Search - long form

 
 
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 3, 2007

Sensitive spin on an all-time classic

Britain's world-famous Imperial Ice Stars arrive in Japan for the first time to perform "Swan Lake on Ice" in Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture and Tokyo this summer.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 2, 2007

The best and brightest of the fanatics

KIRKSVILLE, Missouri — In Britain and Australia, several Muslim medical doctors and engineers have been arrested following a series of failed car bombings. The arrest of these well-educated professionals, together with the Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri's role as al-Qaida's deputy leader, raises...
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Aug 1, 2007

Yamanote Line clocks — perfect for torturing Tokyo commuters

C locks make marvelous torture de vices. For sheer infliction of pain it's hard to top a creation that's dedicated to wrenching you out of your hard-won sleep. Throw in the fact that they insist on rousing you in time to cram yourself into a sardine can on wheels known as a train and you are adding pain...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 31, 2007

'Eikaiwa' vets look beyond Big Four

Globalization, the Internet and increased mobility have made the planet a smaller place. The world is now often referred to as a global community, and its lingua franca is undoubtedly English. It is the official language of air traffic control and the de facto language of both international business...
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2007

Let the punishment fit the spam

Among life's many hassles, the most recently invented is e-mail spam. Nowadays every single e-mail arrives sandwiched between garbage that must be cleared away before getting to friends, family and business. Even those few foolish people who follow up on spam probably hate spam. However, restricting...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2007

Turkey arrives at a political crossroads

HERZLIYA, Israel — In what may be Turkey's most important political event since the republic was founded in the 1920s, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has won a landslide parliamentary election victory, with around 47 percent of the vote. Only two other parties — the Republican People's Party...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 19, 2007

Music busts myth of monocultural Japan

On the 30-odd subtropical isles of the Ogasawara Island chain that lie sparkling in the South Pacific, some 1,000 km south of Tokyo, there exists a unique music and dance form classified as an Intangible Cultural Property of the capital. Historians have traced the evolution of this performing art to...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jul 17, 2007

Wide-bottomed noh costumes

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 13, 2007

'Funuke Domo, Kanashimi no Ai o Misero'

Black comedies about dysfunctional families are common enough in Japan, from Sogo Ishii's anarchic "Gyakufunsha Kazoku (The Crazy Family)" (1984) to Takashi Miike's batty "Katakurike no Kofuku (The Happiness of the Katakuris)" (2001), which also has the distinction of the being the first Japanese zombie...
COMMENTARY
Jul 13, 2007

Breaking point of China's Communists

LOS ANGELES — It's not always easy to do right by China. Should you choose the path of unthinking flattery, you will eventually lose self-respect.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 2007

'Confession of Pain'

There are some things at which the Asian male excels and that includes looking exceptionally fatigued. Not attractively or glamorously so but plain, I-just-got-off-a-16-hour-shift fatigue enhanced by the discomfort of public transportation and too much nicotine.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 5, 2007

Drama and deconstruction

What goes around comes around, they say, and in the early 1980s, Japan's contemporary drama scene was transformed by a slew of small companies that were the artistic heirs of the previous generation's radical student politics. That brave new world of the so-called shogekijo (small-scale theater movement)...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 22, 2007

An inside track on the Japan Alps

As the overnight buses roll into the car park at Kamikochi at six on a summer's morning, disgorging disheveled and sleep-deprived long-distance travelers from as far afield as Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka and Kyoto, the whole area is already buzzing with people.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 21, 2007

Asian artists echo biennale director's themes

VENICE, Italy — By the light of the setting sun, a skateboarder practices tricks on the edge of a seaside jetty. Heavy waves roll in and break against the shore in a constant motion in the background. The skateboarder keeps to a narrow radius and his movements are rhythmic and supple. The board appears...
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 21, 2007

Yano, Rawl pursue new path to sporting success

The first real innovator in human history invented the wheel, ushering in an era of lighter workloads and easier trips. Others have made notable contributions: Thomas Edison perfected the light bulb; Johannes Gutenberg gave us the printing press; and Wilbur and Orville Wright demonstrated that airplanes...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 17, 2007

Bureaucrats discovered to be pathetically human

Few fixtures of civilization invite more derision than bureaucracy. We understand that government agencies are necessary for the smooth operation of civic life but bristle at the prospect of having to interact with them. Public offices are cold, monolithic things, operating on principles that have little...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Jun 5, 2007

'Takoyaki' czar looks to spread tentacles to U.S.

In Los Angeles last December, Morio Sase had a bout of nerves. What had made him think he could persuade Americans to cast off their culinary prejudices and warm to something with as great an "ick factor" as octopus?
COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2007

Improving Japan-Russia ties

The Japan-Russia Forum, an arena for intellectual dialogue between Japan and Russia, recently met for the first time in 2 1/2 years.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jun 3, 2007

Thinking beyond the brain

Kenichiro Mogi would be the ideal person to find sitting next to you at a dinner party, or one bleary post-sake morning over breakfast in a Japanese mountain inn.
EDITORIALS
Jun 1, 2007

First formal contact in 28 years

The United States and Iran held a meeting earlier this week to discuss how they can improve Iraq's security situation. The meeting was the first formal and scheduled contact between officials of the two countries since the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Iran following the Islamic Revolution...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 1, 2007

Butagumi: In hog heaven with the pig gang

Gourmet tonkatsu. It sounds like a contradiction in terms, as implausible as haute cuisine hot dogs or Michelin-starred jellied eels. Surely those breaded, deep-fried "cutlets" of pork can be nothing but comfort food: fatty, filling and reassuringly easy on the budget.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 27, 2007

MLB should eliminate 'rookie' label for Japanese veterans

Last week an Associated Press photo appeared in these pages with a caption that began, "Boston Red Sox rookie hurler Daisuke Matsuzaka . . . "
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 25, 2007

Bonding over Slow Food

Greek cuisine could set a trend in Slow Food and healthy eating in the same way that Japanese cuisine has in low-fat food if the Mediterranean nation succeeds in a worldwide push to promote the hearty fare.
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2007

How Japan fuels financial instability

NEW YORK — Over the past several years, much attention has focused on the role of China's trade surplus in creating today's global financial imbalances. But too little attention has been paid to the role of Japan's policy of near-zero interest rates in contributing to these imbalances. As global financial...
LIFE / Language
May 15, 2007

Cliches energize conversation in any language

First of two parts
SOCCER / J. League
May 14, 2007

Washington wills Urawa to draw against Gamba

SAITAMA — Urawa Reds rode their luck to scramble a 1-1 draw against league leaders Gamba Osaka and stay within touching distance of the top spot on Sunday at Saitama Stadium 2002.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 11, 2007

'Invisible Waves'

Emotionless-ness reaches new heights in "Invisible Waves," the long awaited second feature from Thailand's Pen-Ek Ratanaruang in which he teams up once again with our own, homegrown Tadanobu Asano.

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