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COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2011

Mumbai attack a new cause to take offense

Three serial blasts in 12 minutes tore through India's commercial capital Mumbai last Wednesday evening, leaving 21 dead and over 140 injured.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 17, 2011

It seems Japan has literally gone to the dogs

Japan has found an answer to loneliness, despair, fear, disgust and uncertainty. Hint: It's alive, stands on four legs and barks. Well, so much the better if the gloom weighing us down can be so easily dispelled. Or is it?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 15, 2011

Three films make Japanese premiere at Sokurov festival

Acclaimed Siberian director Alexander Sokurov, will be the subject of a two-week film festival between July 23 -Aug. 5. The Cannes Film Festival regular is one of Russia's greatest directorial exports, responsible for such celebrated films as "Mother and Son" (1997) and "Moloch" (1999). However, it was...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2011

A daughter of dictatorship and democracy

It is something of a cliché question in South Korea nowadays: Who would be the country's next president if the election were held tomorrow, rather than in December 2012?
EDITORIALS
Jul 14, 2011

Space Shuttle finale

On Sunday the U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the International Space Station, orbiting at 400 km above Earth. It carried 3.6 tons of food and other supplies for six months' use by the ISS occupants.
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2011

Response to crisis shows deepening ties, Seoul's new ambassador says

Cooperation between Japan and South Korea in the aftermath of the Tohoku triple disaster proved that ties between the two nations have never been stronger, Seoul's new envoy to Tokyo said Monday.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jul 11, 2011

Realists and idealists on the cost of adopting renewable energy

If the Renewable Energy Act passes, what will it mean to your electricity bill?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 9, 2011

Don Morton raises a mug to bicycles and cold beer

Film buffs may know American Don Morton for the reviews he writes for Metropolis magazine. During a recent interview in his apartment, though, he mostly talked about bicycles. In fact the 67-year-old native of San Francisco is the founder of the Tokyo-based Half-Fast cycling club.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 8, 2011

Cava hope to help theater buffs feel fine

Tokyo-based mime-theater company Cava is probably better known in Scotland than at home, but that could be about to change.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 8, 2011

'Bal'

As Hollywood films become ever more breathless — with special effects sidelining nearly all plot and character development, and digital-editing abuse leading to few shots that last beyond a second — art cinema has moved just as extremely in the opposite direction, with slow, meticulous pacing; long,...
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2011

Job 1 for Hirano is rebuilding public trust

Tatsuo Hirano, who Tuesday replaced Ryu Matsumoto as reconstruction minister, has a full plate and his first task will be to re-establish trust with survivors of the March 11 catastrophe in the Tohoku region that his predecessor damaged with insulting remarks just one week into the job.
BUSINESS
Jul 3, 2011

Nissan Leaf pulls ahead of GM Volt

Nissan Motor Co.'s Leaf, the first mass-produced electric car sold in the United States, took an early lead in the budding market for rechargeable autos by pulling ahead of General Motors Co.'s plug-in Volt in the first half.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jun 27, 2011

Power industry's chokehold

The electric power industry in Japan has such strong political clout that nobody, not even the government, seems capable of liberalizing the generation and distribution of electricity, let alone making a dent in the regional monopoly currently enjoyed by each of the 10 utilities.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2011

Top scientist in academic row

An article that helped Tohoku University President Akihisa Inoue win the Japan Academy Award has been retracted from a leading U.S. scientific journal after the author violated protocol by reusing his own previously published material without acknowledging it.
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2011

Post 3/11 Japan: war literature

One's immediate reaction to the start this month of a new collection of war literature to mark publisher Shueisha's 85th anniversary might well be puzzlement. Why now, after more than half a century of peace in Japan, are we offered 20 volumes on literature related to war?
COMMENTARY
Jun 25, 2011

Election season comes early in the Kremlin

In the highly controlled environment of Russian domestic politics, there are few surprises. Russia is a managed democracy in which political changes and election outcomes are carefully orchestrated by the Kremlin.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Jun 24, 2011

PL struggled at gate in interleague

The Pacific League, led by the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, got the best of the Central League on the field, but couldn't keep pace in the stands.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 24, 2011

'Biutiful'

Ninety percent of the time, it's too much to bear even for the audience, so imagine what those people up on the screen are going though. Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu revels in shoveling out far more than a fair share of atrocious luck and tremendous suffering to his characters, and...
COMMENTARY
Jun 20, 2011

Living with national universities

In fiscal 2004, the state-run national universities in Japan were given the status of "corporations." The initial six-year "medium term" after this shift to "national university corporations" ended in fiscal 2009. The current fiscal year is the second year of the second medium term.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2011

Japan should consider the personal touch in its policy toward Middle East uprisings

Various internal and external factors have prompted Japan to keep its involvement profile in the Middle East as low as possible for the past four decades.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 18, 2011

American woman pours self into noh

According to Rebecca Ogamo Teele, an American instructor, performer and mask carver for noh, falling asleep is a perfectly respectable response to attending such plays.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2011

Don't count Ozawa out until he is

Over the decades he's been dubbed the "shadow shogun," "the destroyer" and "the backroom fixer" for his powerful influence in the political arena and penchant for shaking up governments with his "strong hand."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 16, 2011

Waraku Ensemble serve up some summer classics

Despite a day of torrential downpour to kick off Japan's rainy season, Junnosuke Uehara is grinning from ear to ear. He's got his shamisen with him and he says he's excited to introduce a new person to the instrument. In fact, his love for the shamisen is so strong, he clings to it as if it were his...
BUSINESS
Jun 15, 2011

Honda and Toyota getting outgunned in U.S.

Stephen Ragsdale is no longer one of Honda's "Happy Drivers." A loyal owner for a decade, he ditched a 2009 Accord just 18 months after he bought it. The reason: He coveted his mother's stylish Kia Optima.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 14, 2011

New budget carrier Peach hopes to fly high, charge low

Despite the huge impact the ongoing nuclear crisis is having on the nation's travel and aviation industries, the head of Japan's newest budget carrier said it is sticking to plans it made before March 11, including extremely low fares and black ink three years after its takeoff.

Longform

Ayumi Matsuki, a priestess at Yoshiwara Shrine, shows off some "o-mamori" charms. She says visitors to the shrine have increased since the NHK drama “Unbound” began airing this month.
Tracing Tsutaya Juzaburo, Edo’s media maverick