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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 15, 2007

A big noise about what?

'I think the best pop is always subversive in its nature," says James Righton over the phone from London a few days after his band Klaxons beat the bookies' odds to win the Mercury Music Prize, a major award that gives $40,000 to the "best" British or Irish album of the year. "Even things like Abba —...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Nov 14, 2007

Online music store helps Japanese music go global

You've heard the stories: The music industry is in crisis, CD sales are dropping year on year, iTunes is taking over the world, the future is digital, the revolution is here. While a lot of this may be true, music fans could be forgiven for some cynicism when all about them the music industry seeks to...
BUSINESS
Nov 14, 2007

Demio named RJC's Car of Year

Mazda Motor Corp.'s Demio compact car won Japan's 2008 RJC Car of the Year award, topping six other nominees, including Honda Motor Co.'s Fit compact and Toyota Motor Corp.'s Mark X Zio minivan.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 13, 2007

Stay the course of international justice

WASHINGTON — After eight years on the job, Carla del Ponte is about to step down as the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 13, 2007

Pick a charismatic kyara to sweeten up your life

"All my friends are characters" is a line from the Peanuts cartoon strip, but it seems that everyone in Japan, from friends to foes to family members — have turned into characters, or as people over here say, kyara.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 13, 2007

Dialect-rife Japan can be tongue-twisting

The islands of Japan have many dialects, and students of the language often realize these variations are not taught in classrooms.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 13, 2007

'Gaijin card' checks spread as police deputize the nation

In the good old days, very few Japanese knew about Alien Registration Cards — you know, those wallet-size documents all non-Japanese residents must carry 24/7 or face arrest and incarceration.
Reader Mail
Nov 13, 2007

Too old to pose a threat

Has Japan's immigration department gone mad? I am 80 years old, have lived in Japan for 46 years and am a card-carrying resident. Martyrdom (as sought by Islamic terrorists) is not in the cards for me unless there is a category for nonbelievers, and in any case, I would not be interested in even 30...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Nov 13, 2007

Agosta anniversary, Swedish cool, disc hats and more

Well-preened
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Nov 13, 2007

Goh Hotoda

JUDIT KAWAGUCHI
Reader Mail
Nov 11, 2007

Burning the daylights out of energy

In their own homes, few people would burn lights in unused rooms, but the same individuals seem to pay no mind to a huge waste of electric lighting in public settings: train stations, shopping centers, etc. That's because, except for the rare breed of the environmentally principled, most people are...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 11, 2007

Cambodia's jungle treasure still stuns the senses

These days any number of people will delight in ruefully declaring how such and such a place has been ruined — overrun by tourists and commercialism — and, as if to rub salt into the wound, they'll tell you that if you'd only visited it when they first did, you too could have savored Paradise.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2007

Should we study race-intelligence links?

PRINCETON, New Jersey — The intersection of genetics and intelligence is an intellectual minefield. Harvard's former President Larry Summers touched off one explosion in 2005 when he tentatively suggested a genetic explanation for the difficulty his university had in recruiting female professors in...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 10, 2007

Bowled over by one very, happy day

If National Toilet Day is not a happy day for you, perhaps you need a new toilet.
EDITORIALS
Nov 10, 2007

Hooked on hired help

Blackwater USA, a private security company, is undergoing unprecedented scrutiny following the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis earlier this year. The investigation has revealed that this was only the most recent in a string of incidents that demonstrates horrific indifference to the violence perpetrated...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2007

East Timor need not follow Myanmar

MANILA — East Timor, now known as Timor-Leste, is the world's newest democracy. It may have a population of less than 1 million, but it has a proud, heroic history and a rich culture built up over centuries of diverse ethnic and colonial influences.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 9, 2007

'Four Minutes'

"Four Minutes" was inspired by a single photograph of an 80-year-old woman who worked as a piano teacher in a women's prison. She sat at her instrument, her hands placed lightly on the keys, and filmmaker Chris Kraus was struck by the contrast between her old, ravaged face and youthful, elegant hands....
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 9, 2007

Acid-house pioneer shakes Tokyo

The death of music impresario Tony Wilson in August this year led to tributes from across the world, and recently the movie "Control," a biopic of late Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, was released to critical acclaim. What do these two events have in common? Manchester's music scene of the late 1980s....
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2007

EU's moment of decision

BRUSSELS — Is amnesia an integral part of politics? When it comes to the treaty to reform the European Union's institutions, which will be finalized this month, recent events suggest that amnesia does play a central role.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2007

Will entry checks cross the line?

Despite government claims it is necessary to counter terrorism, a new immigration procedure obliging most foreigners to be fingerprinted and photographed upon entry to Japan has come under fire as an unwarranted invasion of privacy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 8, 2007

Underworld outside their comfort zone

Call it a midlife crisis. Five years ago, Underworld's Karl Hyde and Rick Smith — then aged 45 and 43, respectively — took stock of their careers and realized a change was due.
SOCCER
Nov 8, 2007

Reds hang on to earn draw

Urawa Reds hung on grimly for a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their AFC Champions League final against Iran's Sepahan on Wednesday evening in Esfahan.

Longform

Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.
The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo