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Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 27, 2007

The flash of the unflashy

Although much fanfare, excited TV coverage and celebrity casts accompanied the opening of new theatrical venues in Tokyo this year, such as Akasaka Red Theater, Theater Creation in Hibiya and Owl Spot in Ikebukuro, many would be hard pressed to truly wax lyrical about Japan's drama world over the last...
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2007

Cabinet OKs slim budget hike for '08

The Cabinet on Monday approved a budget worth ¥83.06 trillion for fiscal 2008, featuring more tax grants and subsidies to rural areas to revive regional economies and cover higher social security costs, but some experts view the package as an attempt to woo voters at the expense of true fiscal reform....
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 21, 2007

Budget rise eyed for '08 seen as reform retreat

The Finance Ministry proposed Thursday raising the fiscal 2008 budget to ¥83.06 trillion in what may signal a retreat from the government's pursuit of fiscal reform.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 12, 2007

Keeping control of your digital media

Media distribution methods are changing, and what it brings is not all bad for creators.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 5, 2007

Phones get both weirder and simpler; everything else becomes waterproof

Boning up on new tech: Call me old fashioned, but I like to hear sounds with my ears. Progress, however, is no fan of nostalgia, and so the bone-induction trend continues. NTT DoCoMo ups the ante with its Sound Leaf Plus keitai (cell phone) accessory, due out in February for around ¥13,000. The device,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 5, 2007

Matsui's graceful robots evoke human emotion

It's a truism that the Japanese are experts at dressing up unpleasantness in cute garb. The ubiquitous cartoon workmen characters bowing in apology at construction zones are meant to make months of jackhammering slightly more bearable. Ditto for robots and the future.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 29, 2007

Translator of the universal and the local

In his 1987 book "Ireland Kiko (Travels in Ireland)," the renowned historical novelist and essayist Ryotaro Shiba (1923-96) observed that "the typical Irish character could easily be dramatized," and that "Ireland is one of the richest countries for the literary arts, with people whose daily lives are...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 15, 2007

Out of exile, into a Tokyo art space

For artist Morio Matsui, life has almost turned full circle. After four decades in "exile" in France, this currently Corsica-based Japanese artist's ties with his homeland have strengthened with the opening earlier this year of an art space, Espace Morio Matsui, in Shimo-Meguro, Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 9, 2007

'Ten Ten'

Some directors are like fashion brands, churning out immediately identifiable product the same way again and again. Others are more like a hot stock: a spectacular rise, followed by an equally spectacular fall. There are also those who are like an underperforming athlete who suddenly changes into a worldbeater....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 8, 2007

Momoyama luster slides into view

"In the houses of the lords and nobles these paintings and the doors of the rooms have a background richly painted in gold, and on this gold they paint the picture in various suitable colors.'' (This Island of Japon. João Rodrigues' account of 16th-century Japan. Translated and edited by Michael Cooper)....
EDITORIALS
Nov 5, 2007

New approach to rural revitalization

The government is tackling the urgent tasks of revitalizing local economies and reducing the gap between prosperous urban regions and economically weak rural regions. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has established a "rural regions revitalization headquarters," serving as its head; all the Cabinet ministers...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 1, 2007

Art al fresco in Daikanyama

Years ago, Daikanyama was one of those places you could visit for a bit of peace and quiet in Tokyo. It had beautiful tree-lined streets and lovely old traditional Japanese houses. There was also a slightly bohemian edge to it, with small independent shops and galleries littered among the back alleys....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 1, 2007

"Asae Soya: Prism"

Nishimura Gallery Runs till Nov. 17
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 1, 2007

Curios spice commercial fare

Tokyo International Film Festival remains an ambitious also-ran on the circuit, even if its regional-movie showings give cheer
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 25, 2007

Hands on contemporary clay

D.H. Rosen, an occasional contributor to The Japan Times Arts Page, is also a ceramicist who has been studying art at Tama Art University in Tokyo since 2004. Unlike many foreign ceramic artists who come to absorb the traditional wabi-sabi aesthetic of traditional pottery, Rosen was interested in Tama...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 18, 2007

A film director in the theater

Daisuke Tengan is an acclaimed filmmaker, but search for him on the Internet and the first thing you'll discover is that he's the son of director Shohei Imamura, who won the Palme d' Or at the Cannes Film Festival for "Narayamabushiko" in 1983 and "Unagi" in 1997.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2007

Osaka mayor expected to prevail despite policy, financial snafus

OSAKA — Osaka Mayor Junichi Seki is expected to be re-elected when voters go to the polls Nov. 18, despite public anger over the city's problematic assimilation assistance policy for descendants of the feudal outcast class, failing public works projects and a lack of appeal among his peers, even in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 11, 2007

Zen direct to you

Perhaps the most celebrated of the late-Edo Period Zen artist-priests, Sengai Gibon (1750-1837) left a large number of ink paintings on Zen-related subjects, of which by far the largest collection is in the Idemitsu Museum opposite the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 7, 2007

Nahoko Yamazaki: Off-stage woman stars in men's theater world

Just as in the realm of politics, in the arts world — and here, particularly regarding the performing arts — different countries adopt different policies depending on their historical and economic circumstances.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 4, 2007

Faces of youthful ambition

Shigeo Anzai, a photographer of artists, says he loses interest when a subject becomes too famous. That's why his retrospective at the National Art Center, Tokyo, is full of pictures of young, fresh faces.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 28, 2007

Little pianos; big pianists

Japan's first toy-piano concert by accomplished Japanese pianists will be held in Tokyo on Sept. 29.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 27, 2007

Why do performing arts have a 'dead-end feeling' in Japan?

Tarahumara is a mysterious area deep in Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains. Dancer Hiroshi Koike chose the enigmatic name for the dance-drama company he founded in 1982 because he aimed to create beautiful performances that transcend genre.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2007

LDP bets on dour political blue blood to lead its recovery

Yasuo Fukuda is hardly the most dynamic politician in Japan. Saggy-jowled and owlish in his trademark glasses, the 71-year-old son of a former prime minister prefers gray suits, classical music and moderate, pro-U.S. policies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 20, 2007

Seeking collectors in Shanghai, not censors

Shanghai Exhibition Center is a massive, Stalinist birthday-cake of a building surrounded by newly constructed glass-and-steel skyscrapers in Shanghai's center. Originally know as Palace of the Sino-Soviet Friendship, from Sept. 6 to 9, the exhibition center had within its walls a new, capitalist friend,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 20, 2007

Butoh flowers of life and decay

There is a muscular eloquence to Junichi Kakizaki's constructions. He describes himself as a floral artist — not an ikebana (flower arrangement) master — and has won awards for his interpretation of the traditional Japanese art form. He considers his works to be contemporary art — either installations...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 16, 2007

Intrigues on Japan's own Devil's Island

Island of Exiles. Penguin Books, New York, 2007, 398 pp., $14 (paper) In "Island of Exiles," Heian Period official Sugawara Akitada finds himself ordered to Sado Island, off the coast of Niigata, to investigate the death by poisoning of the exiled Prince Okisada.

Longform

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