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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 24, 2012

Yaeyama stray cats steal the show on the beaches of Taketomi

After eight days on Miyakojima in which again our departure was delayed by bad weather, we finally set sail for Ishigaki Island, part of the Yaeyama Island chain and the end of our sailing trip through Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 20, 2012

Ishiharas — family ties with a twist

The Ishiharas trail the Hatoyamas 2-0 in prime ministers. But when it comes to the variety, prominence and celebrity of each individual member, not many families in Japan today can compete with the Ishihara bunch.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Oct 25, 2012

Western stereotypes may explain Japan's Psy-lence

Amid all the excitement, analysis and general horse-dancing hoo-haa over Korean musician Psy's smash hit "Gangnam Style," one story that has provoked a certain amount of head-scratching among fans is the song's relative lack of success in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 18, 2012

Kentaro makes hip-hop personal

Almost the whole of Kentaro's life has been devoted to dance — in particular to hip-hop dance — ever since he first saw it on television as an elementary school boy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2012

Japan provides meeting guests with 'cool' items

For foreign ministers and others who have come to Tokyo to discuss international cooperation on difficult subjects such as the European debt crisis, the Japanese government has prepared some entertainment.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 20, 2012

To stand out in Super Junior, sometimes a side job helps

Young K-pop fans may just kill for the chance to walk backstage on the set of "M Countdown," a popular cable television music program in South Korea.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 2, 2012

Will the Takeshima dispute break the Korean wave?

"There's something sad, when a political problem goes so far as to spill over to the entertainment industry," rues journalist Kaoru Kikuchi in Sunday Mainichi (Sep. 9).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Sep 2, 2012

Film star Satoshi Tsumabuki moves up to a new stage

Wearing a headband and tracksuit, Satoshi Tsumabuki — the 31-year-old darling of the Japanese entertainment world — was easy to spot among a crowd of actors in a rehearsal studio in downtown Tokyo recently. He was there preparing for "Egg," Hideki Noda's new play, which opens Wednesday at the Tokyo...
BUSINESS
Aug 25, 2012

Okada to seek Wynn Resorts' books

Lawyers for Kazuo Okada, the Japanese billionaire Wynn Resorts Ltd. is trying to remove from its board, are scheduled to return to a Nevada court in October to argue for access to the casino operator's books.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2012

DoCoMo eyes buys overseas

NTT DoCoMo Inc. may buy more companies abroad to widen access to entertainment content and e-commerce operations to boost overseas sales ninefold within four years.
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Jun 6, 2012

E3: The one that got away from Japan

This week, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) roars through Los Angeles. Game companies from North America, Europe and Japan flock to the Convention Center downtown to show off their latest wares. E3 is the world's leading video-game show, populated with multimillion-dollar games, big-name game developers,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 12, 2012

Filmmaker savors being in situation where threat of the unknown looms

A surfboard mounted against a sea of sludge, whimsically defiant to the ruinous tide of debris. It's the kind of quirky beauty you might expect from Michael Arias, an American filmmaker based in Tokyo. Arias' creative work, in film through to his recent photographs of Tohoku, all paint with the same...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 22, 2012

It takes a forest, a field and a stream to raise a child

In 1996, back when the present U.S. Secretary of State was the first lady, Hillary Rodham-Clinton published a book titled "It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us," which popularized an old African proverb — "It takes a village to raise a child."
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 20, 2012

Comic plays mark anniversary

While the most prominent of entertainment company Yoshimoto Kogyo's myriad business interests are the near endless TV appearances by its contracted comedians, the real heart of its operation lies not in the studio but on the stage.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 6, 2012

410,000 attend Okinawa movie fest, but it's still a money-loser

The fourth edition of the Okinawa International Movie Festival, held from March 24 to 31, was a strange beast, combining screenings of 102 films from Japan, Asia and elsewhere with manzai comics and other acts from the powerful Yoshimoto Kogyo agency, which underwrote the entire event, in cooperation...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 6, 2012

Catch a glimpse of geisha at annual spring dance event in Kyoto

The way of the geisha is slowly disappearing, but there are still small pockets where you can find them around Japan. The biggest one of these areas is the Kyoto neighborhood of Gion. All through April, Gion will host the Miyako Odori — the spring dance of the geisha.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Mar 18, 2012

Frog battles carp, indignant seamen strike, Roppongi the new night-life hub, passive-smoking case stubbed out

100 YEARS AGOTuesday, March 15, 1912
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 19, 2012

A voyage of discovery from Tokyo to Naha

On the Autumnal Equinox of 2011 I finished teaching a monthlong summer intensive course at a university in Tokyo, and had six days before I had to be back in my new hometown of Naha, Okinawa, for a meeting at my new university in the nearby town of Nishihara. Since I was in no particular hurry to return,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2012

Privacy and Net cafes — a tale of two cities

Kazushi Takahashi, a 22-year-old student in Tokyo, likes the privacy provided by closed individual rooms in Internet cafes, where he can surf the Web, play online games and read manga.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Jan 25, 2012

Sony and Fujitsu take Japan into the battle for global smartphone dominance

Last year was the year that finally saw Android phones achieve booming growth all over the world, including here in Japan. But thus far, Japanese manufacturers have yet to crack the top tier of smartphone makers, as South Korea's Samsung and the Taiwanese HTC have led the charge thus far. But at the...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 15, 2012

'Made in Japan' label under assault

Take a stroll through home sweet home. You'll almost certainly see an entertainment system, refrigerator, microwave oven, rice cooker, toaster, mixer/blender, vacuum cleaner, heater/air conditioner, hair dryer, electric blanket and so on. From personal hygiene to food preparation to recreation and entertainment,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / LIGHT GIST
Dec 27, 2011

2011: a year of disaster in quotes

This year produced more than its share of memorable quotes, many of which were inspired by the March 11 disaster and its aftermath. But figures from other fields, from sports to entertainment, also said things worth repeating. Here is a sampling, in chronological order:
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Dec 2, 2011

Holiday cocktails with a tower view

The Bay View Sky Lounge on the 28th floor of the Yokohama Bay Sheraton Hotel & Towers is running a Christmas Cocktail Fair through Dec. 25.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Nov 20, 2011

Nico Nico Douga, Warner launch video on demand service

This week, Japan's expanding online video service operator Nico Nico Douga made a surprise announcement, launching a movie distribution service in partnership with Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Nov 6, 2011

Kiyoshi Nakabayashi: Ex-Tokyo cop speaks out on a life fighting gangs — and what you can do

Kiyoshi Nakabayashi well remembers how, when he was a high school student in the late 1950s and early '60s, newspapers were full of stories of violent gang wars being fought out openly on the streets of Tokyo.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 4, 2011

Get a sample of Japanese arts

The Japanese arts of noh and kabuki are popular with tourists from all over, and Kamigata Traditional Entertainment Night was created to make productions easier to comprehend with its all-English program of traditional theater.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?