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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 10, 2009

The English language is going to the dogs

On Friday nights, I teach private English lessons to five people and three dogs. The dogs are good students: They are very quiet and never bark or interrupt. They always come to class well-groomed, wearing smart looking T-shirts and dresses. Absenteeism is rare, with just one absence due to a veterinary...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2009

Managing fads, frenzies and finance markets

BARCELONA — The financial crisis, credit crunch and ensuing economic downturn have severely damaged the credibility of financial markets, institutions and traders. More and more people are claiming that markets are characterized by irrationality, bubbles, fads and frenzies, and that economic actors...
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Jan 6, 2009

Countdown party India style

Almost a quarter of the Indian community in eastern Tokyo, adults and children alike, shared a lively countdown party with Japanese locals on Dec. 31.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 6, 2009

Academic career in Japan served as vital lesson in culture, says dean

Bruce Stronach, current dean of the Japan campus of Temple University, has a career in academia that spans two countries and over three decades. Sixteen of those years were spent with schools in Japan and have taught him much about Japanese society.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 4, 2009

A nation adrift cries out for new visions fired by anger and sorrow

Every era in the life of a country begs for creators to define it and give it momentum for its society to progress. Politicians, economists and bureaucrats seem to believe that culture rides on the wave of the economy — but the opposite is true. It is on progressive waves of culture that economic achievement...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jan 4, 2009

You can't beat country life

I was down in Kyushu with some Japanese friends last year, just sipping a few drinks and chatting. The conversation turned to kabu and became very serious and somewhat gloomy. Quite honestly, I wasn't really following it all, but I felt I had to put in my two-pennies' worth.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 3, 2009

Leading businesswoman attempts to bridge gender gap

In 2003, when Mitsuru Claire Chino became one of The World Economic Forum "100 global leaders for tomorrow," she had to consider what impact she could make. "I wanted to help women advance in the world — especially within corporate Japan," she recalls thinking at the time. And so it was, Chino —...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2009

Is Aso only postponing the inevitable?

The political news that will have the most far-reaching repercussions into the new year is the plummeting approval rating of Prime Minister Taro Aso and his Cabinet, and his delay in dissolving the Lower House of the Diet for a general election.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 1, 2009

Finding beauty in a world of waste

"If we live in a creative universe, we are constantly pushing the chaos out of the way to protect ourselves from the nonlogical — the natural," muses Vik Muniz at an interview late last year at Tokyo Wonder Site. "Even when you think, you create waste. But everything is made in a way to conceal the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 1, 2009

Words as images

On a single white sheet, the kanji for "snow" — yuki — printed in black, is repeated exactly 1,352 times in a symmetrical grid formation. A 1970 work by Niikuni Seiichi, "flowery snow" (1970) is at once calligraphy, poem and picture. In the Chinese literati tradition — which was influential on...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2008

Blood types — do they shape a personality or mere stereotypes?

Can blood type determine character?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Dec 30, 2008

For hotelier, budget prices at resorts are an easy sell

Naoki Yamanaka, president of hotel operator Shiki Resorts Co., wants more Japanese to appreciate the seasonal changes that bless this country.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 28, 2008

The swift strokes of 'no-brush' calligraphy

KEN-ZEN-SHO: Zen Calligraphy and Painting of Yamaoka Tesshu, with a foreword by Rupert Faulkner, introductions by Sarah Moate and Alex Bennett, an essay by Terayama Tanchu and an afterword by Takemura Eiji. Bunkashi International (Kendo World Publications), 2008, 200 pp., 33 color plates, 67 b/w pictures,...
BUSINESS
Dec 25, 2008

Ruling bloc plans '11 sales tax hike

The government and the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc on Wednesday officially authorized a midterm tax reform program to increase the 5 percent consumption tax in fiscal 2011 if the economy improves.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 23, 2008

Handwriting expert Koshu Morioka

Koshu Morioka, 75, is the founder of the Japan Graphologist Association and the nation's foremost authority on the study and analysis of handwriting. Morioka started out as a psychologist, until his love of calligraphy eventually drew him to graphology. In his illustrious 30-year career, he has examined...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan / WEEK 3
Dec 21, 2008

30 Days in the Wilderness

What miracles will the incoming 44th President of the United States perform?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WEEK 3
Dec 21, 2008

Mums team up to make Holland a happy home far away from home

AMSTERDAM — No friends or acquaintances, cold winters, a hard-to-learn language and the depression that comes with all that.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 18, 2008

Committed to the feminine craft

O ff stage, kabuki actor is a tall, handsome and sensitive- looking man with white hair but a young face. On stage, the respected onnagata (male actor who specializes in female roles) can be anything from a sexy concubine to a faithful spouse.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.