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Japan Times
JAPAN / LETTERS FROM KOBE
Sep 5, 2008

Letter trove details Occupation life

More than 1,000 pages of handwritten letters from 1947 to 1948 by an American woman who witnessed and described in detail the Allied Occupation of Japan have been discovered in Nebraska and recently obtained by The Japan Times.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 5, 2008

Yukari Fresh — "grrrl, summer cape kid, etc." (Escalator); Aira Mitsuki — "COPY" (D-Topia)

Emerging from the dark days of the 1990s' "lost generation," the Shibuya-kei movement in Japanese music was a breath of fresh air, bringing together with impeccable style a variety of musical genres encompassing jazz, retro-futurist lounge pop, 1960s French pop and dance music. Its commercial heyday...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 5, 2008

Exhibit offers glimpse of postwar Japan life

An exhibition of photos from Japan's postwar era taken by two young men from Holland is being held in Tokyo until Sept. 30.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 4, 2008

German opera director Konwitschny stages 'Eugene Onegin' in Tokyo

With Tokyo Nikikai Opera Theatre, German director Peter Konwitschny will stage "Eugene Onegin" in Tokyo from Sept. 12 to 15.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2008

Brothers take on 101-task mission

Most people would welcome a couple of weeks of vacation and many may even have further daydreamed of taking a whole year off, possibly to backpack around the world or do volunteer work.
Japan Times
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 31, 2008

Beijing Games chock full of memorable moments

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series. The second part will focus on Japan's 2008 Olympic experience.
Reader Mail
Aug 31, 2008

The language of discrimination

Regarding the Aug. 26 article "Japan defends steps to end discrimination": A country that makes it hard for foreigners to obtain permanent residence speaks its own language of discrimination, don't you think?
CULTURE / Books
Aug 31, 2008

Spain to China: Letters of a lasting friendship

AUSTIN COATES: Souvenirs and Letters, by Ramon Rodamilans. London: Athena Press, 2007, 140 pp, £5.99 (paper) The Spanish author of this memoir recognizes early on just how much his subject, the British writer and historian Austin Coates (1922-97), like Coates' Vietnamese companion, "came from south-east...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 29, 2008

More far-flung festival fun at Sado Island's Earth Celebration

Niigata grannies munching on bento lunch boxes, tattooed Tokyo roughnecks pounding beers, an ex-military man in from London with two Shanghaiese kung-fu sisters: taiko (Japanese drum) troupe Kodo's annual Earth Celebration on Sado Island this past weekend drew an eclectic crowd.
Reader Mail
Aug 28, 2008

Rise of China has just begun

Watching China win the largest number of gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, outdistancing the heretofore dominant United States, gave me a pleasure, as a fellow Asian, that I haven't had in decades. In modern history, China underwent all sorts of humiliations and miseries. Now, under able leadership,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 28, 2008

Soundtracking Japan — again

So, you've got 73 minutes of play time to sum up the entire music culture of Japan. How would you do it? What would you include?
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Aug 28, 2008

Why curators stay at home

When I interviewed 28-year-old curator Shinya Watanabe a month ago, he surprised me when he said his dream was to curate Documenta, the massive exhibition of international contemporary art held once every five years in Kassel, Germany. He might as well have said all he wanted was to be the most famous...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Aug 26, 2008

What will you remember most about the Beijing Olympics?

COMMUNITY
Aug 26, 2008

Appropriate that 'G-word'

Following is another reader's response to Debito Arudou's last "Just Be Cause" column ( www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080805ad.html ) on the use of the word "gaijin."
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 26, 2008

Brisk output belies crisis facing publishing industry

More than 200 new books are published daily in Japan, and the total market of books and magazines surpasses ¥2 trillion. But experts say the publishing industry is facing a historic crisis.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 26, 2008

Tattoos come out of hiding

'There are tattoos that you can show and ones that you should hide," says Shura, an Osaka tattoo artist. "Traditional tattoos are only OK to show at festivals, certain public baths and during fights.
COMMENTARY
Aug 25, 2008

Chinese 'oldies' who raised the bar for caring

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — In the obsessive media heat of these youth-oriented Beijing Olympics, a once-famous Chinese political figure has died at the ripe young age of 87, and goes to the grave almost internationally unnoticed.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 24, 2008

It's time for perfectly cute 50-year-old Japanese women

Madonna turned 50 on Aug. 16. The milestone was marked by a predictable barrage of commentary about "50 being the new 40" and how women no longer dread the half-century mark. Everybody is trying to eat better and exercise more, and cosmetic surgery isn't the big taboo it once was. But since the subject...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 22, 2008

Five for summer: Malibu cocktail recipes

Last month the Liquid Culture column asked readers to submit original Malibu-based cocktail recipes. After drinking our way through the entries, these were are five favorites and the authors each received a 350-ml bottle of Malibu.
Reader Mail
Aug 17, 2008

Efforts to rectify war record

Jeff Kingston's Aug. 10 article, "War and reconciliation: a tale of two countries," states that Chinese "uncritically accept Iris Chang's monochromatic view of war memory in Japan." Monochromatic? Hey, steady on. We are not talking about a war novel. We are dealing with a properly researched piece of...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 17, 2008

There's a lot to learn from the life and times of Beate Sirota Gordon

"This film is a requiem to people who have been persecuted and died in war."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2008

Helping hand for immigrants

There is a simple reason why Taba Solange, a Brazilian living in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, never helps her 12-year-old son or 7-year-old daughter with their homework: She can't read Japanese very well.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 16, 2008

Geeks I have known

The meeting itself is not unusual. I have had students seek my consul before — on all kinds of topics.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?