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JAPAN
May 13, 2011

Reactor 1 in worse shape than thought

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday that the water level in the No. 1 reactor's pressure vessel at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant is much lower than thought and that some of the fuel rods have melted and sunk to its bottom.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 13, 2011

Oita festival plays classics

The first Argentinian nisei, Seicho Arakaki, was born in 1911. Since then the number of those of Japanese descent in Argentina has grown to an estimated 32,000 people, according to Association of Nikkei and Japanese Abroad. A music festival in Kyushu this month will celebrate the past century with a...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 13, 2011

Walking group hopes the good weather will put a spring in your step

This weekend could be one of a few to really enjoy the sights of the city on foot before the rainy season arrives and is followed by one of Tokyo's notoriously sticky summers.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 13, 2011

Photo show spotlights amateurs

An exhibition coming soon to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography provides a rare chance to see how contemporary Japan looks from the perspective of hundreds of the nation's best professional and amateur photographers.
EDITORIALS
May 13, 2011

Employing disaster survivors

More than two months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, construction of temporary housing for disaster victims and the restoration of lifelines such as electricity, gas, city water and sewerage have become urgent tasks. Close attention also must be paid to employment of disaster survivors.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 12, 2011

The Cherry Coke$

Fuji Rock 2005 was a very memorable weekend for Celtic-punk-inspired act The Cherry Coke$. The Tokyo septet were invited to the popular summer outing to showcase cuts from their 2004 "Beer My Friends" debut on the festival's Rookie A Go-Go stage. While there, they also had the opportunity to watch and...
CULTURE / Art
May 12, 2011

'Zhu Wei: Utopia'

Tobin Ohashi Gallery Closes June 5
BUSINESS
May 12, 2011

Hackers disrupt PlayStation blog

Sony Corp., struggling to restore online entertainment services after a record theft of customer data, said Wednesday its PlayStation blog has been partially disrupted after the website was attacked by hackers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 12, 2011

A tale of two cities: Art Fair Kyoto challenges Tokyo

After the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and tsunami, the art scene in Tokyo was struck by cancellations, postponements and confusion as it attempted to make sense of the disaster and worked on ways to contribute to the reconstruction of the Tohoku region of Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 12, 2011

Go! Team hope to rock Japan in a good way

"People are scaredy-cats, aren't they?" laughs Ian Parton, founder of British cut-and-paste kitsch-pop outfit The Go! Team, when told that many Western bands have canceled their Japan tours in the wake of March's radiation-tinged triple disaster in the Tohoku region.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 12, 2011

'Yu Kiwanami Solo Exhibition'

imura art gallery, kyotoCloses May 28
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
May 11, 2011

Hamaoka impact will be far-flung

The decision by Chubu Electric Power Co. to shut down the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture is testament to the long-lasting and far-reaching impact of the March 11 megaquake.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
May 11, 2011

This summer, cute animal gizmos will make 'cool biz' even cooler

Summer is just around the corner, and office workers are starting to don their lighter "cool biz" clothing in order to beat the heat. Japanese gadget-maker Cube Works (you may know them from the infamous humping dog USB stick) has rolled out a series of cute little fans to help you stay chilled.
COMMENTARY
May 11, 2011

Justified, but we're no safer

U.S. President Barack Obama was justified in ordering the elimination of Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al-Qaida group of jihadists and terrorists, who have caused such widespread suffering and mayhem not only in Western countries but also in Muslim states. But his death does not necessarily make...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
May 10, 2011

Culinary expedition explores cultures

People often get to know about another country's culture through its cuisine -where the ingredients come from, how the dishes are cooked and how the dishes originated.
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
May 9, 2011

Meaningful future needed to preserve Tokyo Motor Show

Japanese automakers were hit hard by the March earthquake and the massive supply chain interruptions continue. It's so bad in fact that normalization of production at most domestic and overseas plants is expected to take until the end of the year.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 8, 2011

Checking the time on the Doomsday Clock

In 1902, an American science writer named Robert Kennedy Duncan wrote a magazine piece titled "Radio-Activity: A New Property of Matter." Its subject is French physicist Henri Becquerel's discovery, in 1896, of the rays that now bear his name. Duncan's tone is so radiant with hope, so luminous with the...
CULTURE / Books
May 8, 2011

Unfractured folk tales, and fantastic fables

SPECULATIVE JAPAN 2: "The Man Who Watched the Sea" and Other Tales of Japanese Science Fiction and Fantasy. Kurodahan Press, 2010, 269 pp., $16 (paper) A good anthology, particularly one that aims to provide an overview of an unfamiliar subset of a nation's literature, should not please all its readers...
Japan Times
LIFE
May 8, 2011

Kashima's ancient rock of faith

Long before the theory of plate tectonics emerged in the 20th century to explain the mechanism behind earthquakes, Japanese folklore had attributed the terrifying phenomenon to the thrashings of the o-namazu — a giant catfish that inhabited the bowels of the Earth.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 7, 2011

American's food import firm has grown organically

Jack Bayles, owner of Alishan Organic Center and founder of Tengu Natural Foods, has lived within a 5-km radius his entire time in Japan in the shadow of the verdant, hazy mountains of Chichibu near the Koma River in Hidaka, Saitama Prefecture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2011

Verbal wants to hit the reset button on pop

In the middle of her recent Japan tour, pop superstar Kylie Minogue surprised her fans by announcing a new song on YouTube. The song, written by Japanese rapper and producer Verbal, is called "We Are One" and is the pair's effort to try to raise donations for Unicef following the March 11 earthquake...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2011

Oorutaichi

Osaka artist Oorutaichi has long tried to test listeners' ears by blending together many disparate styles, so much so as to render the concept of "genre" irrelevant when discussing his music. For an upcoming concert in Tokyo he hopes to further challenge the sensory experience through the addition of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 5, 2011

From within the 'outsider' came a wealth of imagination

"American Innocence, Welcome To The Realms of the Unreal" at the Laforet Museum brings together 64 paintings and some personal objects of the "outsider artist" Henry Darger, who was born in Chicago in 1892.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 5, 2011

The feminine world of photography

Bettina Rheims is an iconic French photographer known for her sensual portraits of women, who range from movie stars, models and musicians to androgynous teens, wives of Russian millionaires and Parisian women whom she finds while "hunting" on the streets. Her subjects are often shot in various states...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 5, 2011

'Art Brut Japonais': Unleashing the uninhibited power of expression

In recent weeks there have been several contemporary-art group exhibitions, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo Annual, VOCA at the Ueno Royal Museum, and the Sompo Japan Rising Artists Exhibition. In theory these exhibitions, which are usually scheduled to coincide with the optimism of spring,...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami