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CULTURE / Music
Jun 21, 2012

Music industry wins a battle as antidownloading bill gets some teeth

A bill aimed at penalizing Internet users for downloading pirated music and video files passed the Diet on Wednesday, despite criticism from some Internet personalities and legal experts that the move is hasty and too harsh.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2012

Japan also has stake in universal rights, says ex-Congo child soldier

Michel Chikwanine, a university student in Canada who was once a child soldier in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has suffered things no ordinary Japanese child will ever have to.
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Jun 20, 2012

Online crowdfunded tuition service entangled in controversy

Crowdfunding, a method that enables projects to raise money over the Internet, has become one of the hottest trends in the world of Web-startups. The most successful of these is Kickstarter.com, which has hosted more than 45,000 projects.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jun 20, 2012

Gunma selects forward Sugasawa with No.1 pick in bj-league draft

A pair of bj-league franchises took the first step toward building their rosters for the 2012-13 season during Tuesday's draft day event in Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 18, 2012

The truth about Japanese love: We just don't get along

One of my younger cousins, aged 23, managed to pull off what he calls the kotoshino igyō (今年の偉業, the great accomplishment of this year).
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 17, 2012

Hunting ivory netsuke carvers is like a big game

Netsuke are the diminutive works of art that dangled from cords attaching purses or other pouches to a kimono's obi sash before Western garb ousted traditional dress after the modernizing Meiji Restoration of 1868.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 16, 2012

Ryukyu's Newton named JT's top player for second time

With non-stop, nonsensical expansion since the first games were staged in the fall of 2005, the bj-league's ranks have swelled to include a growing number of solid players, including an abundance of former NCAA Division I performers.
Reader Mail
Jun 14, 2012

Article 9 has stood by Japan

As a member of the Sagami Group to Protect Article 9, I am appalled by Andreas Kolb's June 10 letter. Kolb says Article 9 did not protect Japan from the Cold War and won't protect Japan from terrorists and fascists. But if Japan keeps its war-renouncing Constitution and refrains from suppressing other...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 14, 2012

To Uhnellys, anything more than two is a crowd

Uhnellys' Naoki Kaneko (who goes by the stage name "Kim") says journalists often ask him the same question in interviews: "Do you ever plan on adding more members?"
EDITORIALS
Jun 14, 2012

Bottom line of welfare

A weekly magazine in April reported that the mother of an entertainer earning an annual income of ¥50 million has been receiving public livelihood assistance known as seikatsu hogo (literally livelihood protection). Through a blog of a Diet member and other media, the entertainer was identified as TV...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 13, 2012

Toy sector saw sales rise 3.4% in '11

The domestic toy market logged ¥692.1 billion in sales in fiscal 2011, up 3.4 percent from the previous year for the second straight annual rise despite the sluggish economy, the Japan Toy Association said Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 13, 2012

Unraveling Aum's crimes

On June 3, the Metropolitan Police Department arrested former Aum Shinrikyo cult member Ms. Naoko Kikuchi, who was on the wanted list for her suspected involvement in the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system. She was living in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 10, 2012

The public shame of crying poor

Public acts of contrition don't get any more dramatic than comedian Junichi Komoto's May 25 press conference, where he apologized for allowing his mother to collect government welfare payments even though he's made good money himself as a TV personality. Josei Seven, the women's weekly that broke the...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 10, 2012

It's not that easy to quit

"If you don't like it, quit."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 10, 2012

The self-styled 'Land of the Free' nurtures yet another facet of hypocrisy

Last month, two members of the U.S. Senate vilified Eduardo Saverin, the cofounder of Facebook Inc., for doing something that Americans are apparently coming to consider a punishable sin.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 9, 2012

Longtime Africa hand Kanbe fights to help preserve continent's wildlife

With his perfectly suntanned bald head and carefully trimmed white mustache, Shunpei Kanbe may remind some people of a lion tamer, or maybe an explorer from the Belle Epoque.
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Jun 9, 2012

New financial services minister eyes stiffer fines for insider trading

The Financial Services Agency may impose heavier fines on those who engage in insider trading in light of a spate of recent cases, according to its new chief.
BUSINESS
Jun 9, 2012

DPJ, LDP discuss tax hike, social security

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan on Friday began talks with the largest opposition party over its plans to double the 5 percent consumption tax and envisioned social security reforms.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 8, 2012

'Michi — Hakuji no Hito (Takumi: The Man Beyond Borders)'

Millions of Japanese have become fans of things Korean, from weepy TV dramas to perky girl pop groups, since the start of the hanryu ̄ ("Korean Wave") popular-culture invasion over a decade ago. Many of the younger generation, however, have only a hazy awareness, if that, of the dark period between...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 7, 2012

"MATSUMOTO Shunsuke: A Centennial Retrospective"

After a childhood illness left him deaf, Shunsuke Matsumoto (1912-1948) began to have aspirations to become a painter. He moved to Tokyo while still a high-school student and became friends with other artists, including Saburo Aso and Aimitsu. One of his works was accepted for the Nika Exhibition in...

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes