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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 14, 2008

France's own proto-Andy Warhol

There are interesting parallels between Andy Warhol and the French fin-de-siecle artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Each was an instantly recognizable figure who moved in a Bohemian crowd, was obsessed with celebrity, and produced print works that embodied the relationship between art and commerce.
EDITORIALS
Feb 14, 2008

Violence in sumo training

The arrests of former sumo stable master Tokitsukaze and three sumo wrestlers in connection with the fatal beating of a 17-year-old wrestler before and during a training session last June should serve as a warning to the Japan Sumo Association about a culture characterized by tolerance of corporal punishment....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 14, 2008

Yayoi Kusama: Inside an artist's head

It took director Takako Matsumoto about a year to really win the confidence of Yayoi Kusama, the subject of her documentary "Watashi Daisuki (I Adore Myself)." Only then did the avant-garde artist start addressing the filmmaker by her name — in the first 12 months it was all guarded looks at the camera...
Reader Mail
Feb 14, 2008

Routine pastime of xenophobes

The timely response from the Feb. 11 editorial "Avoid hysteria over food" is a welcome antidote to the prevailing mass anti-Chinese hysteria in Japan fanned by a bigoted local media. From "second-rate toys" to every conceivable Chinese-made good, China is now the convenient bogeyman for any inferior...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 14, 2008

A question of intention

How valid is the distinction between crafts and arts? A number of recent exhibitions, most notably "Roppongi Crossing" at Tokyo's Mori Art Museum and "Space for Your Future" at the Museum of Contemporary Arts, Tokyo, have confronted us with this question, one that is of great relevance to Japanese art....
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2008

Auto unions seek wage, bonus hikes

Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co.'s unions in Japan asked for more pay as the automakers forecast higher earnings, the firms said Wednesday.
Reader Mail
Feb 14, 2008

Active role in Nova's downfall

The anonymous correspondent Feb. 3 wrote that the government just let Nova fall. Certainly, the government stood by as the company collapsed, but it also had a more active role in its downfall. There's a tendency among former teachers to blame only management for Nova's downfall, and it's true that...
COMMENTARY
Feb 13, 2008

A growing laundry list against Beijing

LOS ANGELES — Some double-standards are two-faced in the extreme, but not all.
COMMENTARY
Feb 13, 2008

Our responsibility to protect

WATERLOO, Canada — Then Secretary General Kofi Annan's famous "challenge of humanitarian intervention" in September 1999 provoked a furious backlash from many countries. Yet a mere six years later, the norm, reformulated as the "responsibility to protect" (R2P), was endorsed by the world leaders gathered...
BASKETBALL
Feb 13, 2008

Oita's Ellis receives weekly award

Oita HeatDevils big man Andy Ellis missed all seven of his 3-point shots in Saturday's game against the Niigata Albirex BB. But he made his final shot of the game: a slam dunk with one second left after he grabbed an offensive rebound. That gave Oita a 73-72 victory. Ellis finished with 22 points and...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Feb 13, 2008

Trade for Shaq a bad move by Suns

NEW YORK — At first shudder, Shaquille O Neal's relocation from one retirement village to another triggered the normal atypical knee-jerk reactions:
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 13, 2008

Let science empower you

The setting: The 350-year-old Royal Society in London, whose magnificent neo-Classical base overlooks the Mall, which has Buckingham Palace at one end of the boulevard and Trafalgar Square at the other. The speaker: Lord Rees of Oxford, the Astronomer Royal. Martin Rees is the current president of the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 13, 2008

Pollen set to come out of hibernation

For sufferers of "kafunsho" (pollen allergy), it's hay fever season again.

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