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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
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.
LIFE / Travel
Oct 18, 2007

A country caught in the grip of a regime

MYANMAR — Rangoon (or Yangon as it is now called) seen from the air seems subdued, at least after brilliant nighttime Bangkok. Just a light here and there, otherwise a carpet of darkness. This extends even down into the new and otherwise imposing "national" airport where the light is so dim that officials...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Oct 18, 2007

Who killed Takashi Saito?

That any life should be lost during sport is tragic, and sumo is no exception.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2007

Okinawans lobby in Tokyo for textbook changes

A group of 167 political leaders and activists from Okinawa urged the central government Tuesday to retract the education ministry's instruction to publishers to remove references to the military's role in forcing civilians to commit mass suicide during the Battle of Okinawa.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 17, 2007

Individual variations and a sense of identity

I have recently returned to Japan from five astonishing weeks in the neotropics. Exploring and observing the riches of Brazil's Atlantic rain forest and Pantanal (the world's biggest wetland area) has left me overwhelmed by their biodiversity.
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2007

Ex-gangster shot by gunmen in Tokyo shopping area

Kyodo News A man was shot and later pronounced dead Sunday after several men opened fire on him with handguns on a street in a busy commercial district in Tokyo's Taito Ward, police said.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 13, 2007

Trip to Euro 2008 on the line for McClaren, England

LONDON — By Wednesday evening England will either have one foot in the Euro 2008 finals and Steve McClaren will have most of the nation eating humble pie or the national team will be on the brink of a European Championship exit with the head coach's job hanging by the most slender of threads.
COMMENTARY
Oct 13, 2007

Democracies' double standard

NEW DELHI — The repression let loose by Burma's (Myanmar) military junta has fittingly drawn international outrage. But the indignation and new wave of U.S.-led sanctions also obscure an inconvenient truth: Promotion of freedom has become a diplomatic instrument to target not China — the world's...
BUSINESS / EAST ASIA SYMPOSIUM
Oct 13, 2007

Agricultural industry reform said crucial for Japan FTAs

Japan could be left behind in the global trend of free trade agreements unless it resolves the problem of its protected agricultural sectors, Keio University professor Fukunari Kimura stressed at the Sept. 28 East Asia symposium.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2007

New robot can give facial massages

With steely arms sprouting cables and wires, the WAO-1 robot looks nothing like a relaxation device.
BUSINESS
Oct 12, 2007

No change as BOJ keeps rate at 0.5%

The Bank of Japan Policy Board agreed Thursday to maintain its benchmark interest rate at 0.5 percent for the eighth straight month as prospects for the global economy remain uncertain in the wake of the U.S. subprime mortgage loan crisis.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 12, 2007

MY PLAYLIST: Hot Chip

Hot Chip are leading the current British electro-indie crossover charge, having earned widespread acclaim for their second album "The Warning," released in Japan last month on Rough Trade.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 12, 2007

Glenn Miller Orchestra brings a touch of brass

The Glenn Miller Orchestra returns to Japan for a national tour starting Nov. 19 that includes performances in Tokyo, Hokkaido, Osaka and Fukuoka.
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2007

Osaka mayor expected to prevail despite policy, financial snafus

OSAKA — Osaka Mayor Junichi Seki is expected to be re-elected when voters go to the polls Nov. 18, despite public anger over the city's problematic assimilation assistance policy for descendants of the feudal outcast class, failing public works projects and a lack of appeal among his peers, even in...
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2007

Afghan SDF mission constitutional, Ozawa says

Ichiro Ozawa, president of the Democratic Party of Japan, said Wednesday the Self-Defense Forces' participation in NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan would not violate the Constitution, contrary to the claims of the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling coalition, which...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 11, 2007

Mother of all comebacks

Hollywood's hardest-working movie star, John Travolta dons a fat suit and breasts to play a housewife in his latest role, the all-singing, all-dancing musical 'Hairspray.'
JAPAN
Oct 10, 2007

Nova raises ¥70 million issuing share warrants

submits a petition Tuesday to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry calling for government action to improve the firm's operations. KYODO PHOTO
BUSINESS
Oct 10, 2007

Negative factors seen foiling BOJ interest rate hike this week

The Bank of Japan will probably not raise interest rates this week because confidence at small companies has deteriorated and policymakers are still assessing the effect of the U.S. housing slump on economic growth.
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2007

'Bullet tours' bringing South Koreans for shopping

and Bae Seung Wan visit the Takashimaya department store in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward. They traveled to Japan on a "bullet tour" via Japan Airlines chartered flights for an 18-hour stay in the capital on Sept. 26. KYODO PHOTO
COMMENTARY
Oct 9, 2007

The vanity in 'green' virtues

LONDON — When it comes to energy efficiency and a greener future, Japan has got itself very well-organized these days — some would even say over-organized.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic