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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 21, 2007

Budget rise eyed for '08 seen as reform retreat

The Finance Ministry proposed Thursday raising the fiscal 2008 budget to ¥83.06 trillion in what may signal a retreat from the government's pursuit of fiscal reform.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 21, 2007

The art of youth

An Aladdin's Cave of small, distinctive retail spaces, the Laforet building at a main crossroads in trendy Harajuku has been a shopping magnet for young people since it opened in 1978. This year, for instance, more than 3,000 lined up outside awaiting the start of its New Year sale. And whereas its Shibuya...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Dec 18, 2007

Mistletoe

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 18, 2007

Taking time for younger children

Every morning I trundle my daughter onto my bicycle and up the hill to her public day-care center in central Tokyo before heading off to work.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2007

The voter rebellion in Japan

NEW YORK — On Nov. 25, Australian voters replaced Prime Minister John Howard of the Liberal Party with Kevin Rudd of the Labor Party, who promised to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq. The new prime minister is preparing Australia for post-Bush America.
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Dec 16, 2007

Confidence helps Yonamine elevate game for HeatDevils

The Japan Times will be featuring periodic interviews with players in the bj-league — Japan's first professional basketball circuit — which has entered its third season. Tsubasa Yonamine of the Oita HeatDevils is the subject of this week's profile.
EDITORIALS
Dec 16, 2007

Stars in their guides

Last month, Tokyo's restaurants received their stars. For the first time, the famed Michelin Guide, the most respected and feared guidebook in Europe, published a volume outside the Western world. Noted for its make-or-break effects on European hotels and restaurants, the publication was greeted in Tokyo...
Reader Mail
Dec 16, 2007

Turn 'culture' group inside out

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office Special Investigation team is investigating the office of the Japan-U.S. Peace and Culture Exchange Association in connection with the bribery case involving former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya. A U.S. subsidiary of Yamada Corporation, a defense...
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2007

Diet session extended a second time

The ruling bloc extended the extraordinary Diet session Friday by another month to Jan. 15, making it certain the contentious bill to resume the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Indian Ocean support mission will clear the divided legislature.
Japan Times
JAPAN / READERS' FUND
Dec 14, 2007

Readers' contributions aiding struggling refugees in Japan

Third in a series
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 14, 2007

A sleighload of ways to savor the taste of Christmas

Only 1 percent of Japan is Christian. Luckily the rest of the country is happy to pilfer the fun parts of a jolly old festival season. So whether you're celebrating the prophet or the presents, and whether Christmas means eggnog, panettone or foie gras, Japan's chefs have cooked up some delectable holiday...
Reader Mail
Dec 13, 2007

Teachers should watch their visas

In response to Gavin Moore's Dec. 9 letter, "Picking up after the collapse": It is truly appreciated that Moore spends his time helping former Nova students and teachers get in contact with each other. But he should be careful not to do the former Nova teachers a disservice.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 13, 2007

'What is Hollywood anyway?'

Ken Watanabe's latest film opens with an image of a polar bear resurfacing into the brilliant spring sunlight after months living underground. It's tempting to see the scene as a metaphor for a career that has alternated between stretches of intense, highly acclaimed work and long periods of hibernation....
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Dec 12, 2007

Wasp spider

* Japanese name: Naka-koganegumo * Scientific name: Argiope bruennichii * Description: You wouldn't really mistake this spider for a wasp, but its egg-shaped abdomen is dramatically striped in yellow, black and white, and the legs too are striped, though the overall pattern is perhaps more tigerish...
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 12, 2007

Gadgetry supports the lazy, and Polaroid launches an iPod-friendly DVD player

Beam me everywhere, Scotty: Laziness is an industry in itself, and, judging by the gadgets that we crave, we are working rather hard to not work hard. Or maybe it is just the pursuit of versatility; why have just one way of doing something when we can create dozens of ways of fulfilling our wishes? Whatever...
BUSINESS
Dec 12, 2007

Homes, firms hit by oil spike to get relief

The government announced a relief package Tuesday for small firms and low-income households to help them cope with high oil prices.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 11, 2007

Tamegoro Sudo

Tamegoro Sudo, 50, is a movie producer and actor whose many friends in Tokyo's downtown Asakusa area provide him with the hilarious characters and plots in his movies. His five "Dekotora no Shu (Shu, the Dekotora Man)" movies star his favorite decorated trucks and his buddies, actors Sho Aikawa and Shingo...
EDITORIALS
Dec 7, 2007

Hugo Chavez, democrat

Fears about the future of Venezuela's democracy have abated, at least for now. Despite pre-vote threats about the potential cost of opposing his wishes, President Hugo Chavez has accepted the defeat of his constitutional reform package. The outcome has the potential to rejuvenate a dispirited and divided...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 7, 2007

He's in the realm of the senses

Francois Ozon is a filmmaker renowned for adopting a different style with every film — he has made scathing, pseudo-pornographic short features ("Sitcom," "See the Sea"), a rich, velvety musical ("8 Femmes"), and a restrained but sensual tale of bereavement ("Under the Sand"). His latest, "Angel,"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 7, 2007

Galactic keep it in their own backyard

In a business where some people will do anything to thrust themselves into the spotlight, for their latest release the New Orleans-based funk quintet Galactic did all they could to step out of it. Not even Hurricane Katrina could stop them.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 7, 2007

Daphne "Carmin"

Though branded the French Bjork, 33-year-old Daphne's claim to fame in Japan comes from singing the theme song in a commercial for Kanebo hair products. But "La Cle," a bonus track on the Japanese release of her second album, "Carmin," reveals a sultry, sexy sound a million miles away from Iceland's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 6, 2007

Out from under noh's shadow

'F or kyogen actors, Japan losing the war in 1945 was a wonderful event as it liberated kyogen from its long subjugation to noh," actor Shigeyama Sennojo says. "For the first time in 400 years, kyogen was recognized as an independent form of theater."
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2007

Japan may limit airport privatization

The government may set limits on airport privatization after Macquarie Airports bought 20 percent of the terminal operator at Haneda, Tokyo's main domestic hub.

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