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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 12, 2006

Bon -- the spirit of ancestor worship

The Bon holiday is here, when everyone returns to their hometown to visit family and pay homage to their ancestors. It's a built-in way of forcing your grown children to come back to visit you, even if you're dead.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 6, 2006

Shu Uemura: A life in pursuit of beauty

Hailing from a conservative family of businessmen and bankers, as a young man in occupied Japan, Shu Uemura dreamed of becoming an actor. But, fearing that his weak constitution would hamper his chances of success, he instead enrolled at Tokyo Beauty Academy -- the only man in a class of 130.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 6, 2006

A blue mood for poetry

POEMS OF DAYS PAST / ARISHI HI NO UTA, by Nakahara Chuya, translations by Ry Beville. The American Book Company, 2005, 81 pp., $19.99 (paper). RIGHT EYE IN TWILIGHT / MIGI-ME NO BYAKUYA, by Ban'ya Natsuishi, translations by Ban'ya Natsuishi & Jack Galmitz. Wasteland Press, 2006, 58 pp., $12 (paper). Both...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 1, 2006

Can NHK justify its huge collection costs?

NHK spends a massive 76.9 billion yen per year on its fee collection system, which equates to some 12.4 percent of the national broadcaster annual operating income.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2006

Man admits pulling scam to get PCs

A former employee of a Toshiba Corp. affiliate has been arrested on suspicion of swindling two clients out of 230 personal computers worth some 50 million yen, police officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 25, 2006

Lesbian mothers' twin tasks

Motherhood can be daunting under even the best of circumstances, but, as a lesbian, considering starting a family brings with it a whole new set of difficulties.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2006

Happiness, money and giving it away

PRINCETON, New Jersey -- Would you be happier if you were richer? Many people believe that they would be. But research conducted over many years suggests that greater wealth implies greater happiness only at quite low levels of income. People in the United States, for example, are, on average, richer...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 16, 2006

And now for some good news -- on tap for everyone

We have become so used to environmental portents that whenever we hear good news we blink in disbelief, so blink away: It appears that the various concerted efforts to get people in Japan to save water has paid off.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 16, 2006

Fractured families bode ill for Japan's gray army

The late actor Kiyoshi Atsumi, who played Tora-san in all of the movies with that title, was a compassionate man of the old Japanese school.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 15, 2006

Grandmother inspires German cake cookbook

There are a lot of changes in Tania Kadokura's life right now. But that's OK, she says. "I'm used to change."
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2006

81% want to be told of dementia

More than 80 percent of people surveyed say they want to be informed if they are someday diagnosed with dementia, according to the National Institute for Longevity Sciences.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 2, 2006

Tamiyo Kusakari: Dancing with body and soul

Tamiyo Kusakari has been on her toes since the age of 8. Japan's most treasured ballerina virtually grew up in her toe shoes, and spent her youth dancing on one stage after another. Now, at the age of 41, she continues to enthrall legions of fans with the skill and eloquence of her craft.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 27, 2006

PBJ's SmartCaddie, Kai's kitche shears, Dainippon Type Organization's writing accessories, Nussha Japanware

This month, we are turning the spotlight on another eclectic array of goods that have been popping up in some of Tokyo's best design and interior shops recently, and are just begging to be included in any aficionado's arsenal of stylish accouterments. From portable computers to kitchen accessories, here's...
EDITORIALS
Jun 19, 2006

A united lobby for life

Japan has seen more than 30,000 people kill themselves annually for eight consecutive years since 1998. Last year, 32,552 people took their own lives, a total that breaks down to 89.18 suicides per day and 3.71 suicides every hour. Certainly these are grim figures.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 9, 2006

Breezy mall brightens up a down-at-heel district

As home to myriad love hotels, hostess bars and seedy nightlife establishments, Kinshicho in Tokyo's Sumida Ward has earned itself an unenviable reputation as a center of iniquity. Though it bustles after dusk, during the daytime, the east Tokyo town is an unremarkable shitamachi (downtown) district....
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 6, 2006

From the sole, a new soul

There's nothing quite like a foot rub, especially after a hard day's work and a long commute home. It's sure to be even more pleasurable if the person working on your feet is a trained practitioner of reflexology, a holistic therapy currently enjoying a boom throughout Japan. Reflexology is an easy way...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 2, 2006

Instinctive creation

Most people know Michael Nyman for "The Piano" soundtrack, but there's a great deal more to the British minimalist composer than his lush, romantic score for the 1992 Jane Campion film.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 28, 2006

Look back on the Vietnam War in NHK's "The Time That Moved History" and more

More than 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War, Americans are still debating whether or not it was right to intervene in a civil conflict that itself was a product of someone else's (i.e., France) colonial adventure.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 28, 2006

Japan sleepwalks by design toward peace-renouncing poll

The Japanese people may soon be asked to make a momentous decision in a nationwide referendum. As I write this, the major political parties are at loggerheads over conditions under which that referendum will be conducted. Behind the closed doors of the Diet, but barely touched on in the media, this debate...
COMMUNITY
May 27, 2006

With the lightest touch, the most powerful healing

Craniosacral therapist Lionel Gougne lays his hands palm down over my feet with the lightest touch imaginable. He asks me to relax, and so I do, stretch out fully clothed, warm and comfortable on a couch seven floors above Shibuya on a cold damp spring morning.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
May 23, 2006

Hanabi light, Kai series of pots and kettles, 60VISION bags, Sharp cordless phones

Anyone who follows this column regularly might accuse me of being a slave to all that is white -- and with a name like "Snow," that criticism does seem justified. So in order to get it all out of my system (at least for a few months), this month I'm covering all things white. There is a zen-like satisfaction...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 21, 2006

Henry says money not reason he chose to stay with Gunners

LONDON -- According to Thierry Henry, he had not thought about signing a new contract with Arsenal before last Wednesday's Champions League final defeat by Barcelona. The match over, Henry said he would start to think about his future.
EDITORIALS
May 16, 2006

HIV toll rising in Japan

In the 23 years since the HIV virus was discovered, AIDS has become recognized as a "disease of the poor," one that is "incurable" but "100 percent preventable," in the words of its co-discoverer, Professor Luc Montagnier, president of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention. While over...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 16, 2006

'Waribashi' from China to end

Walk into any noodle shop or restaurant and chances are high you'll soon be eating with a pair of disposable wooden chopsticks from China.
COMMENTARY
May 16, 2006

Pioneers turned paper into must-reads

LOS ANGELES -- It was a remarkably sad coincidence that within the span of a few days, two of the world's more influential newspaper figures died.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
May 12, 2006

Kitting out the kids in the finest gear

It might seem safe to assume that with a rapidly dwindling number of kids being brought into the world here in Japan, the market for kids' clothes and toys would be shrinking fast. Not so: with fewer children around, more and more money is being spent on them, and a host of top-class kiddie stores are...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 7, 2006

Japanese being ensnared in ill-suited U.S. trappings

Back in the 1960s and '70s, the Japanese people were being raked over the coals from West Virginia to the Ruhr Valley and beyond for, chiefly, two things.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 30, 2006

Harking back to the past in order to secure the immediate future

Thanks to continuing malfeasance on the part of some of its employees, NHK remains in the dog house, so it's tempting to view recent programming decisions with an eye for how they might boost the public broadcaster's standing among subscribers. For example, why has NHK revived not one, not two, but four...

Longform

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