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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 27, 2009

Linking video games to their visual history

Think of post-World War II popular culture in Japan as it relates to contemporary art, and you invariably arrive at Murakami Takashi and his Kaikai Kiki company/studio. But a new generation that draws from Japanese pop culture — and yet has no close connections to Murakami's art stable — has emerged...
EDITORIALS
Feb 26, 2009

Kudos to Japan's Oscar winners

"Okuribito" ("Departures"), a film directed by Mr. Yojiro Takita, has won the Oscar for best foreign-language film, and "Tsumiki no Ie (The House of Small Cubes)," directed by Mr. Kunio Kato, has won the Oscar for best animated short film at the 81st Annual Academy Awards ceremony, marking the first...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Feb 19, 2009

Tome ishi

Dear Alice, Recently I toured a beautiful traditional garden in Kyoto with a Japanese friend. At a fork in the path, I was about to turn to the right when my friend stopped me and said we were not supposed to go that way. I did as she said, but couldn't understand how she knew. She'd never been there...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2009

Moving Tsukiji to new site raises fears of toxic seafood

Tokyo's Tsukiji, dubbed "the fish market at the center of the world" for its influence on the global seafood trade, is being forced to move to a site laced with benzene and cancer-causing chemicals.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Feb 3, 2009

Home-seeking headache; Americans' burden

A new low in Tokyo I appeared in the article by Jenny Uechi headlined "Prejudice among obstacles facing non-Japanese tenants," (Zeit Gist, Nov. 18). I would like to report a recent event that may interest you.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 31, 2009

Milking bovine tourism in '09

Happy Chinese Moo Year! It's the Year of the Cow. And you know what that means: bovine tourism. No, I don't mean cows stampeding to Japan for the "Visit Japan Campaign." I'm talking about the role of cows in Japanese culture and famous places of bovine interest within Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 30, 2009

Art Basel codirector sees positive changes

Since its inception in 1970, Art Basel has become one of the world's most prestigious art events. Held every June in Basel, Switzerland, the commercial fair hosts almost 300 galleries dealing in blue-chip Modern and postwar art as well as those with cutting-edge contemporary art.
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Jan 27, 2009

East of Tokyo grooves to the samba rhythms

Although the weather was cold and cloudy, sweat was pouring from those who made it over to the Barbaros New Year Party 2009, an event hosted by G.R.E.S. Barbaros, 17-time winner of the Asakusa Samba Carnival and one of the largest dance teams in the nation dedicated to the Brazilian musical genre.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 20, 2009

Breaking the silence on burakumin

For those who don't know — and you would be forgiven considering the lack of coverage the issue receives — a buraku is the term used to describe an area where some, but not all, of the residents have ancestral ties to the people placed at the bottom of feudal society in the Edo Period. These people...
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEK 3
Jan 18, 2009

The Imperials are well connected

The posting of Queen Elizabeth II's Christmas Message on YouTube last year made news around the world. Less well known is the fact that Japan's Imperial family has been offering videos among other entertaining content on their Web site for the last five years. Admittedly, RealVideo, Quicktime and Windows...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WEEK 3
Jan 18, 2009

New Year's videos show the Imperials are well connected

The posting of Queen Elizabeth II's Christmas Message on YouTube last year made news around the world. Less well known is the fact that Japan's Imperial family has been offering videos among other entertaining content on their Web site for the last five years. Admittedly, RealVideo, Quicktime and Windows...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2009

Respect 'maiko' privacy, don't act like paparazzi, Kyoto tells tourists

KYOTO — It's a freezing December night but tourists are out in force in Kyoto's Gion district, on the hunt for one particular attraction.
Reader Mail
Jan 4, 2009

Review of law is not 'prevention'

Regarding the Dec. 25 editorial "Preventing child pornography": The editorial contained nothing related to "preventing" child pornography. A review of existing laws and potential external condemnation does a disservice to readers when such an enticing headline is used.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2009

Is Aso only postponing the inevitable?

The political news that will have the most far-reaching repercussions into the new year is the plummeting approval rating of Prime Minister Taro Aso and his Cabinet, and his delay in dissolving the Lower House of the Diet for a general election.
EDITORIALS
Dec 31, 2008

A year of changes and dangers

If 2008 cannot be called an "annus horribilis," it is only because 2009 might hold even more shocks and surprises. Even outside the worsening economy, everything in Japan seemed a bit subprime in 2008. A midyear survey found that more than 70 percent of Japanese — the highest percentage ever — were...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 30, 2008

Foreign university faculty face annual round of 'musical jobs'

Universities in Japan force most of their foreign instructors to play an unnerving version of musical chairs. Every year the music starts and instructors with expiring contracts scramble for an opening at a new school. University administrators force teachers to play "musical jobs" by offering limited-term...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2008

Hope for Thai democracy

HONG KONG — Abhisit Vejjajiva seems the least likely person to rescue Thailand from what commentators claim are the death throes of democracy. He is boyish-looking, physically slight, has no commanding military or police connections, no reputation for wheeling and dealing, and was foreign born and...
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Dec 27, 2008

Couple's multinational backgrounds make 'good match'

Although Tomoko and Riki Melwani both hold Japanese passports, by background they are multinational.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 23, 2008

Children say the darndest things

Another holiday season is upon us. There is a nip in the air, lights of all colors twinkle throughout neighborhoods and cityscapes across the country, and holiday cheer radiates throughout our schools, workplaces and communities. During this festive time, friends and families often come together in true...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 21, 2008

To conform at times is neither a Japanese diktat nor a sellout of self

Let's talk education.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 16, 2008

Young 'Zainichi' Koreans look beyond Chongryon ideology

Imagine attending school with portraits of the late North Korean dictator, Kim Il Sung, and current leader Kim Jong Il hanging on the classroom walls. This is a reality at schools operated by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Dec 14, 2008

Mystery shrouds the ancient Oshoro circle

In 1861 at Oshoro, southwestern Hokkaido, a party of herring fishermen, migrants from Honshu, were laying the foundation for a fishing port when they saw taking shape beneath their shovels a mysterious spectacle — a broad circular arrangement of large rocks, strikingly symmetrical, evidently man-made....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 2008

Alternate visions of island paradise

In our global information age, when all of us are exposed to more data than we can perhaps adequately manage, the appeal of cliches has never been stronger. By a process of reduction and crude characterization, that which is complex, ambiguous, and difficult-to- know becomes simple, and is summed up...
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2008

Conference in Nagoya provides writing tips

NAGOYA — Japan has long been a favored destination, and a favorite subject, for Western scribes. In the 19th century, Laficadio Hearn and Isabella Bird penned books that were widely read in Europe and the United States. In the 20th century, novelists like James Michener and beat poet Gary Snyder were...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 26, 2008

Asia's first lady of the environment

If Barak Obama is serious about developing proactive environmental policies that are international is scope, he would do well to work closely with Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 23, 2008

Looking for ways to lure more visitors to these shores

What are people who work in the domestic tourism industry — from tour operators to inn owners to regional tourism promotion offices — doing to attract foreign visitors? Here are the voices of marketers from across Japan:
COMMENTARY
Nov 18, 2008

Enlightened realism in Ukraine

LONDON — The brawl in the Ukrainian Parliament on Nov. 11 was an undignified ending to the country's two-month political crisis, but something important has changed. In the immediate aftermath of the Orange Revolution of 2004, the more extreme Ukrainian nationalists fantasized that the country could...

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