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COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Nov 17, 2009

U.S. nuclear arms in Japan: a firsthand account

Dear Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama,
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Nov 17, 2009

Showbiz means to an end, not goal

Chuck Wilson, 63, is a fitness trainer. But he was — and arguably still is — far more famous as a funny foreigner who speaks in a defiantly casual and blunt manner to TV personality bigwigs.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Nov 17, 2009

U.S. nuclear arms in Japan: a firsthand account

Dear Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama,
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 15, 2009

Will Segway sci-fi ever be everyday fact?

When the Segway first appeared, in 2001, it seemed like science fiction had sprung to life. Quiet, compact, efficient, and utterly mesmerizing with its ability to self-balance on two wheels, the U.S.-made "personal mobility device" promised to revolutionize transportation as we knew it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 13, 2009

Tarantino returns to grind up Nazis

HOLLYWOOD — Quentin Tarantino is back, making another much-publicized and controversial splash similar to (but with more sociological implications) his one-two punch with "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" in 2003 and "Vol. 2" a year later.
Reader Mail
Nov 12, 2009

Rote learning of English failing

Masayuki Aihara's Oct. 29 letter, "Texts stand some in good stead," I believe, proved a lot of the points that Stewart Tennyson was trying to make in his Oct. 22 letter, "English teachers have work to do." To say that a man once read government-authorized English textbooks aloud 100 times and then got...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2009

Yet another 'Battle of Okinawa'

CANBERRA — Elections in August gave Japan a new government, headed by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. In electing him and his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the Japanese people, like the American people less than a year earlier, were opting for change. Remarkably, however, what followed on the part...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 10, 2009

As status symbol, it tops the rest

The commercial-residential complex of Roppongi Hills opened six years ago, boasting offices, a museum, cinema, condominiums, restaurants and shops, becoming a popular tourist destination and a high-status residence in a part of central Tokyo otherwise known for its nightlife dens.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 6, 2009

'The September Issue'

Meryl Streep's dragon-lady fashion-mag editor in "The Devil Wears Prada" was widely assumed to be based on real-life Vogue editor in chief, Anna Wintour. Known by some in the industry as "Nuclear Wintour" for her frosty and regal attitude toward the peons (and peers) around her, Wintour has earned respect...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 5, 2009

In Tokyo, nothing is too good for your pet

Whether you're looking for a birthday cake for your beagle, or oxygen therapy for your tabby, you can find countless ways to pamper your pet in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 3, 2009

Marriage ever-changing institution

Marriage may be an institution, but it's permutations have run the gamut from polygamy, a practice that dates to ancient times but is still allowed in certain areas, to the recent legalization in some places of same-sex partnerships, with everything in between.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 1, 2009

Japan's sea change should signal a new course for the media, too

The relationship between the government and the press in Japan has, during the past 50 years, been a volatile one of give and take: The government gives the press what it wants it to know, and the press gladly takes it. But this has not always been the case.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 31, 2009

For your amusement — Ferris wheels everywhere, but why not?

Japan can be a confusing place for tourists, so I would like to take this opportunity to explain some things about Japan that no one has ever attempted to explain before, such as "Why are there so many Ferris wheels in Japan?"
EDITORIALS
Oct 30, 2009

LDP makes its intentions clear

The Diet got down to business Wednesday with a plenary session in which party representatives posed questions to the government. Liberal Democratic Party leader Sadakazu Tanigaki, a former finance minister and now an opposition leader, led off by grilling Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in the Lower House....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 30, 2009

Downtown Tokyo's fiery love

"Deep in the Valley," which was made in downtown Tokyo and appears to have had a budget of ¥5 plus, probably, a box of persimmons for all involved (random gifts are very downtown), is an accident. And I mean that in a good, romantic way.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 30, 2009

Rockers turn it up to 11

Metallica. Slayer. Anthrax. The Scorpions. Even a casual fan of rock music knows that these names make up the pantheon of modern heavy metal, the bands that rose to the top and never looked back when metal swept away all before it in the 1980s.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 29, 2009

Tokyo's rising tide of design

Giant chairs, floating clouds and abstract boxes: forget anything as commercial as wanting to sell a product.
EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 2009

Coaxing an employment boost

Although Japan's economy has come through the worst phase of the current crisis, the government's October economic report shows that the unemployment rate remains high. At 5.5 percent in August, the rate was only slightly better than the all-time high of 5.7 percent registered the previous month. There...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 27, 2009

Mystery train

How do you increase commuters when train fares are too high? Ask the land/transportation ministry for a break.
COMMENTARY
Oct 27, 2009

India has enough food for those who can pay

CHENNAI, India — India is still hungry 62 years after it was freed from the British colonial yoke. The Global Hunger Index for 2009 places India at a low 65th, with the far more populous China doing much better. While China has reduced the number of "hungry" people by 58 million during the past decade,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Oct 27, 2009

Tokyoites foot bill for Metro finger-wagging

If you scoot around Japan's capital on Tokyo Metro, chances are you can call to your mind's eye Bunpei Yorifuji's manner posters. You've probably snickered at Yorifuji's innuendo-laden slogan "Please do it at home" and, like me, look forward to seeing his silly etiquette lessons debut each month in the...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 26, 2009

Challenging Obama's word

DELHI, India — During his U.S. presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised that he would be prepared to meet with so-called rogue rulers like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran or Kim Jong Il of North Korea in the interests of peace.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 25, 2009

'Mao's Last Dancer' inspires with his leaps and honest grounding

I was down in Sydney a few weeks ago and managed to catch the world premiere of Australian director Bruce Beresford's film, "Mao's Last Dancer." It is a beautiful story, beautifully told, in a film that combines the personal and the epic in an era of traumatic change for China.
LIFE
Oct 25, 2009

Bodhisattva of the river road

"Have another drink, Boss!"

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past