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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 30, 2008

Digging deep to find the sparkle in Japanese Eyes

Japan's film industry releases more than 400 films a year, but only 10 screened in the Japanese Eyes section of this year's Tokyo International Film Festival, which ran from Oct. 18 to 26.
COMMENTARY
Oct 20, 2008

North Korea: settling for half a loaf

The conventional wisdom is that the Bush administration, in its never-ending face-off with North Korea over its nuclear ambitions, has once again been the first to blink. President George W. Bush has been severely criticized for removing North Korea from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List prior to...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 15, 2008

Fighters find ways to get job done

OSAKA — Lately, it seems for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Reader Mail
Oct 9, 2008

Fortunes may hinge on one vote

I agree with Canadian lawyer Craig Martin's argument in his Oct. 5 article, "The fatal flaw in trying to impose a new interpretation on Article 9," that "reinterpreting" constitutional provisions to suit the political desires of the moment is unacceptable. But then he states: "Consider the issue of guns....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 9, 2008

Great show of Chinese art in Japan, finally

You can safely assume the Beijing Olympic Committee had nothing to do with "Avant-garde China: 20 years of Chinese Contemporary Art," an earnest attempt to present a bite-size overview of contemporary Chinese art. Due to the nature of China's tightly managed "re-opening," most recent Chinese art has...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2008

Should Asia brace for more mega storms?

SINGAPORE — We have become acutely aware of the financial storm threatening to sweep the world. But what about nature's most powerful storms? Will global warming cause more frequent and intense tropical cyclones, increasing the already heavy annual toll of death, damage and injury in densely populated...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 2, 2008

Seeking photographic destinies

His figures cut through the sky, crisply suspended, on their way into the water. Sometimes they are immersed, or watching from a shore, but most often they hang in the air, about to split the drink in two. For Lithuanian photographer Vidas Biveinis, water represents a changing emotion, expressive of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Sep 21, 2008

Low and slow — Nagoya's slice of Southern California

Second of two parts
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2008

Forum addresses public's aversion to China

Chinese and Japanese political, economic and academic leaders shared their apprehensions about the ever-growing aversion to China among the Japanese public when they met for a two-day forum in Tokyo starting Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2008

LDP rivals offer more reform or regression

OSAKA — In the short term, the next prime minister will either continue internationally sought fiscal and economic reforms or return to the traditional pork-barrel projects and failed economic policies of the past, forge closer military ties with the United States or maintain the status quo.
Reader Mail
Sep 7, 2008

'Biomimicry' has a history

I have read the Aug. 24 article by Winifred Bird, "Natural by design" -- about "biomimicry" -- with great interest, but was somewhat surprised that the author seems to believe this field of research is relatively new. Not a single reference is made to its more traditional name: bionics (bionik, bionique)....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 5, 2008

Cardiff band get Los in translation

Los Campesinos!, a pop septet from Cardiff, Wales, were an inspired choice to open the Marine Stadium stage at Summer Sonic Tokyo last month. Each tune kicks off with a catchy riff and proceeds to burn rocket fuel as lead vocalist Gareth twitches and yelps — nothing the band plays is slow, or even...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 31, 2008

All you need to know about Japan's politics

GOVERNING JAPAN: Divided Politics in a Resurgent Economy, by J.A.A. Stockwin. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2008, 298 pp., £19.99 (paper) Arthur Stockwin, who was until recently Nissan Professor of Modern Japanese Studies at the University of Oxford, is the leading British expert on Japanese politics....
CULTURE / Books
Aug 31, 2008

Fiery romance raging in the tumult of war

BESIDE A BURNING SEA by John Shors. New American Library, 2008, 424 pp., $14 (paper) Although most history now is of the revisionist kind, the public still dwells in the past, comfortable with its standard accounting. Little attention is paid to the correction of received fictions. History, as they say,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 2008

Contemplative in Gunma

The Hara Museum ARC in Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture, has just opened a revolutionary new space designed by world-renowned architect Arata Isozaki that interweaves motifs of Japanese traditional architecture and art with modern ones. Called the Kankai Pavilion, the exciting new exhibition space is being...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 24, 2008

Bush legacy leaves U.S., Asia room to build

BANGKOK — In his last presidential visit to Asia, U.S. President George W. Bush laid out what he considered was his legacy for the region. But what he left out in his last major Asia policy speech, delivered earlier this month in Bangkok, was as revealing as what he underlined as his success.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2008

New 'Tang' Dynasty for rapidly rising China?

PRAGUE — On Aug. 8 the world watched with awe the amazing spectacle of the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing. We saw the electronic unrolling of Chinese scrolls replete with great historic symbols and were mesmerized by dancers creating "harmony," using their bodies as ink brushes. Two thousand...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 12, 2008

Custody battles: an unfair fight

"Sport at its best obliterates divisions between peoples, such as ostentatious flag-waving and exaggerated national sentiment." New York Times senior writer Howard W. French — who has covered China for the past five years, was Tokyo bureau chief from 1999 to 2003, and has lived overseas for all but...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 12, 2008

It ain't too bad being a joshi or a danshi

For a long time I couldn't pronounce the word otoko (男, man) without slightly blushing; I didn't much like the word in English either, but in Japanese it sounded a little vulgar and what women of my grandmother's generation would call hashitanai (はしたない, crude and ill-mannered).
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 8, 2008

Selection of runner Lomong to carry U.S. flag particularly poignant

BEIJING — After a tasty buffet meal at a nearby hotel restaurant followed by a few cups of delicious green tea — I had plenty of choices; there was a separate tea menu, featuring at least a dozen varieties — I'm content to return to job-related duties.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2008

Ibuki tells LDP to draft tax hike scenarios

Finance Minister Bunmei Ibuki said Saturday the ruling Liberal Democratic Party needs to propose a scenario on how and when to ask for a tax hike before it starts campaigning for the next general election.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 27, 2008

Zeami's notes: appreciating blossoming performances

ZEAMI: Performance Notes, translated by Tom Hare. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008, 528 pp., $45 (cloth) Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443), the actor, playwright and aesthetic theorist who established the Noh drama as a classical theatrical art, left behind some 21 treatises.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2008

Jables steals the show

You could tell Jack Black was itching to act up. Sitting on the dais with four colleagues to promote their new animated film, "Kung Fu Panda," at a hotel in Shinjuku, the roly-poly actor looked — as he himself put it — like "the cat that ate the canary": face frozen in a self-satisfied grin except...

Longform

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