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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 14, 2004

Taking responsibility pays off

25th Hour Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Spike Lee Running time: 136 minutes Language: English Opens Jan. 24 [See Japan Times movie listings] Think of Spike Lee and you'll probably think of a film he made in his fertile period of 1988-1992: "Do The Right Thing," "Jungle Fever,"...
BUSINESS
Jan 8, 2004

International luxury hotel chains set sights on central Tokyo market

Top foreign hotel chains have set their sights on Tokyo, betting their respective brands of high-class luxury and innovative services will shake the local hotel market out of its doldrums.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2004

LDP platform includes revising Constitution

The 2004 policy platform of the Liberal Democratic Party advocates drafting a revised Constitution before the party's 50th anniversary in November 2005, LDP sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Nov 29, 2003

A chance to catch the latest meows

Toy maker Takara Co. on Friday launched what it claims to be a "cat translator," the latest in a series of gadgets aimed at aiding human-animal communications.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Nov 27, 2003

Feral goat

* Japanese name: Yagi * Scientific name:Capra hircus * Description: Feal goats are smaller and stockier than their domesticated relatives. Males (billies) weigh 30 to 45 kg, females (nannies) 25 to 35 kg; they are 60 to 70 cm high. The color varies from white to dark brown, black or gray, and while...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 25, 2003

Redesigned 1,000 yen bills roll off presses

Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki announced Friday the start of printing of redesigned 1,000 yen bills, which will go into circulation in July.
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2003

Nissan Diesel restructuring plan calls for bailout worth 106 billion yen

Struggling truck maker Nissan Diesel Motor Co. announced Tuesday a new restructuring plan that calls on Nissan Motor Co. and its three main banks to provide a 106 billion yen bailout.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 24, 2003

Keeping abreast of the boob tube's favorite idols

Can we talk about breasts? Specifically, the large kind, which in the United States are affectionately (or not) called "knockers" or "hooters." In Japan, the slang is more clinical : kyonyu (giant breasts), honyu (rich breasts), and even bakunyu (explosive breasts). These words are clinical because nyu...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jul 23, 2003

The high priestess of rock 'n' roll 'n' . . . art

Patti Smith has shown her drawings and paintings before in Japan -- some years ago at the Museum Eki in Kyoto. But it is a safe bet that most of her Japanese fans are more familiar with Smith the rock'n'roller, that sexily disheveled female version of Mick Jagger who kicked out prepunk jams from New...
COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2003

Japanese-style management deserves updated appraisal

Japanese-style management was once widely acclaimed as ideal. Since the collapse of the bubble economy, though, it has been discarded as a model for its incompatibility with reform. Now the system is being revaluated, and active debate is going on in the business community on how to adapt it to changing...
COMMUNITY
Jun 29, 2003

Going it alone 'to lift the gloom'

Reiko Togo has been very dissatisfied with Japan's magazine industry for a very long time. "Magazines have become just vehicles for advertisements, and there are none I want to read," she says.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jun 27, 2003

Prepare for lift-off: destination, the stars

Having spent the best part of two decades prowling Roppongi at street level, my first visit to the Roppongi Hills Club felt like an out-of-body experience. Hovering an awesome 51 floors above the network of increasingly seedy bars below, my spirit could not help but feel elevated. The club is so far...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jun 19, 2003

Choose your weapons

"Soul Calibur 2," Namco's new fighting game for GameCube, Xbox and PlayStation2, has little new to recommend it. Thank goodness for that.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Mar 27, 2003

Black salamander

* Japanese name: Kuro sansho uo * Scientific name: Hynobius nigrescens * Description: Salamanders are considered primitive amphibians in comparison to frogs and toads. Like all amphibians, however, salamanders spend their lives in two entirely different states. The larvae are aquatic, breathing water...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Mar 26, 2003

