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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 13, 2009

No longer going straight to video

In addition to exhibition and workshop components, the recently opened International Festival for Arts and Media Yokohama 2009 (also known as CREAM) features a monthlong screening program of international feature-length and short films as well as prize-winning submissions to the CREAM Competition, which...
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2009

Base relocation remains thorn in side of Japan-U.S. ties

OSAKA — On April 12, 1996, Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota was meeting with prefectural officials when Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto telephoned with big news.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 8, 2009

Reading between the lines of Hatoyama's far-sighted 'vision thing'

The prime minister's keynote policy address in the Diet affords the nation's leader an opportunity to present their overall thinking to the people — as its name in Japanese, shoshin hyomei (declaration of convictions), would indeed suggest.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2009

Asians to see if Obama was worth the wait

SINGAPORE — Come the middle of this month, almost all the key players of Asia will meet in Singapore at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which will include other Pacific leaders plus U.S. President Barack Obama.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 30, 2009

Downtown Tokyo's fiery love

"Deep in the Valley," which was made in downtown Tokyo and appears to have had a budget of ¥5 plus, probably, a box of persimmons for all involved (random gifts are very downtown), is an accident. And I mean that in a good, romantic way.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 24, 2009

A little less east of Eden

John Steinbeck's 1952 novel, "East of Eden," is a tale of two families and one city — Salinas, Calif. — with the plot hinging on the sibling rivalry of a pair of brothers. The movie came along in 1955, winning James Dean a posthumous Academy Award nomination in the role of more convoluted brother....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 11, 2009

Japan's No. 1 playboy hardly a lady- killer

Talk-show host David Letterman obviously did the right thing when during a recent monologue he confessed to having had sex with some of his female staff. He made the admission to pre-empt news that he had been blackmailed for his indiscretions, but whatever the revelation said about Letterman's lack...
JAPAN / Q&A
Oct 10, 2009

Custody laws force parents to extremes

The high-profile case of Christopher Savoie, a Tennessee man who was arrested in Fukuoka Prefecture for snatching his two children from his Japanese former wife and now faces kidnapping charges, illustrates the extremes a partner in a broken international marriage will resort to for child custody.
COMMENTARY
Oct 3, 2009

Hopes and tasks for the DPJ

In a Yomiuri Shimbun opinion survey conducted just after the election, 72 percent of those polled had an optimistic view of the Democratic Party of Japan, reflecting a favorable popular response to the outcome of the Aug. 30 general election.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Sep 27, 2009

Source says JBL teams in trouble, league not viable in long term

Japanese basketball is suffering from an identity crisis. Besides Yuta Tabuse, the average citizen cannot name a handful of other top-level Japanese players. Indeed, this is problem No. 1.
BASKETBALL
Sep 26, 2009

Five Arrows will play as search for sponsors continues

The Takamatsu Five Arrows are still in dire financial straits, but they are moving along to prepare for the season's opening game against the host Sendai 89ers on Oct. 3.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / LIQUID CULTURE
Sep 25, 2009

Tokyo bars toast the sugar cane

Thank God for the Crusades, so to speak.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2009

On the pleasure of self-deception

William Kentridge is known for his hand-drawn animations that evoke the quaint charms of the silent film era while unflinchingly observing the brutality of contemporary society, with many of his works drawing from the context of his native South Africa.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2009

Foreign policy and the democratic paradox

PARIS — Elections stolen in Iran, disputed in Afghanistan and caricatured in Gabon: Recent ballots in these and many other countries do not so much mark the global advance of democracy as demonstrate the absence of the rule of law.
COMMENTARY
Sep 10, 2009

Words of wisdom from Hatoyama

It was just this side of comical. The leader of the new ruling party of Japan barely finishes acknowledging his Democratic Party of Japan's landslide win and a public relations disaster strikes. The result: an ignominious international climb-down.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 8, 2009

The return of Franco-German leadership

PARIS — Regardless of who wins September's parliamentary election in Germany, the time has come once again for a major Franco-German initiative.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 2009

Bathing in timeless memories

Artist Shinro Ohtake discusses with The Japan Times "inside-out" buildings, private memories, public meanings and other inspirations underlying the "I Love Yu" bathhouse at Naoshima.
EDITORIALS
Aug 26, 2009

A challenge to Mr. al-Maliki

A series of bomb attacks in downtown Baghdad have exposed the weakness of the new Iraqi government. It is not clear who or what is responsible for the bombings, and the list of suspects is long. But a government's first responsibility is to provide for the safety and security of its citizens: By any...
JAPAN / History
Aug 9, 2009

'It is time to discuss this more frankly'

Kazuhiko Togo, Professor of International Politics at Kyoto Sangyo University, is a former Ambassador to the Netherlands and the author of 2005's "Japan's Foreign Policy 1945-2003" and 2008's "Rekishi to Gaiko" ("History and Diplomacy"). He is also a grandson of Shigenori Togo (1882-1950), who, after...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 9, 2009

Contention over the tenno system

This collection of 14 essays by 12 scholars, ranging from academic, journalistic, speculative, to advisory, makes an excellent introduction to the scope of arguments presently made about tenno, Japan's "emperors."
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Aug 8, 2009

Harley guide makes good on flight attendant's plight

David Macklin, a dual citizen of Australia and Britain, said meeting his future wife, Yoriko Suzuki, in Cairns, Australia, in May 1999 was a matter of fate.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 2, 2009

No brains when it comes down to transplants

The bill to revise the Organ Transplant Law, which cleared the Upper House on July 13 and thus gained full Diet passage, is a rare example of bipartisan agreement. Known as Plan A, the new law has three significant features: It recognizes brain death as legal death, allows the harvesting of organs from...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 31, 2009

Escape from propaganda

Artist, architect, designer, photographer, curator, writer, editor, activist — Ai Weiwei is many things. This multiplicity of means all serve a united end that centers on the existential question: What does human freedom mean in China today?
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2009

Are the finance sector's halcyon days over?

LONDON — For at least a quarter-century, the financial sector has grown far more rapidly than the economy as a whole, both in developed and in most developing countries. The ratio of total financial assets (stocks, bonds, and bank deposits) to gross domestic product (GDP) in the United Kingdom was...
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Jul 19, 2009

Soul on ice: Resilient Ando primed for second chance at Olympic glory

"Don't judge a person until you have walked in their shoes."
EDITORIALS
Jul 10, 2009

Another milestone in Iraq

More than six years after invading Iraq and deposing its leader, Saddam Hussein, U.S. combat forces have withdrawn from Iraq's cities. The redeployment is an important step forward in the reclamation of Iraqi sovereignty, and a political victory for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2009

Will Europe's economies regain their footing?

STOCKHOLM — What will Europe's growth trajectory look like after the financial crisis? For some Europeans, still nervous that their economies and banking systems might collapse, this is a little like asking a passenger on the Titanic what they plan to do when they arrive in New York.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 29, 2009

Classical music lovers get set for Matsumoto

"Sending out high-quality Western classical music from Japan" was the goal for renowned cellist and conductor Hideo Saito (1902-74), who studied in Germany. In 1955, he cofounded the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, where he devoted the latter half of his life to music education and taught many...

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.