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Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Dec 23, 2011

2011 trends: Korean boom spreads to a new generation

The love of all things Korean continued to grow in 2011, and along with it, a bit of a backlash.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 23, 2011

Aquarium, park offer festivies

Scuba-diving Santas, parading penguins, luminous balloons and a maze made of lights — the people of Osaka celebrate the festive season with more than the occasional Christmas tree.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Dec 23, 2011

New Japan Pro-Wrestling hits 40

High-impact slams, chokeholds and daredevil feats of athleticism aren't the usual way to celebrate a 40th birthday, but that's how New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) will be spending its big day.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 23, 2011

'Restless'

Gus Van Sant's "Restless" is a film about love, an ode to doomed but pure teenage infatuation. But it's also about love of a film, in this case Hal Ashby's cult classic "Harold and Maude." It's one of those cases where the lift (or "homage") is so overt and massive that it's hard to consider "Restless"...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 23, 2011

New venues made Tokyo tastier in '11

Another year comes to an end, with the usual round of Christmas and bōnenkai "drink the old year to oblivion" parties. Except, of course, it was not just another year. And though we will all be glad to put it behind us, 2011 will not be easily forgotten.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Japan Pulse
Dec 22, 2011

More than one way to keep your heating bill down

Worried about high heating bills? How about a desk kotatsu, or a sleeping bag suit?
CULTURE / Music
Dec 22, 2011

Natural disasters rock year in music

The year 2011 in Japan was undoubtedly defined by the triple disasters of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and the subsequent nuclear crisis. The impact of those catastrophes was also felt across the entire entertainment world. The industry pretty much put itself on hold for the remainder of March...
Reader Mail
Dec 22, 2011

Doubts about a declared miracle

Regarding the Dec. 18 article "Daunting tasks await despite declaration of cold shutdown": The declaration of safety by various authorities is merely a matter of timing and saving face. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's optimistic declaration of nuclear plant stability has angered people both at home and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 22, 2011

Best of 2011: AKB48 "Koko ni Ita Koto"

AKB48 is not a band, or even a pop group: AKB48 is a hate crime. With "Koko ni Ita Koto," pop music has reached its lowest ebb. And that is precisely why this album is not my favorite of the year, but the one I think is the most important.
COMMENTARY
Dec 20, 2011

Suicide pact at Durban climate-health summit

The Durban climate summit that ended Dec. 11 has been proclaimed a great success. The chair, South Africa's international relations minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, told the delegates: "We have concluded this meeting with (a plan) to save one planet for the future of our children and our grandchildren...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2011

Hashimoto takes office, visits Tokyo

Toru Hashimoto began his term as Osaka mayor Monday with a promise to radically reform the municipal bureaucracy and then took off for Tokyo to meet senior Diet members and long-time supporters like Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara.
EDITORIALS
Dec 20, 2011

Nuclear crisis far from resolved

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Dec. 16 declared that the stricken reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant have entered the state of "cold shutdown" and that it has been confirmed that the nuclear crisis has "been resolved"(Shusoku ni itatta.) As far as Tepco and the...
BUSINESS
Dec 20, 2011

As local sales shrink, Sapporo looks to hike Vietnam beer output fivefold

Sapporo Holdings Ltd., the nation's fourth-largest brewer by volume, intends to increase beer production as much as fivefold in Vietnam by 2019 as a shrinking population at home crimps demand.
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2011

Why are monotheisms so sexually obsessed?

One should not mock the sexual obsessions of Islamic fundamentalists; it's like shooting fish in a barrel.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2011

Road map for Afghanistan as contested as ever

Another conference on Afghanistan has come and gone, but the problem remains as intractable as ever. No one has any idea how the underlying issues facing Afghanistan and the region will be resolved, but the international community soldiers on in the hope that ultimately there will be light at the end...
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2011

Motivation for college study

These days we often hear that there are two signs that the Japanese people, especially youths, have become inward-looking: The number of Japanese students going overseas for study has declined sharply, and far fewer employees in the public and private sectors are willing to take up posts outside the...
Reader Mail
Dec 18, 2011

Misleading criticism of debt

In his Dec. 11 letter, "Debt clock cannot be ignored," Paul Bennett writes that Japan's "national debt clock" should be mentioned more often in the media and the Japanese people warned about how dire the situation is. He warns that Japan could follow in Greece's footsteps. However, such a comparison...
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Dec 18, 2011

Revolution in China, anti-communist campaign, a different brew of bīru, Takeshi Gundan under arrest

100 YEARS AGOTuesday, Dec. 12, 1911
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Dec 18, 2011

There's more to Christmas colors than meets the eye

The rotenburo (outdoor hot spring) that I most regularly frequent creates an excellent illusion of there always being a full moon bathing in its glow those soaking beneath.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 18, 2011

Laughs from the past still hitting the spot

Any well-aimed dart of wit depends upon accurate release. Timing is all, and at first glance a collection of 1990s humor from "The Alien," a popular Nagoya-based ex-pat magazine featuring irreverent satire and visual gags, may seem dated. That the compilation still makes the reader laugh aloud, while...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 17, 2011

Herbivorous men, where's the beef?

My single Japanese girlfriends complain that there are no interesting guys out there. Could they be right? It seems that these days the average Japanese guy is, well, you know, kinda boring. Kinda quiet. Nothing wrong with being quiet of course, especially if you have nothing to say.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 17, 2011

Military policeman's 'hobby' documented 1970 Okinawa rioting

At 1 a.m. on Dec. 20, 1970, a minor traffic accident involving a drunken American driver and an Okinawan pedestrian in Koza (present-day city of Okinawa) sparked the largest anti-U.S. riot the prefecture had ever seen.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 17, 2011

Redknapp wants two refs per match

It has been another bad week for referees. Chris Foy (Stoke vs. Tottenham) and Mark Clattenburg (Chelsea vs. Manchester City) became the latest to be blamed for the defeats of Spurs and City by, unsurprisingly, the losing managers.

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?