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EDITORIALS
Jun 28, 2011

Victory against terror in Indonesia

It was third time unlucky for Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir. An Indonesia court on June 16 found Mr. Bashir guilty of terrorism charges and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. While the 72 year old maintains his innocence, his conviction is an important step in the fight against extremist Islam...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 27, 2011

This summer the scent of Showa will linger in the heat

There's a distinct whiff of nostalgia in the air and it's coming from the general direction of the subway and JR stations. Also from the kaden ryōhanten (家電量販店 discount shops for consumer electronics) now doing excellent business with items like the senpūki (扇風機 electric fan) and nisōshiki...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 23, 2011

Bedroom ears: Japan's new D.I.Y. ethic

The dimly lit Bar Fabrica is an appropriate place to meet the four artists from Cuz Me Pain Records, who describe their music as "quite dark" and are known for being shrouded in mystery.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 19, 2011

Summer's joys in snow country

If you'd only ever experienced Niseko under a four-meter blanket of snow, you'd barely recognize Hokkaido's most cosmopolitan winter-sports resort in summer — in the best way possible.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 5, 2011

Hurler Houlton helping Hawks fly high this season

The Fukuoka Softbank Hawks have the best record in Japanese baseball through Friday, and one big contributor to the team's overwhelming success this season is American pitcher D.J. Houlton.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 5, 2011

Parmer headlines Top 20 players in 2010-11

With four new teams joining the bj-league over the past two seasons, it has become a greater challenger to select Hoop Scoop's Top 20 players. But it's a worthwhile — and necessary — challenge. One that will become greater next June, following the first season with 20 teams, including four more...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 2, 2011

Sumptuary laws inspired Korean artisans to innovate

The Koryo Museum of Art's recently launched exhibition, "Korean Decorative Objects and Containers," features more than 150 folk works — including ceramics, paper crafts, furniture, silverware and wooden crafts — all of which were once utensils of some kind. These stunning examples of craftsmanship...
LIFE / Lifestyle / Japan Pulse
May 27, 2011

Camping packages fit for a city slicker

What princess wants, princess gets ... even when it comes to camping in the great outdoors.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 27, 2011

'My Back Page'

The Japanese student-protest movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s had much in common with its American counterpart, from its massive street demonstrations to its taste in music (The Beatles and Bob Dylan) and movies (anything with Dustin Hoffman or Jack Nicholson).
Japan Times
LIFE
May 22, 2011

Up close and personal: Why Dylan is so big in Japan

It was the fall of 1963, when — in what seemed like a flash of lightning — I became a fan of Bob Dylan the moment I heard "Blowin' in the Wind" on the radio. I was in my first year of high school.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
May 16, 2011

NBA veteran Satterfield making impact on Evessa

The Japan Times features periodic interviews with players in the bj-league. Kenny Satterfield of the Osaka Evessa is the subject of this week's profile.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
May 15, 2011

Double tragedy, questions about February 26 Incident, new 'merry-go-round' carpark, Prince Charles and Lady Di visit

100 YEARS AGOFriday, May 5, 1911
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 15, 2011

Recalling a generation, and more, sold out by the U.S. masters of war

Next month there will be a celebration in Los Angeles that I very much regret having to miss. It is a reunion of my high school graduating class of 1961.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 13, 2011

Rookie coach Blackwell admires veteran peers

Leading their teams to three consecutive Final Fours, Ryukyu's Dai Oketani and Hamamatsu Higashimikawa's Kazuo Nakamura have earned respect from their coaching peers and helped set the standard of excellence for which all future bj-league coaches will be judged.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 13, 2011

Aronofsky's footwork faultless in 'Black Swan'

We liked Darren Aronofsky when he was the scrappy young filmmaker from Brooklyn (via Harvard) who financed his debut, "Pi," in 1998 with $100-loans from friends and relatives, and relied on promotion that consisted of tagging Tokyo's streets with the film's logo.
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Apr 20, 2011

In the battle with smart phones is i-mode dead?

Ever since 1999, when the Web-service/portal known as "i-mode" first appeared on Japanese keitai (cell phones), Japan has been hailed as the world leader in mobile phone technology — until recently that is.
COMMENTARY
Apr 15, 2011

U.S. Civil War: What if?

LONDON — It's not much as anniversaries go, but most of us won't be around in 50 years, so we'll have to settle for the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War. The groups who re-enact Civil War battles were therefore out in force on Tuesday, but does it matter to anybody else?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 15, 2011

Chara "Dark Candy"

Twenty years after her debut Chara still sounds like an 8-year-old with an irrepressible urge to act out. Even as she enters middle age, it's a role she manages to pull off without sounding precious or contrived, and despite the somewhat stern expression she wears on the cover of her new album, she now...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 3, 2011

Renewed national pride will shape Japan's future

Spring dawns on a shattered Japan. "Not since World War II" is a recurring phrase, and no wonder. Mass destruction accompanied by radiation — what other analogy is big enough?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2011

Tsunami-hit towns face dire future

OSHIKA, Miyagi Pref. — Survivors of the March 11 magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami are expressing reservations about returning to their homes, raising the prospect of already depopulated communities turning into ghost towns.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 1, 2011

Keats House: Simple nourishment that tastes like poetry

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever." Those oft-quoted words by the romantic poet John Keats resonate here in Japan no less than in his native England. Now, two centuries after being penned, they are the inspiration for a splendid little cafe-restaurant in one of Tokyo's lesser-trod neighborhoods.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 27, 2011

Don't destroy that invader, it was here first!

NEW YORK — Among the most recent invaders of the United States to be exterminated that I learned about is the red lionfish. Before that, the Asian carp got all the attention. About the time the carp scare was quieting down the yellow jacket — yes, the wasp — came forward as a heinous invader to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 25, 2011

'Kamifusen (Paper Balloon)'

Omnibus films must have a unifying theme, however loose or gimmicky; otherwise, they're a collection of shorts. And while there's nothing wrong with shorts as such, when packaged as a feature film, they are, as all distributors know, box-office suicide.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 18, 2011

Crazy T "in to you"

Japan-based American rapper Travis Tewes, who performs under the moniker Crazy T, originally planned to use kanji on the cover of his sophmore album. However, since so few young Japanese could actually read the kanji, he decided at the last minute to spell out "in to you" using the easier-to-read katakana...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 18, 2011

'Never let Me Go'/'Away We Go'

The challenge this week is how to convince you to go see "Never Let Me Go" without ruining its surprises for you. The film looks deceptively normal: It's a love triangle with Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan set in 1970s and '80s England. But — and this is a huge but — there's...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 12, 2011

Tomioka Silk Mill ranks as Meiji Era industrial gem

In his youth, Shinji Takahashi was a featherweight boxer. Today, working with his two younger brothers in a family legal practice based in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, he is a heavyweight lawyer and committed activist.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 27, 2011

All hail the wonders of Japanese cuisine — if not what Japanese eat

Ask almost any Japanese living overseas what they miss most and they are more likely to say the food than their relatives. Ask virtually any tourist what excites them most about Japan and you are apt to be told "Japanese food."
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 26, 2011

Arsenal poised to end trophy drought

LONDON — It will be a small start but Arsene Wenger knows it is not enough.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Feb 25, 2011

Hill's strategic use of Eaton paying off

For Tokyo Apache coach Bob Hill, the decision to move point guard Byron Eaton to a reserve role may turn out to be the smartest move he'll make this season.
Reader Mail
Feb 20, 2011

Unrequited love for pet owners

In his Feb. 13 eulogy (Counterpoint article) to the sad fate of abandoned pets and his review of author Noriko Imanishi's book on the topic — "Japan's cull of once-loved pets cries out for German-style controls" — Roger Pulvers quotes Imanishi as saying, "It's a given that a society in which animals...

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake