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COMMENTARY
Dec 31, 2012

Cloudy prospects for Asia, 'Arab Spring,' global weather

To begin on a happy note, the world didn't end this year. Dec. 21 came and went without a sign of the Four Horsemen, leaving the Mayans (or rather their ancestors) with egg all over their faces.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 30, 2012

Japanese story anthology shows fiction truly a transnational affair

SPECULATIVE JAPAN 3: "Silver Bullet" and Other Tales of Japanese Science Fiction and Fantasy. Kurodahan Press, 2012, 292 pp., $16 (paperback) One pleasing quality of the third volume of Kurodahan Press's "Speculative Japan" series of anthologies is that it exists at all.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 30, 2012

Is juggernaut Japan being driven to destruction (and no one's to blame)?

Ryotaro Shiba, the great author of historical novels, was a student of Mongolian at Osaka University of Foreign Languages when, at the end of 1943, he was drafted into the army. Then aged 20, he received a "provisional graduation qualification" (the actual certificate was issued the following year) and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 27, 2012

Japan's public museums enjoy a makeover

The collapse of the Sasago Tunnel in Yamanashi Prefecture three weeks ago put a spotlight on the state of Japan's infrastructure, and how many of the bridges and tunnels that were built during the period of rapid economic development in the 1970s and '80s have not received proper maintenance. Much of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Dec 16, 2012

Last Tokyo street view of Mount Fuji set to go

As the sun sets over a small patch of the Nippori district of Tokyo's northeastern Arakawa Ward, people can often be seen stopping to gaze to the West — something not so surprising atop a street named Fujimizaka, which means "Mount Fuji Viewing Slope."
CULTURE / Music
Dec 13, 2012

We will rock you: Our concert picks to ring in the New Year

Dear rockers, music festivals in the summer are not the only major events of the year. There's unfortunately — or fortunately — no time to waste sitting at home next to the heater. Seek out the warmth of a mosh pit instead, because a ton of end-of-the-year live gigs are ready to get you jumping....
LIFE / Digital
Dec 12, 2012

Nintendo to sponsor Nico Nico conference

Dwango, the operator of online video-sharing site Nico Nico Douga, surprised its users last week by announcing that gaming giant Nintendo will be a special co-sponsor of the second Nico Nico Cho Kaigi event, which aims to bring the virtual activities of Nico Nico Douga into the real world this April....
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 2, 2012

Why is the potential turning point of 3/11 being allowed to slip away?

Dried Anpo persimmons from Fukushima Prefecture are famed for staying fresh and juicy. However, for the second successive autumn, 90 percent of the crop has had to be discarded due to it registering radioactive contamination levels above legally set limits.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Nov 23, 2012

Christmas drinks in Yokohama; 'One Piece' promotion at Le Daiba; Mandarin Oriental sake sommelier awarded

Holiday-theme drinks in Yokohama The lobby lounge Seawind on the second floor of the Yokohama Bay Sheraton Hotel and Towers is celebrating the holiday season by offering special drinks through Dec. 31.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Nov 21, 2012

Mao striving to secure GP Final spot at NHK Trophy

Two-time world champion Mao Asada will be looking to clinch her place in the Grand Prix Final at this week's NHK Trophy in Sendai.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 16, 2012

Disaster looms large for artist 'genius' Makoto Aida

What to make of Makoto Aida? One day, he's filling a giant blender with thousands of naked young girls and whirring them into a bloody concoction. The next he's piling up dead salarymen into a great mountain — nay, several great mountains, which recede majestically into the foggy distance.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 15, 2012

Energy multiplies creative potential at Trans Arts Tokyo

Spanning seventeen floors of a building that was once part of Tokyo Denki University in Kanda, the Trans Arts Tokyo project is bursting with exhibitions, talk events and workshops, open laboratories and artists-in-residence studios. The massive temporary art space is the latest work by Masato Nakamura,...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 3, 2012

Another week, another Chelsea row

Sometime in the next week the Football Association must decide who it believes — four English-speaking match officials or a player whose mother tongue is Portuguese and whose English is far from fluent.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2012

U.S. says sayonara to envoy

To hear former Chief of Protocol Lloyd Hand tell it, Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki may have been smart, engaged and charming — but he failed the basic test of a diplomat in Washington.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 26, 2012

Festival/Tokyo theater event to give Asia a starring role

Japan has been on a bit of a losing streak for a while now. In 2010, it was overtaken as the world's second-largest economy by China, and in 2011 the nation was rocked by the Great East Japan Earthquake and the ensuing tsunami and nuclear crisis.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 26, 2012

Japan to celebrate Halloween with parades

Expect a ghoulish time in Tokyo's Omotesando when the area holds its "Hello Halloween Pumpkin Parade" (www.harajuku-halloween.com) on Oct. 28, in which some 1,300 costumed revelers are expected to march. The parade starts at 1 p.m. on Omotesando street (near the station) and finishes at 2:15 p.m.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Oct 26, 2012

Sumo World Championships a shadow of former self

Thousands of kids in Japan attend amateur sumo clubs every weekend. Many adults join them as part of fitness regimes.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Oct 21, 2012

Payton says NBA players lack will to defend

Gary Payton played point guard as fearlessly and with as much intensity on defense as anyone has ever done. He's equally as bold when it comes to dishing out his opinions about the sport he still loves.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 20, 2012

UEFA's credibility hanging in balance

We shall know on Nov. 22 how seriously UEFA takes racism.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 16, 2012

Niseko puts faith in powder to revive tourism boom

Throughout most of the 2010s, the meteoric rise in popularity of Hokkaido's ski resorts among foreign visitors was widely documented in both the domestic and overseas media.
JAPAN / IMF-WORLD BANK IN TOKYO
Oct 12, 2012

Sovereign debt, strong yen among tough topics at meetings

When Japan last hosted the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group in September 1964, Tokyo was in the midst of preparing for the Summer Olympic Games which were to kick off a month later.
JAPAN / IMF-WORLD BANK IN TOKYO
Oct 12, 2012

Daishichi Sake Brewery makes tradition modern

The Daishichi Sake Brewery Co., located in the castle town of Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, sits at the foot of majestic Mount Adatara. Daishichi was founded in 1752 by Saburoemon Ohta, who hailed originally from a samurai family. Since then, 10 generations of the Ohta family have overseen the business....
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Oct 12, 2012

Sake-making mission, part two: the harvest

The instrument I was given to harvest sake rice was a small sickle, about 20 cm in length, with a thin, curved blade and a serrated edge. It was, essentially, the agricultural equivalent of a pair of children's scissors: If used improperly, you could nick yourself badly but were unlikely to do great...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 13, 2012

The woman who could bring Beppu back to life

In Japan's performing arts scene, it's widely believed that 32-year-old Akane Nakamura is one of the country's most famous globally known theater producers. As executive director of the theater production company Precog and the performing arts nonprofit Drifters International — which she founded in...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2012

Volatile risks accompany North Korea's reforms

Reports of unusual activity have been emerging from North Korea. Farmers were told in early July that, going forward, the state would take not their entire harvest but only 70 percent, and they would be allowed to keep the rest. The military's economic role was partially curtailed last month when some...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 11, 2012

18 months on, 'stayjin' in Tokyo, Iwaki tell a tale of two cities

While the media both in Japan and overseas reported on a perceived exodus of foreigners in the immediate aftermath of the March 11, 2011, disasters in Tohoku, the reality is that very few actually left for good.

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.