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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2007

Investors OK non-Japanese on Toyota board

Jim Press, the top man of Toyota's North American operations, got the go-ahead from shareholders Friday to become the first non-Japanese member of the automaker's board of directors.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 23, 2007

A doughnut by any other name

Basically, I try to live my life according to that time-tested maxim from the Roman philosopher Seneca, who said wisdom is knowing the proper limit of things.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 22, 2007

'Mogari no Mori'

Naomi Kawase has spent much of her career fending off labels, be it "woman director," "New Wave young hope" or "maker of autobiographical documentaries" the latter a genre she did much to popularize, starting with her student work in the late 1980s.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2007

Nuclear industry gears up for global push

KYOTO — Japan's nuclear power industry is pushing to get atomic energy on next year's agenda when this nation hosts the Group of Eight summit meetings, saying it is time world leaders recognize the power source as a practical way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 21, 2007

"Corpi Altri"

Various locations in Tokyo June 23-28
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2007

Spurned by Japan, Kurds find refuge in Canada

A Kurdish man and his family who staged a sit-in in front of United Nations University in 2004 while they were seeking refugee status announced Monday they have been accepted in Canada.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 19, 2007

Second Life, second lingo

There probably aren't many English teachers in Japan who go to work carrying a samurai sword, dressed in battle armor, with a large Stars and Stripes strapped to their back. But happily for Chris Flesuras, in 3-D virtual world Second Life little is impossible.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 17, 2007

Japan's master of an ancient Muslim art

For Kouichi Honda, writing a beautiful line is what life is about. Getting every detail right — the subtle curves, the varying thicknesses and the density of the ink — matters to him as much as life itself.
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2007

Crime in Akihabara is no game

A report released earlier this month by the Metropolitan Police Department found that crime is rising in innovative and trendy Akihabara. Bag thefts, shoplifting, and sales of restricted goods and illegal services have reached a worrying level that cannot be ignored. It is hoped that, in this case, Akihabara...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 17, 2007

Bureaucrats discovered to be pathetically human

Few fixtures of civilization invite more derision than bureaucracy. We understand that government agencies are necessary for the smooth operation of civic life but bristle at the prospect of having to interact with them. Public offices are cold, monolithic things, operating on principles that have little...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 17, 2007

Playing the 'hooligan'

An explosive, shrill cry flies out of nowhere, filling the entire auditorium: "Matte imashita (I've been waiting for that)!"
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 17, 2007

Romantic drama-comedy, travel food show and celebrity concert music special

The strong-willed wife is an archetype in almost every culture and it gets the comedy treatment in Fuji TV's series "Oni Yome Nikki (Diary of a Demon Bride)" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), which is based on a popular manga. Arisa Kanzuki plays the title character, Sanae, whose lazy and negligent husband, Kazuma...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 17, 2007

Stand by your language — but not as a nationalist icon

Last month, on May 21 to be exact, something caught my eye in the English-language IHT/Asahi Shimbun newspaper. In an article headlined "Holistic patriotic education still missing," Professor Nobukatsu Fujioka of Takushoku University in Tokyo made an impassioned plea for Japanese children to be imbued...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 17, 2007

The passion, excesses and fun of Edo — in color

JAPANESE POPULAR PRINTS by Rebecca Salter. London: A & C Black, 2006, 208 pp., 221 illustrations, £30 (paper) "Japanese Popular Prints" is an entertaining, surprising and unique journey through the popular culture of the most colorful period in Japanese history. Some may already be familiar with...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 16, 2007

Yukari Pratt

Put together the bright picture of a girl, growing up in Minnesota, with her younger brother, their Japanese mother and American father. She attended Luther College in Iowa, and took her degree there in a compelling interest, music. She said: "Music played a big part in my high school years. I had a...
EDITORIALS
Jun 15, 2007

More meddling in education

An advisory body to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has disclosed a second set of recommendations on improving the quality of public education. Among them is a call for upgrading moral education. Elementary and junior high schools already have a class on morality once a week, but it is not a course based on...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 15, 2007

Bodies interlock in modern dance

Italian contemporary dance is not a cultural field very familiar to the Japanese. To put that right, Japan's 4th Skin Arts Network and Italy's own Associazione Culturale Danza Urbana will present a contemporary dance festival "Corpi Altri (Body Other)," to be held at three Tokyo venues June 23-28. The...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 15, 2007

Tofuya Ukai: Below the Tower a Garden of Edo

Tofuya Ukai is one of those "only in Japan" experiences. In the heart of the city, minutes from Roppongi and at the very foot of Tokyo Tower, you round a corner and find yourself in front of a samurai-era merchant's residence, its low-slung wooden gateway announced by an imposing white lantern and a...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 13, 2007

Religion's cute, but creation chemistry is complex

The ancient Chinese believed the universe began inside a cosmic egg. In Japanese mythology, two gods, Izanagi and Izanami, stirred the oceans with a giant spear, forming the islands of Japan and, eventually, its people. There are countless more creation myths. Every culture has them. But I like to think...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jun 12, 2007

Horiyoshi III

Horiyoshi III is revered by tattoo enthusiasts as possibly the world's greatest horishi, or full-body tattoo artist. (Horimono are tattoos done purely for fun, while irezumi are tattoos that mark criminals.) Friendly and too cool for words, the 61-year-old loves digging his needle into people — he...
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2007

Lee raps China, South Korea over Yasukuni

Former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui said Saturday in Tokyo that China and South Korea have lashed out at Japanese leaders over Yasukuni Shrine mainly because of their own domestic political problems, and Japan should not let other countries intervene in honoring its war dead.

Longform

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