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EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 2008

Mobile phones take over

Japan has become a nation of mobile-phone talkers, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication reported this month. More people now talk on mobile phones in Japan than on fixed-line phones; total talk time on mobile phones reached an astonishing 1.9 billion hours in 2007. That's a lot of metal...
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 25, 2008

Move to Milan may be end of Beckham's stay in L.A.

LONDON — From the worst team in Major League Soccer to a side crammed with superstars, World Cup and Champions League winners — who writes David Beckham's scripts?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 25, 2008

Burlesque dancer does it for laughs

A search of the Web for Murasaki Babydoll will likely snag you a six-minute Time video from this year's New York Burlesque Festival and with it a look at the Tokyo burlesque troupe's festival debut.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 25, 2008

The melting pot of 2008

Today's fun fact is that 2008 marks the 100th year since the coining of the term "melting pot" to describe the multiethnic stew that then comprised the American populace. "Then" refers to the years when immigrants flooded over the ocean in a great global warming of the pursuit of opportunity.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2008

Film seeks to right Africans' image here

In Japan's "homogenous" society, foreigners who stand out tend to be vilified, easily associated with crime or other undesirable behavior, according to Nigerian film director Udyfrank.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2008

New health insurance system draws protest

Dozens of protesters outside the Diet called Wednesday for abolishment of the controversial health-care insurance system covering the "later-stage elderly" aged 75 and older.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 23, 2008

'X' marks the spot for TV's odd couple

JAPAN
Oct 20, 2008

Ozawa uses Internet show to seek out young voters

Opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa tried to present a softer public image Sunday by speaking to young people about his favorite tofu, women's fashions — and even his unrequited first love.
Reader Mail
Oct 19, 2008

Tourists treated differently

Regarding the Oct. 15 editorial "Japan as a tourist destination": If Japan wishes to entice more tourists to its shores -- and I suspect that only a minority of Japanese want foreigners visiting anyway -- then it needs to encourage more courtesy while discouraging behavior that smacks of racism. Japanese...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Oct 19, 2008

Hear yea: 'This country is rotten!'

Barack Obama hasn't yet lived long enough to win the United States presidency; he has, however, influenced Japanese comedy television, where, true to his mantra — or perhaps because of it — "change we can believe in" has already occurred.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Oct 19, 2008

Showa-ing it like it was

Most of us have things we were given years ago that we cannot simply throw away, even though they're of no use and are often simply gathering dust somewhere in the corner of a room.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Oct 18, 2008

Couple conquer national, religious divide

Before Tetsuya Kato met Widya of Indonesia, an international marriage would probably have seemed highly unlikely to him. He only speaks Japanese and the farthest place he has ever been to is Hokkaido.
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2008

Cigarette price of ¥1,000 a pack would save 190,000 lives, health studies say

Cigarettes should cost at least ¥1,000 to discourage young people from smoking — a price that would also help sharply reduce deaths caused by the public nuisance, according to two research groups funded by the health ministry.
EDITORIALS
Oct 17, 2008

Stepping up to the bench

Oct. 15 was the deadline for municipal election management commissions to submit lists of citizens who might serve as lay judges in district courts under a new system that starts next May. Six lay judges will sit with three professional judges in trials dealing with serious crimes such as murder, arson...
COMMENTARY
Oct 17, 2008

A way for North Korea's leaders to revamp

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Sometimes Americans give North Korean officials far more credit than they deserve for allegedly outsmarting us. Just how smart, really, are they?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 17, 2008

Dosh

When you are given the name Martin Luther King Chavez Dosh, it's a safe bet that you're in for a pretty atypical upbringing that likely won't result in punching the clock as a typical 9-to-5er.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2008

'Every Little Step'

Cameras go behind the scenes of a Broadway audition for the first time in "Every Little Step" (released in Japan as "Broadway Broadway"), a documentary about dancers auditioning for a part in the revival of "A Chorus Line," itself a musical about dancers auditioning.
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2008

Elderly offenders on rise

In August, a 79-year-old woman went on a slashing spree in Tokyo's bustling shopping and entertainment district of Shibuya, wounding two female passersby before being arrested by police.
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2008

1,500 fed-up Kyushu citizens sue to evict yakuza HQ

KURUME, Fukuoka Pref. — The yakuza's reputation for unpredictability and violence keeps journalists away, but a deadly turf war between two rival gangs in Kyushu has made the mob reluctant media fodder.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 11, 2008

Offering shelter from life's storms

"It's the single most stressful job I've ever had. It's also the best job," says Briar Simpson of Tokyo's Animal Refuge Kansai.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 10, 2008

Huge video game show kicks off

CHIBA — Tokyo Game Show, one of the world's biggest gaming events, kicked off Thursday with a record 879 software titles expected to attract 180,000 people during its four-day run.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 10, 2008

Potts' luck: the rise of a superstar

It's a cliche to say "don't take things for granted" or "you never know what's going to happen in life." But it sounds more convincing from the mouths of certain people.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 7, 2008

Spicy food, sexy idols and now . . . fashion

SEOUL — In the late 1990s, the Korean Wave — "Hallyu" as it's referred to in its native tongue — began as South Korea's television, film and music industries gained greater international followings, especially among its Asian neighbors.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 5, 2008

Diet 'juniors' and Japan's politics of descent

One of the busiest people on TV right now is Daigo Naito, a 30-year-old who dresses and gesticulates like a rock star while speaking in the tones of a narcotized 16-year-old. Daigo isn't a comedian, though his droning delivery elicits laughs, and he's not really a rock star, though he did start his show...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 3, 2008

Nice to nestle at Japan's hometown

One could be fooled into thinking Onomichi was an island, where the ocean air whisps about the often deserted streets and the locals thrive from eclectic arts and hospitality industries. That would all be true, except the island part.
COMMENTARY
Oct 2, 2008

Averting Asian water wars

As the most pressing resource, water holds the strategic key to peace, public health and prosperity. The battles of yesterday were fought over land. Those of today are over energy. But the battles of tomorrow will be over water. And nowhere else does that prospect look more real than in Asia.
Reader Mail
Oct 2, 2008

Don't sacrifice culture to please

Regarding the Sept. 27 article "Tourism minister apologizes for gaffes" -- about Nariaki Nakayama's remarks on the lack of self-sacrifice by Japanese in "opening the country to foreign tourists": I wish to state that I have not found another country whose people are as tolerant as the average Japanese...
COMMENTARY
Oct 1, 2008

The Middle East quartet's failing mission

The creation in 2002 of the Quartet on the Middle East, comprising the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, raised hopes for its critical contribution to the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A report released on Sept. 25, "The Middle East Quartet: A Progress...

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