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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 14, 2006

A confluence of buzzes

Artistic restlessness is not a quality normally associated with rookie rock bands. It applies more to established groups who've outgrown their signature sound. TV on the Radio, a Brooklyn quintet whose second album, "Return to Cookie Mountain," was already being touted by tastemakers as the year's best...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 23, 2006

Takashi Miike makes his mark

Whatever the place or occasion -- including a hurried press interview in the middle of a film festival, as happened at April's Udine Far East Film Festival for the screening of his first English-language film "Imprint" -- Takashi Miike is always gracious, patient, thoughtful and well spoken. In other...
BUSINESS
Jun 21, 2006

Nippon Oil, Japan Energy join forces

Nippon Oil Corp., the nation's biggest oil wholesaler, and Japan Energy Corp., the sixth largest, jointly said Tuesday they have agreed to enter into a broad-based tieup that includes joint operation of neighboring refineries and development of fuel cell technology.
EDITORIALS
Jun 13, 2006

Shoddy care of a nation's heritage

The Cultural Affairs Agency has come under public criticism for slipshod preservation work on the Takamatsuzuka ancient burial mound in Asuka, Nara Prefecture, which is well known for its colorful painted frescoes. Not only has the agency failed to prevent the formation of mold in the mound -- which...
JAPAN
May 16, 2006

Crime reporting turns murky as cops clam up

Police are increasingly opting not to release names of crime victims, giving rise to fears that criminal cases will become opaque, facts will become obscure and the validity of evidence in doubt.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 23, 2006

Two theaters of the Asian absurd

THIRTY-THREE TEETH by Colin Cotterill. New York: Soho Press, 2005, 238 pp., $24 (cloth). FAN-TAN by Marlon Brando and Donald Cammell. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005, 249 pp., $23.95 (cloth). Novels set in Asia that combine crime and detection with touches of humor are not especially numerous, but the...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 15, 2006

Two writers, two very different North Koreas

NORTH KOREA: The Struggle Against American Power, by Tim Beal. Pluto, 2005, 352 pp., £18.99 (paper). NORTH KOREA: The Paranoid Peninsula, by Paul French. Zed Books Ltd., 2005, 352 pp.,£17.95 (paper). The subtitles of these books reveal the sharply differing points of departure on North Korea for writers...
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2006

China says Japan wanted suicide of diplomat to stay under wraps

Japan urged China not to disclose the suicide of a staff member at the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai in May 2004, saying it had been caused by job stress, the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo said in a written statement Saturday.
Features
Dec 25, 2005

Haruki Kadokawa: Spirits of the Yamato

Haruki Kadokawa is the closest Japanese equivalent to fabled Hollywood moguls like Sam Goldwyn or Howard Hughes in their glory days as master promoters and unrepentant egotists.
COMMENTARY
Dec 8, 2005

Opportunities seized, missed

HONOLULU -- U.S. President George W. Bush, during his recent visit to Asia, seized the opportunity to reaffirm Washington's commitment to the promotion of democracy, free and fair trade, and political and especially religious freedom. But other opportunities were missed in terms of better defining America's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 18, 2005

Best of friends kick up a storm in the fun house

Nothing frustrates a music critic more than a band that refuses categorization. Lots of bands, intoxicated with their own creativity, might make the claim. Not many, after a few records, resist a formula or a style that isn't easily pigeonholed in a pithy phrase or two.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 6, 2005

The dangerous liaisons of ambassadors to China

AMBASSADORS FROM THE ISLANDS OF IMMORTALS: China-Japan Relations in the Han-Tang Period, by Wang Zhenping. Honolulu: Association for Asian Studies/University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, 388 pp., with illustrations, $53.00 (cloth). Relations between Japan and China may be troubled right now, but then they...
Features / WEEK 3
Oct 16, 2005

