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COMMENTARY
Oct 19, 2007

Brown-out week in Britain

LONDON — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently had a long, bad week, but he has only himself to blame.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2007

Frayed com cable, not cell phone, may have delayed flight

Torn insulation on a cockpit cable — and not a mobile phone — might have been the cause of the communications breakdown that delayed an All Nippon Airways flight Wednesday, the transport ministry said.
BUSINESS
Oct 19, 2007

Sony plans to sell chip operations to Toshiba

Sony Corp. is selling its advanced computer chip operations to Toshiba, both companies said Thursday in the latest sign that Sony is raising cash and shedding operations to focus on its core electronics sector.
EDITORIALS
Oct 19, 2007

Confidentiality of a murderous motive

Public prosecutors have arrested a Kyoto psychiatrist on suspicion of leaking secret investigative materials to a journalist on a 17-year-old boy who was tried in family court in connection with a fire that killed his stepmother and two siblings. The freelance journalist later published a book using...
CULTURE / Music
Oct 19, 2007

Various Artists "The Kings of Electro"
Ricardo Villalobos "Fabric 36"
Various Artists "Soundboy Punishments"

Three reasons to buy the double CD mix album "The Kings of Electro" — Various Artists (Hostess): It is an excellent introduction to old-school electro, that synth-heavy take on hip-hop indebted to Kraftwerk and funk; it provides a timely reminder that there was computer-generated dance music before...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 19, 2007

Ikebana comes together with music in Kyoto

Visit Kyoto by train and the first thing you will encounter will be Kyoto Station, an immense structure that was criticized by many of the city's inhabitants when it was completed as the antipathy of what the Japan's cultural capital stands for.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 19, 2007

Pop goes Celtic

Irish singing sensation Celtic Woman are touring Japan in late November and early December. Often referred to as "Riverdance for the voice," the group have a strong fan base in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 19, 2007

'The whole world wanted us dead'

The locals call her Madussa, or Medusa. Clearly, 46-year-old Ari Up, the punk-reggae goddess of the recently reformed Slits, is still a mesmerizing presence — and not only because she sports a tangled blonde beehive of dreads.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 19, 2007

'Appleseed: Ex-Machina'

"Appleseed," Shinji Aramaki's sci-fi animation based on a Shirow Masamune comic, was hailed as ground-breaking when it opened in 2004. Not so much for its story, which recycled tired dystopian, man-as-machine tropes from many sources, including Masamune's better-known manga "Kokaku Kidotai (Ghost In...
BUSINESS
Oct 19, 2007

'Mr. Yen' sees dollar fall in '08, need for intervention

The dollar may "plunge" in 2008, prompting the United States, the European Union and Japan to intervene in foreign-exchange markets, according to Eisuke Sakakibara, the country's former top currency official.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 19, 2007

Radiohead "In Rainbows"

With a "revolutionary" distribution system whereby fans can pay whatever they like for a download of the album (or pay $80 and wait nearly two months for the physical CD and vinyl box set), Radiohead have got the industry talking (and mostly what they're saying is "Huh?"). Having submitted my download...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
Oct 19, 2007

I Am

Director: Dorota Kedzierzawska
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 19, 2007

Sherwood: 'Ari Up is a genuine one-off'

Joining The Slits on their Japan tour will be producer Adrian Sherwood. One of the key figures on the British reggae scene for the last 30 years, Sherwood has most recently been working on new Primal Scream and Lee "Scratch" Perry material, while some of his past credits include New Age Steppers (who...

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