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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 7, 2008

NPO brings smiles to the Philippines

Yokohama-based dental practitioner Dr. Kimio Miyake defines the turning point in his professional and personal life as taking place in the Philippines in 1983." I was dining at a terrace restaurant above the sea, and there were naked children on the rocks below diving for coins thrown by visitors. One...
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2008

Diet officially declares Ainu indigenous

The Ainu celebrated a historic moment Friday as the Diet unanimously passed a resolution that recognizes them as indigenous people of Japan.
Japan Times
Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR
Jun 6, 2008

Women's postwar triumph recalled

19th in a series
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 6, 2008

World-famous Yellow to close

On the morning of June 22, Tokyo will lose a modern cultural asset when Club Yellow, also known as Space Lab Yellow, closes its doors for the final time before its premises are sold to land developers. Since 1991, this event space has hosted world-class DJs, gained a reputation as one of the best clubs...
Reader Mail
Jun 5, 2008

Where East could meet West

Concerning the ongoing discussion about the existence of God, I agree with William Johnston's May 25 letter, "The reconciliation of opposites," for the simple reason that in the Zen Buddhism tradition, Peter Singer (with his doubts expressed in his May 19 article, "If there is a god, then why is there...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 5, 2008

Torifune celebrate the birth of butoh's founder

Last month in his ongoing series Japanese Cinema Eclectics, author Donald Ritchie screened "Horrors of Malformed Men" (Toei, 1969). An "unsung classic" of Japanese film, "Horrors" features the only cinematic performance of Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of the butoh dance movement. Hijikata, who would...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 5, 2008

The trashy art of Asian diplomacy

When curator Mizuki Takahashi was selecting artists for the Japan Foundation-sponsored exhibition "Kita! Japanese Artists Meet Indonesia," held earlier this year in Indonesia, she deliberately chose ones "capable of involving local people and working in local environments."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2008

Bad public manners irk Bushido proponent

Sokichi Sugimura, 72, feels elements of Japanese society have lost their moral compass to the point of being downright rude and he and his associates want to put them back on course, and in the process embrace samurai values.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 3, 2008

Hard work begins once Japan signs child-abduction treaty

If my own mailbox is any indicator, the Internet is buzzing as international family lawyers, family rights activists and others share an exciting piece of news: Japan is reportedly planning to join the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction! Perhaps Japan's days as a haven...
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2008

African journalists had trying time at aid conference

The Tokyo International Conference on African Development held in Yokohama last week attracted not only delegations from 52 African nations but also some 300 registered journalists from overseas.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 31, 2008

Eroticism as a means of development

Several months ago, at an exhibition titled "Matsuri," I purchased a print by American photographer Vincent Morris.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 30, 2008

A dreamlike escape

An important feature of many Japanese gardens is the careful integration of the architecture of a house and the design of its garden. Many of the finest examples are located in private homes, and so are sadly not open to public view.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 30, 2008

Good drinks for those who wait

In most sake breweries, the brewing season is over by May, a month marked by the announcement of the National New Sake Awards, the biggest public prize to which a brewer can aspire. (Those interested can taste some of the prizewinners at the National Sake Fair in Tokyo's Ikebukuro on June 11th.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2008

'Black Gold'

Some two decades of involvement in the music industry has done little to dull my amazement at how the person who creates the actual product for sale — the musician — is the lowest person on the food chain. Musicians get paid last and least, their cut far less than that of the retailer or the distributor...
Japan Times
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
May 29, 2008

'Anime'-decorated cars latest 'otaku' fad

They're painful. So painful that pedestrians can't help staring at them and real girls stay away from their owners.
Japan Times
JAPAN / AFRICA LIFELINE
May 27, 2008

Investors looking beyond raw materials to consumers

Japan and its trading houses have scrambled in recent years to court resource-rich African countries as competition has intensified with Europe and China to secure natural resources and raw materials prices have surged with the demand of rapidly growing emerging economies.
COMMENTARY
May 26, 2008

A winner that Beijing would be wise to cheer

LOS ANGELES — Not every election has significant international repercussions, to be sure. Some are scarcely noteworthy even in the places where they occur. But in March there was a monster piece of an election in East Asia, and early last week the landslide winner was celebrated in happy parties all...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 25, 2008

Children following their ambitions, cartoonists discussion, nature-speciality

One of the most popular segments on the Saturday morning variety show "Shittoko!" profiles children who are working hard to fulfill individual dreams. In order to celebrate 100 segments on the show, TBS will air a special two-hour program, "Kodomo no Chikara wa Mugendai (The Power of Children is Unlimited)"...
Japan Times
JAPAN / AFRICA LIFELINE
May 24, 2008

JICA, TICAD look beyond basics to growth

When the first Tokyo International Conference on African Development was held in 1993, aid to Africa still meant providing support for social infrastructure, including water, health and education projects, because many of the countries were in civil war and their people needed basic necessities.
COMMENTARY
May 23, 2008

Asia's rise befalls the West

HONG KONG — "When many Western observers look at China," the former Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani writes in his latest book, "The New Asian Hemisphere," "they cannot see beyond the lack of a democratic political system. They miss the massive democratization of the human spirit that is taking...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 23, 2008

Shinbashi fetes its geisha culture

Indulge yourself in the art of geisha at the 84th annual Azuma Odori dance gala in Tokyo's Shinbashi district from May 29 to June 1.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 23, 2008

Descending into the somber history of a once-glittering prize

It's a balmy spring day in Shimane Prefecture, but one step into the newly reopened Okubo Shaft of the Iwami silver mine and your body is enveloped by the darkness and the cold. In these eerie surroundings, it's not hard to imagine encountering the ghosts of the miners whose labor helped reshape Japan...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 22, 2008

Tokyo Station face-lift adds old, new looks

JR Tokyo Station is in the midst of its first major reconstruction work since the end of the war as part of efforts to revitalize the heart of the capital.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 21, 2008

EPAs clearing way for foreign caregivers

Indonesian nurses and care workers are expected to start arriving in Japan this summer under a new bilateral economic partnership agreement, and, under a similar EPA between Tokyo and Manila, such professionals from the Philippines may follow.

Longform

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