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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 26, 2007

Paranoid android Abe blind to reality when it comes to eye contact

Image and issues always compete for voters' attention on the campaign trail, with the former usually winning. A successful candidate is the one who uses the media most effectively in shaping an image that's acceptable to more people than the next candidate's. Issues, on the other hand, have become more...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 24, 2007

Lesson in absurd comedy

Named in homage to the Romanian-born Absurdist playwright of the same name, the Eugene Ionesco Theater company will this month make its fourth visit to Japan to present Ionesco's dark comedy "Jugyo (The Lesson)."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 24, 2007

The Caribbean Magic Steel Drum Orchestra

In 19th-century Trinidad, drumming became so synonymous with gang warfare that the British colonial authorities outlawed hand drums altogether. Seeking an alternative, the island's denizens turned first to bamboo before happening upon an ingenious use for discarded oil drums. The resulting instrument,...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 24, 2007

The one about the stonemason who finds a princess

Makiko Sakurai, a shomyo (Buddhist chant) vocalist, will present a contemporary noh play at Kyo Ou Ji Temple in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on Aug. 25. Titled "Kaguyahime (The Shining Princess)," the play, with a script penned by Sakurai, is an adaptation of "Taketori Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter),"...
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2007

Tepco dials down juice to industries

Anticipating power shortages due to its closed quake-hit nuclear plant and a surge in air conditioner use during the current heat wave, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday that it had resorted to emergency supply-adjustment measures for the first time in 17 years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 23, 2007

A rich repository of traditional Zen art

For a subject in which words are considered an impediment to meditative insight, it is daunting just how many words are needed to explain Zen. It uncannily dodges any attempt at definition, and at least some exposure to the practice seems necessary before embarking on any worthwhile discussion of the...
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2007

Confusion at the Defense Ministry

The confusion in the Defense Ministry that accompanied the selection of the ministry's new administrative vice minister appears to have been settled. But the unfortunate episode revealed a lack of prudence on the part of Defense Minister Yuriko Koike and a lack of leadership on the part of Prime Minister...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 22, 2007

Japan's bureaucrats versus Shinzo Abe

OSAKA — Much has been made of the massive defeat Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party suffered in the July 29 Upper House elections. But as the smoke from the vote dissipates, it has become clear that the real victor is neither the leading opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 22, 2007

Can others save Earth despite Big Oil's blinkers?

How can an economic superpower founded on progress and innovation be so averse to change that would cut the greenhouse-gas emissions that are spurring global warming and climate change?
Japan Times
Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR
Aug 22, 2007

Vet blames those on high for war's sins, delusions

Sixth in a series
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Aug 21, 2007

Pocket tissues

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / WEEK 3
Aug 19, 2007

Beauty beheld in brutalism

No matter how wild or wacky their hobbies or obsessions, in the age of the Internet no one need feel isolated any more, and by casting all inhibitions aside almost anyone is assured of finding like-minded others out there in cyberspace — if not just around the corner from home.
EDITORIALS
Aug 18, 2007

Nuclear safety at stake

The Nuclear Safety Commission made public its 2006 white paper on the safety of nuclear power last week. The fact that its publication came after two postponements shows that the safety of the nation's nuclear power plants cannot be taken for granted. It will take tremendous efforts on the part of the...
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Aug 18, 2007

JBA needs to give Suzuki more time to turn national team around

Continuity helps breed success. Without it, a sports team rarely finds the necessary components — leadership, in-game chemistry and mastering the fundamentals — to become an elite team.
EDITORIALS
Aug 17, 2007

Calming global jitters

World stock markets have been on a roller-coaster ride in recent weeks. Defaults in the U.S. subprime mortgage market have rippled through the global economy, forcing central banks to inject liquidity into their banking systems as credit tightened. The jitters are another reminder of the interconnectedness...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 17, 2007

'Rosso Come Il Cielo'

In many ways Mirco was a typical 10-year-old boy; skittish, puppyish and with a very short attention span. One second he'd be playing with a spinning top, and a nanosecond later he'd be running down the street in pursuit of the next fun thing. Mirco was the only child of adoring parents living in the...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2007

Frozen food makers seek ways to stay cool with consumers

Meatballs, hamburger steaks, Chinese-style meat dumplings, fried rice, gratin, tempura and fish boiled with soy sauce — these are just some of the hundreds of frozen food items stocked by the nation's supermarkets.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 16, 2007

Obsessed with the super-real

Regardless of one's own relationship to religion, many of us are disposed to believe we can transcend the present world, rising above it to another super-reality, to a surreal world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 16, 2007

Flying high and free

On a sweltering summer day recently, members of the Condors dance troupe were pouring with sweat as they practiced for their upcoming national tour. Choreographer and lead dancer, Ryohei Kondo, was in the center of a circle of the dancers, who were voicing their opinions freely.
Japan Times
Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR
Aug 16, 2007

'War orphan' recounts feeling of abandonment

It was a rainy day in mid-August 1945. World War II was about to draw to a close, but nobody in the tiny Chinese village knew it. All they knew was that chaos was breaking out, and that the Russian military was approaching from the north.
Reader Mail
Aug 15, 2007

Wrong idea about kinesiology

John Wocher's Aug. 8 letter, "Another quack therapy let loose," demonstrates Wocher's ignorance. (Wocher includes "kinesiology" in a list of alternative-medicine therapies that he suggests lack a scientific foundation.)
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Aug 15, 2007

Hoppy enjoying comeback after radical shift in management

Hoppy, a sparkling low-alcohol beverage usually mixed with "shochu" distilled spirits, debuted in 1948 and became popular mainly in and around Tokyo as a cheap alternative to beer after the war.
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Aug 15, 2007

Air-conditioned neckties, AERO multifunction iPod docks

Cool Biz is not a principle that your average Japanese salaryman is going to embrace without a robust philosophical debate. A key impediment to his embracing of the green logic is the necktie. If he could have it surgically attached, I do believe that he would. Thanko is giving the poor guy an option...

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