search

 
 
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2008

Orix requests stock price probe

Orix Corp., the nation's largest nonbank financial firm, asked authorities to investigate whether unsubstantiated rumors contributed to declines in its stock price. The shares have reversed earlier losses, the company said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Dec 5, 2008

Political theater of the absurd

It is tempting to call Thai politics a comedy, but to be more accurate, it has descended into farce — if not tragedy. The machinations that have paralyzed the country has undermined a once thriving and vibrant democracy. The Bangkok elites' determination to disregard the will of the Thai majority shows...
COMMENTARY
Dec 5, 2008

Dissing those who give Dalai Lama an ear

HONG KONG — The decision by China to cancel, or at least postpone, a summit meeting with the European Union scheduled this week in Lyon, France, is unprecedented and shows the extent of its unhappiness with the Europeans in general and with Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, in particular.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2008

Terror threat to civilization

HONG KONG — The death toll of nearly 200 from the carnage in Mumbai last week is small compared with the 5,400 people who die every day from AIDS-related illnesses or the 2,500 mostly children who die daily from malaria. Three hundred Zimbabweans died of cholera while the gun battles in India raged....
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 5, 2008

Hamamatsu trying to regain momentum

It's time to get back to basics, coaches often say after a loss.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2008

'NEWS23' axed in TBS prime-time shift

Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. will cancel its well-known "NEWS23" late-night news program in April, it was announced Wednesday.
BASEBALL / SPORTS SCOPE
Dec 5, 2008

Spirits with Koga as she claimed JLPGA money title

Miho Koga was finally able to break through.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2008

Pension funding expansion faces delay

The increase in the state's funding of the basic pension system to half from one-third doesn't necessarily have to happen next April, Prime Minister Taro Aso said Thursday, indicating the hike will probably be delayed.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2008

Politicians failing to engage youth

One of the oldest rules in politics the world over is that young people stay away in droves.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2008

'WALL-E'

They say the best creators of science fiction are those able to extrapolate just a bit into the future. Think of William Gibson's descriptions of a wired, digitally interconnected world dominated by multinational corporations in 1984's "Neuromancer," or Terry Gilliam's imagining of a perpetual war on...
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2008

Jiri's on track again

Forty years after he won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture with "Closely Watched Trains," Czech filmmaker Jiri Menzel proves that his trademark deadpan humor and mischievous, satirical wit are still intact with "I Served the King of England."
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2008

'I Served the King of England'

Watching Czech waiter Jan Dite in "I Served the King of England" traipse through some of the most tragic years his country had ever known (Nazi intervention, Soviet invasion), you're reminded of another Czech cinema antihero: Tomas (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being."...
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Dec 5, 2008

Determination brings Antlers to brink of J. League crown

This year's J. League title race has been so unpredictable that nothing can be ruled out until the final whistle, but it would take a mighty twist in the tale for Kashima Antlers to be denied the championship on Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 5, 2008

Indie's new black

A little over a year ago, no one knew Black Kids, a dance-pop quintet from Jacksonville, Florida, who many people mistake for being British. Now anyone with a passing interest in popular music has at least heard of them. They are the latest indie band to have become famous even before they released a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2008

'Kill'

Mamoru Oshii is a world-class animation director, but his films, from the 1995 dystopian SF "Ghost In the Shell" to this year's air-war epic "The Sky Crawlers," are not for the masses. Instead they often explore heavyweight themes that appeal to anime otaku (ultrafans), from the dissolving boundaries...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2008

New tourism agency ambushed by high yen

When the Japan Tourism Agency opened for business on Oct. 1 to attract more Asian travelers, the timing could hardly have been worse.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 5, 2008

Shonen Knife "Super Group"

I have a very old friend who's always hated Osaka rock ambassadresses Shonen Knife. He thinks they're not a serious band — but he's missing the point. When the world around us is gray and dark, and the news talks of terrorists and financial depression, what we need are songs about slugs, deer biscuits...

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers