth) Comic books are respectable enough now that it is no longer necessary to attempt to burnish their image by renaming them "graphic novels." Neither is it necessary to remind readers that comics can be art and, as...
COMMENTARY
Dec 30, 2007

Living with war and a warmer planet

LONDON — 2007 was the year in which global warming finally began to be taken seriously. Climate-change deniers were in full retreat, and the realization that we face a long and grave crisis was finally dawning on the general public. However, it remains to be seen whether the world will agree on effective...
EDITORIALS
Dec 28, 2007

Drain of public trust in 2007

In the past year, Japan has been rocked by political turmoil — especially the devastating defeat of the ruling coalition in the July 29 Upper House election, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's abrupt resignation in September and Mr. Yasuo Fukuda's ascent to power. An attempt to form a grand coalition between...
Reader Mail
Dec 27, 2007

Whom would Jesus have bombed?

Whom would Jesus have bombed?1111111111
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2007

Time ripe for better ties: Iran envoy

A recent U.S. report that concluded with "high confidence" that Iran halted its nuclear arms program in 2003 offers a key opportunity to expand Japan-Iran ties, Iranian Ambassador to Japan Mohsen Talaei said.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2007

Nuclear facilities as targets

LOS ANGELES — The drumbeat appears to be growing louder: Western leaders repeatedly declare that no option is off the table to stem Iran's nuclear ambitions. And, in mid-November, London's Sunday Times reported that Israel put defenses around its Dimona nuclear reactor on "red alert" 30 times, as worries...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2007

Christmas letter to Pope Benedict XVI

HONG KONG — Until three years ago, you had a well-earned reputation as the fierce watchdog of the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. You were nicknamed "God's Rottweiler."
Reader Mail
Dec 23, 2007

'Research' can't hide self-interest

Once again I am amused at how Japanese work to conceal their self-interest in hunting whales in the Southern Ocean while claiming to engage in "scientific research." And it has been reported here that the official word from Tokyo is that Australia should be "calm." Meanwhile, the Japanese whaling ships,...
EDITORIALS
Dec 23, 2007

Wall on climate change comes down

It is a start. That's the best assessment of the agreement produced by the 190-some governments at the United Nations climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, earlier this month. After an abrupt U-turn by the United States, delegates reached consensus on a new framework for tackling global warming....
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 23, 2007

CL's second-division teams stock up on foreign players

The Yokohama BayStars and Hiroshima Carp, realizing they need to do something in order to compete with the powerhouse Yomiuri Giants and Chunichi Dragons, are bringing in a slew of foreign players to fill in the body spaces and — hopefully — the talent void left by the loss of star American and Japanese...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 21, 2007

'Kazoku no Hiketsu'

The Kansai region, which includes the cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, is Japan's comedy center. The biggest comedy talent agency, Yoshimoto Kogyo, is based in Osaka and its comics mostly deliver their quips in the Kansai dialect.

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