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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 13, 2008

World Beat 2008

If New York City was the world, then the borough of Brooklyn would be Global Bohemia, the place where undiscovered international creative forces meet, get drunk together and make art. In terms of music, no Brooklyn indie band personifies this idea better than Gogol Bordello, the "gypsy punk" collective...
Reader Mail
Jun 12, 2008

Tiger doesn't deserve killer label

It's not often that I feel it necessary to respond to comments made by journalists, but an irresponsible remark concerning "Victor," the Siberian tiger at the Kyoto Zoo, certainly raised my hackles. As unfortunate as the incident involving Saturday's death of the tiger's keeper might have been, this...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 12, 2008

Actor Nomura brings noh to new audiences

If you've ever napped through a noh performance, you're not alone. But this 600-year-old Japanese theatrical genre is being updated to make it more of a 21st-century entertainment than a Japanophile's endurance test.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 12, 2008

The space to act out in Shizuoka

Shizuoka Performing Arts Center is Japan's first so-called European-style public theater. Founded by the Shizuoka prefectural government in 1997, it has its own company (also called SPAC) and an artistic director in residence when the norm is for public theater companies to share venues and for artistic...
COMMENTARY
Jun 10, 2008

A shift in priority to 'happiness'

Per capita gross domestic product is a highly valued as yardstick for measuring the degree of "affluence" enjoyed by the citizens of each nation. The figures of various countries are usually converted into U.S. dollars to determine how countries rank internationally.
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2008

Reintroducing the Ainu

Both chambers of the Diet unanimously passed a resolution last week urging the government to recognize the Ainu as an indigenous people. It says the fact that many Ainu people suffered discrimination and poverty during Japan's modernization should be taken seriously. Noting that the Ainu have their own...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 8, 2008

It might be lousy, but political TV drama 'Change' lives up to its title

Pre-premiere hype is important for Japanese TV drama series since their broadcast runs tend to be limited to 13 weeks. They don't have time to build an audience the way more open-ended series do in the West. As many people as possible have to tune in right from the start.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2008

Diet officially declares Ainu indigenous

The Ainu celebrated a historic moment Friday as the Diet unanimously passed a resolution that recognizes them as indigenous people of Japan.
COMMENTARY
Jun 6, 2008

Nationalist alarm rousts India's ruling party

MADRAS, India — The Hindu nationalist party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sounded the alarm bell for the Congress party in India. The BJP's impressive win in recent Assembly elections in the southern Indian state of Karnataka has shaken the Congress, which heads the coalition government in New Delhi....
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2008

Media frets 'right to know' limits ahead of lay judge system debut

A TV network news director's dilemma: Preparing a story on a string of sensational random killings, is it proper to add a neighbor's comment that the teenage boy arrested for the crimes was trouble waiting to happen?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 5, 2008

Humble Harrison bucks his years

COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2008

Energy-cost issue boils over

Is the green party over? Is the ferocious rise in energy costs worldwide, driven by the soaring price of oil, undermining all the enthusiasm for saving the planet in the longer term via cutting carbon emissions and penalizing all forms of fossil-fuel consumption?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2008

U.S. helps search for Japanese dead on Attu

Searchers digging for days recently found the remains of two Japanese soldiers buried in mass graves on the Aleutian island of Attu, victims of one of the harshest battles of World War II.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jun 4, 2008

To cage or not to cage?

I was born in 1940, in Neath, South Wales. My father went off to war and my mother took me to live in the relative safety of rural Suffolk in eastern England, where the Luftwaffe's bombers seldom attacked. There, she worked as a nanny for rich people's offspring. It was pretty tough for my Mum, but she...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jun 3, 2008

Good news from grass roots

Reader Rodney in Vancouver recently e-mailed: "I've often found your articles informative and useful, but they tend to take a tone of complaint. Please tell us about some face-to-face, grassroots efforts that have helped make Japanese more considerate and respectful of those who are different."

Longform

The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.