CAMERA GEEKS TAKE AIM

"Lean forward a little!" Snap-snap-snap! "Give me a bit more cleavage -- and smile -- lovely!" Snap-snap-snap! It's my first ever piece of undercover reporting, and I am in a brightly lit studio photographing a 19-year-old girl in a skimpy bikini. It might feel erotic, if I wasn't surrounded by 14 camera...
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2005

Tokyo High Court rejects Turkish Kurd's appeal for asylum

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal filed by a Kurdish asylum seeker to revoke a Justice Ministry decision to deny him refugee status.
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2005

ASEAN is let off the hook

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has dodged a bullet. Myanmar's decision to give up its turn as chairman of the group in 2006 saves ASEAN from international embarrassment. Myanmar's status as a pariah state threatened to seriously hurt ASEAN as its dialogue partners vowed to avoid the group...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 17, 2005

Did Kapler fall victim to old trick?

Now-former Yomiuri Giants outfielder Gabe Kapler has cleared waivers after being released by the Tokyo team, and he appears headed back from where he came -- Boston -- and a shot at a second consecutive World Series championship ring.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 29, 2005

In the spirit of humanism

THE CINEMA OF GOSHO HEINOSUKE, by Arthur Nolletti, Jr. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005, 243 pp., with photographs, $27.95 (paper). Though Heinosuke Gosho (1902-1981) is remembered in Japan where his films are still occasionally shown, he is all but unknown abroad. This neglect is not due...
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2005

Correct unfair trade practices, China told

Japan urged China to correct trade practices it believes are unfair, including higher tariffs on photo film and auto parts, in an annual report released Monday.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 5, 2005

Who's who (and where) among '05 foreign players

Happy New Year. Five days into 2005, and the 12 Japan pro baseball teams have spent the offseason wheeling and dealing, acquiring and firing foreign players. Confused about who left and who is left? Following is a team-by-team rundown of who's gone and who's on at this point.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 28, 2004

A clotheshorse for all seasons

"What will she be wearing?"
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 17, 2004

Mound relief almost backfired for MLB pitchers

The visiting Major League Baseball All-Stars left Japan Nov. 14 with a 5-3 series victory over their All-Japan opponents but, ironically, a change in the pitching mounds designed to help the big leaguers for the final three games of the tour almost resulted in disaster for the visitors. Let me explain....
COMMENTARY
Nov 15, 2004

Risks could Americanize Chinese behavior

HONG KONG -- It's a dangerous world out there and, as China is finding out, it's getting more dangerous by the day. Beijing was shocked last month when terrorists believed to be linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist organization kidnapped two Chinese engineers working on a dam project in a tribal area of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Nov 12, 2004

Great red hope found at Coco

Can quality wine be made in Japan?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 22, 2004

It's a thin line between love and hate

Monster Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Patty Jenkins Running time: 109 minutes Language: English Opens Sept. 25 [See Japan Times movie listings] Aileen Wuornos is often tagged the first female serial killer and the first U.S. woman to receive the death penalty neither is true,...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2004

China takes no chances in Hong Kong poll

HONG KONG -- It is now clear that China is quietly tearing up the fine promises it made in 1984 that Hong Kong would be permitted a high degree of autonomy when China resumed sovereignty over the city after 150 years of British colonial rule. Beijing is going to great lengths to ensure that prodemocracy...
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2004

U.S. forces chief defends right to bar cops from crash probe

The U.S. Forces Japan commander on Thursday defended the U.S. handling of the probe into the marine helicopter crash in Okinawa and refusal to allow local police to participate.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2004

U.S. forces chief defends right to bar cops from crash probe

The U.S. Forces Japan commander on Thursday defended the U.S. handling of the probe into the marine helicopter crash in Okinawa and refusal to allow local police to participate.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 18, 2004

Youssou N'Dour: "Egypt"

Since the world-music boom in the 1980s, Youssou N'Dour has been one of the most popular African performers. Crossing the traditional Senegalese music of his home country with the production values of European studios, he created a brilliant blend of sounds that wowed audiences around the world. However,...

Longform

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