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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 8, 2009

The Bawdies

More than 25 years ago, ZZ Top sang, "They come running just as fast as they can, because every girl's crazy about a sharp-dressed man." Looking quite dapper in matching suits and ties, The Bawdies will see if this still holds true as the Tokyo outfit attempts to pack clubs with hordes of screaming ladies...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 8, 2009

Government day care falling short

The line of children waiting to get into government-subsidized day care is swelling for the first time in five years, a sign of these recessionary times, some observers say. But for others it is merely the latest blow in a long-term problem, especially for working mothers unable to leave their toddlers...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 8, 2009

Cubism remixed at a European crossroads

Cubism, as it emerged from the experiments of the painters Pablo Picasso and George Braque, was for some a necessary but limited artistic investigation in the 20th century. For others, though, it offered a blueprint for a new language, as in that part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that became Czechoslovakia,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 8, 2009

Well-armed to protect Buddha

Like a visitor from some remote part of the universe, the deity Ashura of Kofukuji Temple in Nara appears with six spindly arms frozen in motion and three faces on a single head that is crowned with a perfectly groomed hairdo. The body is slender and graceful and little imagination is needed to see the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 8, 2009

Pop impresario turns Arab dance belly up

There surely aren't too many people out there who can talk about hanging out with The Sex Pistols in one breath and taking calls from then-United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the next. Miles Copeland, however, is one such person.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 8, 2009

Issey Miyake's "U-Tsu-Wa" filled with character and inspiration

In Japanese, the word utsuwa literally means "vessel" or "container," but it can also be used to describe a person's character. Someone said to have a "large utsuwa" ("utsuwa ga ookii") is a person of high caliber or someone with tremendous capacity or generosity. When celebrated Japanese fashion designer...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
May 7, 2009

Natsu beckons as Hakuho and Asashoryu prepare to go head-to-head

In the fortnight ahead of the annual Natsu Summer Basho, there is always something of a lull in the sumo world.
JAPAN
May 6, 2009

Calls to revise organ law grow as lawmakers debate various plans

When Yasuto Katagiri asked New York's Columbia University in February to perform a heart transplant on Hoku, his 2-year-old son suffering from a rare form of heart disease called restrictive cardiomyopathy, the university had to turn him down because its 5 percent limit for accepting foreign transplant...
COMMENTARY
May 6, 2009

China and Taiwan try a practical approach

LOS ANGELES — On the surface of things, it might not seem like such a big deal. Taiwan is to get recognition as an observer at an important world health meeting in Geneva to be held later this month. But in the context of Asian diplomatic history, it is a big deal.
JAPAN
May 6, 2009

Sake maker to use imported rice for ethanol

Oenon Holdings Inc., a maker of sake and liquor, will start ethanol production this year at the nation's largest biofuel plant using rice imported by the government.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 5, 2009

Google crosses line with controversial old Tokyo maps

When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan to its online collection last year, the search giant didn't expect a backlash. The finely detailed woodblock prints have been around for centuries, they were already posted on another Web site, and a historical map of Tokyo put up in 2006 hadn't caused...
JAPAN
May 4, 2009

Both sides on constitutional change hold rallies

The pros and cons of changing the Constitution were on full display Sunday — the 62nd Constitution Day — with both opponents and proponents holding rallies to push their causes.
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2009

Tracking and demobilizing debris in space

SINGAPORE — The 25 radar and optical telescope centers around the world that help the U.S. Armed Forces track debris in space have become increasingly busy in the past couple of years as man-made junk orbiting Earth proliferates, posing a growing danger to both civilian and military use of space. ...
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2009

Taiwan gets a U.N. invite

The World Health Organization has invited Taiwan to take part in the May 18-27 meeting of the World Health Assembly, the WHO's governing body, as an observer. The invitation came just after Beijing and Taipei signed agreements April 26 to deepen ties, signaling that relations across the Taiwan Strait...
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2009

Toward nuclear disarmament

Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone has disclosed Japan's 11-point initiative for comprehensive nuclear disarmament, giving strong support to U.S. President Barack Obama's vision of a nuclear-free world. In his April 5 speech in Prague, Mr. Obama said that "as a nuclear power, as the only nuclear power...
Reader Mail
May 3, 2009

Technology event has paid off

Regarding Alex Martin's April 28 article, "Tokyo 2.0 a buzzing hub for online communities, entrepreneurs": As an early participant of Tokyo 2.0, I have been pleased to see that cofounder Andrew Shuttleworth's idea and hard work have finally come to fruition. I try to make a special trip to Tokyo from...
Reader Mail
May 3, 2009

Water needs for California rice

Stephen Hesse's April 26 article, "Ignorance of 'sustainability' is not an option," falls apart if one takes the time to do a little fact-checking. His assertion that the U.S. government spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually in California "to subsidize farmers who grow water-guzzling crops...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 1, 2009

Haikou Fes

IAN MARTIN Anyone with a passing interest in demographic crises will know that Japan, with its prodigious life expectancy and ever-declining birth rate, is a textbook example of the problems of an aging society. One of the more poignant side effects of this is the increasing number of abandoned schools...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 1, 2009

Expect a heavenly performance

T he Vienna Boys' Choir, dubbed as having "the voices of angels," is set to bring its pitch-perfect sound to Japan between now and mid-June.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 1, 2009

A rosy way to spend Golden Week

T he rose-blossom season is coming up, and many places are offering visitors a chance to admire the flower seen in many cultures as a symbol of love and beauty at its best.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 1, 2009

Mexico and Japan make beautiful music together

I n September 1609, when a Mexican sailboat ran ashore in a typhoon near the village of Onjuku in today's Chiba Prefecture, local fishermen and ama (female divers) rescued 317 souls from the angry ocean. That was Japan's first contact with Mexican people.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 30, 2009

Architects Klein, Dytham find freedom and fun in Tokyo

Within three weeks of stepping off the plane at Narita, 26-year-old Astrid Klein and 24-year-old Mark Dytham found themselves holed up in an Ikebukuro love hotel, using hastily acquired T-squares to draw up plans for a hair salon in Ginza — one of the most expensive strips of real estate in the world....
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2009

Hope, doom: Japan Prize pair poles apart

The two Americans who received this year's Japan Prize did a first by appearing afterward at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan to highlight their visions — one of hope in medical breakthroughs and the other in the inevitable doom of mankind.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go