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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 11, 2006

Earth Celebration 2006

When & where: Aug. 18-20 at venues in and around the Ogi district of Niigata Prefecture's Sado Island. Pre-events start Aug. 13.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2006

Advanced star projector is life's work for creator

head from the Southern Hemisphere. You can't see it that high up in Japan," he said. At the time, Ohira never dreamed he would re-create that spectacle with his own high-tech projector, but that's what happened. Soon after starting college, he began making star projectors and his enthusiasm for his hobby...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 4, 2006

72-hour party people

Japan's foremost music festival, Fuji Rock, might be over for another year, but for those who couldn't make the trek to Naeba Ski Resort last weekend, or the 130,000 who did but couldn't catch everything, our reporting team -- Daniel Robson, Simon Bartz, Philip Brasor, Mark Thompson, David Hickey, Richard...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2006

Dawn of news for Chinese journalism

PRAGUE -- A remarkable incident has emboldened Chinese journalists. Earlier this year, the government suspended publication of the newspaper Bing Dian Weekly, provoking unprecedented open protest, which received extensive media coverage worldwide.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2006

Man admits pulling scam to get PCs

A former employee of a Toshiba Corp. affiliate has been arrested on suspicion of swindling two clients out of 230 personal computers worth some 50 million yen, police officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 27, 2006

The revenge of the Red Demon

Playwright, actor and director Hideki Noda has been the undisputed leader of the Japanese contemporary theater world for 30 years. In that time he has written, directed and often acted in more than 60 plays in Japan -- all of them hits or superhits among his mushrooming fanbase. In fact, Noda has been...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 23, 2006

Marty K. still alive and well in Eagles' nest

Marty Kuehnert still with Rakuten? What is Marty doing these days?
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2006

Art award system faces change

The government will revise the selection system of its annual art prizes after the revocation last month of the 2006 award to painter Yoshihiko Wada, whose works were found to be plagiarisms, education minister Kenji Kosaka said Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 9, 2006

A hero some find hard to swallow

Once again, Japan's Takeru Kobayashi has pulled off the dubious feat of winning the annual U.S. Independence Day hot-dog eating contest at New York's Coney Island. Mr. Kobayashi took home his sixth straight Yellow Mustard Belt by downing 53 3/4 fat-, sodium- and nitrate-laden frankfurters in 12 minutes...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 9, 2006

Classical Japanese text -- what is lost and found in translation

THE TALES OF THE HEIKE, translated by Burton Watson, edited with an introduction by Haruo Shirane, glossary and bibliographies compiled by Michael Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006, 216 pp., illustrated, $24.50 (cloth). The "Heike Monogatari," that famous account of the events that led...
EDITORIALS
Jul 8, 2006

Payback time after merging

The drama triggered when the Murakami fund, managed by maverick investor Mr. Yoshiaki Murakami, purchased a large chunk of Hanshin Electric Railway Co. shares came to an end last week as shareholders of both Hanshin and Hankyu Holdings Inc. voted for a merger. It is the first merger of major railway...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 7, 2006

Tibet House evokes spiritual traditions with folk opera

The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, the exiled national institute that preserves and promotes Tibet's traditional performing arts, will stage a performance of folk dance and folk opera on July 10 in Tokyo. The event, organized by Tibet House Japan, is staged to coincide with the 71st birthday of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Jul 7, 2006

Reach for the sky

Sumida Ward spans an area that has endured ruinous fires, floods, plagues, and seismic as well as economic jostlings. Residents of this battered part of the city nonetheless have always kept their pride buoyant and their spirits aloft. Even when the chips are down, residents of Sumida Ward insist that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 7, 2006

Deejay U-Roy's still-righteous chat

"Wake the town and tell the people" rings the trademark battle cry of Jamaican deejay extraordinaire U-Roy, who plays three live dates in Japan this weekend.
EDITORIALS
Jul 3, 2006

