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BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2007

Robots strut their human compatibility

The custom of serving tea is getting futuristic in University of Tokyo research about how robots and other technology can support and blend with human life.
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2007

China makes due with cosmetic changes

HONG KONG -- With the approach of the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government is making all kinds of preparations to host the games and to welcome foreign visitors and athletes. It knows that the eyes of the world are increasingly turning to China.
JAPAN / WHEN A CITY GOES BUST
Mar 2, 2007

Once Tokyo's spa playground, Atami fading fast

ATAMI, Shizuoka Pref. -- Tamae "Meme" Ono remembers fondly the late 1980s when the hot spring resort of Atami was a glamorous place to be.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 2, 2007

!!! fly freak flag loud and proud

Nic Offer is sitting on a couch in a private room above the Liquid Room venue in Ebisu, cutting a less imposing figure than he does when he's on stage. Maybe it's the hair. "You got it cut short," a female acquaintance notices after popping in to say hello. Offer's usually unkempt curly locks add to...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Mar 2, 2007

Shinjuku's split personality

In Shinjuku, the first challenge is getting out of the station. Said to be the world's busiest; traversed by approximately 3 million commuters a day, Shinjuku has been a Japan Railways stop since 1885. The Chuo, Keio and Odakyu train lines as well as subway stops joined later, and the depot morphed into...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 2, 2007

Terry Callier

Variously described as a jazz-folk mystic, a singer-songwriter, a soul man and a reluctant musician, Terry Callier is in many ways the genius that slipped through the net, fluent in a variety of styles but destined not for mainstream acceptance. Callier himself has always been reluctant to have his creativity...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 2, 2007

'Matsugane Ransha Jiken'

Nobuhiro Yamashita is one of the great comic talents working in Japanese films and also one of the most unusual. Unlike the many directors and actors here who equate "funny" with "over the top," Yamashita is low-key, ironic and very sharp. If he were an American he might have written for "Curb your Enthusiasm,"...
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2007

Sapporo questions fund ahead of possible takeover

Sapporo Holdings Ltd., the target of an unwanted takeover bid by U.S. hedge fund Steel Partners Japan Strategic Fund (Offshore) LP, asked the fund Thursday to provide more information on its buyout offer.
EDITORIALS
Mar 2, 2007

Less than music to the ear

The Supreme Court, in a 4-1 decision, has ruled that it is constitutional for a principal to order a music teacher to play the piano accompaniment to the "Kimigayo" national anthem during a public school ceremony. The top court took the position that the principal's order does not constitute a denial...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 2, 2007

DJ Kentaro "Enter"

DJ Kentaro is best known for his furious cut 'n' scratch performances that won him the coveted DMC World Championship title in 2002 with a perfect score. Kentaro's mixing forte has always been his ability to span genres with seamless dexterity, and its this ambivalence toward sticking to one style that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 2, 2007

'Paris, je t'aime'

It's a collage of miniatures, a collection of gemlike vignettes. In "Paris, je t'aime," 21 directors of various nationalities create 18 bite-size shorts (the longest being five minutes) about Paris, each one named after a Parisian neighborhood. Like a plate of hors d'oeuvres from a five-star restaurant...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 2, 2007

Tokyo Police Club "A Lesson In Crime"

Barely out of their teens, Tokyo Police Club have already learned a vital rock 'n' roll lesson -- keep it short and fast. The original version of the Toronto quartet's debut indie release, "A Lesson In Crime," released in Canada in April 2006, clocked in at a mere 16 minutes (the Japanese release is...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 2, 2007

Brasserie Paul Bocuse Le Musee: given the museum treatment

The wraps came off the new National Art Center in late January, revealing Kisho Kurokawa's tour de force in all its glory. The sinuous, bulging facade is remarkable enough, but it's the vast atrium inside that undulating skin of celadon-green glass that really stops you in your tracks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 2, 2007

'The Last King of Scotland'

If you're thinking that "The Last King Of Scotland" is some kind of fantasy-sequel to "Braveheart," well, guess again. The "king" of the film's title is 1970s Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada, who was a former barracks boy with the King's Highlanders, and liked to boast that his defiance of Uganda's British...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 2, 2007

McCoy Tyner looks back on Coltrane and a lifetime in jazz

McCoy Tyner ranks as one of the most important piano stylists in post-war jazz. His recordings with the John Coltrane Quartet, such as 1964's "A Love Supreme," remain high points of musical improvisation and spirituality. The mid-'60s music created by Coltrane, Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer...
SOCCER
Mar 1, 2007

Japan U-22 squad struggles in victory

Japan Under-22s huffed and puffed their way to a 3-0 win over their Hong Kong counterparts in a Beijing Olympics qualifier on Wednesday at Tokyo's National Stadium.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell