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CULTURE / Music
Sep 18, 2009

Irina Mejoueva

Irina Mejoueva, a Japan-based Russian pianist, always appears on stage with scores — but not because she can't memorize the pieces she performs. "I am a performer. Since I am not a composer, the piece exists only in the score," she remarks with a smile. Mejoueva looks at the score when she plays the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 18, 2009

Irina Mejoueva

Irina Mejoueva, a Japan-based Russian pianist, always appears on stage with scores — but not because she can't memorize the pieces she performs. "I am a performer. Since I am not a composer, the piece exists only in the score," she remarks with a smile. Mejoueva looks at the score when she plays the...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Sep 17, 2009

Statue outside Shinjuku Sumitomo Building

Dear Alice,On the premises of the Shinjuku Sumitomo Building in Tokyo there is a statue of St. Francis of Assisi. It's quite big — larger than lifesize. I've known about it for years, since the building was first constructed, but no one has ever been able to tell me what the heck a prominent saint...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Sep 15, 2009

Stamp out scandal of tipping in hospitals

Dear incoming minister of health,
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 28, 2009

the telephones get their disco on

Saitama quartet the telephones are unabashed disco aficionados.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 23, 2009

Japan's creeping natural disaster

In October 2010, government officials from almost every country in the world will meet in Nagoya for the 10th Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP10). The aim of the Convention, which came into effect in 1993, is simple but momentous: To maintain the richness of life on...
EDITORIALS
Aug 20, 2009

Mr. Kim's legacy lives on

South Korea has lost a great political leader. Former President Kim Dae Jung died Tuesday of multiple organ failure in a Seoul hospital at the age of 85. The 2000 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who tirelessly promoted the cause of reconciliation and cooperation between the North and South and played a critical...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Aug 18, 2009

Kids hit the dance floor for charities

Visitors going into Tokyo Church of Christ in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, on a Friday afternoon in July were welcomed by three children with painted faces who proceeded to perform modern dance.
EDITORIALS
Aug 12, 2009

The crisis in Nigeria

Little noticed in much of the world, the government of Nigeria is battling insurgents on two fronts. In the south, militants fight extraction of the region's mineral wealth for which they receive little in return; in the north, Islamic radicals are becoming increasingly violent as they try to impose...
Japan Times
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 9, 2009

Swim legend Furuhashi inspired Japan at tough time

There are historical icons in every nation. But only a few individuals can be considered symbols of a nation's collective psyche during a particular era.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 9, 2009

Humor may be universal, but Japan's is largely its smut-free own

Swedes crack jokes about Norwegians, Poles knock the Russians, and though everyone likes a good Italian joke, they're less funny than they used to be thanks to the genuinely grotesque antics of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 2, 2009

Emergency medical drama, whaling in Taiji and Sican civilization special

The fourth season of the popular medical drama, "Kyumei Byoto 24 Ji" ("Lifesaving Ward 24 Hours"; Fuji, Tues., 9 p.m.), which premiered in 1999, was supposed to begin on July 7, but one of the drama's stars, Yosuke Eguchi, who plays a surgeon, was involved in a motorcycle accident just as filming started....
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2009

The new face of home caregivers

Kazuo Yamazaki was in the prime of his career as an engineer at a Japanese music company doing business across borders. His decades-long profession came to an abrupt end six years ago, however, when at age 55 he became his mother's primary caregiver.
EDITORIALS
Jul 26, 2009

Better eating habits

In 2005, the Diet enacted the basic law on education on eating habits (shokuiku) to promote healthful eating habits. This move came against the backdrop of a deterioration in the country's dietary culture, which traditionally has been considered well-balanced and healthy.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 19, 2009

Latin passions come to town with Asia's top tangoistas

Tango, that intimate dance of sorrow and passion that has swept the world since it was first developed in Argentina around 130 years ago, has proved increasingly attractive to "social dancers" in Japan in recent years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2009

From Okinawa, and they're singing the Japanese blues

It's somewhat ironic that after years of scouring the world for music, Japan's very own "Mr. World Music," Makoto Kubota, has ended up a bit closer to home than he ever imagined. "I never thought there was such a deep, rich folklore in my own country. It was a big surprise" he says.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 17, 2009

A cool show at Shiseido with the Helsinki School

Finland may seem like a cold, distant land better known for Nokia and reindeer than photography and art. But the Helsinki School, an art cooperative formed about 15 years ago, is heating up the international photography and video art world. Showing in Asia for the first time, the Helsinki School's photography...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jul 14, 2009

Wit, humor help longtime columnist come to grips with life in Japan

Freelance journalist and longtime Japan resident Thomas Dillon was at first shy of being on the receiving end of questions.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 12, 2009

Land of the Sun Goddess

The sun was mortally offended — with good reason.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2009

Pulvers lauded by cultural agency

Roger Pulvers, an Australian playwright and contributor to The Japan Times, and four others were recognized Friday by the Cultural Affairs Agency for helping to promote Japanese culture overseas.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Jul 11, 2009

Religion couple's common ground

Zuzana Koike, a 29-year-old Austrian national of Slovak extraction, never thought she would even visit Japan before meeting and marrying Takeshi Koike, 38, a lecturer at Daito Bunka University in Tokyo.
Reader Mail
Jul 2, 2009

Give the students some slack

I agree with several points made in the June 25 letter "Japanese is just a language." Specifically, I think the author is right to point out that the Japanese language is incorrectly characterized as "vague," and that it seems implausible to consider any particular human emotion as unique to a group...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jun 30, 2009

Hard work, honesty, ability to adapt seen as fundament of success

Satbhag "Paul" Warraich, president of the Moti chain, is, like his restaurants, somewhat of a Tokyo icon.
Reader Mail
Jun 25, 2009

Risible promotion of cuteness

It is a disgrace that Japan's Foreign Ministry is using celebrity "kawaii ambassadors" to introduce Japanese pop culture to young people overseas. Young adults dressed in "very short skirts" not only legitimize this provocative mode of dress but also promote immorality as a Japanese export. Young girls...
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 18, 2009

The safety nets for would-be suicides

Every time the National Police Agency comes out with new suicide statistics, media reports tend to focus on the fact that the annual suicide count has reached a new high or has topped the psychologically significant 30,000 threshold for yet another year. (The latest figure available was 32,249 in 2008.)...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jun 16, 2009

Re: 'The good, the bad and the meaningful'

Following are some readers' responses to Paul de Vries' May 26 Zeit Gist article "Expat life in Japan: the good, the bad and the meaningful":
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Jun 10, 2009

Just Hungry, Just Bento

The kitchen has long been used as a portal to distant places and times, and Just Hungry and Just Bento are two blogs by Makiko Itoh that put all the wonders of Japanese cuisine within a cutting-board's reach. For Makiko, cooking has been a way to re-create comfort foods from Japan while living abroad...

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat