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COMMENTARY / World
Nov 6, 2007

Vladimir Putin, part two

LONDON — Opinions about Vladimir Putin run the gamut. In the West, he is regarded as an "authoritarian," an "autocrat," even as a "dictator," while in Russia a huge majority regard him as the most "democratic" of leaders, on the grounds that he has done more than his predecessors to improve the lot...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 3, 2007

Winning salsa moves to a Cuban beat

For Japanese women — any woman for that matter — Richard D. Cabrera is a sight for sore eyes. Here in Japan especially he would appear to have all the requisite credentials that make girls swoon: kakkoii (trendy or cool), kanemochi (wealthy), and kashikoi (smart).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 1, 2007

Art al fresco in Daikanyama

Years ago, Daikanyama was one of those places you could visit for a bit of peace and quiet in Tokyo. It had beautiful tree-lined streets and lovely old traditional Japanese houses. There was also a slightly bohemian edge to it, with small independent shops and galleries littered among the back alleys....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Oct 23, 2007

Kazuhiko Hashiguchi

JUDIT KAWAGUCHI
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Oct 18, 2007

Who killed Takashi Saito?

That any life should be lost during sport is tragic, and sumo is no exception.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 18, 2007

"Royal Elastics presents Chaz Bojorquez"

Tower Records Shibuya Starts Tuesday, ends Oct. 28
EDITORIALS
Oct 9, 2007

No. 1 — from violin to hot dogs

Around the world, Japanese have been competing and winning prize after prize. From the world of classical music to intense, if lighthearted, forms of competition, Japan's new international face is composed in part of the many globe-trotting, contest contenders. Clearly, the new generation of Japanese...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 5, 2007

A globalist rapper pauses for breath

Having delivered one of the defining albums of 2007, M.I.A is one of the most talked-about artists in pop today. Stuffed with politically informed dancefloor bangers, "Kala" is an album that simultaneously appeals to the cerebral and primal.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 30, 2007

The Murakami addiction

Murakami Haruki: The Simulacrum in Contemporary Japanese Culture, by Michael R. Seats, 2006, 384 pp., $70 (cloth) Haruki Murakami's novels have much in common with potato chips. Both are often addictive and both are often ultimately unsatisfying. Yet one can't help but buy another bag of chips at the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 28, 2007

Rebel yell from the desert

Saharan bluesmen Tinariwen traded guns for guitars, then set about gaining an army of famous fans
Japan Times
CULTURE / OTAKOOL
Sep 27, 2007

Akihabara's awful truths

While the Establishment packages Electric Town as a mecca for manga and anime obsessives, and a magnet for camera- toting tourists, the reality differs: 'Akiba' is alienating the geeks who once made it great
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 27, 2007

Why do performing arts have a 'dead-end feeling' in Japan?

Tarahumara is a mysterious area deep in Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains. Dancer Hiroshi Koike chose the enigmatic name for the dance-drama company he founded in 1982 because he aimed to create beautiful performances that transcend genre.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 27, 2007

Ikuo Hirayama sought solace on the road

Ikuo Hirayama clearly represents how the Japanese like to see — and project — themselves.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 21, 2007

Still rising like a phoenix

S teve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy, former old-school hippies turned cybertechno pioneers with their band System 7, have a career that puts most of their contemporaries to shame. And, unlike Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, after three decades of making music, they still love each other, still challenge...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2007

Aso hip with comic book crowd

Former Foreign Minister Taro Aso is the clear underdog in the race to become the next prime minister. But among young fans of pop culture, Aso is king.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Sep 18, 2007

Tokyo Look Book, Brazil Fashion Now, etc.

You get the look
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 14, 2007

The guitar skeptic

For a guy who's routinely credited with revolutionizing the sound of jazz, Pat Metheny sounds surprisingly detached from his mode of musical expression.
Reader Mail
Sep 5, 2007

Depression born in the workplace

Regarding the Aug. 22 article "Family doctors enlisted in war on depression": I don't think the health and labor ministry really understands what is causing an increasing number of people to suffer from depression and thus contributing to the toll of more than 30,000 suicides every year. According to...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2007

Neoconservatism limps on

NEWARK, N.J. — Neoconservatism has served as a badge of unity for those in the Bush administration who have advocated an aggressive foreign policy, massive military spending, disdain for international law and institutions, an assault on the welfare state and a return to "traditional values."
COMMENTARY
Aug 27, 2007

Hope for peace in partition?

Why is the world so reluctant to accept partition as the answer to ethnic, religious or political conflicts? The Kosovo conflict may finally be moving in that direction, but only after all sides debased themselves by years of murderous conflict. In Iraq, too, the much-needed separation into three autonomous...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / WEEK 3
Aug 19, 2007

Beauty beheld in brutalism

No matter how wild or wacky their hobbies or obsessions, in the age of the Internet no one need feel isolated any more, and by casting all inhibitions aside almost anyone is assured of finding like-minded others out there in cyberspace — if not just around the corner from home.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 18, 2007

Some things never change

In the last edition of this column, I sewed together a few of the major changes I have seen in Japan since first arriving here close to 30 years ago.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 16, 2007

Flying high and free

On a sweltering summer day recently, members of the Condors dance troupe were pouring with sweat as they practiced for their upcoming national tour. Choreographer and lead dancer, Ryohei Kondo, was in the center of a circle of the dancers, who were voicing their opinions freely.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 14, 2007

Manga frenzy proves that we're all kids at heart

That whole deal about growing up and behaving like an adult? Scrap it, you don't have to — at least not in the Japan of recent years. Adult responsibilities, adult worries, adult concerns — while we all know such things exist, it's become possible to dodge them well into your 30s and 40s, in a kind...
Reader Mail
Jul 25, 2007

More garbage seen off the trail

An article last month regarding trash on the trail to Mount Fuji quoted a 20-year-old volunteer university student as saying, "I'd hate for people to see the trash around here and think it means Japan is a culture of garbage."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 22, 2007

Outsiders, or not; that is the question

I wish I had a yen or two for every time I've been told: "You will never be accepted in Japan."

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