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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 3, 2007

'Ring' director's spooky tales

Almost a decade ago, long before "torture porn" was a successful horror subgenre, director Hideo Nakata unleashed "Ring." Not unlike the fatal images in the movie itself, "Ring" spread its brand of almost bloodless, atmospheric terror across the globe; Nakata himself tackled tinsel town to direct Naomi...
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2007

Living as if there were no risks

The government's fiscal 2007 white paper on disaster prevention notes recent changes in patterns of natural disasters. It cites the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's prediction that global warming will lead to more episodes of heavy rain and more intense tropical cyclones. In 1997-2006, Japan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 21, 2007

Asian artists echo biennale director's themes

VENICE, Italy — By the light of the setting sun, a skateboarder practices tricks on the edge of a seaside jetty. Heavy waves roll in and break against the shore in a constant motion in the background. The skateboarder keeps to a narrow radius and his movements are rhythmic and supple. The board appears...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 21, 2007

Japanese look to international market

BASEL, Switzerland — Each June, the Swiss city of Basel gives itself over to Art Basel, the world's biggest and most influential contemporary art fair, where established galleries make deals with some of the biggest spenders in the global market.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 16, 2007

Yukari Pratt

Put together the bright picture of a girl, growing up in Minnesota, with her younger brother, their Japanese mother and American father. She attended Luther College in Iowa, and took her degree there in a compelling interest, music. She said: "Music played a big part in my high school years. I had a...
EDITORIALS
Jun 9, 2007

Surveillance of citizens

The Japanese Communist Party has made public copies of two documents it says were prepared by the Ground Self-Defense Force's information security units during a period when grassroots opposition to the dispatch of the GSDF unit to Iraq was strong. The documents are said to show detailed surveillance...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 22, 2007

Seeing from the Korean side

In February this year over 300 people attended the performing arts festival at a junior high school in Okayama. It was much the same as any other arts festival at any other junior high school in Japan; the students sang, danced, played music and performed skits for an audience made up of family and friends....
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
May 20, 2007

Citizen journalists aim to serve all

For Kenichiro Masuyama, who lives in Matsumoto City in central Japan's scenic Nagano Prefecture, news that more foreign visitors than ever before are now coming to savor the region's delights is hardly a surprise.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 6, 2007

Karel Van Wolferen: Insights into the new world disorder

When Karel Van Wolferen released his seminal book "The Enigma of Japanese Power" in the dying months of the bubble economy, the normally staid monthly magazine Chuo Koron described its impact as akin to being struck by a bolt of lightning. For once, the hype was merited. Little before had matched the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 19, 2007

'Babel' role simply 'had to be me'

Rinko Kikuchi reveals how she clung to movies like a lifeline during her tumultuous teenage years, and now she views acting as her way of returning the favor -- while director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu says she was robbed of an Oscar
SUMO
Apr 17, 2007

Springtime sumo: giving it back to the people

Sumo in late March and throughout April each year is about pressing the flesh -- literally.
COMMENTARY
Apr 13, 2007

Legacy of Asian liberation

Taiwanese politics appears to be "boiling." Scandals involving political leaders or their relatives have "heated" the political waters. Seen from the perspectives of democracy, freedom, human rights, the rule of law and justice -- rather than from that of what effects the turmoil might have on Japan-Taiwan...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2007

At 6.6 trillion yen, gay, lesbian market no small niche

Japan has an estimated 2.74 million people who are either lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, and in terms of targeting a niche market, they have a combined purchasing power of 6.64 trillion yen -- the equivalent of the nation's liquor consumption.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2007

Midtown -- Roppongi just got loftier

Move over, glitzy Roppongi Hills. There's a new kid on the block in Tokyo's Minato Ward -- an even taller landmark testament to the spoils of wealth.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 18, 2007

Golden girl Arakawa retains passion after Olympic glory

Time flies when you are on top of the world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 15, 2007

"16 Hour Museum"

March 17, noon-8 p.m. in Daikanyama March 25, 1 a.m.-9 p.m. at Super Deluxe, Nishi Azabu
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2007

Kansai Time Out: 30 years without a breather

KOBE -- On the cover of the December 1979 issue of Kansai Time Out magazine, an Osaka-based foreign aikido instructor, sporting an Afro, is seen executing a throw that puts his Japanese opponent on the floor.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WHEN A CITY GOES BUST
Mar 1, 2007

Yubari tries downsizing to solve fiscal crisis

The announcement in June that Yubari, Hokkaido, has effectively gone bankrupt rolled like an earthquake across Japan, jolting numerous local governments suffering their own financial problems. This two-part series examines the situation in Yubari and in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, which also is in dire...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 27, 2007

JET set Go MAD globally to help children in need

It was late on Christmas night when the meditation finished. The energy from the hourlong dancing and Sanskrit chanting flowed into charged silence and was now dissipating into the darkness.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2007

Telling the truth at Yasukuni

Since last summer, I have been engaged in the process of modifying exhibits at Yasukuni Shrine's Yushukan history museum. The project is expected to be completed in July.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 18, 2007

Strange stories from Canadian suburbs

Nectar Fragments, by Michael Hoffman. AuthorHouse, 2006, 564 pp., $23.49 (paper). In the manner of the anthropologist, Michael Hoffman, in his latest collection of short stories, stakes out a small piece of terrain then proceeds to examine the life within its coordinates. The name of this plot is Nectar,...
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2007

Tokyo gets set for weekend marathon

Despite the brutal traffic and jostling crowds that will accompany Sunday's inaugural Tokyo Marathon 2007, Takaaki Hirai sees the event as an occasion for celebration and remembrance.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2007

Osaka officials forcefully evict park's homeless, supporters

OSAKA -- About 260 officials, backed by 300 private security guards, evicted nine homeless people and about 150 of their supporters from Osaka's Nagai Park on Monday amid protests.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 28, 2007

What evil lurks in the hearts of men?

The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril: A Novel, by Paul Malmont. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006, 371 pp., $24 (cloth) DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED by Colin Cotterill. New York: Soho Press Inc, 2006, 247 pp., $23 (cloth) I must confess a pronounced weakness for well-crafted mysteries spun around real historical...
COMMENTARY
Dec 24, 2006

Next to the Iraq catastrophe, minor dramas marked 2006

LONDON -- In hard news terms, it's been one of the slower years: no great events, few surprises and no real shocks. But as the little events accumulated during 2006, the shape of the future gradually became clearer in three important dimensions.
COMMENTARY
Dec 14, 2006

Is U.S. set to lose Britain?

LONDON -- U.S. President George W. Bush must have drawn some comfort from having British Prime Minister Tony Blair stand beside him at the White House in Washington the other day. At least there was one friend left who was prepared to stick by him as the Iraq situation worsened.

Longform

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