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CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2011

New record label Pachinko starts up despite uncertain times

In 2010, legal downloads of music in Japan increased marginally over 2009, but CD sales were down by 12 percent, and sales by foreign artists, both imports and nihonban (domestically manufactured discs), by 15 percent. It doesn't sound like the best time to start a new record label featuring overseas...
OLYMPICS
May 5, 2011

The least that East Asians can do to cooperate

As China continues its unremitting rise, people throughout East Asia are wondering whether their states will ever be able to achieve the peaceful, stable relations that now characterize Europe. Given the regularity of serious diplomatic spats — over everything from tiny atolls in the South China Sea...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 5, 2011

'Art Brut Japonais': Unleashing the uninhibited power of expression

In recent weeks there have been several contemporary-art group exhibitions, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo Annual, VOCA at the Ueno Royal Museum, and the Sompo Japan Rising Artists Exhibition. In theory these exhibitions, which are usually scheduled to coincide with the optimism of spring,...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
May 4, 2011

Spurs paid price after running into confident Grizzlies at wrong time

The beauty of the NBA's best-of-seven playoff format is the best teams almost always advance from the first round.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 3, 2011

Kamakura: Considering TEPCO's handling of the nuclear crisis, do you think the company should be taken over by the government?

Jean-Philippe PatryChiropractor, 38 (French)Yes, it should be taken over. The government should take over nuclear energy and invest in new energy. TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co.) is after easy money; it's a capitalistic thing and it should be disbanded.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 2, 2011

Japan firms ignore foreign media at own peril: expert

Japanese companies need to improve their communication with the foreign media when attempting to expand their presence in overseas markets, says a Tokyo-based expert in corporate public relations.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 2, 2011

Reading between the lines of disaster vocabulary

If you chanced to visit Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s website in mid-April, you probably saw a note regarding the utility's tsunami e no taisaku (津波への対策, tsunami policy). Clearly it had been written in more innocent times. Relax, it said in effect. The policy was iron-clad. It rested on painstaking...
Reader Mail
May 1, 2011

Silent protests against noise

Regarding the April 26 article "Brit held in campaign noise protest": Assuming nobody was hurt by grabbing the microphone, I'd like to applaud Edward Jones' actions in disrupting campaign efforts (for the Tokorozawa Municipal Assembly, Saitama Prefecture) on April 23.
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2011

Way to institutionalize a system of integrity

When a career bureaucrat with a corruption charge pending against him was chosen to be the chief vigilance commissioner, the Supreme Court nullified the appointment to protect the "institutional integrity" of the CVC.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 1, 2011

Tabloids warn of major quake beneath Tokyo

Now that northeast Japan is gradually shifting into recovery mode and the Fukushima nuclear plant crisis is becoming more manageable, new themes have been emerging in the vernacular media. One is the life expectancy of the cabinet of PM Naoto Kan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Apr 30, 2011

3/11 renders tax-cut advocates' poll momentum a distant dream

When candidates from the new local group Genzei Nippon (Tax Reduction Japan) led by Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura won the triple elections held in Aichi Prefecture in February, the group's tax cut initiative seemed to have gained momentum.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 29, 2011

'Letters to Juliet (Japan title: Juliet Kara no Tegami)'

"Letters to Juliet" is a rare chick flick that makes you feel glad to be a chick (play along with me please), glad the weather's getting warm and definitely glad this year's skirt lengths are short and skimpy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 29, 2011

Wright, Cera get 1-up in 'Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World'

"Scott in the comics almost reminds me of Homer Simpson; you get to see what's going on in his head, and there's not much going on," says Hollywood indie poster-boy Michael Cera when asked about his role as the title character in the adrenaline-soaked action comedy "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 29, 2011

Divides in the Pure Land

The portrait of Honen Shoin (13th century) is known in Japanese as "Kagami no Miei" (mirror portrait) and shows the famous Buddhist priest seated on a mat, slightly slumped and holding his nenju (rosary). For the title of another famous 13th-century depiction of a well-known Buddhist priest, Shinran,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 29, 2011

Making Kyoto's modern architecture part of the city's heritage

On the Kamo River of Kyoto, a city renowned for its traditional wooden houses and temples, sits a neglected concrete building. Though now looking a little forlorn, when it opened 40 years ago, this was the glamorous Hotel Fujita Kyoto, a holiday spot much loved by numerous sophisticated visitors, including...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 29, 2011

'Kantai (Hospitalite)'

When Koji Fukada's "Kantai (Hospitalite)" won the Best Picture Award in the Japanese Eyes section of last year's Tokyo International Film Festival, I wasn't surprised: It's brand of black comedy is funny in smart, original ways. Many reviewers have since compared it favorably with Yoshimitsu Morita's...
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2011

Debt rating threat may hasten tax hike push

The threat of a cut to Japan's credit rating adds pressure on Prime Minister Naoto Kan to raise taxes as he wrestles with financing quake rebuilding without adding to the world's biggest public debt burden.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2011

Communication challenge

The catastrophe of the earthquake, the tsunami and the crippled nuclear power plant on March 11 posed an unprecedented challenge of crisis communication with the world. Those in charge were faced with the difficult choice between calming the public by presenting an optimistic scenario that could lead...

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?