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COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 16, 2011

The new enervated Tepco

With the onset of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant crisis following the March 11 Tohoku-Pacific earthquake, radioactive substances continue to seep into the sea, air and soil. Residents within a designated proximity of the plant will likely have to live away from their homes a long time. The prospect...
COMMENTARY
May 16, 2011

Rebel conductor making music for peace

He has been called "a real Jew hater" and a "real anti-Semite" by former Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat. However, few musicians have done as much for peace between Israelis and Palestinians as Daniel Barenboim, the noted Argentine-born Israeli orchestra conductor. It will be only through efforts...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 16, 2011

Old proverbs should be minded even in tough economic times

Recent news of the restaurant chain Yakiniku-zakaya Ebisu serving contaminated raw beef to its customers makes me think of an old Japanese proverb. It tells us that "poverty breeds stupidity." All old proverbs are invariably wise. They also tend to be true most of the time.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
May 16, 2011

NBA veteran Satterfield making impact on Evessa

The Japan Times features periodic interviews with players in the bj-league. Kenny Satterfield of the Osaka Evessa is the subject of this week's profile.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2011

When prevention is more effective than relief

When the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in March, Brian Tucker was in Padang, Indonesia. Tucker was working with a colleague to design a refuge that could save thousands of lives if — or rather, when — a tsunami like the one in 1797 that came out of the Indian Ocean, some 1,000 km southeast of...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
May 16, 2011

Frontale display impressive verve in win over Antlers

Kawasaki Frontale ensured Kashima Antlers' stop-start season remained stuck in first gear with a pulsating 3-2 win over the former J. League champions on Sunday.
CULTURE / Books
May 15, 2011

Natsume Soseki: mining a literary treasure

THEORY OF LITERATURE AND OTHER CRITICAL WRITINGS, by Natsume Soseki. Columbia University Press, 2009, 287 pp., $50 (hardcover) Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) is said to rank among the world's great 20th-century writers. Many consider him Japan's greatest modern novelist. His books, from the comic "I Am a...
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
May 15, 2011

Double tragedy, questions about February 26 Incident, new 'merry-go-round' carpark, Prince Charles and Lady Di visit

100 YEARS AGOFriday, May 5, 1911
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 15, 2011

Recalling a generation, and more, sold out by the U.S. masters of war

Next month there will be a celebration in Los Angeles that I very much regret having to miss. It is a reunion of my high school graduating class of 1961.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 14, 2011

Only chumps recharge their cell phones at home

All mobile phone service providers offer free recharging services at sales outlets, though some offer more than others.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 14, 2011

Life as an ambassador

"An American yacht has come into the port. They don't speak any Japanese. Come help."
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 13, 2011

Rookie coach Blackwell admires veteran peers

Leading their teams to three consecutive Final Fours, Ryukyu's Dai Oketani and Hamamatsu Higashimikawa's Kazuo Nakamura have earned respect from their coaching peers and helped set the standard of excellence for which all future bj-league coaches will be judged.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 13, 2011

Fukushima village on way to becoming ghost town

Sleepy, idyllic and dangerously irradiated, the village of Iitate is preparing to evacuate.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 13, 2011

'Black Swan'

Ballet has earned such a reputation for impeccable beauty that director Darren Aronofsky seems to positively revel in dragging it through the gutter a bit. His film "Black Swan" contains all the pretty stuff — the tutus, the immaculate posture, the grace and elegance in movement — that attracts young...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BY THE GLASS
May 13, 2011

Wine is no game for Capcom boss

Hurricane-kicking its way onto the wine scene in 2009 was a new brand, Kenzo Estate, owned by the CEO of video-game giant Capcom. Clearly playing to win, Kenzo Tsujimoto hired California's brightest wine talents to create a wine for the Japanese market that combines value for money with excellent quality....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 13, 2011

"Kazuyoshi Miyoshi Photo Exhibition: The World Heritage Yakushima"

A Tokushima Prefecture native, Kazuyoshi Miyoshi started taking photos when he was a junior high school student. His first photo collection, "Rakuen" ("Paradise"), a series of images taken on tropical islands such as the Seychelles and Maldives, won him the 11th Kimura Ihei Photography Award. At age...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 13, 2011

Aronofsky's footwork faultless in 'Black Swan'

We liked Darren Aronofsky when he was the scrappy young filmmaker from Brooklyn (via Harvard) who financed his debut, "Pi," in 1998 with $100-loans from friends and relatives, and relied on promotion that consisted of tagging Tokyo's streets with the film's logo.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 12, 2011

Crisis a chance to forge new energy policy

On March 15, 1970, the long-anticipated Osaka Expo opened, allowing more than 64 million people to indulge their curiosity and learn about future technologies over a six-month period. It would remain the most attended world's fair until the 2010 Shanghai Expo and continues to be regarded, along with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
May 12, 2011

'GeGeGe' birthplace becomes tourist magnet

Inspired by TV series and a movie about cartoonist Shigeru Mizuki and his wife, tourists flock to the birthplace of 'Gegege no Kitaro.'
COMMENTARY
May 10, 2011

Our choice: profits or safety

As a scholar whose specialty includes energy economics and the environment, I am somewhat puzzled by the relatively small number of social scientists who look into problems concerning energy. Is it because they are afraid of clarifying whether they should be for or against nuclear power generation?
EDITORIALS
May 10, 2011

Two of the top 100

Among the famous artists, magnates and leaders on Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people this year were two lesser-known names from Japan: Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai and Dr. Takeshi Kanno. That a young medical doctor and a small-city mayor could make the list of the most prominent people...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
May 10, 2011

Inaba, Kokubo should be among next to reach 2,000 hits

Michihiro Ogasawara finally ascended into the 2,000-hit club on May 5, getting the job done with a single up the middle against Hanshin Tigers pitcher Hiroyuki Kobayashi.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
May 10, 2011

The girls, the heart, the virility and the ingenuity of fashion

Let's hear it for the girls: Fashion, music and celebrities The Girls Award, a twice-yearly event not unlike the already massively popular Tokyo Girls Collection (TGC), proves that the trend of daylong fashion festivals is picking up speed.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 10, 2011

After the deluge, universities face foreign exodus

Like thousands of foreigners, Tony Black recently made the agonizing decision to leave Japan, wife and baby child in tow. Unlike many, he has no concrete plans to return.
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2011

Realignment of Canada's political landscape

In the first election debate between the leaders of Canada's four political parties, opposition leader Michael Ignatieff of the Liberal Party attacked Prime Minister Stephen Harper of the ruling Conservative Party for wanting to shut down anything he could not control.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 8, 2011

Checking the time on the Doomsday Clock

In 1902, an American science writer named Robert Kennedy Duncan wrote a magazine piece titled "Radio-Activity: A New Property of Matter." Its subject is French physicist Henri Becquerel's discovery, in 1896, of the rays that now bear his name. Duncan's tone is so radiant with hope, so luminous with the...
CULTURE / Books
May 8, 2011

Unfractured folk tales, and fantastic fables

SPECULATIVE JAPAN 2: "The Man Who Watched the Sea" and Other Tales of Japanese Science Fiction and Fantasy. Kurodahan Press, 2010, 269 pp., $16 (paper) A good anthology, particularly one that aims to provide an overview of an unfamiliar subset of a nation's literature, should not please all its readers...

Longform

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