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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 24, 2009

Poor beginnings help nurture get-up-and-go

Natalia Roschina feels frustrated. Frustrated at complaints about a bad economy and frustrated at people not taking the initiative to better their situation. Instead of dwelling on the dismal state of economic affairs, the entrepreneur wants to lead by example, improving herself, growing her business,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 21, 2008

The Japanese art of useless homes

Last spring, when the effects of the American sub-prime loan disaster were being felt but the world economy was still relatively OK, there was an article in the Asahi Shimbun written by one of the paper's financial reporters who recalled several years earlier a visit from a friend living in the United...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 30, 2008

Shades of the BBC in NHK's own 'The Office'

Two months ago I heard about a comedy sketch that appeared last May on the American show "Saturday Night Live." Actor Steve Carrell was the host and he and the cast of regulars did a parody of his own show, "The Office," an American version of the famous British sitcom about white-collar workers. SNL...
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2008

Paroled death-row inmate dies after decades-long fight for retrial

Kenjiro Ishii spent most of his life seeking a retrial. Still hoping for another court appearance, the paroled death-row inmate died on the morning of Nov. 7 at a hospital in Kumamoto Prefecture at age 91.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 21, 2008

J-pop starlet Yuna Ito gets her groove back

"I got my heart broken for the first time," laments Yuna Ito, "at the unbelievable age of 24!"
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 31, 2008

Equaling Oh's HR record proved difficult

Third in a three-part series
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 30, 2008

Tokyo film competition rewards tantalizing tales

When I was at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea a few weeks ago, I discussed the Tokyo International Film Festival with some journalists, who disagreed with my assertion that TIFF's Competition section was a dumping ground for movies that couldn't make it at other film festivals. They...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 10, 2008

Potts' luck: the rise of a superstar

It's a cliche to say "don't take things for granted" or "you never know what's going to happen in life." But it sounds more convincing from the mouths of certain people.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 28, 2008

Talking of fanatics, careerists, cynics . . . and true believers

"We're doing the worst thing to you: We're depriving you of an enemy."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 25, 2008

Lindsay Kemp's Virgin Queen comes to Japan

It was a scorching day in July and the air in Tokyo's concrete jungle was shimmering in the heat. But on a visit here prior to next month's opening of his voluptuous production "Elizabeth I: the Last Dance" at Theatre Cocoon, avant-garde performance-art icon Lindsay Kemp — a self-described "stranger...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 9, 2008

Tackling the 'Zainichi' experience

Sitting across from best-selling New York author Min Jin Lee in a Tokyo expat cafe, I can't help thinking that the heroine of her debut novel "Free Food For Millionaires" is the one sipping ice tea and talking sex. Like Lee, protagonist Casey Han is unusually tall, refined in speech, and deeply interested...
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2008

Sony Financial aims to boost policy sales to ¥36 trillion

Sony Financial Holdings Inc. aims to boost policy sales 15 percent to ¥36 trillion by March 2011 as Japan's insurers struggle to counter declining demand.
EDITORIALS
Aug 10, 2008

Death of a difficult man

Mr. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Prize winner, prophet and Russian nationalist, has died at the age of 89. Mr. Solzhenitsyn's life was marked by extraordinary adversity that he channeled into prolific writing. As is often the fate of such voices, he was alternately applauded and ignored, a source of...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 27, 2008

Daisuke Naito and Yu Ako biopics on the box

Triumphant underdog stories are irresistable, especially when they're about boxers. This week, TBS presents a two-hour dramatization of the life of Daisuke Naito, the current WBC flyweight champion, in "Naito Daisuke Monogatari: Ijimerarekko no Champion Belt (The Daisuke Naito Story: Champion Belt for...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
May 13, 2008

Ultraman creator Kazuho Mitsuta

Mitsuta, aged 70, is one of the creators of the Ultraman series, a science-fiction TV show that was a pioneer of the genre with its wildly imaginative mix of special effects with live action that brought to life hundreds of one-of-a-kind kaijus (monsters). Having produced and directed Ultraman for 44...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 11, 2008

Jazz icon Akiko Yano finds her electronic muse

She released her acclaimed debut album 32 years ago at the age of 21, but Akiko Yano still refuses to rest on her laurels. Even with a 27th solo album on the way, the pianist, vocalist, lyricist and composer is still searching for new musical experiences.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Feb 19, 2008

Takahiko Nakayama

JUDIT KAWAGUCHI For more than six years, Takahiko Nakayama has been cleaning windows on thousands of buildings in Tokyo. With every climb his fascination with architecture grew until he finally decided that he was ready to do more than just wipe the facades: He wanted to design them himself. Nakayama,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 13, 2008

Let science empower you

The setting: The 350-year-old Royal Society in London, whose magnificent neo-Classical base overlooks the Mall, which has Buckingham Palace at one end of the boulevard and Trafalgar Square at the other. The speaker: Lord Rees of Oxford, the Astronomer Royal. Martin Rees is the current president of the...
Reader Mail
Jan 31, 2008

Justice minister's cultural brains

David McNeill's Jan. 27 article, "Justice minister talks in death-penalty riddles," cites a clunky and faulty translation of an interview with Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama. However one may disagree with Hatoyama's civilization theories, his arguments are clear. According to the interview, as published...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 26, 2008

Retirement — island style

In case you haven't heard, the Seto Inland Sea islands are experiencing a mini-boom. Thanks to government programs that highlight the joys of island life, there has been a slow but hopeful movement of people out to the islands. Healthy living, safe neighborhoods and natural surroundings are just some...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 20, 2008

'Three ecologies' pioneer fought Japan's rape of nature

Second of two parts
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 13, 2008

Japan's wild genius of slime-mold fame and more

First of two parts
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 11, 2007

Tamegoro Sudo

Tamegoro Sudo, 50, is a movie producer and actor whose many friends in Tokyo's downtown Asakusa area provide him with the hilarious characters and plots in his movies. His five "Dekotora no Shu (Shu, the Dekotora Man)" movies star his favorite decorated trucks and his buddies, actors Sho Aikawa and Shingo...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 6, 2007

Out from under noh's shadow

'F or kyogen actors, Japan losing the war in 1945 was a wonderful event as it liberated kyogen from its long subjugation to noh," actor Shigeyama Sennojo says. "For the first time in 400 years, kyogen was recognized as an independent form of theater."
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Nov 16, 2007

Tokyo couple share humor, love of rock-climbing

To provide more coverage of topics closely related to non-Japanese residents, The Japan Times is launching the series "Mixed Matches" about international couples.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 16, 2007

'Waitress'

Pie-making is a tricky business, as are most other things in life. In "Waitress," pie-maker (or rather, pie-genuis as she's known to her friends) and waitress Jenna's habitual reply to "How are you doing today?" is a rolling of the eyes and a quiet, heartfelt, "Same old shipwreck."
EDITORIALS
Oct 21, 2007

Elderly changing society

Once upon a time in Japan, youth culture was in the vanguard. Young people started new trends in eating, fashion, slang and leisure that shifted viewpoints and attitudes all through the culture.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?