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CULTURE / Music
Jun 22, 2007

Tha Blue Herb "Life Story"

Tha Blue Herb are the Company Flow of Japanese hip-hop: uncompromising, fiercely independent and more apt to induce chin-stroking than booty-shaking. When their debut album dropped in 1998, it was unlike anything the local scene had heard before. Central to their appeal was Ill-Bosstino, the trio's lone...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 22, 2007

Dizzee Rascal "Maths + English"

On his third album, Mercury Prize-winning rapper Dizzee Rascal has cleaned up his grime sound with concessions to other, more popular styles. Some may deem them commercially strategic, but they sound like the prerogatives of someone whose imagination has grown with his reputation. "Old school" is referenced...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 22, 2007

An inside track on the Japan Alps

As the overnight buses roll into the car park at Kamikochi at six on a summer's morning, disgorging disheveled and sleep-deprived long-distance travelers from as far afield as Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka and Kyoto, the whole area is already buzzing with people.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 22, 2007

'Office' star in 'Japanese classic'

'When I heard that my play 'Warai no Daigaku (Academy of Laughter)' was going to be staged as 'The Last Laugh' in England, I handed my script over with no strings attached and told them they could adapt it any way they wanted. I even said they didn't have to bother giving me a credit," said 45-year-old...
CULTURE / Film
Jun 22, 2007

A Japanese Grand Prix

The red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival could be graced by more Japanese if the government and the film industry were to cooperate in a more substantiative way, suggests director Naomi Kawase, this year's winner of the Grand Prix for her film "Mogari no Mori (The Mourning Forest)."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
Jun 22, 2007

Lucky You

Director: Curtis Hanson Language: English
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 22, 2007

'Volver'

Filmmaker Pedro Almodovar loves women and he's not afraid to announce it either. Probably one of the most fearless and creative directors working today, Almodovar has consistently explored what it is to be a woman and it seems like his level of enthrallment increases with every film.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 22, 2007

Architecture takes spiritual turn at GA Gallery

What do China's Chengdu and Saadiyat Island in the United Arab Emirates have in common? Answer: They're all the sites of major future architectural projects featured in the exhibition "GA International 2007," currently running at the GA Gallery in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward. Though small (the exhibition takes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 22, 2007

Heeding the call of island music

What is it with Western artists and Okinawan music?
SOCCER / J. League
Jun 21, 2007

Urawa gets back on right track after trip abroad

With his team in second place in the J. League and at the quarterfinal stage of the AFC Champions League, it would appear things are looking rosy for Holger Osieck and Urawa Reds.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2007

Education reform bills are enacted

bills passed because they are the most important bills for this Diet session and educational reform is the priority of my government," Abe told reporters." The education bills, backed by the Liberal Democratic Party and coalition partner New Komeito, mainly aim to increase the central government's control...
COMMENTARY
Jun 21, 2007

The law is clear on Kosovo

LONDON — The ratio of foreign soldiers to local citizens in Kosovo (16,500 NATO troops to 2 million civilians) is slightly higher than the ratio of American soldiers to Iraqi citizens.
COMMENTARY
Jun 21, 2007

Mark Twain and the sins of 'our race'

LONDON — When I resorted to Mark Twain's writings, I attempted to escape, at least temporarily from my often distressing readings on war, politics and terror. But his "The Mysterious Stranger," although published 1916, left me with an eerie feeling. The imaginative story calls into question beliefs...
EDITORIALS
Jun 21, 2007

Mysterious deal with Chongryun

Mystery still surrounds the unsuccessful attempt to buy the 10-story headquarters of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents of Japan (Chongryun) and its land. Mr. Shigetake Ogata, former head of the Public Security Intelligence Agency, which monitors Chongryun, headed an investment...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 21, 2007

Breathing new life into France's economy

PRAGUE — Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential election triumph in May, and now the victory of his party, the UMP, in the parliamentary election, has created the most favorable opportunity in decades for deep structural reform in France. Not only did Sarkozy win the presidency with 53 percent of the vote,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 21, 2007

World's last interventionist

PRAGUE — When Tony Blair, having procrastinated about his departure almost to the point of unreason, finally gives up the British premiership this month, it will be to the general relief not only of the British public as a whole, but also of the overwhelming majority of his own party.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2007

Crime victim bill enacted; critics fear trials turning into outlets for revenge

hits (you), (you) hit back," Morosawa said, reckoning such acts of revenge were permitted until "the enactment of modern law, when the government took away the right to retribution — or rather, the government was to carry out (retribution) on behalf" of the victims. People in Japan victimized by crime...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 21, 2007

Nissan shareholders grill Ghosn over profit drop

YOKOHAMA — Nissan Motor Co. President Carlos Ghosn took fire for the company's disappointing 2006 earnings Wednesday as shareholders criticized his lack of a long-term vision, especially in environmental technologies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 21, 2007

Soundtrack of the summer: Seiji Ozawa

Under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, some of Japan's top classical musicians gather each year for roughly a month of opera and orchestral concerts. The Saito Kinen Festival showcases an opera, usually something a little offbeat, and this year it's Tchaikovsky's "Pikovaya Dama" ("The Queen of Spades"), based...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 21, 2007

Asian artists echo biennale director's themes

VENICE, Italy — By the light of the setting sun, a skateboarder practices tricks on the edge of a seaside jetty. Heavy waves roll in and break against the shore in a constant motion in the background. The skateboarder keeps to a narrow radius and his movements are rhythmic and supple. The board appears...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 21, 2007

Soundtrack of the summer: Pet Shop Boys

Neil Tennant's genteel vocals were once the perfect ironic comment on the stylistic assertiveness of commercial pop, but as he's entered middle age and his themes have become more wistful (but only a little less ironic) he's turned into the Noel Coward of English dance pop. Fortunately, he and his silent...
BUSINESS
Jun 21, 2007

Matsushita to up plasma displays

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. expects to double its production capacity for plasma display panels when a new plant begins production in Hyogo Prefecture in May 2009, a company spokesman said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 21, 2007

Soundtrack of the summer: Muse

Muse are regularly regaled as one of the best live acts in Britain. They put on flabbergasting shows — including fireworks with more explosive power than a battery of North Korean ballistic missiles, space-pod drum risers straight out of "Star Wars," stuff like that — and all of the theatrics are...
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2007

10 teachers lose 'Kimigayo' lawsuit against Tokyo

The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday rejected a lawsuit by 10 high school teachers who were denied postretirement employment after they refused to sing the national anthem during graduation ceremonies in March 2004.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight