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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 3, 2009

Manabu Miyazaki: Outsider looking in

Born the son of a yakuza boss in Kyoto, Manabu Miyazaki is now a best-selling author. His life may read like fiction, but he raises social, political and media facts in a manner that's as frank as it is hard-hitting
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 1, 2009

A rosy way to spend Golden Week

T he rose-blossom season is coming up, and many places are offering visitors a chance to admire the flower seen in many cultures as a symbol of love and beauty at its best.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Apr 26, 2009

Lost in construction

If you ever have a hankering for nikka-zubon and jika-tabi, the outre puffy pants and split-toed booties rocked by Japanese carpenters, construction dudes and painters, supply store Mannenya in 3-chome (district 3) of Nishi Shinjuku has got you covered. The building is hard to miss: it's acid yellow,...
Reader Mail
Apr 23, 2009

Benefits of diversity

Regarding the April 14 letter "A battle for Japan's future": One of the things that makes America strong is the great diversity of our culture. I recently attended a speech given by Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mohandas Gandhi. In his speech he dispelled the myth that America is a "melting pot." Instead...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 21, 2009

Travel by train on a budget

Rail on the cheap In Japan for only a limited time, J.K. is desperate to travel and see as much as possible. But there's a problem. "Cash is pretty limited. Are there any money-saving ways of traveling by train in Japan?"
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Apr 19, 2009

Flying machines, dancing for defense, an Imperial wedding and a bark suppressor

100 YEARS AGO
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Apr 19, 2009

Potting the pink in Saitama

Thumbing through any of the dozen Tokyo sex-service recruit magazines reveals ads for shops, indexed by region, seeking young ladies to serve in various fuzoku (sex-related) clubs and bars.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Apr 18, 2009

Not love at first sight, but love at first date for couple

Canadian Vanessa Hayes knew even before her first date with Michio Kiyomiya that she would end up marrying him, although it wasn't quite love at first sight.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 18, 2009

Kyoji Yamamoto leaves all inhibitions behind

Kyoji Yamamoto is probably the most famous rock guitarist in Japan. As leader of the groups Bowwow and Vow Wow, he has performed around the world, lived in the U.K. and the United States and played with some of the best musicians on the planet. Of course, hard rock in Japan struggles to compete with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2009

'Milk'

Director Gus Van Sant's recent forays into European-inflected art-minimalism have met with much critical acclaim, but there's something about those films that still bugs me. With movies like "Elephant," about the Columbine High massacre, or "Last Days," exploring the death of Nirvana singer/guitarist...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 17, 2009

Cafe Hai: MOT goes Vietnamese

It's always a pleasure to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (MOT) out in Koto Ward. The surrounding park is calm, the architecture of the museum exemplary, and the exhibitions invariably well curated.
EDITORIALS
Apr 15, 2009

Humiliation in Thailand

Who should be more embarrassed after the cancellation of the ASEAN summit that was to have been held last weekend in Pattaya, Thailand: Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as whole? Mr. Abhisit is certainly in the hot seat after insisting that the summit...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2009

Cheap jeans fitting well in recession

Nobody can ever have too many pairs of jeans, and thus the philosophy of GOV Retailing is to make them available on the cheap — a notion that is paying off for the new g.u. chain.
BUSINESS
Apr 14, 2009

Lawson registers record profits

Convenience store chain Lawson Inc. said Monday its group sales, operating profits and net profits all marked record highs for the business year that ended on Feb. 28, despite the continuing recession.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 12, 2009

Dark thoughts and macabre tales

As a boy, Edogawa Rampo was, as he relates in one of the essays included in this collection, a devotee of popular fiction. Entering the fantastic twists and turns of his stories we are soon lost in them just as, when boys and girls ourselves, we became the characters in the romances and adventures we...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 5, 2009

Gates, gardens and . . . war

"Ohayoooo gozaimasu!" I greeted my 22-year-old nephew, Chris, using my foot to nudge him awake on the first morning of his 10-day visit to Japan. "What do you say we walk around Ginza?"
LIFE / CLOSE-UP
Apr 5, 2009

Hiroshi Mikitani: Retail revolutionary

On a bitterly cold mid-February day, in the midst of an even harsher economic climate, Hiroshi Mikitani — founder, president and CEO of one of Japan's largest online retailers, Rakuten Inc. — shook off a slight cold to announce at a concise news conference that in fiscal 2008 his company had achieved...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 3, 2009

Bookstore offers a place for political debating

"You have to fight your way in with a knife every time you want to talk," said Good Day Books manager Stephen Kott. "A bookstore is a natural venue for something like this."
Reader Mail
Apr 2, 2009

Ingrained cultural divide at work

Regarding Debito Arudou's March 24 article: We live in a world of instant media distribution. The Japanese culture to a large extent is fueled by the exportation of film and print that stereotypes some cultures as bad while portraying others as superior. Back in 2007 when the English-language teaching...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2009

Utada cracks top 20 list on iTunes

After a humiliating setback in the United States, a Japanese diva has staged a comeback.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Mar 27, 2009

Spas, cherry blossoms, disco fever and wine-tastings

Ritz Carlton's 'Midday Escape' Starting April 1, The Ritz Carlton Tokyo will be offering a "Midday Escape" day-spa package, which includes treatments at The Ritz Carlton Spa & Fitness by ESPA, and a meal at The Ritz Carlton Cafe & Deli.
JAPAN / Q&A
Mar 27, 2009

Road-toll cuts take effect Saturday

Motorists across the nation this Saturday, if they have an Electronic Toll Collection device, will start feeling the effects of Prime Minister Taro Aso's economic stimulus measures.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Mar 26, 2009

Makeup artist Yukiko Takeda

Yukiko Takeda, 37, is chief makeup artist for Watosa, a skincare line created by famous beauty guru Sablo Watanabe. For the past 15 years, Yukiko has been making women look and feel so beautiful that over 80 percent of her first-time clients turn into hardcore fans who need their fix of "Yukiko magic"...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Mar 26, 2009

Going Postalco, smashing smileys and sounding fuzzy

Material emoticons
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Mar 25, 2009

Black Tokyo

Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Eric L. Robinson found himself docking in Okinawa in 1981. For the past two decades, Robinson, a Marine Corps veteran, has traveled back and forth between between Japan and the United States, gaining experiences and insights from each culture that he now shares with...
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Mar 23, 2009

Crisis forces rethink: What makes name brands valuable?

Forbes recently published its annual list of the world's billionaires for 2008. The list has shrunk considerably since 2007, when 1,125 people were deemed to have a net worth above $1 billion. This time only around 793 made the cut.

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?