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CULTURE / Music
Oct 19, 2007

Various Artists "The Kings of Electro"
Ricardo Villalobos "Fabric 36"
Various Artists "Soundboy Punishments"

Three reasons to buy the double CD mix album "The Kings of Electro" — Various Artists (Hostess): It is an excellent introduction to old-school electro, that synth-heavy take on hip-hop indebted to Kraftwerk and funk; it provides a timely reminder that there was computer-generated dance music before...
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.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 19, 2007

In hot water at the seaside

I'd heard about the "bath in the sea" in Aomori Prefecture, Honshu's northernmost prefecture and a mere 600 km north of Tokyo. But this kaichuburo, as they call it in Japanese, isn't about splashing in the waves; it's a hot spring, and it's named Furo Fushi Onsen (hot spring of eternal youth and eternal...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 19, 2007

'Stardust'

"People who know" say that fantasy is the next big thing in Hollywood. "People who know" obviously haven't seen "Stardust" yet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 19, 2007

'Scoop'

"Scoop" is not exactly Woody Allen back in top-notch comedy form, but there's a giddy, debonair humor to it that makes you think he was really happy when making this film. And that is probably due to the fact that he was working with Scarlett Johansson for the second time in a row after the dark, stylish...
SOCCER / World cup
Oct 18, 2007

Okubo notches pair of goals in rout of Egypt

Yoshito Okubo opened his international account in style on Wednesday evening with a well-taken brace in Japan's 4-1 thrashing of Egypt.
Japan Times
Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR
Oct 18, 2007

The horror of war cannot be forgotten

Tenth in a series
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 18, 2007

Putting students' works on the block

The evening was a festive red that illuminated the enthusiastic bidding by the 300-plus attendees at Japan's first ever university-run contemporary art auction. At the Kyoto University of Art and Design (KUAD) last Saturday, 18 students and three teachers, dressed in student-designed fire-red outfits,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2007

Japanese seniors keep lock on Everest

Yuichiro Miura has an unusual routine for a man who just turned 75.
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Oct 17, 2007

From Big Brother marketing tools to powered Kitty-chan collectibles

Looks alone might not determine a person's character, but for marketing they are at least a good start. NEC certainly believes in the power of appearances, with its new FieldAnalyst camera. The device, in essence, judges passersby on the basis of their looks, determining their gender and approximate...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / 2007 NPB PLAYOFFS
Oct 16, 2007

Marines level series

SAPPORO — The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters posed for their Pacific League Championship picture after Game 2, but all the in-game glamour shots belonged to Tomoya Satozaki.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / 2007 NPB PLAYOFFS
Oct 16, 2007

Nishioka, Morimoto spark ballclubs as leadoff hitters

SAPPORO — Chiba Lotte's Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Nippon Ham's Hichori Morimoto are two of the biggest stars in Japanese baseball, despite neither really hitting for a lot of power or driving in a lot of runs.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / 2007 NPB PLAYOFFS
Oct 16, 2007

Big seventh inning propels Fighters

SAPPORO — The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters are a tight-knit group known for going that extra mile for one another. Against the Chiba Lotte Marines in Game 3 they went the extra mile and then some.
Reader Mail
Oct 14, 2007

Tired myth of uniqueness

In her Oct. 7 book review of Alan Macfarlane's "Japan Through the Looking Glass," Mariko Kato writes "It is fully known that Japan -- despite being the world's second-largest economy and a hyperproductive civilization -- is utterly different from the West."
CULTURE / Books
Oct 14, 2007

Reappraising the Asian endgame in World War II

The End of the Pacific War: Reappraisals, edited by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007, 331 pp., $60 (cloth) Former Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma discovered to his regret that public discourse in Japan concerning the atomic bombings does not accommodate dissent or nuance. The...
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.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / 2007 NPB PLAYOFFS
Oct 13, 2007

Will mercurial Tigers end slump?

Here are five questions heading into the first stage of the Central League Climax Series between the Hanshin Tigers and Chunichi Dragons:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 13, 2007

Shining on after the darkness of death

In July 2005, Kim Forsythe lost her 2-year-old son, Tyler, to acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Even before that time, she had begun to realize how the emotions she was experiencing could be turned into something positive, something that could ease the pain of Tyler's passing while providing aid and comfort...
BASKETBALL
Oct 12, 2007

Sea Horses beat Sunrockers in JBL opener

In a sense, it was a typical fashion of basketball. One team build a huge lead early, but the other came back with lots of determination.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2007

Fukuda could resolve issue over Yasukuni by visiting

I believe it would be good for Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to visit Yasukuni Shrine during the annual autumn festival. I am very well aware that the prime minister himself is extremely cautious about the visit. But, objectively speaking, the time is getting ripe to resolve the Yasukuni problem.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Oct 12, 2007

Britain is finally waking up to the unmistakable smell of sake

I recently returned from Britain, where I took part in some events sponsored by the Japan Central Brewers' Association and the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. I was impressed by the quality and the sheer variety of sake offered by Japanese brewers and enthusiastic local distributors such as Tazaki Foods....
BUSINESS
Oct 12, 2007

Sony Financial rises 3.8% in biggest Japan IPO of year

Sony Financial Holdings Inc. gained 3.8 percent Thursday on its first day of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after raising ¥320 billion in Japan's largest initial public offering this year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2007

'After the Wedding'

"After the Wedding" is about the quiet brutality of love and the manipulative motives that lie behind the act of giving.
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...
EDITORIALS
Oct 11, 2007

Darfur deteriorates

After years of genocidal attacks, many thought the situation in the Darfur region of Sudan could not get worse. But a raid on African Union (AU) peacekeepers was proof that things could indeed deteriorate further. The bold attack threatens to derail international efforts to bring peace to the shattered...
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2007

Fukuda admits his chapter switched names on 112 receipts

In an ironic twist, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda admitted Wednesday in the Diet that a Liberal Democratic Party chapter he heads in Gunma Prefecture changed the names on 112 receipts worth ¥9.5 million.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2007

Videotaping interrogations worth a look?

When the Toyama Prefectural Police announced in January they had found the real culprit in two rape cases in 2002 — for which 40-year-old Hiroshi Yanagihara had already been convicted and served time — it was no surprise to legal experts.
Reader Mail
Oct 9, 2007

Would Murakami agree?

Regarding the two book reviews on Sept. 30 about Japanese writer Haruki Murakami: Literary analysis is a game for professional academics. It may be interesting, but no writer consciously sets out to write a work embodying any of the concepts mentioned in articles about him or her.
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

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?