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CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 24, 2009

Trial suspense, dealing with depression and the problem with pedigrees

A recent NHK documentary about the new lay judge system cited a survey that found many citizens were learning about trials by watching movies and TV dramas. To that end, TBS's ongoing drama series "Hotei Suspense" ("Trial Suspense") should be popular.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2009

'L'heure d'ete'

Moliere once wrote that the wonder of a French vacance lay in its "deep, profound dullness, those hours and hours of time, marked only by meals and interminable glasses of wine." A similar kind of wonder propels the intimate, endearingly smug "L'heure d'ete" (international title: "Summer Hours") —...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2009

'The Soloist'

"The Soloist" is a film that easily could have sucked, so it's almost shocking how good it actually turned out to be. I mean, just take the premise: calloused, professional journalist, used to filing his "human interest" stories and moving on, meets a funky, fuzzy-brained homeless dude who's also a musical...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 22, 2009

A Russian maestro of Prokofiev

Russian conductor Alexander Lazarev, who became chief conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in September 2008, aims to lead the orchestra in performing the seven symphonies by his compatriot Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) over a period of three years.
Reader Mail
May 21, 2009

Symbolic cleanliness vs. hygiene

In her May 17 letter, "First things first to fight the flu," Susan Menadue-Chun hits directly at one of Japan's polite fictions. Contrary to its reputation, Japan is very doubtfully the most hygienic country in the world. Washing hands is for show more than for hygiene. It's only symbolic cleanliness....
COMMENTARY
May 21, 2009

The way forward in Afghanistan

So far, 157 British troops have died in Afghanistan and many more have been injured. These are significant and worrying losses. How long will British public opinion accept these losses when it is not clear whether the war in Afghanistan can be won?
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 20, 2009

Nissan racing to catch rivals in hybrid market

Hybrid vehicle laggard Nissan hopes to catch up with its rivals after launching the company's own green car technology next year, an executive said Tuesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 19, 2009

IC you: bugging the alien

When the Japanese government first issued alien registration cards (aka gaijin cards) in 1952, it had one basic aim in mind: to track "foreigners" (at that time, mostly Korean and Taiwanese stripped of Japanese colonial citizenship) who decided to stay in postwar Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
May 19, 2009

Veteran Tokyo journalist convinced some things just never change

Having lived in Japan for 45 years, 70-year-old British journalist Henry Scott Stokes has seen Japan go through more changes than virtually any other foreign resident has.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 19, 2009

H1N1 flu surges in Kansai

KOBE — The number of domestic swine flu cases reached 140 in Hyogo and Osaka as of Monday evening, prompting fears of an epidemic and leading to calls from the two governors to shut down all schools in the prefectures and for the central government to do more.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
May 16, 2009

Diplomacy in love, life and work

Aiko Tanaka, 27, met Olegs Orlovs, 27, for the first time when she visited his home country, Latvia, as a tourist with her family in 2002. Olegs was her tour guide.
CULTURE / Music
May 15, 2009

Qomolangma Tomato "Camouflage"

Qomolangma Tomato came together in Yokohama in 2003 while all four of its members were in their early 20s. Influenced by posthardcore, math rock and punk, their early material earned the band invites to perform on Summer Sonic's Tokyo stages in 2006 and 2007.
Reader Mail
May 14, 2009

Fulfillment despite eccentricity

Regarding Michael Hoffman's April 26 article, "Nagai Kafu: a literary loner": Kafu at the time was basically eccentric. Many people frown on this trait, yet each one of us has our share of eccentricities. They are what make each of us unique. I truly admire men and women whom many may view as self-absorbed,...
JAPAN
May 13, 2009

Aso, Putin ink nuclear-power deal

Prime Minister Taro Aso and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin agreed Tuesday to strengthen bilateral economic ties, including promoting peaceful use of nuclear energy, but made no significant progress on the territorial dispute that dates back to 1945.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
May 13, 2009

Extra power for your netbook

More for your book: Japanese gadget innovator Century is offering a device for putting more muscle into netbooks in the form of its Netbook Stand, the CNBS-WT/ODD. While fundamentally a netbook cooler, the Century gadget also packs in a DVD burner. A fan is built into the left side and swivels up into...
BUSINESS
May 8, 2009

Nintendo reports 8.5% gain in profit for year

Nintendo Co. reported an 8.5 percent rise in annual profit, shrugging off the global slowdown that has battered other manufacturers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 8, 2009

Issey Miyake's "U-Tsu-Wa" filled with character and inspiration

In Japanese, the word utsuwa literally means "vessel" or "container," but it can also be used to describe a person's character. Someone said to have a "large utsuwa" ("utsuwa ga ookii") is a person of high caliber or someone with tremendous capacity or generosity. When celebrated Japanese fashion designer...
COMMENTARY
May 5, 2009

Cannes set to sparkle in a depressing year

The Cannes Film Festival will unreel May 13, although the global recession has damped business at the picturesque French seaside resort renowned for its rich playboys and beautiful women.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 5, 2009

Google crosses line with controversial old Tokyo maps

When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan to its online collection last year, the search giant didn't expect a backlash. The finely detailed woodblock prints have been around for centuries, they were already posted on another Web site, and a historical map of Tokyo put up in 2006 hadn't caused...
CULTURE / Books
May 3, 2009

Beijing: history of a forbidding city

Reviewed by Stephen Mansfield Ancient Chinese history is as inseparable from myth as today's official retelling of the past is indivisible from propaganda. In "Beijing: The Biography of a City," Jonathan Clements makes an admirable job of disentangling truth from elaboration, finding historical foundations...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 2, 2009

Kyoto tourists not panicked by flu

KYOTO — Concerns about the new flu were on the minds of tourists and local officials in the Kansai region Friday, as the ancient capital of Kyoto braced for the arrival of thousands of tourists from Japan and abroad over the Golden Week holidays.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
May 1, 2009

Ruud van Empel: 'Dawn, Moon, World'

Gallery Terra Tokyo, Kamiyacho
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 1, 2009

A rosy way to spend Golden Week

T he rose-blossom season is coming up, and many places are offering visitors a chance to admire the flower seen in many cultures as a symbol of love and beauty at its best.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 1, 2009

Sean Penn 'Milk' star is cream of the crop — again

'Y ou know, just to get one of them is something most actors don't get to do, and for a long time I didn't think I'd ever get one, let alone two."
BUSINESS
May 1, 2009

Green idea: Bury Tokyo expressways

Business executives proposed Thursday burying Tokyo's elevated and aging expressways 60 meters underground, thereby creating an eco-friendly urban environment and hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 1, 2009

Mexico and Japan make beautiful music together

I n September 1609, when a Mexican sailboat ran ashore in a typhoon near the village of Onjuku in today's Chiba Prefecture, local fishermen and ama (female divers) rescued 317 souls from the angry ocean. That was Japan's first contact with Mexican people.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 1, 2009

Araiya: Celebrating beef by the Yokohama bayside

Down in Yokohama they're partying like it's 1859. It's been exactly 150 years since Japan's largest port — indeed the country itself — was fully opened to foreign trade. Earlier this month we went down to the old Red Brick Warehouses to marvel at massive mechanical spiders, France's contributions...

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