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BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Sep 19, 2011

Japan faces crossroads for rebranding itself after Fukushima crisis

The Fukushima power plant crisis has clearly damaged Japan as a country brand. There has been an outpouring of sympathy for the victims and a widespread admiration for Japan's perseverance, stoicism and orderly response, but the overwhelming perception overseas is negative: disbelief that such an accident...
EDITORIALS
Sep 18, 2011

Slow transparency of universities

Since April this year, universities and colleges in Japan have been required by law to disclose information about their facilities, employees and subjects taught. Even though the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has asked only for the bare minimum of information —...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / WEEK 3
Sep 18, 2011

Expat filmmaker knows what Japanese cult movie fans expect

French-Canadian Alex Paille came to Japan in 2006 to teach English, study martial arts and try his hand as a manga artist. His artistic drive took a new direction when one of his English students turned out to be internationally renowned filmmaker Sion Sono ("Cold Fish," "Love Exposure," "Suicide Club")....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2011

Hong Kongers share postdisaster insights

Most Hong Kongers are enthusiastic about Japan — its fashion and pop culture have been popular for years, hundreds of thousands vacation in the country each year, and more of its food is imported there than anywhere else, with fresh sashimi flown in daily from Narita airport.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 16, 2011

Fun is brewing in Yokohama

More than 9,000 people slurped and swilled at last year's 200-beer extravaganza in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, but this time there's added incentive to sip up. The Japan Craft Beer Association invites you to raise a glass toward those in their industry suffering in the aftermath of the Great East...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Sep 16, 2011

Expect tons of surprises at Tokyo Game Show

For gamers, this weekend will feel like Christmas. Tokyo Game Show (TGS), Japan's biggest gaming event, began Thursday at Chiba's Makuhari Messe convention center and will continue through Sept. 18 (on Saturday and Sunday it will be open to the public). More than 140 exhibitors are on hand, off-site...
LIFE / Digital
Sep 16, 2011

The 10 video games you must see at this year's exhibition

Whenever huge games or new kinds of hardware go on sale, fans line up to be the first to make their purchase, sometimes even waiting overnight. Lining up has become a time-honored tradition in gaming culture. However, at Tokyo Game Show, time is precious. Here are 10 games that are sure to be worth the...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2011

Will the real Dick Cheney please stand up?

He's been called Darth Vader, feared or derided as a trigger-happy, torture-loving puppet master who called the shots over the eight years of the George W. Bush presidency. And now, with the publication of his memoir, "In My Time," Dick Cheney has once again grabbed the media spotlight. But what about...
EDITORIALS
Sep 11, 2011

The truly lost decade since 9/11

It has been a decade since 19 Islamic terrorists hijacked airplanes and flew them into U.S. landmarks. That savage attack marked the beginning of a new era in modern history. The decade has been marked by war, and the deepening of cleavages inside and between almost every country on the planet.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 11, 2011

Print ad featuring MacArthur sends muddled message

On Sept. 2, a controversial newspaper advertisement placed by Takarajima-sha, a mid-tier publisher, went viral on Japanese blogs and Web news sites.
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 11, 2011

God's own country

Everywhere around Kerala in southwest India there are signs emblazoned with the state motto: "God's Own Country" — and certainly no supreme deity could have chosen a better place to call home.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 10, 2011

Swiss tries to bring foreign tourists back to Japan, a step at a time

The undulating sea observes the solitary walker. A triangular bamboo farmer's hat shades his face as the infinite horizon stretches ahead, marking out his path.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2011

Beating the midlife blues

Are you feeling down about middle age? Do you find yourself thinking that time is hurtling and you'll never reach your goals — or, perhaps more distressingly, that they don't even fit who you are anymore?
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 9, 2011

Fukuoka fast becoming Asia film hub

During a speech to mark his receipt of The Japan Foundation Award for Arts and Culture late last year, there was one point that the widely respected film critic Tadao Sato was especially keen to convey to his Tokyo audience.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 9, 2011

Festival/Tokyo rewrites its script after quake

Chiaki Soma, the program director at Festival/Tokyo (F/T), needed to figure out how to proceed with the country's biggest theater festival following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11. She closed her office for 10 days and asked the staff to carefully consider the meaning of the festival in...
Reader Mail
Sep 8, 2011

Boon for a new tourism drive

Ontarians as well as people from around the world recognized Sept. 1 as Dolphin Day. Unfortunately, Japan became the focus.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 8, 2011

(M)otocompo's theater challenges stale indie scene

Shuffling onto the stage in a flurry of robotic jerks come three men wearing glazed expressions and identical striped tops. In time with the retro-futurist synthesizer chirps and bleeps, they then lurch into a kind of clockwork dance routine, while a fourth man, wearing a construction helmet and mask,...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2011

Is China's economic miracle a mirage?

Doubts are beginning to be heard about how sustainable is China's economic miracle, particularly the relentless emphasis on exports and investment spending by hundreds of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and local governments. Beijing, of course, has its supporters, including banker turned academic Stephen...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 5, 2011

MLB scouts doing due diligence on Fighters' Darvish

The press box at QVC Marine Field isn't exactly state-of-the-art. Upfront are three sections of long desks topped with aging, faded wood looking out onto the field from ground level, behind a net and tinted glass. The rear resembles a school cafeteria, with an old television resting on a filing cabinet...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 4, 2011

Year-round playground Yamanashi

In all of my visits to Yamanashi Prefecture, never before has catching sight of Mount Fuji left my heart beating so fast. Certainly, any view of that lofty symbol of Japan is sure to impart a sense of awe at its scale and natural beauty. But this time, it was the 121-degree freefall right after my fleeting...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 2, 2011

"Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of Sakai Hoitsu's Birth: Sakai Hoitsu and the Edo Rimpa School"

Born into the distinguished family of the feudal lord of the Himeji region of Hyogo Prefecture, Sakai Hoitsu (1761-1828) had the luxury of being able to enjoy haiku poetry and calligraphy from a young age. In his 20s, he started to immerse himself in street culture, such as kyōka (satrical poems) and...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Sep 1, 2011

Artisans who lived by their swords

The samurai sword has long been a symbol of great allure in Japan. It conjures images of virility, tradition, austerity and the mystery of legends. Not only is it said that the Shinto gods possessed swords but, as part of the Imperial regalia, such blades were believed to signify the divinity and divine...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 31, 2011

Discount strategies: Every dog, and man, has his day

The service industry is finally targeting guys.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Aug 30, 2011

Winning: 'The Alien': readers remember life in '90s Japan

The following are a selection of the winning submissions in response to last month's Zeit Gist competition to win copies of "The Very Best of Neil Garscadden's Alien Humor," a collection of many of the pieces Garscadden wrote while editor of the humor section of The Alien magazine.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 28, 2011

Is youth's 'creeping passivity' happening by design?

Last February, I wrote an Our Planet Earth column titled "Don't give up on Japan's kids," noting there that despite all the hand-wringing that goes on about this nation's young people, my own experience with university students gives me cause for considerable optimism.

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