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EDITORIALS
Aug 8, 2008

Let the dream-come-true begin

The Beijing Olympics which are being held from Friday through Aug. 24 under the slogan "One world, one dream" are a dream-come-true for China and its people. Chinese leaders in Beijing hope that the Games will showcase the country's economic development and modernization, and serve as a springboard for...
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2008

U.S. details sub Houston's radiation leaks

The U.S. government notified Japan Thursday that trace amounts of radioactivity leaked from the nuclear submarine USS Houston at a port in Kanagawa Prefecture and one in Okinawa between July 2006 and this April.
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2008

Cabinet Office report points to recession

With the word "weakening," the Cabinet Office on Thursday effectively called an end to the longest expansion of the postwar period.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 8, 2008

15 minutes with the Grandmaster

If you are a fan of hip-hop, then you have Grandmaster Flash to thank. He is one of the art form's earliest exponents, and the first hip-hop artist in history to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 8, 2008

Taking the Japan Wine Challenge

Despite the countless half- finished bottles of wine that lined the walls, the atmosphere in the plush function room of Tokyo's Sheraton Hotel was decidedly tense rather than tipsy. Japanese and Westerners were sitting around tables deep in concentration, thoughtfully holding a glass up to the light...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 8, 2008

'Bottle Shock' leaves a nasty aftertaste for the organizer of the Judgment of Paris

Due to be released in American theaters this month is "Bottle Shock," a new wine movie based on the story of the Judgment of Paris. The wine event, which was organized by Steven Spurrier back in 1976, upset the received wisdom of the wine community at the time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2008

'It's a Free World'

In the world of U.K. filmmaker Ken Loach ("Raining Stones," "Sweet Sixteen," "The Wind That Shakes the Barley") the working class have dignity; they speak and act with principle, even when these happen to be misguided. They may be bogged down by poverty, lack of schooling, recessions and unemployment,...
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2008

Toyota posts bleak results for quarter

Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it posted a 28.1 percent drop in group net profit for the April-June quarter as sales in North America, the biggest market for many Japanese carmakers, were hit hard by the U.S. economic slide.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2008

'The Dark Knight'

Like a plague of locusts, the superhero movies descend on us this summer. August brings us "Hancock," with Will Smith as an alcoholic, irresponsible and quite unfunny superhero; "The Incredible Hulk," which is practically a remake of 2003's "Hulk (presumably Ang Lee's version wasn't stupid enough); and...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2008

Green efforts before Games deserve praise

BEIJING — Images of the Beijing skyline seemingly bathed in a soup of smog and haze have been a common sight on the world's TV screens in recent days and weeks. Foreign journalists with hand-held air pollution detectors have been popping up on street corners checking levels of soot and dust. Everyone...
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2008

First nurses arrive from Indonesia

Tri Yulianti, 23-year-old Indonesian, has worked as a nurse in Jakarta for two years and hopes to start caring for Japan's elderly early next year.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 8, 2008

Sparks "Exotic Creatures of the Deep"

For a group dismissed by many as a novelty act, genre-hopping L.A. duo Sparks have a remarkable history. They have averaged just over one album release every two years since 1970 and have influenced pretty much every 1980s techno-pop group as well as just about every camp, flouncing singer or ironic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2008

Batman hits Tokyo

"Welcome to a world without rules" is the tag-line for "The Dark Knight," but, as usual these days, the press conference for the movie held at Roppongi Hills sure had a few. Rule No. 1, of course, was: Do not ask the stars questions about anything except the movie.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Aug 8, 2008

Bon odori and fine Aussie cuisine

Aussie eatery opens at Hotel Nikko As part of ongoing renovations, the Hotel Nikko Tokyo on the Odaiba waterfront has just opened the Grill & Wine Taronga restaurant on the hotel's second floor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2008

'The Sky Crawlers'

The Battle of Britain, in which the Royal Air Force fought the Luftwaffe for supremacy over the skies of Britain in 1940, became famous for not only the heroism of the Allied defenders, who saved the country from Nazi invasion, but their high casualty rates, especially among the young, inexperienced...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 8, 2008

Karuizawa to host summer arts festival

Located at the foot of Mount Asama in Nagano Prefecture, Karuizawa — which is one of Japan's most popular inland resorts — will be the setting from Aug. 16 to 22 of the Karuizawa Arts Festival 2008.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 8, 2008

Atami's Kiunkaku ryokan: The art of a great garden

You enter Kiunkaku through a beautiful, tile-roofed wooden gate flanked by tall trees, reminiscent of some temple gates, which gives a hint of the purpose:historical grandeur you will find within.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
Aug 8, 2008

"The Incredible Hulk"

Director: Louis Leterrier
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2008

Sojitz to build Angola cement plant

Sojitz Corp. announced Thursday it has won a $500 million order to build a cement plant in Angola as the country's spending on roads and construction increases demand for the material.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 8, 2008

Maki Rinka "Maki Rinka Sings Broadway"

While her previous albums offered pitch-perfect homages to 1930s-'60s jazz, Maki Rinka has this time gone the whole hog with a minialbum of covers of the show tunes that first inspired her. Backed by a nimble band, the Osaka singer delves headlong into nostalgia with infectious results.
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2008

IPhone helps Softbank add mobile users

Softbank Corp. said Thursday that it had its best month in four months in July after starting to sell Apple Inc.'s iPhone 3G.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person