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Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Sep 24, 2013

Gamers' dilemma at this year's TGS: PS4 or Xbox One?

When each new generation of game hardware begins, gamers are presented with choices: Which console will they buy? Will they be satisfied with one company's machine or will they need to buy rival hardware too?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 21, 2013

Crossing the Himalayas through memory to Ladakh

I'm in a small van careering along a rough and narrow road beside a rushing river with brightly painted temples along its banks and craggy peaks towering overhead. We're traveling in the prescribed Indian fashion — drive as fast as you can and hope for the best or, better still, pray.
Reader Mail
Sep 21, 2013

Are Japanese minds closing?

Japan's science and technology universities, including all engineering departments, should heed what the president of Shiga University, Takamitsu Sawa, had to say about the critical link between innovations in manufacturing and the humanities. Creativity takes inspiration from the heart as well as the...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 20, 2013

Sony expects price, content to up PS4 sales

Sony Corp. expects the lower price of the PlayStation 4 and wider variety of entertainment services to drive its forecast to sell 5 million units of the game console by the end of March.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 19, 2013

Green festival to push 'stylish' conservation

Recycling doesn't have to be unfashionable. In fact, the Tokai Eco Festa in Nagakute, Aichi, places emphasis on the theme of "eco-stye," a continuing trend where fashion combines with environmental awareness. Patrons can visit more than 130 booths that feature clothes, art and handmade items that are...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Sep 18, 2013

Breezy entertainment

COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 17, 2013

Japanese might just miss deflation when it's gone

As BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda tries to spur Japan's inflation rate, he faces a graying public that has learned not only to live with deflation but also to enjoy it.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 15, 2013

Abe's 2020 vision challenged

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared that the Olympics would put Tokyo 'at the center of the world.' But the real question is: Will Japan use the Olympics to join the real world
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 13, 2013

How television seduced the world — and me

Like most people my age — 51 — my childhood was in black and white. That's because my memory of childhood is in black and white, and that's because television in the 1960s (and most photography) was black and white. All the TV programs I watched were black and white, and their images form the monochrome...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2013

Aoyama looks to the 1980s without nostalgia

Shinji Aoyama is the director as cinephile. That is, while winning awards for his own films, including two prizes at Cannes for his 2000 drama "Eureka," he has long been a serious student of films by others, beginning with his days at Rikkyo University as a disciple of eminent film scholar Shigehiko...
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Sep 12, 2013

Film fest puts comedy on bill

Asakusa was the capital's main entertainment district during the Edo Period (1603-1867) and the charm of old Tokyo still remains there.
CULTURE / Music / MONEY AND MUSIC
Sep 11, 2013

Tower Japan boss says biggest challenge facing record stores is attracting young customers

A few weeks ago I was preparing to do a guest slot on InterFM’s “The Selector” program, which features music mavens sharing their favorite tracks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Sep 10, 2013

UrumaDelvi learn the importance of contacts

The husband-and-wife creative team known as UrumaDelvi has been cranking out quirky, quasi-psychedelic illustrations, animated shorts and music videos for over 20 years. They met in design school in 1988. Deciding that their married surname, Kobayashi, was too common in Japan to be memorable, they took...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 9, 2013

Post-Gates Microsoft's woes laid to Ballmer

"Do you have an iPod?"
Japan Times
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Sep 9, 2013

Games nod pressures Tokyo to act

The 2020 Olympics and Paralympics are coming to Tokyo, so Japan can expect greater global pressure to rectify the Fukushima nuclear debacle.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 2, 2013

Tin Man's throne: the rise and fall of a Roppongi royal

Gilbert Otaigbe is the current owner of Black Horse bar and nightclub in Roppongi. At the height of his success in the mid-2000s, he owned at least seven bars, clubs and restaurants.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2013

After Bo Xilai case, China's trial is just beginning

The just-concluded trial of Bo Xilai will be remembered as one of the most critical political milestones in contemporary Chinese Communist history.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Aug 30, 2013

One Direction's new movie is a sign of the times

Those of us discreetly looking forward to a theatrically released film featuring One Direction were perhaps hoping for something more captivating and ingenious than a glorified electronic press kit. We wanted something that didn't represent the depthless, scandal-mongering, narrow-minded, pleasure-seeking...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Aug 30, 2013

Ex-BBC host Harris charged in U.K.

Rolf Harris, an Australian entertainer, was charged as part of a U.K. police probe into sexual-assault allegations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 29, 2013

Japan's love affair with Chekhov

"I have rarely seen a great production of any Chekhov play in Japan. Sometimes, I've even wanted to ask how they managed to make them so tedious."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2013

'Soul Flower Train'

Dads, in Japan and elsewhere, never quite believe that their daughters are grown up and gone, do they? On a corner of their desk or in a corner of their mind is a picture of their princess at the school play or the piano recital or just making a goofy 8-year-old face. Yes, there are sternly realistic...
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 27, 2013

Girl-recruiting teacher in hot water

Police have handed prosecutors their case against a 59-year-old Iwate University professor who arranged for four foreign students to work as part-time nightclub hostesses.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 24, 2013

Gay marriage in Japan? Only over the reactionary LDP's cadaver

Tokyo Disneyland is an odd place to make a political statement, but the theme park now hosts same-sex wedding ceremonies.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Aug 24, 2013

Under Ballmer, Microsoft struggled to modernize

In the 13 years that Steve Ballmer has led Microsoft, literature has climbed out of books, songs have freed themselves from CDs and computers have leapt off their desktops into our hands. An exhilarating new world of technology has emerged with little help from a company that once dominated the industry....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 23, 2013

Californian eyes making English studies easier

Visitors to Katie Adler's interactive website, English with Katie, are greeted with Adler's sunny smile, her mellow California accent and a wealth of hints to make using the language both easier and more enjoyable. She aims to help language learners in Japan take charge of their English, building confidence...
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 20, 2013

Leon H. Sullivan Foundation: the implosion of a legacy

A soldier in olive fatigues pulled Hope Masters into a corrugated metal trailer, locked the door and dropped the key on the floor. He reeked of chewing tobacco and beer.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Aug 20, 2013

Constant change, lack of plan hurt bj-league's viability

Entering its ninth season, which tips off in October, the bj-league has never been in worse shape.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Aug 17, 2013

Shock-and-awe art fills festival streets with fun

"Are you tourist?" asked the man seated beside me on the early afternoon flight from Tokyo's Haneda airport to Kochi in Shikoku. He spoke in hesitant English.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2013

Skytree proves boon to water buses

It's easy to make your way around Tokyo on the subways, buses and trains that cover the capital like a spider web.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2013

Dōmo arigatō, giant robotto

My name is Matt, and I have a problem: I'm a grown man who thinks way too much about giant robots.

Longform

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