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Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Jul 8, 2010

A party for Tsumori Chisato, big bling, premium denim and good old gents

MISHA JANETTE and PAUL McINNES Staying young at heart
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2010

The G20's expensive party

HONG KONG — Leaders of the world's most powerful nations and a few less powerful hangers-on, like Canada and Italy, have just spent a few more billions of their taxpayers' money as they failed to devise a rescue plan for a world economy that is still perilously close to the cliff edge of disaster....
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2010

Korean peace still elusive, six decades on

HONOLULU, EAST-WEST WIRE — The tragic Korean War, which began 60 years ago, resulted from the post-World War II division of Korea by the United States and the Soviet Union — intended to be temporary — and from the political struggle that developed between Seoul and Pyongyang. After the division,...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 12, 2010

Okada top Japanese in bj-league

First in a two-part series
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jun 11, 2010

Pierce, Tennichi still on outside looking in

In the hours after Tuesday's bj-league draft, former Shiga Lakestars coach Bob Pierce spoke to Akita Northern Happinets officials about the expansion team's coaching vacancy, The Japan Times has learned.
JAPAN / Media
Jun 6, 2010

The timing behind yakuza crackdown

The media has been filled with revelations of ties between professional sumo and organized crime. Since late May, the tabloids and gossipy "wide shows" on TV have made a huge flap over Sehei Kimura and one other stable master for allowing senior gang members to obtain box-seat tickets to the Nagoya Grand...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 4, 2010

'Survival of the Dead'

Director George A. Romero kicked off the zombie genre in 1968 with his "Night of the Living Dead," and from the outset he used the undead menace to channel contemporary fears.
COMMENTARY
May 25, 2010

China won't hear suggestions that it's a disarmament slacker

SINGAPORE — As the only country to have been attacked with atomic bombs, Japan has been a leader in the campaign for nuclear disarmament since the end of the Second World War.
CULTURE / Books
May 23, 2010

An epic slog through history

This doorstopper of a book focuses on American and Soviet rivalry in post-World War II Asia while providing an overview of dramatic developments in 14 nations across Asia over the past century or so. This is an ambitious agenda, one that proves too much for the author and, one might add, any weary reader...
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
May 21, 2010

Time for league to adopt real playoff system

Nobody wants their business referred to as a "Mickey Mouse operation," unless, of course, they happen to work for the Walt Disney Company.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
May 13, 2010

From Ginza glitz to street 'n' surf styles

MISHA JANETTE and PAUL McINNES Pearls of fashion If Holly Golightly had been in Ginza instead of New York on a given morning, she might have been beside herself with jewelry lust in front of Japanese brand Tasaki's new flagship instead of that other T-named place.
CULTURE / Books
May 9, 2010

From a public toilet to outer space, sliding in filth all the way

In his 1989 essay "Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast" Tom Wolfe argues: "It was realism that created the 'absorbing' or 'gripping' quality that is peculiar to the novel, the quality that makes the reader feel that he has been pulled not only into the setting of the story but also into the minds and central...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 7, 2010

Tiebreaker could be needed in tight West

It's possible for the Osaka Evessa, Rizing Fukuoka and Ryukyu Golden Kings to all finish with identical 32-20 records.
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2010

Democratic sidebar to U.K. polls

Britain is on the brink of its biggest political upheaval in a century. The general election that takes place this week has become an unofficial referendum on the electoral system itself. Britain's first-past-the-post (FPTP) system discriminates against small parties, wastes votes and encourages politicians...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 30, 2010

'Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire'

"Precious" is a "woman's movie" — it speaks to women, rubs them rightly or wrongly, touches a few raw nerves. Male viewers may find it hard to stomach. The scene in the screening room after the lights came on reflected this. The distributors were grouped around the entrance doors, collecting the critics'...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 25, 2010

Will arrogance and ignorance doom our biosphere?

This year, 2010, is the United Nations' International Year of Biodiversity — which is a very good thing. But why this critically important global concern gets just one year is seriously worth debating.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 20, 2010

Not showing at a family court near you

I have seen the secret Japanese video. No, not the one where you die within a week of watching it, the other one — the one about how traumatic divorce and parental separation are for children.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 18, 2010

NPB boxscores now available in English

The question is often raised by fans in Japan and in other countries, relatives and friends of foreign players in Japan, major league team scouts and player agents: Where can I get box scores of Japanese professional baseball games in English?
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 9, 2010

Kings face uphill fight to retain title

The Ryukyu Golden Kings have faced plenty of adversity this season. Losing shooting guard Shigeyuki Kinjo and big man Jeff Newton, the league's regular-season and playoff MVP last season, for significant chunks of time, has tested the team's resilience and competitive spirit.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Apr 4, 2010

70 times safer than the roads themselves

NEW YORK — The Toyota saga, though quiet for the moment, will continue. "Lawyers Vie for Lead Roles in Toyota Lawsuits," said a headline in The Wall Street Journal (March 15). The company's "legal bill for unintended-acceleration cases will be in the billions," predicted Jeremy Anwyl of Edmunds.com,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 2, 2010

'District 9'

In the immortal words of fictional rock stars Spinal Tap, it's such a fine line between stupid and clever. Further proof of this dictum comes this month from sci-fi flick "District 9," a South-African production featuring the talents of New Zealand's WETA digital effects studio and produced by Peter...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Mar 28, 2010

Our man, Mr. Pound

On May 15, 1939, readers of The Japan Times were introduced to a new correspondent — although, in literary circles, at least, he needed no introduction. He was Ezra Pound, then a 53-year-old American Modernist poet who could boast accomplishments that included having launched the career of T.S. Eliot....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 5, 2010

Bigelow sticks to her guns

HOLLYWOOD — Kathryn Bigelow is only the fourth woman ever to be nominated for the Best Director Academy Award — and only the second American female. The first two nominees were Italian Lina Wertmuller and Australian Jane Campion; the third was Sofia Coppola.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2010

Free yuan without the fuss

HONOLULU, EAST-WEST WIRE — Tensions in U.S.-China relations have been rising recently. Trade spats, alleged Chinese hacking attacks, differences over Internet freedom standards, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and the meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama are all souring the world's most...
Japan Times
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Feb 16, 2010

Where were the Japanese voices when the overseas fans declared Asa innocent?

In the last issue of Sumo Scribblings following the Hatsu Basho, mention was made of Asashoryu's self-destructive mindset in relation to the then recent allegations that he had up and punched somebody following a night on the beer in a plush neighborhood of Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Feb 16, 2010

What should sumo's disgraced yokozuna Asashoryu do next?

CULTURE / Books
Jan 31, 2010

Entrap, exploit and repeat

WESTERN POWER IN ASIA: Its Slow Rise And Swift Fall 1415-1999, by Arthur Cotterell. John Wiley & Sons, 2009, 439 pp., $29.95 (paper)
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 22, 2010

Takamatsu's Okada a real sharpshooter

Eventually, a Japanese player will lead the bj-league in scoring for an entire season. And it will be a terrific achievement, an inspiration to this nation's youngsters who possess a jump shot and a dream.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 12, 2010

Japan life: Etiquette by the numbers

Have you ever tried to shake hands with a Japanese only to be bowed at instead?
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2010

Grandmasters and the future of global growth

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — As the global economy limps out of the last decade and enters a new one in 2010, what will be the next big driver of global growth? Here's betting that the "teens" is a decade in which artificial intelligence hits escape velocity, and starts to have an economic impact on par with...

Longform

People in cities across Japan will pop into their local convenience store for any number of products they believe will help them with a night of drinking.
Hangover cures are everywhere in Japan — but do they work?