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Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Apr 23, 2008

Tech to get people talking

Say what you want: Why use a tiny keypad to communicate when the human voice can do the job? NTT DoCoMo last week launched a new mobile phone from Fujitsu, the F884i, that will put the joy back into talking to your e-mail contacts. Employing the new FOMA Raku Raku Phone Premium system, users enter their...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Apr 22, 2008

A prototype in your livingroom

When architect Keiji Ashizawa decided to move his Tokyo studio into a new space last year, he wanted to do something with it before settling in. So he arranged an exhibition last December in which a group of Tokyo-based designers presented all manner of prototypes for commercial products such as the...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 20, 2008

Belly-laughs boffin puts mirth to the test

When people laugh, it is often their cheery sounds or the wrinkles around their eyes that mark out their mirth. Yoji Kimura believes, however, that the key to determining the nature of laughter lies in the diaphragm.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 19, 2008

Putting faces on the subculture crowd

Sitting in a watering hole in Shinjuku's Golden Gai, meeting new people, exchanging name cards, one is likely to come across a tiny square name card with color caricatures on its front and back.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 16, 2008

Insurer looks to online sales to undercut big firms

Daisuke Iwase, 32, immediately felt chemistry when he was introduced to Haruaki Deguchi in Tokyo's Akasaka district two years ago. The chemistry was all business.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 11, 2008

Vietnamese Impressionist solo exhibition to aid charities

A benefit exhibition featuring Le Thanh Son, a well-known Impressionist-style painter from Vietnam putting on his first solo show in Japan, will be held in Tokyo from April 13 to 18. The 45-year-old artist is renowned for his use of bright colors in re-creating the intimate atmospheres of villages around...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 11, 2008

Jazz icon Akiko Yano finds her electronic muse

She released her acclaimed debut album 32 years ago at the age of 21, but Akiko Yano still refuses to rest on her laurels. Even with a 27th solo album on the way, the pianist, vocalist, lyricist and composer is still searching for new musical experiences.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Apr 9, 2008

A renaissance of hand-held power

Crank up the music: Giving electronic devices mobility is the easy part. Empowering them to function for any length of time before you have to recharge them is quite another challenge. Local gadget whiz Thanko is helping out with its functionally titled Cranking MP3 Player, a new digital- music player...
EDITORIALS
Apr 9, 2008

Few cheers for devolution

A 15-member government panel has submitted an interim report recommending the introduction of the "doshu" system of regional governments. The report, submitted to internal affairs minister Hiroya Masuda, calls for a complete shift to the new system by 2018, and proposes that the government submit a basic...
COMMENTARY
Apr 7, 2008

Starving the emissions beast

The focus of the debate on climate change has shifted drastically in the past several years. The Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997 on the assumption that climate change and global warming were being caused by emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 5, 2008

Lazy cow sex and the dairy queen

Inside a barn in Hokkaido, I sat down with a 47-year-old woman named Mrs. Takahashi and talked about sex. Cattle sex, that is. Of course, the closest thing I've seen to it is a pregnant cow, so I wanted to get a little more information as my interest in this subject was mounting.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 4, 2008

'Cloverfield'

An old gripe of Woody Allen was that America hated New York ("The rest of the country looks upon New York like we're leftwing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers!" he rails in "Annie Hall"). For most of his life he had stuck staunchly by his city, showing the rest of America just what "leftwing...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 4, 2008

Alien exhibition lands in Odaiba

Are we the only intelligent life in the vast universe?
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 2, 2008

Where will Next Town Brown resurface?

NEW YORK — Why would even the disseminators of fabrication sense Rick Carlisle is a consequential candidate to replace Isiah Thomas as Knicks coach?
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2008

April 1 proves readers no fools

Barack Obama's half brother, Barracuda Obama, is doing well in Japan and wishes the Illinois senator luck in his quest for the U.S. presidency, the Tokyo Shimbun reported Tuesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Apr 2, 2008

Revisit the pleasure of penmanship

The writing is on the electron: Writing by hand is a human endeavor that technology has not yet spelled the end of, but it is working at it. Ever since the humble typewriter changed the office, the art of penmanship has been in retreat. In recent times, a slew of gadgets have tried to turn the rivals...
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2008

Toyota to build new plant in Miyagi for car engines

Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday it will build its fifth domestic engine factory to meet rising demand for compact cars.
Reader Mail
Mar 30, 2008

'Better services' claim rings hollow

Regarding the March 27 front-page article "Report urges closer watch on foreigners": It seems that neither the reporter nor the government panel involved in the story is aware of how the foreigner registration system currently works.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 30, 2008

The big mysteries behind small things

THE ART OF SMALL THINGS by John Mack. London: British Museum Press, 2007, 224 pp., with 200 color illustrations, £19.99 (cloth) Here is a splendid catalog of the world made small — miniature works in the collection of the British Museum: Elizabethan rings, Benin masks, Netherlandish rosary beads,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 30, 2008

Flying in the face of common sense in building new airports

Several weeks ago while walking through Tokyo's Ueno Station a friend and I passed a poster advertising the new Ibaraki airport. After we boarded our train, we started talking about the poster. Neither of us were aware that Ibaraki had an airport and we wondered why the prefecture needed one.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 29, 2008

Eco designs and the power of beans

Anand Mehta, who lives four stops out of Kamakura on the Enoden Line, quotes his hero when called to ask when we might meet: "Gandhi said, 'What can be done tomorrow can be done today. What can be done today can be done right now.' So, jump on the train."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 29, 2008

Research on some research

Most of my Stateside friends and family have knowledge of Japan only as deep as what they see on TV. Which means they think I live my life in a "dizzified" world of ninja, yakuza and robots.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / LIQUID CULTURE
Mar 28, 2008

Vodka: not so plain and simple

Vodka is often described as the world's most versatile spirit, which is a nice way of saying that it doesn't taste of much. Globally, it outsells every other spirit, but outside of Eastern Europe, nobody drinks it for its flavor.
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Mar 28, 2008

Bahraini muscle frustrates Japan

Japan's 2010 World Cup qualification hopes hit a snag on Wednesday as Bahrain grabbed a late goal to send Takeshi Okada's men crashing to a 1-0 defeat in Manama.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2008

When natural beauty just isn't cutting it . . .

Ines Ligron is the ultimate Miss Universe insider, and she does not believe much in secrets. One of her favorite stories is of a contestant who could have won but opted for last-minute cosmetic surgery, and thus was barely able to lift her arms when she went before the judges.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 27, 2008

Detached or mundane?

The fame that Yosa Buson (1716-1783) enjoyed as a painter and haiku poet in his own lifetime quickly eroded in the years following his death. And while his poetic reputation was restored as early as the 19th century, it was only in the years following World War II that his paintings once again became...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 26, 2008

Fans cherish chance to see Red Sox, Athletics in Tokyo

A salad bowl, a melting pot, whatever you call it, the stadium was mixed with all types of baseball fans from all over the world.

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