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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 19, 2011

Pitt, Penn heap praise on Malick's 'real world'

Terrence Malick kicks off his new film, "The Tree of Life," with a bang. The Big Bang, actually. Over the next 138 minutes, the viewer witnesses a journey through history that ends up in a small town in Texas. Critics seem to agree that you'll either love it or hate it.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 18, 2011

There's gold in them there wardrobes!

More people are mining closets and wardrobes for the precious metals they might contain.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2011

Solar plant cleans Kawasaki image

Few people may realize there is a giant solar power plant in the heart of the Tokyo metropolis, where available open land is scarce.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Aug 16, 2011

With debt climbing, Japan debates tax hike

Japan has within its sights the obvious but precarious solution for its fiscal mess: a tax hike.
EDITORIALS
Aug 14, 2011

Death of a sci-fi pioneer

On July 26, Komatsu Sakyo, a pioneer in Japanese science fiction, died at the age of 80. Born in Osaka in 1931, he witnessed firsthand the devastation of World War II. After graduating from Kyoto University with a degree in Italian literature (he wrote a thesis on Pirandello), he worked as a reporter...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 8, 2011

Goro-awase system spins off numbers you won't forget

One boast you'll never hear from me is that I have a good head for numbers. I'm all right up to two figures beyond a decimal point — I know that 3.14 approximates to the 円周率 (enshūritsu, Pi, i.e., the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter) and likewise 2.54 cm is approximately one...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2011

Medicine for the 'second great contraction'

Why is everyone still referring to the recent financial crisis as the "Great Recession"?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 5, 2011

'Days of Heaven' / 'Nashville'

It's somewhat depressing to think that the two best films on offer this summer, by far, were made over three decades ago. Robert Altman's epic "Nashville" came out in the torrid summer of 1975, while Terrence Malick's sophomore film, "Days of Heaven," was released in '78 after two years in the editing...
Japan Times
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 3, 2011

Kitajima has work to do in bid for triple Olympic glory

Sometimes the smartest thing an athlete, team or coach can do is call a timeout.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 28, 2011

Vaccines bring shot of rock to Fuji

Even before the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake caused concert cancellations en masse, The Vaccines had to start pulling out of overseas tour commitments due to singer Justin Young's throat operation. Now "100 percent better," the band will show the audience at this year's Fuji Rock Festival what...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 24, 2011

Setsuden and the magic number 28

Japan's summer has started off with a bang, weather-wise.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Jul 18, 2011

Nakamura thriving despite new baseball

Takeya Nakamura is making a mockery of the NPB's new ball.
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 / Music
Jul 14, 2011

Fighting for change the Fuji Rock way

Faced with the nation's worst disaster since World War II, Fuji Rock Festival founder Masahiro Hidaka had to make a choice back in March — whether to hold Japan's biggest summer music festival this year or not. He decided that the show must go on.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2011

Fukushima plant site originally was a hill safe from tsunami

First of two parts
EDITORIALS
Jul 9, 2011

A new face at the IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the world's most influential financial institution, has a new boss. Ms. Christine Lagarde, France's finance minister until her appointment last week, replaces Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who stepped down amidst allegations of sexual assault. Ms. Lagarde's selection...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 3, 2011

Results mixed over years on midseason additions

The interleague season is finished, the All-Star ballots have been tallied and Japan's blazing summer heat has begun to take hold.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 1, 2011

Shichi Jyu Ni Kou: Japanese cuisine that follows nature's cues

Japan, as has been said far too often, is a country of four seasons. But that tired old mantra is by no means the whole truth. The ancient lunisolar calendar recognizes 24 distinct divisions in the year, while haiku poets and others attuned to the constant flux of the natural world identify three times...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 30, 2011

Getting Japan to think inside the juke box

It's juke night at Club Noon in Osaka on a Monday. The event, called Hobo, has drawn about 50 people — not many, but alright for a genre of dance music that is making its debut on the city's club scene. As with most debuts, the reaction is mixed. The men nod their heads and the women shift their weight...
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.
Reader Mail
Jun 26, 2011

Learning to love Super Cool Biz

Because of the power-supply shortages expected this summer, we are being asked to do two things: shift peak hours of electricity consumption in order to level off spikes during the day, and save energy as a whole to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 25, 2011

Kannon: the goddess of mercy and pets

Today I'd like to introduce you to someone so important, she may change your life. She has been a highly revered VIP for years, and is a household name in Japan, China and India. Although she is relatively unknown to the Western world, her accolades abound. She is Kannon, the goddess of mercy. I'd like...
SOCCER / J. League
Jun 23, 2011

Gamba earns pulsating victory over league-leading Reysol

Gamba Osaka cut Kashiwa Reysol's cushion at the top of the J. League to one point with a breathless 4-2 win over the league leaders on Wednesday night.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2011

Objective defense of why some things matter

Can moral judgments be true or false? Or is ethics, at bottom, a purely subjective matter, for individuals to choose, or perhaps relative to the culture of the society in which one lives?
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

Panel evaluates Tepco assets to assure redress footing

The government launched a panel Thursday to streamline the operations of beleaguered Tokyo Electric Power Co. and evaluate its financial assets as it prepares to pay massive compensation for the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 17, 2011

Tokyo and Yokohama festival celebrates the art of brevity

Short films have traditionally been seen as a director's starting block toward making their first feature. Yet with the art of filmmaking becoming ever cheaper, many have been sidestepping the short-film format, instead heading straight for a low-budget feature film. Yet short films are an art form in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 17, 2011

'127 Hours'

Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," released in 1960, famously terrified audiences to the point where a generation was checking the door locks before taking a shower. Stephen Spielberg's "Jaws," released in the baking summer of 1975, kept many people on the beach and out of the water. Now along comes "127 Hours,"...

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.