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COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 3, 2007

Going globally mobile

David Goldwasser wrote to Lifelines for advice after being refused a mobile phone on his last trip to Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 21, 2007

Asian artists echo biennale director's themes

VENICE, Italy — By the light of the setting sun, a skateboarder practices tricks on the edge of a seaside jetty. Heavy waves roll in and break against the shore in a constant motion in the background. The skateboarder keeps to a narrow radius and his movements are rhythmic and supple. The board appears...
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2007

Nuclear industry gears up for global push

KYOTO — Japan's nuclear power industry is pushing to get atomic energy on next year's agenda when this nation hosts the Group of Eight summit meetings, saying it is time world leaders recognize the power source as a practical way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 20, 2007

Gone are the geysers of Kamchatka

If a trip to the Valley of the Geysers on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Siberia had been figuring among your long-term travel plans, then I have sad news to impart.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 16, 2007

Taking steps to raise funds for AIDS orphans

Lynne Charles is tired. She's rarely to bed before 4 a.m., and has to be up at 6:30 to get her son off to school.
BUSINESS
Jun 15, 2007

Japan jumps on the bioethanol bandwagon

Japan is looking to bioethanol as a way to become less dependent on imported energy.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 15, 2007

A year to remember in pictures

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then everyone who visits the World Press Photo Contest's traveling exhibition will have plenty to digest. That's because the WPPC, which runs at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography from June 16-Aug. 5, features the best photojournalism of 2006 from lensmen...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 15, 2007

Losing his head on Rachmaninov

Russian piano virtuoso Boris Berezovsky is on the phone and he's very excited, though not as excited as he should be when he plays the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo this summer. There, Berezovsky will be performing Rachmaninov's Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op. 30, a work he considers "infamous" because...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 13, 2007

Religion's cute, but creation chemistry is complex

The ancient Chinese believed the universe began inside a cosmic egg. In Japanese mythology, two gods, Izanagi and Izanami, stirred the oceans with a giant spear, forming the islands of Japan and, eventually, its people. There are countless more creation myths. Every culture has them. But I like to think...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 12, 2007

Japan's green strides belie spotty record

Last month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sought a leading role in the fight against climate change when he proposed a global initiative to halve greenhouse gas emis sions by 2050.
EDITORIALS
Jun 7, 2007

Six Day War left mixed legacy

Forty years ago, Israel won one of the most unlikely military victories in history. The Jewish nation's triumph over its Arab neighbors in the Six Day War was a stunning blow from which the world is still reeling. Sadly, four decades have not made Israel more secure, and many Israelis now concede that...
BUSINESS / EAST ASIA SYMPOSIUM
Jun 4, 2007

Take your partners for economic integration

See related stories: U.S. presidential election casts long shadow Sustained economic growth is a question of balance for China
COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2007

Oceans being emptied of fish

LONDON — When the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission opened in Alaska last Monday, Japan declared that it planned to kill 50 humpback whales as well as the usual minke and fin whales next year in its "scientific" whale hunt (catch them, count them and sell them as food).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 1, 2007

'Sketches of Frank Gehry'

In "Sketches of Frank Gehry," director Sydney Pollack films buildings with the same sensuality he brings to on-screen lovers — tracing the surfaces and contours as if they were cheekbones or eyelids, noting the way walls interlock like arms in ecstatic embrace. During his 40-year career, the creator...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 31, 2007

Yukiko Motoya takes a satirical look at the 'Super No-Flat'

There's a new buzz in Japan's theaters these days — and she's called Yukiko Motoya. Hailing from Ishikawa Prefecture on the Sea of Japan, the 27-year-old founder of an eponymous Tokyo-based theater company has quickly become a new source of freshness both in the drama world and other cultural fields....
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2007

A prodigal divides Australia

SYDNEY — The prodigal son has returned from exile in Cuba. After five years of bitter controversy, David Hicks, Australia's gift to world terrorism, is back in hometown Adelaide, South Australia, safely locked away but still dividing a nation's conscience.
Rugby
May 26, 2007

Fiji, Japan all prepared for battle in Pacific Nations Cup

NADA, Fiji — The starting members of Japan's first Pacific Nations Cup game against Fiji were picked on a hot day of training under the Fijian sun at Price Charles Rugby Ground in Nadi.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 26, 2007

In the darkness of our times

One night after visiting friends, I hopped on the local bus for a ride home. At the very first stop, the other passengers — a cane-clutching obaasan and a mother with her pre-schooler — stepped off, leaving me all alone as the bus barreled through the dark.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
May 25, 2007

Sangenjaya's warm afterglow

Astrophysicists may bicker over whether the universe is exploding or imploding, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that in the microcosmic world of Tokyo, expansion is the overriding force at work. Proof of this would be clearly visible from space — especially at night — as one after...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 24, 2007

Products from other dimensions

At the Sanja Matsuri festival last weekend in Asakusa, the residents of that old Tokyo town were re-enacting community-building rituals that they have enjoyed since the Edo Period (1603-1867). Meanwhile, across town in Nakaochiai, two artists who met in San Francisco, Crust and Dirt, were creating their...
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2007

Leave 'patriotism' out of Constitution

In October 2005, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) approved draft proposals whose main thrust is to revise the Preamble and Article 9 of Japan's Constitution. The new preamble includes "the obligation to support ourselves . . . with love for the country and society to which we belong," a veiled...
EDITORIALS
May 22, 2007

ADB's struggle with success

The Asian Development Bank was founded four decades ago to help lift Asia out of poverty. At the time, per capita GDP in the region was less than $170; the 31 founding countries sought to create an institution that would help them gain access to scarce capital and speed their development.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 20, 2007

Book on Brooklyn Dodgers triggers memory of a cold case

It was 1955. I was 7 years old and living in northern New Jersey and just getting interested in baseball.
SUMO
May 15, 2007

Sumo and an American woman's search for Hinkaku

The summer basho is underway and I, an American woman who has never been to Japan, am so excited.
COMMENTARY
May 14, 2007

Cherry-picking an identity

LONDON — Political leaders nowadays are fond of talking about national identity and culture, but do we know what they mean by either identity or culture, and do they know themselves what they mean?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 12, 2007

Art activist works toward helping spirits flourish

Several years ago, I was privileged to hear the Nubian musician Hamza El Din play at Enkaku-ji temple in Kita Kamakura. The space in which he played was open to the elements, and the sound of rain falling provided an accompaniment to the notes of his instrument, the oud, in a way that still resonates....
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2007

France embarks on the right revolution

WARSAW — Is France about to exchange the fake revolution of May 1968 for a sham counter-revolution this year, or have the French given Nicolas Sarkozy a mandate for real change to modernize their country?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
May 8, 2007

Naoki Sakai

Naoki Sakai, 60, is a designer whose revolutionary ideas have made him an industry powerhouse. After designing Nissan's Be-1, the vehicle that in the late 1980s started the round-and-cute car boom, Sakai came up with concepts for three more popular cars from Nissan — the PAO, Figaro and Rasheen —...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 6, 2007

New clarities set to cloud smoke screens of ambiguity

Last month, on April Fool's Day to be exact, I revealed some terms and expressions appearing in the forthcoming Japanese government publication, "The Dictionary of All-Too-True Japanese Words and Phrases." Actually, there is far more than meets the eye in this groundbreaking, earthy volume.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear