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JAPAN
Jan 16, 2009

Aso's days said numbered

Now that Prime Minister Taro Aso managed Tuesday to force the second extra budget for fiscal 2008 through the Lower House, his next hurdle is the fiscal 2009 budget and related bills.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 16, 2009

Soutaiseiriron "Haifai Shinsho"

Since I was handed an advance copy of "Haifai Shinsho" ("Hi-Fi Anatomia") a couple of months ago, I've been unable to go a day without hearing it. I think I need help. This album is aural crack.
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2009

Deputy chief Cabinet secretary's alleged affair heaps further woes on Aso

Just what Prime Minister Taro Aso didn't need was another problem, but a new one landed on his plate Thursday when allegations emerged in a weekly magazine that Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshitada Konoike has been having an affair.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 16, 2009

Deerhoof

Occasionally, you'll run across a review that says San Francisco's Deerhoof are the greatest band in the world. They're not, but you can understand why some people think so. There's something perfect and unique about their angular, chaotic guitar songs, and how many bands can claim perfect and unique...
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2009

Islands row must be resolved: Russian envoy

Japan and Russia can and must resolve their territorial dispute and forge a peace treaty to ensure bilateral and regional prosperity, the speaker of the Russian Council said Thursday in Tokyo.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
Jan 16, 2009

Hara disappointed by Saito pullout

Japan manager Tatsunori Hara expressed his disappointment Thursday in Takashi Saito's decision to sit out the World Baseball Classic but understands the pitcher's situation.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jan 16, 2009

Italian-flavored stay package

Just in time for St. Valentine's Day, the Hotel New Otani Makuhari in Chiba Prefecture is offering an "Auberge Canoviano" accommodation package from Feb. 6 to 14.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 16, 2009

Ashby contributing for Bryant's Apache

Jerod Ward and Nile Murry suited up for the then-expansion Toyama Grouses in the 2006-07 season, and Julius Ashby made his mark as the starting center for the first-year Takamatsu Five Arrows.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 16, 2009

The rocks of abstraction

In September last year, Anglo- Japanese painter Peter McDonald won the U.K.'s £25,000 John Moores prize for contemporary painting with a work, "Fontana," that depicted in simplistic shapes an artist thrusting a knife into a circular canvas. Or it could be someone attacking a giant eye. Or perhaps an...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2009

'Revolutionary Road'

There's something about American suburbia that American cinema loves to hate, or at least give a dig in the ribs. The camera will pan in on the clean, airy spaciousness and obvious signs of prosperity, but the next minute, terrible things are always happening in the burbs: man-eating houses ("Amityville...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 16, 2009

Looking back as Japan advanced

As a young student of realistic nihonga (Japanese-style painting), Kansetsu Hashimoto worked under the eminent teacher Seiho Takeuchi (1864-1942), a painter best known for his depictions of animals. But Hashimoto, distancing himself from the master and his subject material, later said that he "didn't...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2009

Che Guevara revived for a movie revolution

As the Cuban revolution celebrates its 50th anniversary, it's hard to recall the enmity that led the United States to threaten and embargo its small neighbor for all these decades. Oh, right, Cuba is a communist regime, so we can't trade with them, just like, uh, China?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2009

'Zen'

I was one of those hippies who got into things Japanese via Zen back in the 1970s. I spent two years practicing zazen in Michigan and I had a first-row seat when Alan Watts — that early explainer of Zen to the West — spoke on campus. I even taped a photo of Shunryu Suzuki, the author of "Zen Mind,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 16, 2009

Japanese wine: unadulterated and ready to go abroad

The image most people have of Japanese wine is of the ¥500 plonk sitting next to the synthetic beer and sickly sweet chu-hi cocktails on the shelves of their local convenience store; of the cheap and decidedly dismal stuff of lost weekends and discarded personal dignity.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2009

If you can't sell designer bags, rent them

Japanese consumers are renowned for their appetite for luxury brands, hence Georgio Armani and other high-end labels opened their largest outlets in the world in the glitzy Ginza district in Tokyo.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 16, 2009

Get your skates on in the Kanto area

If you've been keeping your eye on the sports pages recently, you'll know that Mao Asada won her third straight National Figure Skating Championship last month and is currently preparing to defend her World Champion title in Los Angeles in March. Maybe you're feeling in the mood for a slide yourself....
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 16, 2009

Shirakawa-go becomes a winter wonderland

Shirakawa-go — a village community in Gifu Prefecture that was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its thatched-roof farmhouses in 1995 — has been a tourist magnet for years. But its beauty goes up a few notches for seven days each year, when many of the houses are lit up in the snow.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 16, 2009

School's out

Matilda isn't waltzing. She's sprinting toward me outside Shinsaibashi Station in Osaka with the speed of a Jamaican Olympian chewing cheetah gonads. A meter from me she screams "Simon!" and takes a flying leap, so I instinctively reach out and I'm holding this tiny 18-year-old in my arms like she's...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 16, 2009

Shirakawa-go becomes a winter wonderland

Shirakawa-go — a village community in Gifu Prefecture that was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its thatched-roof farmhouses in 1995 — has been a tourist magnet for years. But its beauty goes up a few notches for seven days each year, when many of the houses are lit up in the snow.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 16, 2009

School's out

Matilda isn't waltzing. She's sprinting toward me outside Shinsaibashi Station in Osaka with the speed of a Jamaican Olympian chewing cheetah gonads. A meter from me she screams "Simon!" and takes a flying leap, so I instinctively reach out and I'm holding this tiny 18-year-old in my arms like she's...

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo