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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 12, 2007

Lauded in the West, ignored in the East

Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom, by Daisuke Miyao. Duke University Press, 2007, 380 pp., with 23 illustrations, $23.95 (paper) Kintaro Hayakawa (1886-1973), born in modest circumstances in Chiba, went on to have an extraordinary and unexpected life elsewhere. Now renamed Sesshu...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 11, 2007

Critic awaits callers in Imperial Hotel suite

The Imperial Hotel in central Tokyo's Hibiya district is a surprising place. Yes, of course the rich and famous stay there. But how many realize that this famed institution also rents out private office suites. On the fifth floor, for example, is where TV commentator and author Kenichi Takemura hangs...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
Aug 10, 2007

A Good Year

Director: Ridley Scott Language: English
Reader Mail
Aug 8, 2007

Who can say no to tetrapods?

The reporting for the July 22 article "Tetrapods" was top-notch. When in Japan, I always found tetrapods quite a puzzling hubristic sight -- all the more because they defeat any possibility of lying down for a sunbathe. Although I am not a geologist or a structural engineer, and I see the point...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2007

Conversion in France's Foreign Ministry

PRAGUE — French President Nicolas Sarkozy's appointment of Bernard Kouchner as France's foreign minister was a brilliant political stroke. Having beaten his Socialist rival, Segolene Royal, Sarkozy decided to compound the Socialists' crisis by appointing to his government several political figures...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 5, 2007

Japan's war memories, so often misrepresented

JAPAN'S CONTESTED WAR MEMORIES: The "Memory Rifts" in Historical Consciousness of WWII, by Philip A. Seaton. Routledge, 2007, 258 pp., £75 (cloth) Stereotypical images of Japanese collectively in denial about the atrocities committed by the Imperial armed forces are grossly misleading and overlook...
COMMENTARY
Jul 31, 2007

'Sugar daddy' relationships and HIV

NEW YORK — Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the world's leading AIDS scientists, warned at an international conference on AIDS in Sydney, Australia, that the world is losing the battle against the virus. He indicated that increased emphasis should be placed on prevention efforts, particularly with regard...
Reader Mail
Jul 29, 2007

Brazen demand for apology

Regarding Kiroku Hanai's article: I don't know whether he is aware of how offensive it is from an American point of view for people in Japan to ask that the United States apologize for using the atomic bomb to end the war with Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 29, 2007

Kaiten zushi

It was a season of long days, heavy rain, loquats, hollyhocks and hydrangea.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 29, 2007

Details from the British Museum

Japanese Art in Detail, by John Reeve. British Museum Press, 2005, 144 pp., £14.99 (cloth) FLOATING WORLD: JAPAN IN THE EDO PERIOD, by John Reeve. British Museum Press, 2006, 96 pp., £9.99 (cloth)
COMMENTARY
Jul 25, 2007

The death of Iraq's Christian community

WASHINGTON — Although Islam long has been in the ascendancy in Iraq, the so-called Assyrians, who speak a neo-Aramaic language, predate the rise of Islam. Today, however, the Iraqi Christian community faces possible extermination.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 22, 2007

Welcome additions to the newest anthology of Japanese literature

The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature: From 1945 to the Present, edited by J. Thomas Rimer and Van C. Gessel, with additional selections by poetry editors Amy Vladeck Heinrich and Hiroaki Sato. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007, 864 pp., $59.50 (cloth). Anthologists must consider...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 22, 2007

Beijing sleuth's treasure hunt a hit and miss

The Eye of Jade: A Mei Wang Mystery. London: Picador, 2007, 227 pp., £10.99 (paper) Any study of Chinese females portrayed in English and American literature over the past century will find no lack of sources, from the works of Pearl Buck and Louise Jordan Miln to those by Han Suyin, Amy Tan and Jung...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2007

Confused by a Turkish veil

ISTANBUL — On Monday millions of Turks will wake up to a new, post-elections Turkey. What will happen is hard to foresee. Turkish politics is full of surprises that only foreigners find surprising.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2007

That hazy, crazy bubbly feel of liquidity

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut — We increasingly hear that "the world is awash with liquidity," and that this justifies expecting asset prices to continue rising. But what does such liquidity mean, and is there really reason to expect that it will sustain further increases in stock and real estate prices?...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 20, 2007

'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'

A lot of times these days, I'll find myself in some summer-event movie — say, "Pirates Of The Caribbean" — and think, "Gee, I really would have loved this when I was 12." Tastes obviously change as you grow older, for better and for worse, but to try and hang onto your 12-year-old tastes forever...
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2007

Murakami: investor activist turned greenmailer?

Convicted of insider trading Thursday and more than a year after he stepped down as a high-profile fund manager, it still isn't clear how to define Yoshiaki Murakami.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2007

Obituary: Sen Nishiyama

Translator, author, historian and pioneer in the field of simultaneous interpretation Sen Nishiyama died at a Tokyo rest home on July 2. He was 95.
Japan Times
CULTURE / OTAKOOL
Jul 19, 2007

'Heavy-metal suicide'

Marty Friedman looks very metal.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 18, 2007

Putting 'rarity' into context

Stepping outside this morning, I heard a skylark singing above the open field adjacent to where I live. It's a rare event for me, but perhaps you hear skylarks all the time. Then again, perhaps you have never heard that silvery cascade of notes pouring endlessly from high in the sky.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Jul 13, 2007

Four top tipples for summer

The first rule for a summer wine is that it needs to be refreshing. High-scoring monster reds that warm the soul on a winter evening become plodding, heavy, alcoholic beasts on a sweltering day. Under conditions of heat and humidity, such big, bruiser wines leave us weary, rather than exhilarated.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 12, 2007

Enabling a war-ravaged state to recover

NEW YORK — War-ravaged countries confront a double challenge: to create dynamic economies and to promote, at the same time, economic and social inclusion. Without both of these elements, national reconciliation will likely prove impossible.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 8, 2007

'Propaganda is the soul of every struggle'

Revolutionary activist Rosa Luxemburg, writing from prison in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) on Sept. 3, 1918, exhorted colleagues not to relent in their struggles. "Stand your ground," she wrote, "till we meet again at work!"
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2007

Japan, just a puppet of America?

Client State: Japan in the American Embrace, by Gavan McCormack. New York: Verso Press, 2007, 246 pp., $29.95 (paper) Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi are usually portrayed as assertive nationalists, but come off here as dutiful and submissive gophers carrying out the...
COMMENTARY
Jul 6, 2007

Low-cost investments to save children

NEW YORK — In the world today there are over 600 million children under 5 years old. They represent the best hopes for the planet, yet more than 5 million of them die every year as a result of environment-related diseases. Their deaths could be prevented by using low-cost and sustainable tools and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 5, 2007

Exposing our tacky selves

Walking through an exhibition of Martin Parr's photography is an emotional experience. The Englishman's works make you laugh, snicker, cringe; they prompt self- and societal reflection; but most of all they make you marvel at the dry wit and superior eye that Parr has for things simultaneously insipid...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jul 3, 2007

"Tunnels," "The Boy in the Biscuit Tin"

"Tunnels," By Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, Chicken House; 2007; 463 pp. Books that lead to sequels are good news and bad news bundled into one. Good news because a sequel means that there's more where this came from, and bad news because the author is not obligated to resolving the plot by the...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 22, 2007

Rimbaud revelry

Who ever would've thought a nightclub event would take a page out of a classic literary masterpiece?
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2007

Nuclear industry gears up for global push

KYOTO — Japan's nuclear power industry is pushing to get atomic energy on next year's agenda when this nation hosts the Group of Eight summit meetings, saying it is time world leaders recognize the power source as a practical way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
BUSINESS
Jun 19, 2007

TBS' Rakuten snub reflects protected world

Hiroshi Inoue, president of Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc., does not hide his displeasure when he talks about online shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc.'s attempt to make the broadcaster its affiliate.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake