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COMMENTARY
Feb 7, 2010

China's unwritten chapters feed speculation

LOS ANGELES — We were lucky enough the other night to attend a dinner party where the fare was California fusion and the killer item on the menu was serious table talk about Asia. So much food for thought was offered that, when the evening was over, few had much of an appetite for dessert. Which was...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 7, 2010

Winter warmth, home and away

A friend just sent me a satellite photograph taken last month of the whole of Britain blanketed in white, and wrote about the homeless folk dying in extremely cold weather in Poland. Perhaps some people will doubt that global warming is happening at all after this winter — little realizing that it...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 3, 2010

Is the Russian economy out of the woods?

MOSCOW — Has Russia's economic crisis ended? That depends on who you ask. Ask Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, or any official of his United Russia party, and you will be told, "Of course it is over." They will even produce proof in the form of an unemployment rate that does not rise, unprecedented increases...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 2, 2010

Children's rights, judicial wrongs

Last in a two-part series
EDITORIALS
Jan 31, 2010

To protect and enhance life

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose administration is 4 1/2 months old, opened his policy speech for the coming year with words that bore his colors: "I want to protect people's lives. This is my wish. . . . I want to protect the lives of those who are born, of those who grow and mature."
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Jan 28, 2010

Design for keeping everything warm and just so

Drastic desk changes Hopefully you're still keeping your New Year's resolutions, and if one of them was to pay more attention to the little things in life, such as your desk space, then the latest from Japanese stationery brand Craft Design Technology can help fulfill those good intentions. Released...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 22, 2010

January goes out like a lion

Japan's lion dances, and there are about 7,800 of them, all have their own style but the purpose is mainly the same. The shishi (lion) dances act as a prayer to ward off evil spirits.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 22, 2010

Sweat to a girl riot; soak up Gypsy jazz

"What's that smell in here?" I ask The Harpy's in the dressing room of the livehouse Motion, which lies at the butt end of the sleazy Kabukicho entertainment area in Tokyo's central Shinjuku district.
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2010

As security pact with U.S. turns 50, Japan looks to redefine relations

The Japanese-U.S. security treaty in its current form turned 50 Tuesday. Throughout the decades, the two nations have had their ups and downs and occasional tension, but together they weathered the Cold War and entered a new era and new century.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 17, 2010

Mystery made of a rationalist's nightmares

A blood-soaked woman, clutching a child, stands on a barren moor. This is the image of the ubume of the title. This creature, or figment, who may or may not exist, but who haunts the narrative of this novel, is defined as the visible form of the regrets experienced by a woman who has died during childbirth....
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 8, 2010

Coach says Phoenix players focus on team

With 20 games in the books and 17 victories to date, the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix are on pace to have the finest season in bj-league history. The Ryukyu Golden Kings went 41-11 in the 2008-09 season en route to the team's first championship.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 3, 2010

A world beyond the United States now beckons Japanese youth

'Shying away from study in America" screamed the front-page headline of the Dec. 11 evening edition of the Asahi Shimbun. The article beneath presented facts and analysis of an unmistakable phenomenon: Japanese students are not being drawn to the United States to pursue their studies as they once were....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 20, 2009

Alexandria's library: A phoenix amid the tea fields of Uji

Recalling the glorious Heian Period in Japan's history from 794 to 1185 at once conjures up images of a world of courtiers, 12-layered kimono, elegant poetry competitions beside winding streams — and secret trysts in scented chambers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 18, 2009

New Year's Countdown lineup

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks; the Afghanistan and Iraq wars; the Boxing Day tsunami; the "Lehman Shock" — yes, a look back at the last decade is not so great. It's the kind of downer that could drive you to a night of nihilistic hedonism and luckily this year's New Year's Eve parties can facilitate...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2009

The beauty of subtle deceit

More than in any other country where the lacquer tree grows, the art of working with its hard-drying sap has excelled here in Japan. Two leading exponents were Ogawa Haritsu (1663-1747) and Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891), who both stand out not only for their inventive sense of design in decorating three-dimensional...
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2009

Xi says he wants to improve ties

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping arrived Monday in Japan where he stressed the importance of the "friendly" ties between China and Japan and vowed to do his best to further develop the relationship.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 12, 2009

The most annoying Japanese word

Several weeks ago a poll from the Marist Institute of Public Opinion — one that was slingshot quickly across the Internet — listed "whatever" as the most annoying of all English words.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 11, 2009

To the cosmos and then back down to Earth

Artist Chris Bucklow has been many things: a writer, a curator and, just as relevantly, an amateur astronomer. A trip to Botswana to view Halley's comet was the impetus to finally leave London's Victoria and Albert Museum, where he had worked for 10 years, and take up art fulltime. The now 52-year-old...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 10, 2009

Photographer/filmmaker Kiyotaka Tsurisaki

Kiyotaka Tsurisaki, 42, is a photographer and mondo filmmaker who specializes in shots of corpses. Since 1994, he has taken photos of over 1,000 dead bodies, often chasing police cars to scenes of crimes, accidents and suicides in such countries as Thailand, Russia and Colombia, as well as parts of Palestine....
EDITORIALS
Dec 5, 2009

The Dubai debt bomb

The announcement that the government of Dubai would suspend payment of debts incurred by its investment group, Dubai World, has rattled global markets, sparking fears of another dip in the global economy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 2009

Under the guise of medical history, the Mori gets radical

Don't be distracted by the big names showing at "Medicine and Art: Imagining a Future for Life and Love" — Da Vinci, Okyo, Damien Hirst — the jewels of the show lie in the obscure — timeworn or contemporary.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2009

Pachinko maker pushes for legalization of casinos

SINGAPORE — The government lacks the will to legalize casinos and let the industry compensate for declining tax revenue amid deflation, according to the head of pachinko maker Universal Entertainment Corp.
JAPAN / ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE
Dec 2, 2009

Polls' built-in bias may skew climate views

Last in a series
BUSINESS / Japan Pulse
Nov 30, 2009

Eco batteries bring new meaning to the term "juiced"

NoPoPo Eco batteries might not revolutionize the tech world yet, but for now, these fluid-powered batteries could end up being life-savers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 27, 2009

The Italian art of making wine and painting

Imagine the colors of a vast Tuscan vineyard drenched in a September sun — emerald green leaves, gnarled brown vines, deep purple grapes, shale earth, azure sky — an artist's inspiration for both palette and palate. For renowned Italian artist Sandro Chia, 63, these Tuscan colors, soaked into the...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Nov 23, 2009

Whither the LDP withers

The once dominant Liberal Democratic Party has withered so miserably since losing the general election Aug. 30 that it looks as if it could suffer a total collapse or disintegration.

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it