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CULTURE / Music
Feb 24, 2006

Likkle Mai "Roots Candy"

As a member of Dry & Heavy, one of Japan's best-known dub-reggae outfits, Likkle Mai shared stages with the likes of Lee "Scratch" Perry and Horace Andy and wowed crowds at festivals such as Britain's WOMAD festival and Fuji Rock. "Roots Candy" -- the Japanese singer's first solo outing -- sees Mai creating...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 23, 2006

Kiyosumi galleries: Optimistic in Tokyo's east

Painting, photography and installations from emerging and experienced artists have made for a strong start to the Kiyosumi galleries' first spring season.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 22, 2006

Signal crayfish

* Japanese name: Uchida zarigani * Scientific name: Pacifastacus leniusculus * Description: Crayfish look like small lobsters. Despite their name, they are not fish, but freshwater crustaceans. They have a segmented body, up to 20-cm long, with 10 legs and a hard exoskeleton that they must molt as they...
Japan Times
Features
Feb 19, 2006

Wolf in sheep's clothing

With more power than an F1 Ferrari, Honda or McLaren, souped-up Nissan Skyline saloons have been the Japanese street racer's weapon of choice for decades. More recently, the sedate-looking Skyline's street cred has gone global, with Australia and Britain in particular reverberating to the roar of Japan's...
Japan Times
Features
Feb 19, 2006

One man's drive to clean up the Earth

Every foreigner in Japan learns one thing pretty quickly: This being the land of harmony, courtesy trumps candor. Hanging back works best, everywhere and every time.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 19, 2006

An innocent abroad brings his twisted genius to Japan

I first heard about Momus, the alter-ego of the Scottish musical maverick Nick Currie, in 2002, when a writer friend directed me to an article that Currie had written on the coolness of Tokyo's up-and-coming Nakameguro district.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2006

Corporate character goods harness power of 'cute'

A traditional seasoning flies off store shelves after the bottles begin sporting a cartoon panda. A droplet-shaped character turns a little-known manufacturer into a household name.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2006

Ogasawara forest reserve to expand

The Forestry Agency said Wednesday the Ogasawara Islands' forest ecosystem reserve will be expanded, a move meant to have the island chain registered as a natural World Heritage site, officials said.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 12, 2006

Refuge of Last Resort

It is 9 o'clock on a freezing winter's morning in Sanya, eastern Tokyo, a blighted downtown district that was once famed as a day laborers' mecca. Now, it is home to thousands of aging men on welfare.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2006

Rise in elderly offenders graying prisons

There are still plenty of metal bars and handcuffs. But prisons these days have some new features -- like wheelchair-friendly stair ramps, handrails in the bathrooms and nurses trained to spoon-feed inmates.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2006

Toshiba touts fastest, densest chip

Toshiba Corp. said Tuesday it has developed a new chip that features the world's fastest operating speed and highest density.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 8, 2006

Mud shrimp

* Japanese name: Ana-jako * Scientific name: Upogebia major * Description: Mud shrimps are 10-cm-long decapod crustaceans, which means they have 10 legs and a hard outer shell. They also have two pairs of antennae, of which one pair is very long. The animal is whitish in color, with large dark-brown...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 5, 2006

When building bridges becomes a fruitless endeavor

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi prides himself on his plain-spoken approach to politics. His popularity guarantees that people listen to everything he says, and because what he says tends to be simple it has the power of a pronouncement, regardless of whether or not it makes any sense.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2006

New games bring more people to video consoles

There may be no monsters to slay or racing cars to spin, but new video games that claim to stimulate the brain or translate languages are being snapped up by a new crowd of gamers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Feb 3, 2006

Counting Nakano among the best

There's no better word than "counter" to encapsulate Nakano, a ward in Western Tokyo. It's an area of counterculture, counterintelligence, casino-card counters and, of course, lunch counters; perhaps even a place where you might find your counterpart in life.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 3, 2006

Tableware,pottery fest

A variety of tableware will be displayed at the Tableware Festival 2006, to be held at Tokyo Dome Feb. 4-12.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2006

Nissan issues all-new Moco in bid to tap minicar shift

Nissan Motor Co. launched a fully remodeled version of the Moco minivehicle Wednesday that is being supplied by Suzuki Motor Corp. on an original equipment manufacturing basis.
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2006

Much ado about an old Chinese map

A little squall ruffled the staid world of historical scholarship earlier this month after a Beijing lawyer and amateur collector produced a tattered, bamboo-paper map that at first glance appeared to undermine an axiom of Western history. The map, which Mr. Liu Gang said he bought in a Shanghai bookshop...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Hotelier beats checks, drops disabled access

Toyoko Inn Co. admitted Friday that some of its business hotels in Yokohama and other areas removed mandatory parking facilities for the disabled after authorities certified them as barrier-free.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2006

No single recipe for facing challenges of globalization

T here are multiple ways for companies to stay competitive in a globalized world, and even firms in what are often perceived as sunset industries have the potential for success, scholars and business executives said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 28, 2006

The rah-rah radish, part II

On Shiraishi Island, the radish rah-rah starts in December, when you see "o-baa-chans" pushing wheelbarrows full of daikon. The esteemed radish is wheeled around -- entire radish families are given rides. In December and January, they are pulled out of gardens and transported to houses. If you look closely,...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 27, 2006

Visual- kei goes traditional

It isn't only Demon Kogure's appearance -- as extravagantly coiffed and heavily made-up as befits any visual-kei singer -- that makes him an unlikely candidate to be presenting a lecture-style concert on hogaku (traditional Japanese music). Kogure -- or His Excellency Demon Kogure as he prefers to be...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 25, 2006

Great egret

* Japanese name: Daisagi * Scientific name: Egretta alba * Description: The great egret is the largest of the egrets in Japan. It is 80-100 cm tall, with a wingspan of 140-170 cm. The plumage is pure white; the legs, feet and bill are black. In flight, great egrets are languid, with slow and deep wingbeats,...
Japan Times
Features
Jan 22, 2006

Bosses where they want to be

Born and raised in Yokohama, Nalin Advani, 40, never tires of extolling the virtues of his home town.
Japan Times
Features
Jan 22, 2006

Home from home

The first Doreen Wingate saw of Yokohama was the immigration and customs office next to the now famous Red Brick Warehouse on Shinko Pier. The year was 1952, and Doreen, her husband and 6-month-old son were arriving in Japan by ship, the same way as most of Yokohama's fledgling expatriate community....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 22, 2006

When notoriety helps sell books

TOPPAMONO: Outlaw. Radical. Suspect. My Life in Japan's Underworld, by Manabu Miyazaki. Tokyo: Kotan Publishing, 2005, 460 pp., $26.95 (cloth). THE APPRENTICE by Lewis Libby. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, St. Martin edition, 2005, 265 pp., $12.95 (paper). Japan's student movement ended with a whimper...
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2006

21 prefectures' plans for handling attacks OK'd

The government approved emergency plans Friday for 21 prefectures to protect the public in the event of an attack.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?