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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 27, 2011

Publishers' ties to distribution a barrier for e-books

On Nov. 13, publisher Takarajima took out newspaper advertisements for its magazine-like book "Denshi Shoseki no Shotai" ("The Real Shape of e-Books"), describing it as a polemic "against electronic books." It includes input from Naoki Award winning novelist Miyuki Miyabe, who explains why she isn't...
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 27, 2011

Yoshimoto Kogyo's New Star Creation: Comedy's a funny business in Japan

Downtown, Ninety-Nine, Cream Stew, Neptune, Bananaman, Penalty, Black Mayonnaise, Tutorial, License, King Kong, Peace, Punk Boo Boo, Slim Club, Oriental Radio . . .
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 26, 2011

Keeping abreast of the bra trends in Japan

Oh fun, time for an annual breast examination. Not that there is any pain involved with the examination. It's finding time to go to the hospital that's tough.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Nov 25, 2011

Are digital newspaper subscriptions worth it?

Japanese newspapers still have cold feet when it comes to embracing their digital editions.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 20, 2011

'1Q84': What I write about when I write about writing

1Q84: Books One and Two, by Haruki Murakami. Translated by Jay Rubin. Harvill Secker, 2011, 624 pp., £20.00 (hardcover). 1Q84: Book Three, by Haruki Murakami. Translated by Philip Gabriel, Harvill Secker, 2011, 368 pp., £14.99 (hardcover) Haruki Murakami's new novel may triangulate three pieces of...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 19, 2011

Blatter's remark on racism utterly unacceptable

It was not a slip of the tongue. He was not, as he claimed, misunderstood. Sepp Blatter, who sadly is still the president of FIFA, does not make such mistakes. Despite coming out with the ramblings of an idiot, Blatter is intelligent, a former lawyer who re-invented football politics.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2011

Cesium fallout widespread

Radioactive cesium from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant probably reached as far as Hokkaido, Shikoku and the Chugoku region in the west, according to a recent simulation by an international research team based on data after March 20, a week after the hydrogen explosions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 17, 2011

Songwriter's album touches on quake

It might still be too early to understand the effect of March 11's Great East Japan Earthquake on musicians living in the stricken Tohoku region, but as lives get back to normal artists will no doubt find ways to express themselves.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2011

Crime in America: execution of the mentally ill

Christopher Johnson's execution by the State of Alabama creates serious doubts about the justice of a measure that is widely criticized by human rights advocates throughout the world. According to the group Equal Justice Initiative, the Alabama Supreme Court planned the execution without even engaging...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2011

The domestic logic behind Iran's foreign policy plots

The history of the Islamic Republic is filled with cases of factions exploiting foreign policy to gain power against their domestic rivals. It is common for competing groups to sacrifice national interests — such as Iran's international credibility — to achieve their own goals.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 4, 2011

"Devotion to the Arts of Living: Daily Life Among the Ainu of the Kurile, Sakhalin and Hokkaido Islands"

In Europe there has been a rising interest in the Ainu — the indigenous people of the Kurile, Sakhalin and Hokkaido islands — and this has led to the collection of various late 19th- and early 20th-century reference materials on the culture.
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 30, 2011

Menswear designers play it by the book

Followers of men's fashion were close to getting exactly what they wanted at this month's inaugural Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo, with many designers — while mindful of the uncertainly in the air — pitching their collections directly at their existing fan base and seemingly keen to return to...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 24, 2011

Foreign films' Japanese titles often read like riddles

Japanese distributors of foreign films usually follow the path of least resistance in titling their products for the local market, either rendering the title in katakana or translating it more or less directly. One recently released example is the shocker "The Last Exorcism," whose katakana-ized Japanese...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 20, 2011

"Chim↑Pom"

The Container Closes Dec. 19
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Oct 18, 2011

Sexless marriages, ineffective police

Some readers' responses to Debito Arudou's Sept. 6 Just Be Cause column, " 'Sexlessness' wrecks marriages, threatens nation's future":
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 15, 2011

When favors throw you into a vicious circle

The Japanese countryside is a place where the people are so nice, it's well, ridiculous. Actions that wouldn't even register in my mind as "thankable" are commonly thanked for here.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 9, 2011

Like Astro Boy, humans may be able to live with radiation

"It makes good media. It's the emotional pulling on the idea that radiation kills you. But you talk to our cancer patients: Radiation cures you."
Reader Mail
Sep 22, 2011

Antagonistic position baffles

In response to Laura Holland's Sept. 11 letter, "Tourists ignoring dolphin culls": First, I never suggested that the barbaric, inhumane dolphin drives in Japan were keeping tourists from coming to Japan. Unfortunately, concerns of radioactive content in foods and surroundings are now a deterrent for...
COMMENTARY
Sep 14, 2011

Ten years on, a demoralized America

On Dec. 8, 1951, the day after the 10th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, The New York Times' front page made a one-paragraph mention of commemorations the day before, when the paper's page had not mentioned the anniversary. The Dec. 8 Washington Post's front page noted no commemorations the previous day....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 9, 2011

Festival/Tokyo rewrites its script after quake

Chiaki Soma, the program director at Festival/Tokyo (F/T), needed to figure out how to proceed with the country's biggest theater festival following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11. She closed her office for 10 days and asked the staff to carefully consider the meaning of the festival in...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2011

Palestinian state must field Israeli concerns

Israelis and Palestinians are preparing for a showdown at the United Nations in September, when the Palestinian leadership will ask for recognition of a Palestinian state within the borders that existed before the Six Day War in 1967 (when Israel seized control of Jordanian-occupied territory).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 26, 2011

"Gomi Taro Exhibition: The Days Of Picture Book"

Tokyo native Taro Gomi (b. 1945) has published some 350 picture books that appeal to a wide range of readers, from babies to adults. This show offers a rare opportunity to learn the process of his picture-book making through its display of original drawings and reference materials. There is also a section...
EDITORIALS
Aug 25, 2011

Back to the rice futures trade

In Japan, futures trading for rice started in 1730 at Dojima, Osaka, with the Tokugawa shogunate's approval. Such trading ended in 1939 as the government's wartime control of the economy was strengthened. On Aug. 8, futures trading for rice resumed in Tokyo and Osaka for the first time in 72 years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 25, 2011

Japanese brothers who championed Korean ceramics

In ancient times, Japanese arts and crafts were greatly influenced by the introduction of techniques and aesthetics from Korea and China. In particular, Japan owes the development of its ceramics to the skilled craftsmen brought over from Korea at the end of 16th century, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Aug 22, 2011

Bureaucrats blame Kan for sapping their initiative

For the past several months since the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan, an increasing number of bureaucrats have grown "negligent in their duties" because of what they view as the incompetence of Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it