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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 12, 2012

Treasures from China's rich tapestry of cultures

"China" has always been something of a simplification. This is because it is an idea that has been used to encapsulate a vast heterogeneous portion of the World's population. With current relations with Japan tense, the idea of China as a monolithic giant with a single purpose, bringing its weight to...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 12, 2012

All aboard for Art Area B1

If you can't bring the people to the art, take the art to the people: This thinking, which for more than a decade has inspired art-in-the-street and art-in-the-countryside projects, last year engendered its oddest event yet: "Art-in-the-underground-train-station-concourse"!
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 12, 2012

Tea ceremony party holds more in store than just a quick drink

Whether you're a practitioner of the Japanese tea ceremony or not, the annual Tokyo Grand Tea Ceremony abounds with opportunities for cultural enlightenment.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 12, 2012

Aircraft show to offer visitors close-up tour

The Japan International Aerospace Exhibition in Nagoya this weekend offers a special opportunity for the general public to view a variety of airplanes up close.
BUSINESS
Oct 12, 2012

DoCoMo, MasterCard announce e-commerce alliance

NTT DoCoMo Inc. announced Thursday a new partnership with MasterCard Worldwide that will enable its smartphone users to make contactless electronic payments in other countries starting sometime after next April.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 11, 2012

Lapalux, Taquwami tap into a West Coast sound

It's early on a Saturday evening at the 1-2-3-4 Shoreditch festival in London and Lapalux is taking the stage. He's only armed with a laptop, a MIDI controller and some select software, but the hundreds in the audience haven't shown up expecting a flashy light show; the music is more than enough to hold...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 11, 2012

Magical Mistakes goes all natural on new album, 'Everything Uncertain'

Shiga Prefecture-based musician Erik Luebs, who works under the moniker Magical Mistakes, wanted to record the majority of sounds on his new album, "Everything Uncertain," by himself. Save for a few vocal snippets and 808 bass drums, his newest full-length leans heavily on natural sounds from the world...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Oct 9, 2012

Call to stop dolphin hunt in Taiji makes waves

Some of the many readers' letters The Japan Times received in response to the Sept. 11 Hotline to Nagatacho column, "Stop the annual Taiji dolphin massacre, make your children proud" by Deb Bowen-Saunders:
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 5, 2012

Pet Expo helps Fido look spot on

As Tokyo prepares for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, in Osaka fashion has gone to the dogs.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 5, 2012

The streets are alive with the sound of jazz

Shunzo Ohno is a man committed to his dream. Even after a motor bike accident and a battle with cancer, he can still play a mean trumpet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 5, 2012

Cusack delves into the dark with 'The Raven'

"One of the negative things about the Internet," actor John Cusack remarks when asked about rumors surrounding casting in his new film, "The Raven," "is unnecessary information. Stuff that doesn't serve any real purpose and can be detrimental to someone's ego or ... like I say, useless. Hopefully a good...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 4, 2012

Looking at art from a local perspective

In these recessionary times, any contribution to the arts is a cause for celebration. Such a state of affairs makes the opening of the Daegu Art Museum (DAM) in May 2011 in Daegu, South Korea, an especially joyous event.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 2, 2012

Abuse by Irish priest could be tip of iceberg

It is over three years since it was revealed that an Irish Catholic priest had abused several children in Japan. His victims here are probably still unaware their tormentor was a serial offender.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 29, 2012

Canadian musician pens piece for 'Tsunami violin' performances

Four months ago, Miguel Sosa, a composer, concert pianist, conductor and teacher was asked by Taizo Oba, organizer of the Bond Made of 1,000 Tones project, to write an original composition for one of the two "tsunami-debris" violins.
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2012

JAL foreign investors exceed limit

Some 39.5 percent of Japan Airlines Corp.'s shares were held by non-Japanese as of Wednesday, exceeding the legal ceiling, according to data released by a securities industry group.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 28, 2012

Yokohama garden goes for seasonal ambience during five-day moon-viewing event

Cool evening breezes are a sign that autumn is here. For five days beginning Friday, Sankeien, a Japanese garden in Yokohama is encouraging visitors to engage in a seasonal pastime: tsukimi (moon-viewing).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 28, 2012

Stage tribute to Jackson hits all the right notes

Like many people in the 1980s, Adrian Grant was a huge Michael Jackson fan. He was so fond of the "King of Pop" that he started a Jackson fan magazine titled "Off The Wall" in 1988. Grant says he wrote and designed the entire first issue by himself — in total, he published a scant 200 copies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 28, 2012

Food-themed festival serves up tasty films to chew on

Cinephile foodies, rejoice: The Tokyo Gohan Film Festival kicks off Oct. 6 and runs through Oct. 21. Now in its third year — and with a spinoff event in Osaka held Oct. 6-14 — it's a showcase of films all related to food. Not just one, lonesome movie such as "Dinner Rush" (though that's included...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 28, 2012

'Iron Sky'

Watching "Iron Sky", it felt like the entire point of this film was to include a scene where a slack-jawed New Yorker points to the sky, eyes wide with terror, and screams: "Space Nazis!"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 27, 2012

The fabric of Okinawa design

With the typical "white box" museum, everything depends on the contents of the exhibition, but with the Mingeikan (The Japan Folk Crafts Museum), the museum itself is very much part of the experience. This is clear from the moment you slide open the entrance door and take off your shoes to shuffle around...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2012

Hard truths about global growth

The world's high-income countries are in economic trouble, mostly related to growth and employment, and now their distress is spilling over to developing economies. What factors underlie today's problems, and how appropriate are the likely policy responses?
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2012

Transforming how India addresses its problems

Last month, I visited the Jaipur Foot clinic in New Delhi. You may have heard of the Jaipur Foot. It is both an invention — a prosthetic foot made from cheap materials costing about $45 (versus $8,000 for a similar device in the United States) — and an amazing, low-cost network of clinics around...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 25, 2012

Gaijin cards valid until 2015 — but not at the post office

Reader AM informed us that Japan Post no longer accepts alien registration cards as valid identification.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2012

Daiwa to cut up to 50 derivatives jobs in H.K.

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. said Monday it will eliminate as many as 50 derivatives jobs in Hong Kong and may shrink investment banking and equity research in the city as part of an expanded cost-cutting program.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2012

Secret of success for the top-rated universities

No country dominates any industry as much as the United States dominates higher education. According to Shanghai Jiao-Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities, for example, 17 of the world's 20 best universities are American, with Harvard topping the list by a substantial margin.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 24, 2012

Indecent proposals: the language of Japanese dating spam

It started with an email from a 20-year-old college student called Emi, who told me she was looking for a Showa umare no dansei (昭和生まれの男性, a man born in Showa, i.e., born before 1989). Next was Norika, a bored housewife in her early thirties asking me to spend some himajikan (ヒマ時間,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 23, 2012

Scrutiny of Tohoku reconstruction funds needed

Last December there was a mild eruption of indignation when it was reported that some of the money earmarked for reconstruction of areas affected by the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 would go to protect research whaling from interventionists like Sea Shepherd. Greenpeace and a few other organizations...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 23, 2012

Timely fictional war scenarios that play out in Asian waters

Tiger's Claw, by Dale Brown. William Morrow, 2012, 432 pp., $26.99 (hardcover) Red Cell, by Mark Henshaw. Touchstone, 2012, 336 pp., $24.99 (hardcover) Future war fiction — also known as alternate history or military science fiction — has been around a long time. Occasionally such books have proved...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’