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Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 27, 2009

Clowning around at Cirque du Soleil

For a limited time only, join Cirque du Soleil and its international cast for "Corteo," a magical parade of clowns, acrobats and musicians, imagined by a clown at his funeral. Conceived and directed by veteran writer and choreographer Daniele Finzi Pasca, the show is set between Heaven and Earth, with...
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...
Reader Mail
Feb 22, 2009

Innovation with what's available

Regarding the Feb. 18 editorial "Surprisingly sharp decline": I agree that innovation is the key to fighting the recession, and I would like to cite two examples. First, do the Japanese people realize that, despite this recession, companies that have done well are none other than the mobile service providers...
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2009

Myanmar refugees to try resettling

As Japan prepares to take in Myanmarese from Thai refugee camps, it is important that the communities they resettle in fully support their integration into society, experts said at a recent Tokyo symposium held by the Foreign Ministry.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Feb 18, 2009

A bigger, better netbook — and not quite an iPod killer

Touched up: Korean innovator iriver is firing off both barrels with its latest personal media player, the P20, a model it hopes will take some market share away from Apple's iPod touch. The P20 is a chunky device with impressive hardware credentials. Released in Japan as an 80-gigabyte model, the PMP...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Feb 10, 2009

Talking around and about art

Trying to understand contemporary art is difficult in the best of times. It is sometimes abstract, obscure or just plain odd. The question of how to enjoy an exhibit is made all the harder to answer if you're in Tokyo and your artistic attachments aren't matched by your Japanese language skills. Japan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2009

Telling a lengthy tale of lust and religion

Films that are extremely long (say, three hours plus) tend to be extreme in other ways as well — including the megalomania of their director.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 3, 2009

What would the locals do?

In Japan, paper advertisements hang from the ceilings of train cars. In how many other countries would that be a viable advertising option? Certainly not in my hometown of Melbourne. Back in Australia, the majority of those ads would not survive any given Saturday night.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 30, 2009

Talking Teriyaki with J-hop's biggest export

While attending boarding school in Boston in the mid 1990s, Seiji Kameyama used to play hip-hop CDs that he'd brought back from Japan to his friends.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2009

'Cleaner'

The phrase "somebody's gotta do it" applies with hammering aptness to what Tom (Samuel L. Jackson) does for a living in "Cleaner." His company, Steri-Clean, clears up after murder and death sites where, after the body has been taken away, various stains, marks and odors stubbornly remain. When Steri-Clean...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 22, 2009

Decades as Tokyo's tower of girl power

In any panoramic photograph of Shibuya's always busy crossing, a structure likely positioned prominently in the background will be the part-wedge-shaped, part-cylindrical Shibuya 109 building. The teen district of Shibuya is continually in flux, with trends and stores coming and going by the week, but...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 20, 2009

Wii gives seniors therapeutic kicks

Blanche Betten, a 76-year-old retired restaurant owner, hammered Bob Warner, 85, with a flurry of punches, sending the World War II and Korean War veteran sprawling to the ground.
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Jan 15, 2009

No time to lose for Urawa as Finke gets down to business

Urawa Reds were quick off the mark to begin training for the 2009 season this week, but then the Saitama club has good reason to be impatient for a fresh start.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2009

Activists hold Gaza peace rally in Tokyo

As the number of victims continues to climb in Gaza, a crowd of more than 1,500 people rallied in Tokyo on Saturday to call for an immediate ceasefire in the war-torn area.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 10, 2009

Documentary on Gascoigne an absolute disgrace

LONDON — It is rare that a television program involving football makes you feel so uncomfortable that you turn it off.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 9, 2009

Otaku star Shokotan offers a little fan service

"I really care about how much proof of my life I can leave behind; how many concerts I can give and how many photos I can have taken," admits Japanese celebrity Shoko Nakagawa, better known to her legion of fans worldwide as Shokotan. "I'm just afraid to have any free time and I'm scared of doing nothing."...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 9, 2009

Simple stage for classic poem

If soaring words and soulful music are what you seek from theatergoing, then look no further than "Enoch Arden," the first program in Tokyo-based production company Total Stage Produce's series, titled "A Link Between Words/Language and Music."
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jan 7, 2009

Hybrid storage to put new spin on netbook choices

Flash wonder: Netbook makers seem to be particularly keen to shatter the axiom that size always equals power. Their shrunken portables put a premium on being small and light, both in terms of bulk and price, for only a slight tradeoff on performance. Certainly they would also like people to stop describing...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CLOSE-UP
Jan 4, 2009

Japan's 'Mr. Television'

Picture the world's busiest television presenter, and imagine yourself squinting through the glare of high-wattage celebrity, struggling to breathe in air perfumed with pampered showbiz egos.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jan 4, 2009

Monta Mino: Japan's 'Mr. Television'

Picture the world's busiest television presenter, and imagine yourself squinting through the glare of high-wattage celebrity, struggling to breathe in air perfumed with pampered showbiz egos.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
Jan 4, 2009

It's Astro Boy to the rescue

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No such luck. It's just another humongous dark-gray cloud and it's spitting at me. "Hey!" I scream, waving my fist in the air at the darkening sky. "Leave me alone, you big gray bully!"
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 3, 2009

Wishes for 2009: Less unfair criticism of referees, fewer fake injuries

LONDON — Apart from England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008 the year could hardly have gone better for English football. In fact, the World Cup-winning year of 1966 excepted, 2008 is probably the most successful 12 months the sport has ever enjoyed.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 31, 2008

Puny netbook hard drives no problem for Logitec

Data box: Designing electronics these days is as much about deciding what to leave out as what features to include.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Dec 28, 2008

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