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Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 19, 2011

Temblor brings hope and tears to zoo

The Great Eastern Japan Earthquake on March 11 affected the animals in Ueno Zoo in Tokyo in both negative and positive ways.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 19, 2011

Oh, where is the city of dreams?

Illuminated manuscripts, Persian and Mughal miniatures, Victorian novels enriched by illustrations from the likes of Cruikshank and Phiz: Illustrated texts have a long, rich and varied history.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 19, 2011

Summer's joys in snow country

If you'd only ever experienced Niseko under a four-meter blanket of snow, you'd barely recognize Hokkaido's most cosmopolitan winter-sports resort in summer — in the best way possible.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 19, 2011

Strong workouts likely make Tyler a first-round pick

You already know that Japanese basketball's significance on a global scale is minor in comparison to most nations. And yes, most of this nation's residents can tell you that Yuta Tabuse was a trailblazer for Japanese basketball by becoming the first Japanese to play in the NBA.
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2011

Debt problem for survivors

As people in northeastern Japan devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami are struggling to start their life anew, they are facing a big financial problem — that is — their debts. They are obligated to repay loans taken out in the past on what are now destroyed or damaged residences or business...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 17, 2011

Tokyo and Yokohama festival celebrates the art of brevity

Short films have traditionally been seen as a director's starting block toward making their first feature. Yet with the art of filmmaking becoming ever cheaper, many have been sidestepping the short-film format, instead heading straight for a low-budget feature film. Yet short films are an art form in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 17, 2011

'127 Hours'

Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," released in 1960, famously terrified audiences to the point where a generation was checking the door locks before taking a shower. Stephen Spielberg's "Jaws," released in the baking summer of 1975, kept many people on the beach and out of the water. Now along comes "127 Hours,"...
COMMENTARY
Jun 17, 2011

Triple disaster proves need for an industrial revolution

Some three months since the colossal earthquake and tsunami in eastern Japan, stricken areas are getting on track for recovery with local industrial production capacity having been restored to as much as 90 percent of pre-disaster levels.
Reader Mail
Jun 16, 2011

Act of kindness worth living for

"Mi casa es su casa." "What are friends for?" "My pleasure" — these are all sayings we use to express our gratitude to those we know. But what about the people we don't know?
Reader Mail
Jun 16, 2011

Bin Laden was no rogue deer

Regarding the June 12 Kyodo article that states that 54 percent of the Japanese public "preferred arrest for bin Laden" to U.S. commandos' killing him during a surprise raid on his compound in Pakistan on May 2: You got to be kidding me.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2011

DPJ to seek 'substantial' Diet extension

The Democratic Party of Japan will seek to "substantially extend" the Diet session and pass key legislation dealing with the aftermath of the March 11 calamity, DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 16, 2011

Rap artist Rumi stokes nuke fires

If you were in the Tokyo neighborhoods of Koenji on April 10, Shibuya on May 7, or Shinjuku on June 11, you might have seen (or more likely, heard) thousands of demonstrators weaving through the streets, waving signs and chanting slogans in opposition to Japan's atomic energy policies. In the past few...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 16, 2011

JR puts on a show of faces for public causes

When French photographer-turned-street artist JR visited Tokyo in May, he commented, "I love the vibe here but I don't see enough art in the street." His latest project, "Inside Out," may lead the way to help change this.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2011

'Green curtains' surge in face of power shortage

Sales of "Green curtain" gardening kits are surging, shoppers are buying clothes designed to help them stay cool and a pizzeria owner is losing weight as Tokyo residents brace for a summer with less air conditioning.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Jun 15, 2011

NSK gets a glimpse of a (potentially) bright future

In May the English soccer team Manchester United won their 19th English league championship to date — and the world watched on TV, the Internet and via a wealth of other media sources.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jun 15, 2011

Kawachi meets group seeking to buy Apache

Toshimitsu Kawachi, the bj-league commissioner, met with the Tokyo Apache's potential new owners on Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2011

JET coordinator finds Iwate spirit contagious

Iwate Prefecture's coast suffered some of the most severe damage in the March 11 quake and towering tsunami, where more than 4,500 people have been confirmed killed and 2,700 are still missing.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2011

Economy hits political faults

Naoto Kan's departure as Japan's prime minister looks to be as messy and wretched as his uncomfortable time in the job.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jun 15, 2011

Nintendo et al roll out the big guns at E3

The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo is gaming's main event. It's when the industry's heavyweights face off with new games and new hardware. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo (which doesn't traditionally participate in the Tokyo Game Show) all go head to head. This year's E3, in Los Angeles, provided...
EDITORIALS
Jun 14, 2011

Welfare reform and cost issue

The government's conference on reform of social welfare spending and taxes, chaired by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, proposed on June 2 raising the consumption tax rate from the current 5 percent to 10 percent in phases by fiscal 2015 to secure stable funds for maintaining and strengthening social welfare....
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Jun 14, 2011

A season for accolades, milestones and new frontiers

Florence and Kyoto unite to celebrate Gucci's 90 years Revered luxury brand Gucci is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year with a special traveling exhibition in Japan that highlights its prowess in craftsmanship. Starting at the famed Kinkaku-ji Golden Temple in Kyoto, "Gucci: 90 years" showcases...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 14, 2011

Tokyo: How can we beat the heat this summer without switching on the air con?

Sachiko SaitoUniversity official, 30 (Japanese)We should think about what we can do instead of what we can't: learning from our elders, cooperating with neighbors, etc. It could be a good chance to reestablish community life.
EDITORIALS
Jun 12, 2011

Super Cool Biz

June 1 marked the start of the Environment Ministry's Super Cool Biz campaign, with full-page newspaper ads and photos of ministry workers smiling rather self-consciously at their desks wearing polo shirts and colorful Okinawa kariyushi shirts.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 12, 2011

Heights of survival

When the March 11 tsunami hit the village of Yoshihama in Iwate Prefecture, the water overran a seawall, smashed through a coastal pine forest, poured over a large embankment and then surged up a long, low-lying valley. It was a scenario almost identical to that being played out at dozens of settlements...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 12, 2011

Enjoy art with alpine views

Back in the 1960s, a New York postal worker named Herbert Vogel and his librarian wife, Dorothy, began buying paintings. Using Herb's modest salary, and living off Dorothy's, they picked out affordable pieces that took their fancy — most of them by artists unknown at the time. By the early '90s, their...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 11, 2011

How I saved ¥40,000 doing it myself

The day I leave Japan, the country will be worse off for it. The Japanese will have lost a cartoon character in their comic strip of life. Once I am gone, who will they laugh at?
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2011

Reactor makers look to green energy amid nuclear allergy

In the three months since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant, the nation's three reactor makers have started to focus more on renewable energy sources, particularly solar, wind and geothermal power.
COMMENTARY
Jun 10, 2011

Round two for a U.N. workaholic

What's surprising about the probable confirmation of incumbent United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon for a second five-year term is not its near-certainty. It is the virtual lack of controversy surrounding it.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat