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LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 23, 2009

Yappa! Abbreviated Japanese ain't all that bad

"Ain't" ain't a word. My high school English teachers pounded that into my head. And they were right — "ain't" is not proper English. On the other hand, it is used colloquially by people all over the English-speaking world. Language is not just limited to those words found in reference books and textbooks....
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Dec 22, 2009

Level playing field for immigrants: responses

A selection of readers' responses to Debito Arudou's Dec. 1 Just Be Cause article, which proposed policy changes to "make life easier for Japan's residents, regardless of nationality":
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2009

Recognizing confident India as indispensable

PARIS — "Do not forget India." That warning made sense 10 or 15 years ago; not any longer. India is now impossible to ignore, much less forget, owing not only to its rapid economic growth but also to the country's increasing geopolitical stature.
Japan Times
JAPAN / READERS' FUND
Dec 20, 2009

Group teaching Afghan women literacy, IT skills

Fourth in a series
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2009

Looking for personal definition

Art is always a collaboration between the artist and the viewer. Whatever the artist paints, sculpts or photographs is just so much dead matter until it comes alive in the mind of the viewer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 18, 2009

Back to basic instincts

Mamoru Oshii is best known here and abroad as an anime auteur whose works, from the seminal dystopian SF "Kokaku Kidotai" ("Ghost in the Shell," 1995) to the air-action epic "Sky Crawlers" (2008), have often viewed the future of humanity through a glass darkly.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2009

The beauty of subtle deceit

More than in any other country where the lacquer tree grows, the art of working with its hard-drying sap has excelled here in Japan. Two leading exponents were Ogawa Haritsu (1663-1747) and Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891), who both stand out not only for their inventive sense of design in decorating three-dimensional...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2009

Green Key inns are all eco-stars

COPENHAGEN — Whenever climate change comes up for discussion, many industries say going green and reducing their energy consumption would be bad for business, even affecting the quality of service and products they provide.
BUSINESS
Dec 17, 2009

Made-in-China incentives may dent Kubota machinery sales

Kubota Corp., Asia's largest tractor maker, said China machinery sales may miss their 2009 target because government subsidies for farmers favor domestic makers of agricultural equipment.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2009

Futenma decision shelved till 2010

The Democratic Party of Japan-led ruling coalition said Tuesday it will put off resolving the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma until next year, effectively prolonging an issue that has raised tension between Tokyo and Washington as well as within the ruling coalition.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 16, 2009

Buffalo targets gamers with new USB stick

Game fiends: Buffalo is catering to Internet gamers with its new USB dongle, the WLI-UC-GNT. The simple and small white gadget plugs into a user's PC and allows them to connect gaming devices to the Internet without wires. In particular it is designed to work with Nintendo's DS and Wii, and Sony's PSP...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 15, 2009

To gargle or not to gargle?

The Web site for the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contains a pandemic influenza storybook filled with personal reflections from survivors, family members and friends. One of the accounts tells the story of Art McLaughlin, who lived about 25 km east of Chicago during...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2009

Wresting the press from pampered hacks

HONG KONG — Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, was adamant that a free press is the most precious of all freedoms because it opens up or expands other freedoms. He famously wrote that given the choice of a government without a free press or a free press without a government,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 13, 2009

A mother's love — Hatoyama's — boosts tax coffers

Nothing says "socialism" better than the redistribution of wealth. In fact, redistributing wealth is what taxes are all about, and no tax redistributes wealth more honestly than inheritance taxes.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 13, 2009

Tribute to mystery author Seicho Matsumoto; antique appraisal; and winter ghost stories

The hundredth anniversary of the birth of mystery author Seicho Matsumoto, who wrote the original story on which the current movie hit "Zero no Shoten" is based, continues to be celebrated on the small screen this week with a new version of his classic tale "Chuo Ryusa" (Central Quicksand; TBS, Mon.,...
EDITORIALS
Dec 13, 2009

An education in violence

Violent behavior in Japanese schools increased to an all-time high in 2008, according to a recent report from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Students, teachers and other people were victims of 60,000 violent incidents involving primary, middle and high school...
EDITORIALS
Dec 11, 2009

Expanded stimulus package

The government Tuesday announced a ¥7.2 trillion emergency stimulus package, some 2.7 times more than the originally planned ¥2.7 trillion, to buoy the Japanese economy. Apart from the rather questionable economic impact of the package, confusion in the Cabinet and lack of leadership on the part of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 11, 2009

A decade when Japan's cinema stood up to Hollywood menace

When I started reviewing Japanese films for The Japan Times in 1989, many of the people making and distributing them were convinced that the Hollywood juggernaut was slowly crushing them. How could they hope to compete against superior Hollywood technology and vastly larger Hollywood budgets?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 11, 2009

In praise of films that refuse to follow formulas

After jostling through a metal detector, having my bag searched and my mobile confiscated by stern-faced blue meanies, I slump in my cinema seat, enduring head-exploding levels of volume from the coming attractions, and unwanted infrared scrutiny from guards patrolling for video-heads looking for their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 11, 2009

'The Man from London'

Appropriate to the director's family name of Tarr, "The Man From London" is akin to walking on an endless runway strip of newly laid-on tarmac.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 11, 2009

Rody exhibition offers holiday gift hints

When the Rody pony was first trotted out from an Italian toy company in 1990, its intention was to help children between the ages of 2-5 develop balance and coordination skills.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Dec 10, 2009

Luxuriating at MoT and Vulcanize, customizing at Nike and economizing at Venus Fort

The luxury of fashion
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 10, 2009

Photographer/filmmaker Kiyotaka Tsurisaki

Kiyotaka Tsurisaki, 42, is a photographer and mondo filmmaker who specializes in shots of corpses. Since 1994, he has taken photos of over 1,000 dead bodies, often chasing police cars to scenes of crimes, accidents and suicides in such countries as Thailand, Russia and Colombia, as well as parts of Palestine....
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2009

¥7.2 trillion stimulus plan is unveiled

After haggling with a junior coalition partner over the size, the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Tuesday announced a ¥7.2 trillion economic stimulus package aimed at lifting the sagging economy and overcoming deflation.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 9, 2009

Sony's finger on the pulse with vein reader

Security point: Sony's new FVA-U1 is a finger-vein reader that plugs into your computer via a USB. The device is meant to protect computers from unauthorized users, externally at least. The rising popularity of vein-reading technology in Japan as a better means of securing data is praiseworthy, but a...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 6, 2009

Eco cars go up in smoke

Preadolescent tarento (TV celebrities) tend to provoke my gag reflex. I can only tolerate preternatural cuteness if it's presented without irony or intensification. Ten-year-old Nozomi Ohashi, who's famous for singing the theme song to the animated movie "Ponyo," has, according to her Wikipedia entry,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 6, 2009

Organ-transplant drama, Japan seen from above, and experimental mystery `Sisters'

The issue of organ transplants gets pulled into service for the two-hour suspense drama, "Egao: Jugonenme no Uso" (The Smiling Face: Fifteenth Year Lie; TBS, Mon., 9 p.m.).

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