For Tokyo, a drop in the rankings

How is a city supposed to feel when it has just learned it is no longer the world's most expensive in which to live? Peeved, since there's a certain cachet attached to being No. 1 anything? Relieved, since a reputation for overpricing isn't the kind of cachet any self-respecting city actually needs?...
BUSINESS
Jul 1, 2006

CPI makes biggest jump since March '98

The consumer price index rose 0.6 percent in May from the previous year, marking its biggest growth since March 1998, the government said Friday, providing further evidence that the economy is moving out of deflation.
BUSINESS
Jun 24, 2006

Investors get more vocal on management decisions

Over the past several weeks, company executives have been beating a path to Pension Fund Association's door, trying to get the investment manager to agree with proposals they plan to submit at their shareholder meetings.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 18, 2006

The lore and legend of Asian lawmen

"The Calf Strung Up beneath The Cart" will cause you agony profound; "The Ass tied tightly to The Post" will make you scream and leap around; "The Phoenix drying both her Wings" to death itself will bring you near; "The Boy who Sits and Contemplates," the stoutest soul will cause to fear; And if "The...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 18, 2006

NHK's public service is to take your money and run . . . bad TV

Fans of baseball star Ichiro Suzuki had reason to be mad at NHK two weeks ago. The Seattle Mariners outfielder was on the verge of his 2,500th career hit, one of the game's rare milestones, which was predicted to happen some time between June 6 and 9. However, the public broadcaster, whose BS-1 satellite...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 11, 2006

It's a mechanical kind of love

LOVING THE MACHINE: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots, by Timothy N. Hornyak. Tokyo/New York: Kodansha International, 2006, 160 pp., profusely illustrated, 2,800 yen (cloth). One of the most popular mysteries of 18th-century Europe was the Chess-playing Turk, a robot-like automaton that won all...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 11, 2006

Stick-thin, gay, or preferably both -- a television career awaits

Truth in advertising has never been strictly enforced in Japan, especially with regard to health-related claims. Breweries can get away with promoting "low-calorie" beers as weight-loss aids, while pharmaceutical makers sell vitamin supplements that claim to do everything from clear up your skin to help...
BUSINESS
Jun 10, 2006

Nonpermanent workers' training shortfalls hit

Part-time and contract workers in the manufacturing sector get less training than their permanent, full-time colleagues, raising concern that young people may not be gaining enough skills, according to a government report.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 4, 2006

Everybody gets to be a detective this week in TBS's "Uranaishi Misuzu" and more

Everybody gets to be a detective this week. In "Uranaishi Misuzu: The Incident Beyond Fate" (TBS, Monday, 9 p.m.), it's one of those street fortune tellers you see parked outside of office buildings at night. Misuzu (Kumiko Okae), however, isn't your run-of-the-mill palm reader. She's one of the most...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 3, 2006

Narita South Wing open

The refurbished South Wing at Narita International Airport's Terminal 1 opened Friday amid high hopes from the airport's operator and All Nippon Airways Co., the terminal's main tenant, that the improvements will attract more passengers.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 28, 2006

Look back on the Vietnam War in NHK's "The Time That Moved History" and more

More than 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War, Americans are still debating whether or not it was right to intervene in a civil conflict that itself was a product of someone else's (i.e., France) colonial adventure.
Japan Times
LIFE
May 28, 2006

Manga by any other name is . . .

With the video-game business now outgrossing Hollywood's box office, and anime being distributed to destinations as diverse as Patagonia and Phuket, the influence of Japan's entertainment industry on young people worldwide has never been as powerful.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 26, 2006

Politics scaled with music

Matthew Herbert's new album "Scale" is easy to like. His signature arrangements of accessible house-inflected beats behind jazzy melodies are polished to a glossy sheen. Strings swoon. Horns sound lushly. Songs like the soulful "Moving like a Train" or "When We Are in Love" positively slink out of the...

Longform

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