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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 8, 2011

Hisashi Inoue's great legacy is just the ticket to inspire our best efforts

A beautiful cherry-blossom tree stands right beside the sento (public bath) I religiously go to, and its top branch hangs over an opening in the roof. In early April, petals were falling from the branch down into the water, which comes out of the ground the color of strong coffee.
CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2011

New record label Pachinko starts up despite uncertain times

In 2010, legal downloads of music in Japan increased marginally over 2009, but CD sales were down by 12 percent, and sales by foreign artists, both imports and nihonban (domestically manufactured discs), by 15 percent. It doesn't sound like the best time to start a new record label featuring overseas...
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
May 4, 2011

The quake hits Nintendo while hackers shake Sony

For much of March, regular television advertising was all but replaced by public service announcements. Understandable really: Who wants to be the official sponsor of the biggest tragedy to hit Japan since the war? But what if you had just rolled out a new product and wanted to promote it?
Reader Mail
May 1, 2011

Taiwanese cheering for Japan

Taiwan has always had a special affinity with Japan. Along with strong cultural, historical and economic ties, we both bear the brunt of brutal earthquakes and typhoons. During the 1999 earthquake in central Taiwan and the 2009 flooding of southern Taiwan, Japan was prompt to provide its support.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
May 1, 2011

Kyoto comedy theater returns — and with English subtitles

Foreign tourists to Kyoto often end up in a bubble of tour buses and traditional culture shows (five minutes of bunraku, five minutes of flower arranging, etc.), while those looking to break out and entertain themselves like the locals can run into language barriers.
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2011

PlayStation customer sues Sony over theft

Sony Corp.'s network entertainment unit was sued Wednesday by a PlayStation customer claiming it failed to protect users' personal information and credit card data that the company says may have been stolen by a hacker.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 27, 2011

Sony jumps into tablet fray with two models

Sony Corp. on Tuesday unveiled its first tablet computers, which will hit store shelves this fall or later, entering a market segment currently dominated by foreign makers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 26, 2011

English mags approach milestone, crossroads

Those members of the expat community in Japan who are addicted to their weekly or monthly fix of English-language magazines will have surely noticed all the changes going on lately. These are troubled and exciting times and, just as it has in the past, the local media world is trying to rise to the challenge...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 26, 2011

Refugee NPO to celebrate music, hope for Tohoku

There are approximately 15.2 million refugees around the world who have had to flee their home countries in fear of persecution for political, religious or racial reasons. In Japan, tens of thousands of people remain unable to return home since the deadly earthquake and tsunami hit Tohoku on March 11....
Japan Times
CULTURE
Apr 22, 2011

NHK hopes for a home run with new anime

It's a quintessential scene of Japanese youth: Young boys out in baseball uniforms jog across their school grounds, the white and maroon of their gear contrasting with a clear blue sky. In the bleachers, an earnest-looking high school girl named Minami, in a jersey that matches the team's uniforms, eyes...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 17, 2011

Lest we forget: Tiananmen Square massacre revisited

TIANANMEN MOON: Inside the Chinese Student Uprising of 1989, by Philip J. Cunningham. Rowman Littlefield, 2010, 290 pp., $39.95 (hardcover) This is a gripping story told with page-turning brio by an American who had ringside seats for the gathering student protests in May 1989 that ended in the early...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 17, 2011

Umpires fully integrated under NPB banner

A big change in Japanese baseball this year may be seen in the umpires. The former Central and Pacific League men in blue have been fully integrated under the NPB banner, each man now has his own assigned roster and sleeve number and there are crew chiefs for the first time in Japan.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 13, 2011

Walsh likely on way out with Knicks

James Dolan's reluctance to pick up Donnie Walsh's $5 million option for next season the moment the Knicks qualified for the playoffs says it all about where this shadowy situation is headed.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 10, 2011

Colonial Japan and the first 'Korean Wave'

PRIMITIVE SELVES: Koreana in the Japanese Colonial Gaze, 1910-1945, by E. Taylor Atkins. University of California Press, 2010, 280 pp., $24.95 (paper) While pop-culture industry insiders reputedly hate the term, and discussion of it has generally waned in Korea, the "Korean Wave" remains inescapable...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 10, 2011

Kroon can't make cut with San Francisco

Marc Kroon was cut just prior to opening day after trying to make the San Francisco Giants. The six-year Japan veteran closer with the Yokohama BayStars and Yomiuri Giants was attempting to return to the majors with the defending World Series champions, and he did not make the team — but why not?...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 8, 2011

Okinawa comic duo show less is more

On Dec. 26, as the curtain came down on the 10th and final M-1 Grand Prix — an annual comedy competition aired live on TV Asahi — there was a distinct feeling that something special had been witnessed, that the performance of one duo in particular heralded the beginning of something new.
Japan Times
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Apr 8, 2011

The U.S. role in advancing amateur sumo

In the second of two interviews with globally respected officials involved in the international sumo game, Sumo Scribblings recently threw a few questions over the Pacific to Andrew Freund, the face of the United States Sumo Federation. In many ways far bigger in the sport than his slim physique would...
BUSINESS
Apr 6, 2011

Sony may delay new PlayStation Portable

Sony may stagger the global release of its next-generation portable game machine because of the March 11 disaster, an executive said.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 2, 2011

England has no chance at winning Euro 2012

LONDON — The celebrations of the wonderful Ghana fans went on long after the memorable 1-1 draw with England at Wembley.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2011

Sendai struggles to regain footing

SENDAI — Nearly three weeks after the 9.0-magnitude temblor sent shock waves through the city and the massive tsunami devastated a long stretch of the coast, Sendai, the largest city in the Tohoku region, is slowly trying to get back on its feet.
BASKETBALL
Mar 28, 2011

Nakamura gets reward as focused Phoenix beat Northern Happinets

FUJIEDA, Shizuoka Pref. — Kazuo Nakamura, the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix's excellent coach, expects superior results from his players. And he usually gets them.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 27, 2011

Love, war and betrayal in old Siam

THE TALE OF KHUN CHANG AND KHUN PHAEN: Siam's Great Folk Epic of Love and War. Translated and edited by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. Silkworm Books, 2010, 970 pp., $60 (hardcover) Those who like their novice monks prim and proper, taming desires, meditating and selflessly engaging in good deeds...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 26, 2011

Measuring what has happened

This is supposed to be a humor column.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Mar 25, 2011

Comic's tweets tackle specter of fear

These are hard times for entertainers in Japan. In the face of the March 11 Tohoku-Kanto Earthquake and tsunami, which has killed more than 9,000 and left many more missing, and with radiation still leaking from the damaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, hard news coverage has taken center stage,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 24, 2011

Kitamura shows Japanese women how to be 'Top Girls'

"The play was written nearly 30 years ago, but I feel the situation for women has hardly changed at all. In fact, it hasn't fundamentally changed for 100 years, even though Japanese women got the vote around 65 years ago," said theater producer Akiko Kitamura when asked why she chose to stage the well-known...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Mar 23, 2011

Wilt's feats dwarf Love's 'record'

NEW YORK — What were the odds of Kevin Love's double-double streak ending at 54 with a resounding thud against an escort service like the pedal-to-the-metal Warriors?
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Mar 20, 2011

Oita fires coach Hepp after American players leave

L.J. Hepp wanted to set the record straight about his unexpected departure from the Oita HeatDevils.

Longform

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