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BUSINESS
Dec 31, 2010

Spending big question for 2011

The economy's tepid recovery will have trouble staying on track in 2011 as the effects of government stimulus gradually fade.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 31, 2010

Websites, blogs pick best albums of 2010

The staff at The Japan Times office couldn't agree on which album we liked best in 2010. We did agree, however, that we are really enjoying the thrill of finding new music websites and blogs that focus on local artists. With the list of online resources growing, we hope that more voices will help make...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 31, 2010

2010 top movies: Japan feels a crazy little thing called love

This was the year of love in Japan. Not that there was a sudden rise in the marriage rate (ain't happening), but you could sense a certain savviness about love-related issues that wasn't present before.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Japan Pulse
Dec 29, 2010

Chapter 2 of e-readers in Japan

2010 was the year of the iPad, but Sony, KDDI and Sharp haven't exactly closed the book on e-readers yet.
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2010

Japan's 'hot' year

The kanji "sho" for "hot" has been chosen by the Japanese people as best representing 2010 in a poll organized by the Kyoto-based Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation. No doubt the memory of last summer's record-breaking heat is still fresh in people's minds, but ironically the summer also brought...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 29, 2010

Living in Japan: There's an app for that

As 2010 draws to a close, smartphone use in Japan has risen to an all-time high, accounting for around 50 percent of all handset sales here. Yet it shames this columnist to admit that I'm still rockin' an old Windows 6.1 phone — insofar as a Windows 6.1 phone can be rocked at all — because as someone...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 28, 2010

Kabuki going strong, 400 years on

The media frenzy over kabuki star Ichikawa Ebizo's drunken midnight brawl in Tokyo last month may be a testament to how, 400 years after its birth, the genre remains a highly popular form of entertainment integral to Japanese culture.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 26, 2010

Shikoku shrines: journey through a lost world

Itsue Takamure, born in 1894, grew up to become a remarkable woman: a pioneering feminist scholar — one whose work remains controversial — and an anarchist, though her progressive thinking did not prevent her from collaborating with Japan's militarist government during World War II.
EDITORIALS
Dec 26, 2010

New START to arms control

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) has won ratification in the U.S. Senate, passing by a 71-26 vote. Ratification is a victory for President Barack Obama, those who seek a world with fewer nuclear threats as well as proponents of a constructive U.S.-Russia relationship.
COMMENTARY
Dec 25, 2010

Revitalizing national politics

The Democratic Party of Japan realized a dramatic change of government with its great win in the Lower House election in August 2009. The DPJ victory came when policy evolution in the later years of the coalition administration by the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito stagnated, prompting mass media...
OLYMPICS
Dec 23, 2010

Defense for the next decade

The Kan administration on Dec. 17 endorsed a new National Defense Program Outline, which will serve as a guideline for Japan's defense policy for the next 10 years from fiscal 2011. The guideline has introduced the new concept of "dynamic defense capabilities" focusing on "rapid response, mobility, flexibility,...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Dec 21, 2010

Curtain beginning to fall on careers of some of Japan's top closers

Is Takuya Asao the next great Japanese closer? He might have to be, because as age creeps up on some of the league's top firemen, the next generation will soon have to step up and prove its worth.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Dec 20, 2010

Trends in Japan 2010: yama boom

2010 was the year in which young women, clad in brightly colored Gore-Tex, were drawn to mountain hikes and natural power sports.
BUSINESS
Dec 18, 2010

Mixi feels Facebook lacks local appeal

Mixi Inc., owner of Japan's largest social networking service, expects to fend off Facebook Inc. because its website is better suited to domestic users and personal data are more secure, President Kenji Kasahara said recently.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 17, 2010

Smells like great Italian — but book ahead

Even in its earliest incarnation on the edge of Hiroo, Aroma Fresca was one of the hottest tables in town — and among the hardest to reserve. It was the same story during its stay in Azabu-Juban (in the premises now occupied solely by Casa Vinitalia), and nothing has changed since its rebirth in August...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 17, 2010

Casa Vinitalia: High-end Italian for the spontaneous gourmet

Snaring a reservation at a top-end Tokyo restaurant is hard enough at the best of times. Now, with the yearend celebrations in full flow, it's nigh on impossible. But even if you haven't booked that special dinner yet, there could still be a glimmer of hope. You can always try your luck at Casa Vinitalia...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 17, 2010

Aroma Fresca: Smells like great Italian — but book ahead

Even in its earliest incarnation on the edge of Hiroo, Aroma Fresca was one of the hottest tables in town — and among the hardest to reserve. It was the same story during its stay in Azabu-Juban (in the premises now occupied solely by Casa Vinitalia), and nothing has changed since its rebirth in August...
Japan Times
JAPAN / RESETTLEMENT
Dec 16, 2010

Pilot resettlement program put to test with first Karens

This fall, five families from Myanmar arrived in Japan filled with hope and excitement for a new life.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 15, 2010

Marketers bask in the glow of the year's successes

If you can generate profits during a 不景気 (fukeiki, a business recession), you must be doing something right. If you can generate a ヒット (hitto, hit) and sustain it in the face of deflation, imitators and low-cost imports, then you're to be heartily congratulated for your business acumen.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 12, 2010

In dangerous waters

As our small boat wended its way up the Wami River in Saadani National Park, Tanzania, we passed a crocodile basking on the bank. Nothing unusual about that, but this croc only had three legs. I asked if one leg had been chopped off by a boat's propeller? "No," said our guide, Eliona Sabaya, "It was...
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 12, 2010

Brazil: the wild side

Statistics tell us one story of Brazil: It is the world's fifth-largest country and South America's largest by far, and it is an anomaly in being the only Portuguese-speaking nation on that continent.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat