Tag - 2013

 
 

2013

Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 22, 2014
Ryukyu favored to win third title
This season's title chase features three teams that have won 40 or more games, and the winner will be crowned at Ariake Colosseum on Sunday.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 11, 2014
Toyama, Akita advance to Final Four for first time; Ryukyu, Kyoto also earn spots
Maybe 13 is a lucky number after all.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 8, 2014
West powers Ryukyu, Kyoto favored in second round
Since rising to elite status and winning a championship in the 2008-09 campaign in their second season of existence, the Ryukyu Golden Kings have been a perennial threat to win it all.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 6, 2014
Taking stock of the Eastern Conference playoff semifinals
Four teams remain in the Eastern Conference playoffs, which points the spotlight on the regular-season conference champion Toyama Grouses and Iwate Big Bulls. As the top two seeds, the Grouses and Big Bulls play host to the Niigata Albirex BB and Akita Northern Happinets, respectively, this weekend.
BASKETBALL
May 3, 2014
Osaka overpowers Shiga in second half, triumphs in Game 1
The Osaka Evessa held the Shiga Lakestars to 19-for-60 shooting, seized control of the game in the third quarter and made a winner of Evessa coach Shunsuke Todo in his bj-league playoff debut.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Apr 30, 2014
Shiga, Osaka, Hamamatsu, Fukuoka aiming for long postseason run
The Ryukyu Golden Kings ruled the Western Conference, setting a league record with a 43-win season as new bench boss Tsutomu Isa put his stamp on the team after six seasons as a well-respected assistant.
BUSINESS
Apr 4, 2014
Sales of imported vehicles up 12.7%
Sales of new imported vehicles, including those built abroad by Japanese automakers, rose 12.7 percent from the year before to 362,052 units in fiscal 2013, an industry body said Friday.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 22, 2014
Akita, Ryukyu a cut above at halfway point of season
With the eighth annual All-Star Game slated for Sunday afternoon in Akita, it's an appropriate time to take a look at highs and lows of the season's first half.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jan 15, 2014
Kusaka's All-Star selection a disservice to more deserving
Being picked as an All-Star starter should be reserved for players having All-Star-caliber seasons.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2014
Let's score leaders by deeds
2013 has too many anti-heroes. We need to have leading newspapers, universities or think tanks judge world leaders' performances as if they were in a league.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Jan 1, 2014
The most viewed culture stories of 2013
Pop culture ruled the roost in popular stories, but also showed its staying power: The most read online story from the JT culture section this year turned out to be a review of a manga drawn by Osamu Tezuka and first published in 1972. Meanwhile, Hayao Miyazaki's final feature at Studio Ghibli generated buzzes both positive and negative, a father charmed photo-lovers with whimsical snaps of his two daughters, and two different sides of popular Japanese music were revealed.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 1, 2014
The most viewed life stories of 2013
From burgers to ballerinas, LINE sending to gender bending, kawaii cute to Nadeshiko adorable, here are the life section stories that caught online readers' eyes in 2013. As a gyaru might say, “Yababa!”
Japan Times
SPORTS
Jan 1, 2014
The most viewed sports stories of 2013
The sports story most read online in the year in which Japan won the bid for the 2020 Olympics should come as no surprise. Baseball fans had plenty to celebrate, and figure-skating followers had no shortage of drama. Let's hope to see some Sochi gold medals in this round-up next year.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2014
The most viewed news stories of 2013
On first impression, the news stories most read online in 2013 paint a fairly gloomy picture, a mix of loneliness, darkness and tragedy. However, you can also see readers' penchant for science and fantasy, even if Atlantis was not actually discovered. May there be plenty of good news in 2014!
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2013
2013, a year of angry elites
The crowds who called for revolution in Cairo, Istanbul, Bangkok and Kiev in 2013 were not the impoverished losers of globalization. They were mostly the economic winners: middle-class, educated, English-speaking. So why were they rebelling?
COMMENTARY
Dec 27, 2013
Abe and Xi swam naked with Buffett in 2013
In Japan and South Korea this year, talk of epochal change from two newish leaders was shown to be empty. Meanwhile, China's supposedly peaceful rise was laid bare by aggressive actions.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 26, 2013
Favorite finds from 2013's Food File
As 2013 draws to a well-replete coda, there's just enough time to stop, pause and ponder the culinary highlights of the past 12 months. Tokyo has never been better for eating out, and this year has brought a further glut of excellent restaurants at every point on the budget spectrum. Here are a few, both old and new, that hit the gastronomic sweet spot for me. Expect to see full reviews for many in this column over the coming months.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2013
Giovanni Fazio's 2013 Top 10: films to remember into the next lifetime
This year saw me watching a lot more films than usual, which, if anything, made me appreciate the cream even more. As per our age, there's a lot of "content" out there begging for our attention, but precious little of it that feels like it was made with passion. Here are 10 that, love 'em or hate 'em, have some personality.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2013
Mark Schilling's 2013 Top 10: Farewell to Ghibli's anime masters
Japanese films did quite well both commercially and critically in 2013, with Hayao Miyazaki's final feature animation, "Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises)," thumping the Hollywood competition at the local box office. But the industry's over-reliance on sure-thing manga, TV shows and novels for source material has put a damper on its creativity, while abroad the demand for quirky, violent films from Japan is still strong. Often lost in the cracks are good indie films that try to tell original stories about actual human beings.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2013
Kaori Shoji's 2013 Top 10: films that aren't backward about coming forward
It has been a year of documentaries made on big ideas and small resources. At the other end of the spectrum, some of the best fiction films had the look and feel of a documentary, attesting to the modern notion that the individual and his/her story are just about the most interesting things around.

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores