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COMMENTARY / World
Nov 16, 2006

Al-Jazeera media revolution turns 10

JERUSALEM -- From its first appearance, the new satellite channel broadcast from Qatar lived up to its name. Al-Jazeera -- Arabic for "the island" -- represented a haven of professional, independent, current-affairs programming in a sea of one-sided, government-controlled Arab media.
BUSINESS
Nov 15, 2006

PS3 stumbles again with revelation it won't play all of the older games

Sony's PlayStation 3 game console, which went on sale in Japan over the weekend to lead off a global launch, can't play some of the older games for the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2, a company official said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 12, 2006

Ultraman . . . forever

The "Ultraman" live-action science-fiction series has been a rite of passage for Japanese boys (and a few girls) and their families for four decades now, since the first show was aired in 1966.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 5, 2006

Another week, another new low for Chelsea's Mourinho

LONDON -- Jose Mourinho would probably moan if he won the lottery and it wasn't a double rollover.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 5, 2006

Radio rivals are a turn off by playing it safe

In the United States, media critics bemoan the homogenization of FM radio, which has become dominated by a handful of corporations dictating what music is played. Meanwhile, AM radio is considered the exclusive domain of the right wing, filled with talk shows that badger so-called Middle America into...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 3, 2006

Singer beats the boys at their own dirty games

Peaches emerges from the Creston Hotel in Tokyo's youth mecca of Shibuya dressed in a gold one-piece swimsuit, black stockings, silver thigh-high platform boots and a black cape with the Judas Priest logo on the back. Her eyes are rimmed with thick black mascara and there's a silver lightning bolt painted...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2006

International role of NPOs

All over the world, culture is being pushed to the sidelines. I am not referring here to commercialized, globalized culture produced purely for entertainment. By "culture," I mean the provision of culture as a public good, such as through foreign-language education, intellectual exchange or groundbreaking...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 22, 2006

Dragons grab Game 1

NAGOYA -- Once Kenshin Kawakami remembered how to be himself, the game was in the bag.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 17, 2006

Why is Japan kept in dark?

For tourists and residents alike, the quintessential image of Tokyo is of a city lit by artificial light. As soon as twilight gathers, the central shopping and entertainment districts of Shibuya, Shinjuku and Roppongi are awash with neon, shining from each shop and office, even turning the night to a...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 17, 2006

Sony readying plan to challenge iPod

Sony Corp. has vowed to fight iPod's domination in portable digital music players by featuring superior sound quality and simple music downloads that won't require a computer.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 12, 2006

Sony's battery fiasco a symptom of bigger woes at legendary firm

It was a fine day at Los Angeles International Airport on Sept. 16 when a passenger's ThinkPad laptop, containing a Sony Corp. battery already recalled by other companies, was suddenly wreathed in smoke and started emitting sparks.
BUSINESS
Oct 11, 2006

Toshiba, LG.Philips LCD tie on TVs

Toshiba Corp. will pay 5.5 billion yen for a nearly 20 percent stake in the Polish subsidiary of LG.Philips LCD, forging a partnership with a rival to strengthen its European TV business, the company said Tuesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 1, 2006

Hisashi Inoue: Crusader with a pen

So wide-ranging are 71-year-old Hisashi Inoue's talents and activities that it is difficult to know which to focus on at the expense of others.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2006

J-cool factor struggles to woo NYC

For someone who stands to gain from the hot topic of Japan's "Gross National Cool," Taeko Baba ought to be the last to pop the phenomenon's bubble.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 28, 2006

An Asian woman becomes aware

Thirty-one year-old playwright, director and actor Keishi Nagatsuka has been turning heads since he staged his first productions while still a student at Waseda University. In 1996 in Tokyo, he founded the Asagaya Spiders company, which has received glowing critical acclaim and regularly plays to full...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Sep 22, 2006

Sounds and surrounds of high rank

Cyril Roy is a natural-born barman. Like any professional, he makes it look easy. When he arrived in Japan six years ago, Tokyo's pub culture was bloated with English- and Irish-styled establishments serving classic and micro-brewed quaffs on tap. But Roy landed squarely on his feet, within a month,...
LIFE / CONFUCIUS
Sep 10, 2006

East and West echo the sage: 'The ideal society is like a family'

This story is part of a package on Confucius. The introduction is here.
BUSINESS
Sep 7, 2006

Europe won't get PS3s until March

The launch of Sony's upgraded video-game console, the PlayStation 3, will be delayed until March in Europe but proceed as planned in November in Japan and the United States, the executive in charge of the project said Wednesday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 2, 2006

Quiet on the set. Ready . . . Action!

"All I need is the backing," says the man. "Then I've got a surefire hit."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 31, 2006

The subversive soul of 'The Wizard of Oz'

T he combination of Irvine Welsh, author of "Trainspotting," and "The Wizard of Oz," Hollywood's quintessential family film, in the stage play "Babylon Heights" may raise some eyebrows. But "The Wizard of Oz" is not innocent entertainment. The significance of the film to gay and lesbian audiences, for...
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2006

OhmyNews Japan service launched

The Japanese version of South Korean Internet news service OhmyNews was launched Monday, featuring articles from "citizen reporters" on topics ranging from politics to entertainment.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 27, 2006

Picturing North Korean propaganda

Japan's comic craze was first documented for the West with the publication of Frederick Schodt's "Manga Manga, The World of Japanese Comics" (1983). Since then, the production and consumption of manga and anime -- its moving picture equivalent -- have spread to China and the Republic of Korea. More recently,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Aug 25, 2006

Gattaca, a utopia of good selections

Baar Gattaca is reasonably easy to find -- thanks to the blaring red banners of the bar next door. But, just to avoid confusion, the entrance is immediately to the right of this garish splash of red -- straight down the stairs to the basement. There, you will see the bar's name on the door and the tag...
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2006

Sony braces for impact of massive battery recall

Sony Corp. is cooperating fully with personal computer maker Dell Inc.'s recall of 4.1 million notebook computer batteries supplied by Sony, but it does not know how much the recall will cost, a spokesman said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 17, 2006

Exploring her selves

Modern culture is deeply interested in constructed and changing identities. The mutability of the individual is an obsession that stretches from stories about Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" being a portrait of the artist in drag to Oprah Winfrey's very public weight-loss programs; from Japanese artist...

Longform

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