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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 15, 2010

'Kondo wa Aisaika'

Japanese film marriages are as diverse as the real things, ranging from the uncommunicative couple of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Tokyo Sonata" (2008) to the doting pair of the "Tsuri Baka Nisshi" ("Dairy of a Fishing Fool") series (1988-2009), though the easy-going wife of the fishing-mad salaryman hero has...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 15, 2010

East, West split by the lens

When the Leica was introduced in 1925, a new era in photography began. The compact camera, by being much lighter and more versatile than previous models, gave photographers unprecedented freedom in choosing the subject, angle and moment for their snaps.
COMMENTARY
Jan 14, 2010

Good intentions, bad results

A cycle in which intended results become reversed has overtaken Britain's political, government and social scene.
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2010

Club hostesses unionize to fight gray-area abuses

Their sexy outfits and glossy makeup make it easy for "kyabajo" cabaret hostesses to entice flush male patrons into splurging fortunes on drinks.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 12, 2010

Italian culture rep probes parallels

Umberto Donati, the 65-year-old director of the Italian Institute of Culture, is a force of nature when it comes to seizing every opportunity to introduce his country's paintings, books, art exhibitions and language courses to Japanese.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2010

Kremlin two-step: modernize or marginalize

MOSCOW — Westerners often see Russian politics in terms of a high-level struggle between liberals and conservatives: Ligachev and Yakovlev under Mikhail Gorbachev; reformers and nationalists under Boris Yeltsin; siloviki and economic liberals under Vladimir Putin.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 10, 2010

How do writers come up with this stuff?

Reading Mieko Kanai's stories is an unsettling experience, like swimming underwater, existing in a new and shimmering medium, and coming up for air between stories just to make sure everything is still real — or as real as you remember it. Concurrently, it feels as if one were skating on a slippery...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 10, 2010

Beware: Reading this may swamp your sea horses

Reading this column could be an unforgettable way to start the new year.
EDITORIALS
Jan 8, 2010

Support for rural regions

In 1970 the government introduced a law obliging the central and local governments to take necessary measures to tackle problems faced by depopulated areas. It has since been extended three times, or once every 10 years. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told a meeting of the national association of town...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 8, 2010

'(500) Days of Summer'

As a genre, the rom-com has all but died — what's a woman to do when at the end of a long working week she sits down in a theater hoping for solace and a thin but meaningful sliver of real romance and all that happens on-screen is a lot of preachy, self-helpy schlock? To all rom-com filmmakers —...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Jan 5, 2010

Old, new NPB stars set to make impact on 2010 season

Now that the calendar has flipped to 2010, Japanese baseball teams will soon begin preparing for the upcoming season.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 5, 2010

Going wireless on the move

Reader A.V. wants to get Internet service for his apartment but does not want to do it through a fixed-line service.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2010

Usual anguish for Afghan women

FARAH, Afghanistan — When the problems riddling Afghan society are listed — violence, insecurity, corruption, religious fundamentalism — one dominating factor is usually left out: the influence of customary law.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jan 3, 2010

Jake Adelstein: Insider reaching out

Author Joshua "Jake" Adelstein supposes that if he'd stayed home in rural Missouri and had never come to Japan, he'd probably have become a small-town lawyer or a very happy detective on the local police force.
EDITORIALS
Jan 1, 2010

Mr. Hatoyama and the DPJ in '10

The year 2010 will be a watershed year for the administration of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, which came into power last September, ending the Liberal Democratic Party's almost unbroken rule since November 1955. If the administration fails to produce results that meet people's expectations this year,...
Reader Mail
Dec 31, 2009

One big difference is in renting

I couldn't help but laugh at Michiko Goff's Dec. 27 letter, "Act intelligently to make friends." She complains about discrimination in the United States without giving a single specific example, then proceeds to tell foreigners in Japan that any discrimination against them is not real — that Japanese...
Reader Mail
Dec 31, 2009

Keynesian road is the wrong one

A better title for Gregory Clark's Dec. 28 article, "(Japan's) Economy chasing its tail," is "Strike 3! You're out!" Follow Clark's suggestions and Japan will be headed to the historical dugout. Japan needs to strip itself of its institutional straitjacket. The current set of economic institutions creates...
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2009

Pianist to tickle techno-classical ivories

. The fact that I want to do both and continue doing both is my savior in a way," he said. Although he has a varied classical repertoire, Schlime has a special attachment to Bach because of his influence on electronic music.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Dec 25, 2009

Legendary, dirty samurai gets makeover

Singer and actor Masaharu Fukuyama hit the nail on the head when he said that Sakamoto Ryoma is the kind of person onto whom anyone can project themselves.
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2009

Hatoyama not in need of any Christmas 'loans'

Christmas time finds most people in a festive mood and looking forward to finding a little something under the tree. But Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has adopted a somber tone of late, his holiday spirit apparently dampened by the political fund scandal he is embroiled in over allegations that he received...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 25, 2009

The decade's most influential

Last week, The Japan Times picked Hikaru Utada as the most influential artist of the past decade. This week, our writers ask various figures in Japan's music scene who they thought were the most influential artists of the noughties. We asked them to choose one Japanese artist and one non-Japanese artist,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 24, 2009

Web designer Peter Brune

Peter Brune, 45, is a Web designer and photographer who has been a Japanese resident for 10 years. Born and raised in East Berlin, Brune was a world traveler even before he set foot outside the walls of his home: Absorbed in books and glued to the television and radio, he was constantly crossing borders...

Longform

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