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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2008

'Guilala no Gyakushu — Toyako Summit Kiki Ippatsu'

Political comedy is conspicuous by its absence on Japanese TV. Where are the shows that skewer politicians in the manner of American news satires "The Colbert Report" or "The Daily Show"? One might as well as search for the habitat of the Japanese unicorn (a bird that never flew).
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2008

Life without parole finding support in Diet

With less than a year before Japan embarks on the lay judge system, some lawmakers are raising concerns that having to choose between the death sentence and the second most severe punishment — life with the possibility of parole after 10 years — will be too daunting a burden for the nonprofessionals...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2008

Master tells public to draw on karate

Tadanori Nobetsu hands a letter to his karate students every month containing a warning of deteriorating Japanese morality and encouraging them to maintain their discipline. At his dojo, he requires "rei" (civility) and "aisatsu" (greeting.)
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 18, 2008

Suntory Hall hosts concert for children

Tokyo Symphony Orchestra will perform a concert for children on July 26 at Suntory Hall in Minato Ward, Tokyo, that focuses on contemporary Japanese composers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 18, 2008

Rei Harakami and Kahimi Karie

During the 3rd-anniversary events at Liquidroom in Ebisu, Tokyo last August, Rei Harakami played with jazz-pop vocalist and pianist Akiko Yano in their group Yanokami. This August, the idiosyncratic, Kyoto-based electronic musician plays with multilingual singer Kahimi Karie at the same venue.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 18, 2008

30th Pia Film Festival opens

The 30th Pia Film Festival, Japan's largest and most influential independent movie event, kicks off July 19 in Shibuya, Tokyo, showcasing works by amateurs who could be the next greats of the film industry.
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2008

Redress again doled out over Yokota base noise

The Tokyo High Court ordered the government Thursday to pay about ¥194 million in compensation to 210 people who suffered from noise pollution generated at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 18, 2008

India's pioneering DJ Pearl goes global

Since the worldwide dance-music explosion hit its peak in the late 1990s, the market for clubbing has been saturated. From Tokyo to New York to Ibiza, the "superclubs" are established, the fan base for the music is pretty much stagnant and everyone is looking for the next place that will experience a...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 18, 2008

Summer yet? Beaches open around Kanto

In the West, the only time you're likely to see a "closed" sign on a beach is if there's a shark about or sea conditions resemble the inside of a washing machine. Either way, it is the desire for self-preservation — rather than for law and order — that sees swimmers dutifully heed the restriction....
COMMENTARY
Jul 18, 2008

Cliches won't rescue Earth

LONDON — The recent Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido was one of the least memorable summit meetings. Every G8 spews out cliches; the Hokkaido meeting was no exception. Leaders at the meeting were generally a mediocre lot.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 18, 2008

Pop Levi goes slightly wrong

"It was a very obsessive thing," says Jonathan Pop Levi about the recording of his new album of warped pop music, "Never Never Love." "It took six days a week for 12 hours a day for four months to get it to sound that way. Especially in the vocals; if a computer could do a perfect impression of a human,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2008

The photographer who snaps it as it is

In his teens, photographer Edward Burtynsky worked in the factory of General Motors in his native Ontario. The experience gave him a taste for "seeing large things in a big perspective," as he describes it. He built his career on stark, amazingly beautiful images of the effects of industry on the environment...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 18, 2008

Unagi Akimoto: Tradition beats the summer heat

Squeezed in between towering modern neighbors, Akimoto's traditional low-rise architecture is so self-effacing you barely notice it. From the tiled eaves to the wood-slatted second-floor windows and the sliding door set back from the street, all is inscrutable.
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 2008

New world order is long overdue

George Herbert Walker Bush, when he was president of the United States, used to talk a lot about a "new world order" emerging after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Seventeen years later, that new order is still not in place as the countries that dominated the old order refuse to make way for...
SOCCER / J. League
Jul 17, 2008

FC Tokyo keeps Gamba out of first-place tie

FC Tokyo denied Gamba Osaka the chance to go level on points with J. League leaders Kashima Antlers with a battling 1-1 draw on Wednesday night.
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 2008

Let's hope it's over soon

The world is now in the grip of a first-class financial crisis. Some will be hit harder than others, but no one is going to escape. Final confirmation of this has arrived with the news that the two giant mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pillars of American life that underwrite, or insure,...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years