Life: the home movie, Japan: the video game

Two very different female video artists have brought pleasantly complementary exhibitions of their recent work to the Tokyo Opera City Gallery. Elija-Liisa Ahtila, 43, from Finland, and Japanese artist Tabaimo, 27, both opened with impressive solo efforts at the spacious Shinjuku gallery Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2003

'10,000 yen painting' is an early van Gogh

An oil painting in Tokyo once valued at just 10,000 yen has been identified as an early work by Vincent van Gogh, it was revealed Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2003

Video shorts become cafe fare

OSAKA -- The 20-odd people sipping coffee and tea in a shop in Chuo Ward here haven't come in just for the beverages. They also want to see free short videos made primarily by amateur filmmakers such as high school students and citizens' groups.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2003

Newspapers and plays feature in report on polishing Japanese

A panel of experts advising the education minister on use of Japanese has issued an interim report on how to improve command of the language among elementary and junior high school students.
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2003

An improved privacy bill

The new privacy legislation prepared by the government -- a replacement for a similar measure that died in last year's Diet session -- represents a step forward. The improved version leaves out, among other things, rules that would unreasonably restrict the media handling of personal information. It...
COMMUNITY
Jan 19, 2003

fl 20030119a4.xml SUN YES TADAO ANDO Architect of progress

Architect Tadao Ando says that he has been under considerable pressure since receiving the contract to design a residential and commercial complex to replace the Aoyama Apartment Houses on Omotesando Avenue.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 13, 2002

Time to say arrivederci to the old-school cucina

Out with the old and in with the new. That's the prevailing state of the game in Tokyo's restless, ever-changing restaurant scene. Sometimes this can be exhilarating, as with the brilliant refurbishment of the top floors of the My City building in Shinjuku. Sometimes, though, the process can feel downright...
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Dec 12, 2002

New on DVD: a family-friendly list

Christmas blockbuster movies don't only show up in theaters. Most of America's big box-office hits are timed to be released in the summer and roll into stores on DVD and VHS cassette just in time for the Christmas shopping season.
Japan Times
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Nov 16, 2002

Fukushima tourist office gives natives taste of home

Kotaro Takamura's poem about a homesick woman in Tokyo pining for her native Fukushima Prefecture more than 60 years ago could just as easily have been written about many of the displaced locals living in the capital these days.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 10, 2002

Toilet Day brings loos out of the closet

A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step, as the saying goes. And so it came to pass that a number of planners, researchers and designers in a self-styled group called Toiletopia embarked on a campaign to upgrade the nation's cans when they founded the Japan Toilet Association on May 15, 1985....
BUSINESS
Nov 9, 2002

Gas taxes to aid loss-making bridge, roadside trees

The land and transport ministry has outlined plans to expand the use of revenues from gas and other automobile-related taxes, currently used for road construction, for projects ranging from more ecologically friendly roads to electronic toll collection systems, ministry sources said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 18, 2002

Och aye! Highland Games rollinto Tokyo

From Cowal to Kolwoon and from Braemar to Bangkok, wherever you find Scots, you'll find Highland Games.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 17, 2002

Tisziji Munoz: "Shaman-Bala"

"I've always known music as a way of spontaneously expressing free heart feeling," says guitarist and metaphysical theorist Tisziji Munoz in an e-mail from his home in upstate New York. "Playing music as a broken or wounded heart is a constant characteristic of my heart feeling, or Soul, as some call...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 13, 2002

Fresh, raw Ebisu, on the half-shell

Oysters are definitely in season these days -- and not just because the summer is over and there's an "R" in the letters of the month. Overlooked and undervalued for too long here (or perhaps just overshadowed by all the other superb seafood that's available), these humble bivalves are only now being...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Sep 25, 2002

So you're a wannabe J-pop star?

Yellow Magic Orchestra burst upon the scene in the late '70s with a refreshing and original blend of pop music and electronic sounds that established a new pop template and influenced musicians all over the world. The band broke up in 1983 and, apart from 1993's one-off reunion album, "Technodon," its...

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it