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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 13, 2009

Tragedy exposes need to care more for carers' mental well-being

Shortly after 1 p.m. on April 21, 2009, a worker at Fuji Reien cemetery in Gotenba City, Shizuoka Prefecture, discovered the body of a woman on its grounds. Nearby, a semi-conscious elderly lady sat shivering in a wheelchair.
BUSINESS
Dec 12, 2009

Nico Nico expects profit on ad revenue, member fees

Dwango Co., operator of YouTube's biggest rival in Japan, forecast its Nico Nico Video business will soon deliver something that Google Inc.'s online-video service has never achieved: profit.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 2009

Beyond the cliches you will find Lautrec

The most noticeable thing about the paintings of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is not their often lurid colors or the ukiyo-e-influenced compositions. Nor is it their renowned subject matter: the lively, sordid, effervescent world of fin-de-siecle Paris.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 4, 2009

2009: Cracks in the facade

A year of tragic deaths, amusing scandals and a series of increasingly senile looking attempts by the music industry to cling onto its outdated business model — that was 2009.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 4, 2009

Staying in Tokyo for Christmas dinner

These days, just about every restaurant in town offers a Christmas menu — in just about any cuisine you want. Whether you're craving turkey and stuffing, oysters and risotto or gravlax and smoked trout, there's a place for you. Here are just a few Food File recommendations.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Nov 26, 2009

Cable guy Yasushi Sano

Yasushi Sano, 30, is a "cable guy" living and working in Tokyo. By his estimates, over the past six years, he has installed cable TV into about fives homes a day, averaging 25 hook-ups a week, 100 a month and 1,200 a year, bringing quality entertainment into a total of 7,200 households. Sano's passion...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2009

Super Mario endures as games come and go

NEW YORK — You might call him the Mickey Mouse of video games. He's reminiscent of a doughnut, round and sweet and comforting. He's also a vessel, devoid of a real personality so you can live vicariously through him.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2009

Globalization: a culture killer

SEATTLE — A Muslim family sits across from me in a cafe, in a largely Muslim Asian country. An older woman shyly hunches over, desperately trying to avoid eye contact with the giant-screen TV blazing loud music on MTV. The scantily dressed presenter introduces her "top song" for the week. Beyonce,...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Nov 20, 2009

Hannaryz trying to shake slump

Every expansion team is expected to struggle during its inaugural season. And if Aristotle had focused on athletics instead of classic philosophy, he could've written volumes about this subject.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2009

'Runaway sites' latest Net-based exploitation of young girls

First there were the "enjo kosai" Internet sites where underage girls hook up with adult males in exchange for money. Now there's a new type of Web site that unites girls running away from home with men offering a place to stay in return for sexual favors.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Nov 18, 2009

Ricoh snaps up a small first; Sharp's new mobile needs more memory

Snap shot: Despite photography's scope for creative flair, camera makers generally shy away from doing things different. Ricoh, however, has bucked the trend with its new GXR digital camera. The GXR is intended to compete with the so-called micro four-thirds cameras from Olympus and Panasonic as cameras...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Nov 17, 2009

Showbiz means to an end, not goal

Chuck Wilson, 63, is a fitness trainer. But he was — and arguably still is — far more famous as a funny foreigner who speaks in a defiantly casual and blunt manner to TV personality bigwigs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 13, 2009

'Zero no Shoten'

Mystery writer Seicho Matsumoto (1909-1992) was long to the Japanese entertainment industry what Stephen King has been to Hollywood — a one-man fiction factory who supplied material for dozens of films and TV dramas.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 13, 2009

Osaka commercial festival to go all night

If you are a fan of overseas commercials you are in for a treat — The World's CM Festival is coming back to Osaka on Nov. 20.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 6, 2009

Soil creates life with 'death jazz'

"The Lounge Lizards and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in a Japanese brothel," is how acclaimed U.K. DJ and record-label owner Gilles Peterson has described funky jazz sextuplet Soil & "Pimp" Sessions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Nov 5, 2009

New faces down on the farm

Whether it's in a country field or on a high-rise rooftop, the self-sufficiency benefits of farming are inspiring more Japanese to till the soil.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 31, 2009

Putting a little bug in your ear

Sometimes beauty resides not to the eye of the beholder. Instead, it lives in the ear of the listener.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 30, 2009

Ling Tosite Sigure

After selling out seven of their 11 "Just a Moment" CD release gigs in May and June, it came as little surprise that posthardcore act Ling Tosite Sigure's upcoming "Tornado Z" solo trek would be an anticipated affair. Performing at Japan's six Zepp music halls in November, all 2,700 Tokyo tickets and...
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Oct 30, 2009

Teams need true home venues for legitimacy

The Toyama Grouses are listed as the home team at nine venues for the bj-league's 2009-10 season. The Rizing Fukuoka and Osaka Evessa are both listed as the home team at eight different venues, while the Oita HeatDevils are scheduled to use seven home venues this season.
LIFE
Oct 25, 2009

Bodhisattva of the river road

"Have another drink, Boss!"
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 24, 2009

Concretology — getting lost inside a mammoth structure

Japan is the home of concretology. This form of architecture started in the 1960s as a way to use molds, iron bars and rendering to form structures that make people say, "Whoa!"
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Oct 21, 2009

Sony, Fujitsu computer models embrace Windows touch

The digital touch: Windows 7 is entrusted with delivering the Microsoft vision that Vista spectacularly failed to conjure. One promise of the new operating system is to help take the touch interface of Apple's iPhone and iPod products to a bigger stage. Sony has joined the ranks of computer-makers offering...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 21, 2009

PlayStation 3 outsells Wii for first time in U.S.

Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 outsold Nintendo Co.'s Wii console for the first time following a $100 price cut, helping the U.S. video game market end six consecutive months of declining revenue.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 18, 2009

Classic tales of newsprint noir

While a senior at Tokyo's Sophia University, 23-year-old Missouri native Jake Adelstein was heading home from a Shinjuku cinema when, on a whim, he dropped into a game arcade and popped u00a5100 into the slot of a fortunetelling robot for some mystical career advice.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 14, 2009

Mentor in upcoming Ultraman movie to boast the smooth lines of Koizumi

Junichiro Koizumi, one of the most popular politicians in recent decades, has kept a low profile since stepping down as prime minister in September 2006 and retiring from politics after the Aug. 30 election.

Longform

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