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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2008

Japan can expect next U.S. president to press for Afghan help: expert

The next U.S. administration — whether it's Democratic or Republican — will expect Japan to play a larger role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan as well as "the war on terror" being waged there, a U.S. think tank expert told a recent seminar in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2008

Singh rises above the fray to keep fighting

HONG KONG — It was hardly the finest hour for Indian democracy, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finally called the bluff of his so-called leftist allies last month and won a vote of confidence in Parliament after two days of stormy debate and widespread allegations of bribery and corruption.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 3, 2008

Jiang Rong: Writing in a world of wolves

Jiang Rong (pen name of Lu Jiamin), who is now 62, was born in Jiangsu Province, China, and educated in Beijing. In 1967, at age 21, he volunteered to go and work in Inner Mongolia, where he'd heard about the practice of people there paying homage to "wolf totems" erected in the rolling grasslands that...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 30, 2008

Waribashi: Waste on a gluttonous scale

I f I were writing about one of my favorite Tokyo eateries for the JT's Food Page, this story would mostly focus on its delicious fare. However, as this is the Nature Page, my verbal meanderings here are not about the nosh at cheap and cheerful Shokudo Shogetsu in Tamachi, but about the tools used to...
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2008

Welfare spending pushes up budget cap

Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga said Monday the government has set a limit of around ¥47.8 trillion for general expenditures in the fiscal 2009 budget.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 29, 2008

Navigating the 'keigo' minefield

You've probably heard of blunders by Japanese businessmen in English, such as translating "hitotsu yoroshiku" as "one, please" instead of "I look forward to working with you." Less known, but no less common, are the slip-ups foreigners make in Japanese, especially when using that dreaded form of honorifics...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 27, 2008

Cancerlike corruption thrives in heads of bureaucrats

The ongoing investigation into charges of bribery and employment-rigging in the Oita prefectural school system has occasioned more than the usual amount of harsh commentary you hear when public servants do bad things. That's probably because in this case it is believed that the minds of innocent youths...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 27, 2008

One of poetry's finest reminds us of our place in the natural world

Skinny frog Don't give up! Issa is here
CULTURE / Books
Jul 27, 2008

Space and the city: experimenting in Japan

BURN YOUR BELONGINGS by David F. Hoenigman. SIX GALLERY PRESS, 2008, 201 pp., $24.99 (paper) In a letter to Charles Olson on June 5, 1950, the late Robert Creeley wrote that "form is never more than an extension of content." In her "How To Write" published in 1931, Gertrude Stein claimed "Sentences are...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 27, 2008

Zeami's notes: appreciating blossoming performances

ZEAMI: Performance Notes, translated by Tom Hare. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008, 528 pp., $45 (cloth) Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443), the actor, playwright and aesthetic theorist who established the Noh drama as a classical theatrical art, left behind some 21 treatises.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 24, 2008

Fab Four flick offers a taste of revolution

It's easy to be skeptical about the idea of a movie-musical based on the music of The Beatles. After all, we've been there before with 1978's "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," the Robert Stigwood-produced travesty that took the most twee aspects of The Beatles' oeuvre, cast The Bee Gees and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Jul 22, 2008

A head-turning umbrella and other designer treats

Electric bean
Reader Mail
Jul 20, 2008

Worse offenses than brown hair

It has recently come to my attention that a form of discrimination goes unchecked in Japan, and may even be enforced by the schools: discrimination against people with brown hair. A Japanese friend who works at a cooking college in Tokyo has been required to dye her hair black countless times by her...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 20, 2008

A tease stripped of credulity in Chicago's Little Vietnam

THE LAST STRIPTEASE, by Michael Wiley. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2007, 245 pp., $23.95 (cloth) In this novel, winner of last year's Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin's Press Best First Private-Eye Novel Contest, Chicago private investigator Joe Kozmarski is retained by an ex-judge to clear...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 19, 2008

Go for broke, Japan!

The person shouting this is a close friend — a Japanese English instructor — who with looping earrings, sliding bracelets and multiringed fingers shows more metal than a brass band. She's noisier too, with a big-eyed, rubber-tongued enthusiasm for her work.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2008

'Manufactured Landscapes'

It takes director Jennifer Baichwal close to 10 minutes to move from one end to the other of the electronic-parts factory in Fujian, China — the fast-moving camera glides along the floor showing aisles and aisles of yellow-jacketed workers bent over their tasks.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 18, 2008

Suntory Hall hosts concert for children

Tokyo Symphony Orchestra will perform a concert for children on July 26 at Suntory Hall in Minato Ward, Tokyo, that focuses on contemporary Japanese composers.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 13, 2008

Self-praise abounds in the pages of wheeler-dealers' own obituaries

Japanese politicians are known for their perseverance and ingenuity, and the Diet may well be the last place in the country still offering lifetime employment.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 13, 2008

Tips from Japan that really work

URAWAZA: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks From Japan, by Lisa Katayama, with illustrations by Joel Holland. Chronicle Books, 2008, $14.95 (paper) Ever want to cure a stuffy nose, but nothing works? Try stuffing scallions up your nostrils. Your bedmate won't stop snoring? Tape a tennis ball to her back....
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Jul 12, 2008

Shy Belgian boy falls for worldly Japanese girl

Marc Van Cauteren and Reiko Shinozaki met in Tokyo in 1993 after mutual friends encouraged him to call her during a business trip to Japan.

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