search

 
 
LIFE / Travel
Nov 30, 2007

Nikko: spiritual highs, down-to-earth pleasures

Located about 140 km north of Tokyo, the city of Nikko nestles in the mountains of western Tochigi Prefecture. Its three holy sites — Futarasan Shrine, Nikko Tosho-gu Shrine and Rinno-ji Temple — were collectively designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999.
COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2007

Culture as a common asset

Politics (political phenomena) has become disconnected from culture (cultural phenomena) in East Asia.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 30, 2007

'The Nativity Story'

Motherhood is a rum thing to begin with but motherhood in the mid-teens, in superconservative ancient Nazareth, engaged to a man you've never met and who is definitely not the father of the baby — well, then it would be time to hit the panic button, if only such a thing had existed.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 30, 2007

Gallows "Orchestra of Wolves"

"Mayday, Mayday/The captain lost control again/The f***ing ship is breaking up/We're going down in flames" is from Gallows' "Abandon Ship.' The catchy, brain- gnawing melody is catapulted into hardcore heaven by Frank Carter's ferocious vocal assault. Maybe he's shouting about the ailing U.K. music scene,...
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2007

Vietnamese leaders make investment pitch

OSAKA — Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet and a senior delegation of Vietnamese government and business officials called on Japanese business and government leaders Thursday to invest in huge transportation and technology infrastructure projects in their country.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 30, 2007

The Hot 8 Brass Band "Rock with the Hot 8"

Why would anybody choose to play the tuba? It's the heaviest and most expensive piece of brass, it belches notes that could make buildings fall down, and the brightest career hope is to play the rom-pa-pom-pom of fat people walking in cartoons. Despite those failings, The Hot 8 Brass Band was put together...
EDITORIALS
Nov 30, 2007

Next step toward devolution

In its interim report, a government panel for devolution spells out specific fields in which the central government should transfer powers to local governments and calls for strengthening local financial bases. The report is a precursor of the panel's full recommendations to be submitted to the government...
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2007

Canon plans big boost in toner output

Canon Inc. said Thursday it will invest ¥140 billion from now until 2009 to produce more toner cartridges used in printers and photocopiers as demand increases.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 29, 2007

Ando looks to earn place in Grand Prix Final after recovering from injury

SENDAI — World champion Miki Ando will continue her bid to secure a spot at next month's Grand Prix Final in Turin, Italy, when she takes to the ice here on Friday night in the NHK Trophy, the last of this season's six Grand Prix events.
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2007

Try listening to the teachers

Regarding the Nov. 23 article "Japan's schools flunking at global level": Calls for reform by politicians and university administrators uniformly cite lack of competitiveness and the failure to meet international standards in support of often untested reforms. Throughout my university career that included...
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2007

China warship on historic visit

A warship from China docked Wednesday at Tokyo's Harumi Pier, making the first port call in Japan by a Chinese naval vessel from the communist country — a highly symbolic display of improving ties between the two Asian giants.
COMMENTARY
Nov 29, 2007

Building better Japan-China relations

HONG KONG — The deterioration of China-Japan relations during the five years of Junichiro Koizumi's premiership has been reversed, but concrete progress needs to be made if the dramatic improvement in relations in the last 14 months is to be sustainable.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 29, 2007

Flipping screens

If you've never heard of the form of Japanese puppet theater called dogugaeshi, you are in good company: The ancient tradition remains an obscurity even to puppet enthusiasts in the know. But American puppeteer Basil Twist is about to change all that with "Dogugaeshi," his production currently on tour...
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2007

Alarming role of ideology

Gwynne Dyer's Nov. 24 article, "Evidence on Iran doesn't seem to matter," is an alarming reminder of the role of ideology and "group think" in the formation of policy.
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2007

Gender separation is common sense

In his Nov. 25 letter, Peter Stevenson wonders why the same non-Japanese males who complain about the new Japanese policy of photographing and fingerprinting arriving foreigners at airports do not seem particularly upset about women-only train carriages.
EDITORIALS
Nov 29, 2007

Science fact, not fiction

In its fourth and final report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), winner (with Mr. Al Gore) of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, concluded that global warming is "unequivocal" and already threatens hundreds of millions of lives and as much as two-thirds of the species on the planet....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 29, 2007

Translator of the universal and the local

In his 1987 book "Ireland Kiko (Travels in Ireland)," the renowned historical novelist and essayist Ryotaro Shiba (1923-96) observed that "the typical Irish character could easily be dramatized," and that "Ireland is one of the richest countries for the literary arts, with people whose daily lives are...

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan