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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 3, 2009

Manabu Miyazaki: Outsider looking in

Born the son of a yakuza boss in Kyoto, Manabu Miyazaki is now a best-selling author. His life may read like fiction, but he raises social, political and media facts in a manner that's as frank as it is hard-hitting
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 24, 2009

Eisler: international author of mystery

Start with an image. A man walking down a street in Tokyo. Steep, like San Francisco. Maybe Daikanyama. As the man walks toward Shibuya, two men follow in the shadows.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 21, 2009

Japan's many roads to ruin

While there are many roads to democracy and prosperity, in Japan it is roads that may take the country in a different direction. In their latest book on construction in Japan, "Doro o do suru ka" ("What to do about the roads?"), lawyer Takayoshi Igarashi and journalist Akio Ogawa paint a bleak picture...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 8, 2009

Language shows the resurgence of being kechi

"Nai sode wa furenai (無い袖は振れない)" was a phrase that an old man in my neighborhood used to say many, many years ago. Whenever anyone within hearing range complained about their lack of money, the cost of living or rising taxes, he pulled out this standby comment as a way of summing up the...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Apr 6, 2009

Demand-supply gap is driving Japan's precipitous slide

The Japanese economy is stuck in a tailspin. With industrial output sinking 10.2 percent in January and 9.4 percent in February, economic activity could drop to half in another six months.
EDITORIALS
Mar 15, 2009

Blossoms amid the gloom

The cherry blossom season will soon arrive, and with it the reflections and lessons that go with the yearly event. As Japan begins the season of enjoying the cherry blossoms, the differences from last year start to appear as well. Part of the excitement of spring comes from never quite knowing exactly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 28, 2008

Soundtracking Japan — again

So, you've got 73 minutes of play time to sum up the entire music culture of Japan. How would you do it? What would you include?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 3, 2008

Jiang Rong: Writing in a world of wolves

Jiang Rong (pen name of Lu Jiamin), who is now 62, was born in Jiangsu Province, China, and educated in Beijing. In 1967, at age 21, he volunteered to go and work in Inner Mongolia, where he'd heard about the practice of people there paying homage to "wolf totems" erected in the rolling grasslands that...
COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2008

Birth of a massacre myth

With the Beijing Olympics looming we see more attempts to remind the world about the alleged June 4, 1989, massacre of democracy-seeking students in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 21, 2008

It's a Disney world after all

Once upon a time — about 50 years ago — a man had a dream. The dream involved the creation of a magical kingdom where the man's many visitors could frolic happily. So happily, in fact, that they would each shell out tons of money to be there. Oh, and the dream also involved a mouse.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jun 1, 2008

Arata Isozaki: Astonishing by design

If the entire Japanese architectural fraternity was one big royal family, then Arata Isozaki would be a king approaching the end of a long and glorious reign.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Apr 8, 2008

Tokkotai survivor Hideo Suzuki

Eighty-five-year-old Hideo Suzuki is a reluctant survivor. A former tokkotai (Special Forces Unit) member of the Jinrai Butai (Thunder Gods Corps), Suzuki volunteered to be the pilot of an Ohka, a manned rocket-powered aircraft, during World War II. For sailors on U.S. warships in the Pacific, the Ohka...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 29, 2008

Pfizer diverting drug development away from Japan

Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drugmaker, is diverting drug studies and tests from Japan as part of an industry push to avoid this nation's regulatory delays and higher costs.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 15, 2008

Tokyo Players bring N.Y. comedy to town

The dearth of good comedy in English in Tokyo will be relieved in a few weeks' time, when Tokyo International Players — a 100-percent volunteer-run company that has been entertaining theatergoers since 1896 — will present "The Plaza Suite" at Akasaka V Theater. And The Japan Times has a pair of tickets...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Dec 2, 2007

Dalai Lama: Ocean of wit and wisdoms

Lhamo Thondup was born on July 6, 1935 in Taktster, a small village in the Amdo region of northeast Tibet. But neither his parents — farmers who grew barley, buckwheat and potatoes — nor his three elder brothers and one elder sister (a younger sister and brother came later) were to discover his true...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE MONTH
Dec 1, 2007

Frontcourt dynamos Warren, James earn monthly awards

Steady Reggie Warren has been a consistent scorer for the Takamatsu Five Arrows since joining the team last season.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2007

Japan's schools flunking at global level: symposium

In this age of globalization, firms and businesspeople must compete with their rivals on a worldwide scale. This is also spreading to academicians and educational institutions, universities in particular.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / 2007 NPB PLAYOFFS
Oct 16, 2007

Woods: Dragons fire at perfect time

Kenichi Nakata and Kenshin Kawakami were the losing pitchers in the Chunichi Dragons' final games of 2006, dropping Games 4 and 5 of the Japan Series, respectively, against the champion Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2007

Media ignoring mercury-tainted dolphin meat: assemblyman

The Japanese media's lack of condemnation is the principal reason mercury-tainted dolphin meat continues to be consumed, including in school lunches, a local assembly member from Wakayama Prefecture said Monday.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Aug 11, 2007

Albirex stand tall for Niigata

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.''
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 29, 2007

Kaiten zushi

It was a season of long days, heavy rain, loquats, hollyhocks and hydrangea.
JAPAN
May 18, 2007

Trail to Obara said overlooked in '92 death

Second of two parts
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 18, 2007

Not an every day script

Enter a male student bedsit in Britain in the late 1990s and you'd likely be confronted by a copy of the Alex Garland novel "The Beach," posters of the movie "Trainspotting" on the wall and a bunch of albums from independent dance-music record labels like Skint, Wall of Sound and Ninja Tunes spread around...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Mar 28, 2007

JT honored with three FSAJ Media Awards

The Japan Times earned three prestigious honors at the Foreign Sportswriters Association of Japan Media Awards Dinner on Monday night in Tokyo.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE MONTH
Jan 6, 2007

Washington wins Dec. award

He takes a lot of shots and he consistently makes around 50 percent of them. And he had six 20-point games in December.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 31, 2006

Make sure you read the best Asia books

The holiday season is upon us, and as we look toward 2007, why not make a resolution to read some of the best books about Asia? We introduce a few of our contributors to help you decide what not to miss Donald Richie's selections: RASHOMON AND SEVENTEEN OTHER STORIES by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, translated...

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.