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Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 3, 2012

World Cosplay Summit to hit its climax in Nagoya

Last week the London Olympics kicked off with no shortage of spectacle. However, if it's visual delights you're looking for then it might be better to turn your eyes toward Nagoya instead of London. This event is all about cosplay — the very essence of spectacle.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 3, 2012

World Ballet Festival shows how Japan has jetéd its way onto the world stage

Ballet lovers faced a difficult choice this week when two productions of "Don Quixote" were performed in Tokyo. The shows heralded the opening of the 13th World Ballet Festival, whose main program began Thursday and closes with a Special Gala on Aug. 16.
COMMENTARY
Aug 2, 2012

The Olympic extravaganza

London has Olympics mania. The newspapers are devoting more than half their pages to the games while the airwaves are dominated at all hours by coverage of Olympic events. Even cynical oldies can't avoid catching some of the fever.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUJI ROCKERS
Aug 2, 2012

Mono wants you to give your parents a hug

Great gig!
EDITORIALS
Jul 31, 2012

Another senseless slaughter

The United States has suffered yet another bloody massacre of its citizens — by one of its own. The immediate reaction to a bloodbath in which 12 people were killed and 58 wounded was shock and horror at the scale and senselessness of the tragedy.
Reader Mail
Jul 29, 2012

It is democracy, Japanese-style

In his July 19 letter, "As weak as his predecessors," Timothy Bedwell expresses his desire to see U.S. forces exit Japan. I wholeheartedly agree, as the current Japan-U.S. defense pact is quite one-sided regarding who defends whom. In addition, so many overseas bases and commitments are a waste of valuable...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 29, 2012

Gross national happiness; Beloved Unfortunate Women; CM of the week: Summer Jumbo

Master explainer Akira Ikegami makes his sixth appearance on "Mirai Seiki Jipangu" ("Future Century Japan"; TV Tokyo, Mon., 10 p.m.) for a two-part exploration of the Kingdom of Bhutan in the eastern Himalayas.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 29, 2012

Vancouver fest offers a warm (but not humid!) welcome

Summers in Tokyo, indeed in most of Japan except for Hokkaido or Okinawa, are often unbearably hot and humid, with temperatures in the mid to high 30s and humidity reaching as high as 90 percent. This summer, in the wake of last year's Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown, use of air conditioning will...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 28, 2012

Conversation with the long-haired shamisen cat

When my cat turned 13 recently, I knew it was time for the dreaded "cat discussion." You know, the one where you tell them about the happy hunting ground in the sky. Since cats usually die before their owners do, it's tough for me to be the one to suggest that she be optimistic. I told her about cat...
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2012

Nagai taking over as Nomura CEO signals global retreat

Nomura Holdings Inc.'s appointment of domestic brokerage head Koji Nagai as the new chief signals a retrenchment into its home market as Japan's biggest investment bank reels from the insider-trading scandal and losses abroad.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
Jul 27, 2012

How cheap cuisine can save your town

Shigeru Tamura looks remarkably trim for someone whose hobby is eating fried noodles. Over a lunch at a yakisoba restaurant on the backstreets of Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, the 49-year-old author and law professor admits he dines out as often as twice a day. Then he pushes aside his plate of noodles and pulls...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 27, 2012

'The Dark Knight Rises'

Jean-Jacques Beineix, the director of "Diva" and "Betty Blue," once told me that "when fiction and reality collide, you have a problem." Beineix was talking about his 1992 film "IP5," in which beloved French actor Yves Montand dies from a heart attack in the film, and actually died from one just after...
EDITORIALS
Jul 26, 2012

Obsession with a safety myth

The government-commissioned panel charged with investigating the nuclear crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant submitted its final report to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Monday. The report made clear that obsessed with the myth of nuclear safety, both Tepco and the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Jul 24, 2012

Psychology, counseling interests unite couple

Japanese-American John Shiomi, 40, and his wife, Misako, 32, met in the city of Fukuoka in January last year. Misako had posted a message about wanting a friend in the online version of Fukuoka Now, a free publication for foreigners in the area.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 23, 2012

This summer, signs of setsuden will again be all around us

Now that all but one of Japan's usable nuclear reactors have been halted as a result of the Fukushima No. 1 power plant disaster — which followed the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami — the nation's households, small businesses and factories will once again plow forward through the hot summer...
Reader Mail
Jul 22, 2012

Tokyo protest rallies admiration

Regarding the July 17 front-page article "Massive Tokyo rally decries atomic power": Those people at the rally were brave in demonstrating their democratic spirit. I firmly believe Japan will find an energy solution that's better than relying on atomic energy.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 22, 2012

Power spots and prehistory in beautiful Aomori Prefecture

The government of Aomori Prefecture which straddles the whole of the northern end of Japan's main island of Honshu — and is best known as the nation's apple capital — broke new ground in its tourism promotion campaign late last year, when it announced it would start selling the prefecture as the...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 22, 2012

The spirit behind Japanese cohesion

Building Democracy in Japan, by Mary Alice Haddad. Cambridge University Press, 2012, 270 pp., $20.34 (paperback) Mary Haddad seeks to refute those non-Japanese scholars who are dismissive of Japanese democracy because it doesn't measure up to western standards. She argues that they overlook and marginalize...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 20, 2012

'God Bless America'

Warning: if you think "American Idol" is, like, totally the best thing in American music today, that far-right talk-show host Glenn Beck is a prophet and that "Jersey Shore" is about the most fabulicious people evah, the following movie is not, repeat not, for you.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jul 20, 2012

Special Japanese breakfast in Hakone

The Odakyu Hotel de Yama in the resort area of Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, is offering an accommodation package that comes with the hotel's special Japanese breakfast, through Aug. 31.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 20, 2012

Just what's so brave about 'Brave'?

"Wall-E" was a brave endeavor. A kids' film where the main character can't speak: That must have been a hard sell, and a risk in itself. But it paid off, creating one of the most emotionally charged films of 2008. "Wall-E" taught a moral lesson about our consumerist behavior; a lesson that transcended...
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Jul 19, 2012

Kagawa ready to rise to challenge as United career begins

Shinji Kagawa made a positive first impression at his unveiling as a Manchester United player last week, but the forward will be keen to replace words with action when he makes his debut for the Premier League giants.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 19, 2012

The fortitude of Prussian character

It is becoming increasingly common for Japanese art museums to host exhibitions bearing the names of famous overseas art venues. If the source institution is famous enough, this will give a show of otherwise disparate works of art instant glamour and an identity.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Jul 17, 2012

Nakahata's BayStars need results to go with new attitude

After batting practice prior to a game against the Hiroshima Carp, Yokohama BayStars manager Kiyoshi Nakahata walked past a throng of fan club members on his way to the clubhouse.
Reader Mail
Jul 15, 2012

When the world was on the brink

The July 8 Timeout article by Jon Mitchell, titled "Okinawa's first nuclear missile men break silence," made for gripping reading. To realize once again how close the whole world came to nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 is terrifying and sobering. Testimony in the article also...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 15, 2012

Farmers try to fence out nasty nature

I once asked a professor of agriculture in the southwestern United States what sort of fence would keep a goat from escaping.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jul 14, 2012

NPO's projects seek to help Tuvaluans facing global warming issues

For many years people have been acquainted with the word "refugee." Though it usually brings to mind wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing, more and more often it has been linked to climate change and natural disasters. We may now be entering the age of the "environmental refugee."
EDITORIALS
Jul 14, 2012

Japan's 'man-made' nuclear fiasco

A report released last week by the Diet's Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission backs what many members of the public have long believed: The fiasco at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was "a profoundly man-made disaster — that could have and...

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