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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 30, 2008

TV dumbos drum up big following

As Forrest Gump said, stupid is as stupid does. And in Japan, these days, it does pretty well.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 30, 2008

Good drinks for those who wait

In most sake breweries, the brewing season is over by May, a month marked by the announcement of the National New Sake Awards, the biggest public prize to which a brewer can aspire. (Those interested can taste some of the prizewinners at the National Sake Fair in Tokyo's Ikebukuro on June 11th.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 30, 2008

Love 'em or hate 'em

Usually bands this challenging are doomed to wallow in dank flea-pit venues idolized by a few brave souls and sustained only by belief in their own genius.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
May 30, 2008

"Away From Her"

Director: Sarah Polley
BUSINESS
May 30, 2008

Honda unveils new compact minivan

Honda Motor Co. on Thursday unveiled its new compact minivan, the Freed, aiming to gain a bigger share of a segment that remains popular amid slow domestic car sales.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2008

'Black Gold'

Some two decades of involvement in the music industry has done little to dull my amazement at how the person who creates the actual product for sale — the musician — is the lowest person on the food chain. Musicians get paid last and least, their cut far less than that of the retailer or the distributor...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2008

'Bakemono Moyo'/'Mukidashi Nippon'

Still only 24, Yuya Ishii has not only made four feature films in a blazingly short time, but had them screened in his own section (hard to call it a retrospective) at the 2008 Rotterdam Film Festival. Also, at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival, he received the first Edward Yang New Talent...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 30, 2008

Canceling Africa debt would be just: Bono

Canceling the debts of African countries "is not a matter of charity but a matter of justice" to efficiently eradicate extreme poverty on the continent, Irish rock star Bono said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 30, 2008

Taico Club

Whether it's Bjork honing her vocal chops on the cliffs of Iceland or the Belleville Three birthing techno in the mean streets of 1980s Detroit, there's a certain romance to seeing music in terms of the environment in which it was created. So when Nathan Fake released his debut album "Drowning in a Sea...
BUSINESS
May 30, 2008

Japan aims to double Africa trade

YOKOHAMA — Japan aims to double its trade with Africa in five years as it seeks closer ties with resource-rich countries on the continent, trade minister Akira Amari said Thursday.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 30, 2008

Coach likes Oga's effort, fortitude

Yuko Oga has played a grand total of 19 minutes in her first three WNBA games.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2008

'The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian'

What's the use of a fairyland in which trees don't dance, animals don't talk and one's once majestic castle has fallen into ruins? Returning to the world of Narnia, the Pevensie brothers, Peter (William Moseley) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes), look thoroughly petulant if not downright pissed off, in the...
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2008

Mr. Fukuda's vision

In August 1977 then Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda in Manila gave a speech on Japan's Asia diplomacy. Under what was later called the Fukuda doctrine, Japan promised to refrain from becoming a military power, to pursue "heart-to-heart" relationships of mutual trust in various fields, to seek solidarity...
BUSINESS
May 30, 2008

Retail sales rise slowest since July

Retail sales rose at the slowest pace in nine months as higher prices for food and energy prompted consumers to spend less on clothing, the government said Thursday.
JAPAN
May 30, 2008

Aid bodies launch initiative to double continent's rice haul

Japanese and African organizations expressed determination Thursday to double the rice harvest in Africa within 10 years, saying it would help the continent in many ways, from alleviating its food crisis to bolstering the economy.
JAPAN
May 30, 2008

Reform bill sidesteps 'amakudari'

The Lower House passed a bill Thursday to reform the civil servant system, but the legislation omitted any steps to curb the notoriously corrupt system of "amakudari," the practice whereby bureaucrats retire into lucrative posts in industries they had overseen.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2008

Keio's Ikeo proposed for BOJ position

Kazuhito Ikeo, a professor at Keio University in Tokyo, was nominated Thursday to join the Bank of Japan's Policy Board as the government sought to fill one of two positions left vacant since March.
COMMENTARY
May 29, 2008

Prime ministers in trouble

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda face a sea of troubles. Neither looks likely to keep his job long enough to make a significant contribution to solving the problems in Britain or in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2008

Girls and women: first casualties in wartime

AMSTERDAM — Truth is often said to be the first casualty in wartime. But if the real truth is told, it is women who are the first casualties. In conflict zones, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF recently observed, sexual violence usually spreads like an epidemic. Whether it is civil war,...

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear