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Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 26, 2012

Material girls: Japan's preteen model boom

AKB48 has reshaped the landscape of youth culture in modern Japan. The pop-idol group's rapid rise to stardom across a wide array of formats has provided the country's children with a fairly straightforward path to commercial success: fame is ultimately achieved by attracting a broad fan base via popular...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2012

Trial of the century reveals China's fractured leadership

The trial, conviction and suspended death sentence of Gu Kailai, the wife of purged Chinese leader Bo Xilai, has called into question not only China's legal system but also the very unity of the Communist Party leadership.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2012

Death with dignity bills heading toward Diet

It was 2 a.m. when Chiaki rushed to the hospital to see her 63-year-old father, who had collapsed from a ruptured aortic aneurysm.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2012

Hosono denies nuke disposal report

Environment Minister Goshi Hosono denied on Friday a media report that the government has asked the town of Minamiosumi, Kagoshima Prefecture, to be the host for final disposal of radiation-contaminated soil and other waste generated by the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 24, 2012

'Anata e (Dearest)'

To call Ken Takakura an icon is almost an understatement. He is not only one of the few stars left from the heyday of the studio era, but he has for decades embodied the sort of ideal Japanese male (stoic, self-sacrificing, unstoppable in a fight) who is vanishingly rare in real life. (Clint Eastwood...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 24, 2012

'The Grey' / 'Facing Ali'

The Grey" could be a welcome sight for those of us panting in summer's dog days of heat and humidity: miles of ice and snow stretching way into a horizon that merges with a forbidding, indeterminate sky. But in the next second, you realize this is a desperate tale of survival, unfolding in an Alaskan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 24, 2012

Ridley Scott returns to sci-fi with 'Prometheus'

"As a cinematic genre, science-fiction has a longer shelf life than most," says director/producer Sir Ridley Scott. The mastermind behind such classics as "Alien" (1979), "Blade Runner" (1982) and this year's "Prometheus" is referring to how aspects of a sci-fi film can morph from fiction into fact with...
EDITORIALS
Aug 24, 2012

New budgetary guidelines

The Noda administration on Aug. 17 adopted guidelines for budgetary requests for fiscal 2013, with a funding priority for three areas — the environment, medical services, and agriculture and fisheries. These areas are the main pillars of the government's Japan revitalization strategy.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2012

Serbia looking for more contact, ambassador says

Serbia wants the Japanese people to learn more about the country, whose diplomatic contacts with Japan date back 130 years, Ambassador to Japan Bojana Adamovic Dragovic said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2012

Sony may move phone development from Sweden to Japan, cut 1,000 jobs

Sony Corp., planning to cut 10,000 jobs as it tries to recover from a record loss, may eliminate as many as 1,000 positions at a mobile-phone unit in Sweden, the Sydsvenska Dagbladet newspaper reported.
Reader Mail
Aug 23, 2012

Give a flicker of respect to fans

Giovanni Fazio's Aug. 17 review of the film "The Avengers" gave me a headache. I was expecting a well-thought-out critique on the movie, but all I remember reading was "the best actors of my generation" are running around acting like children!
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2012

Australia's call for thoughts on Iraq

On Aug. 16 a group of Australians, led by former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and former Chief of the Defense Force Gen. Peter Gration, launched a call for an inquiry into how and why Australia joined the Iraq war in 2003. The goal is not to rake over old coals, but to improve how war and peace decisions...
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2012

No evidence sex slaves were taken by military: Hashimoto

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said there was no evidence that the Imperial Japanese Army forced Korean women and girls into sexual servitude at wartime military brothels.
EDITORIALS
Aug 23, 2012

Japan's growth slowing down

Japan's real gross domestic product in the April-June period increased 0.3 percent (or an annualized 1.4 percent) from the previous quarter, the Cabinet Office's preliminary report said on Aug. 13. Although the Japanese economy has grown for four consecutive quarters, clearly it is slowing down.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / Japan Pulse
Aug 22, 2012

Take the kids back in time this summer

Japanese people are rediscovering the charms of a simpler life, if only for a weekend.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2012

Cultural exchanges a top priority for new Armenian ambassador

Grant Pogosyan, who was appointed Armenia's ambassador to Japan in July, said his mission here is to promote further bilateral cultural exchanges.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Aug 22, 2012

Japanese companies aspire to take a bite out of the e-reader apple

With so many competitors in the tablet and e-reader market these days, it's getting harder and harder for manufacturers to differentiate themselves from similar offerings. Apple's iPad held 68 percent of the worldwide market share in the second quarter according to Massachusetts-based research firm IDC,...
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2012

Mr. Putin's butterflies

Alexander Pope's question — "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" — is as compelling as ever in the wake of the two-year sentences handed down Friday by a Russian court to three young women convicted of hooliganism.
COMMENTARY
Aug 22, 2012

Remembering Japan's 'deserters'

The Obon festival celebrated on Aug. 15 in many parts of Japan marks the alleged release of ghosts from past mythical sufferings. The Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan's 1945 defeat also gives Japan's dwindling band of progressive TV program producers freedom to confront the ghosts of Japan's militaristic...

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?