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COMMENTARY
Dec 14, 2011

Fed paying a price in current round of revisionism

The further we get from 2008, when the American economy flirted with another Great Depression, the more people forget what happened and create stories that satisfy some political, ideological or journalistic urge. Among the biggest losers in this revisionism is the Federal Reserve. Although it helped...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2011

TSE, OSE woo foreign investors

Japan's top two stock exchanges are starting campaigns to lure overseas investors after agreeing last month to merge amid falling trading volumes.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Dec 13, 2011

Stepping in the right fashion-forward directions

Opening ceremony for Kenzo Kenzo is one of Japan's most long-standing fashion houses, so it is understandable that it has undergone quite a few changes in its 41-year history — especially since Kenzo Takada himself retired in 1999.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 11, 2011

No quick, easy path to haiku enlightenment

100 SELECTED HAIKU OF KATO IKUYA, translated with a study by Ito Isao. Chuseki-sha, 2011, 104 pp., ¥3,500 (paperback) Ikuya Kato (born 1929) is a modern haiku poet of the "free verse" school. Haiku itself is probably the shortest form of literature there is. Its classical structure is a cluster of 17...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 11, 2011

Mr. Momoe Yamaguchi finally decides to speak

Last week a new movie called "Railways" opened in Tokyo. It's about a driver on a small rural electric train line who retires after 40 years and is sort of a sequel to a film with the exact same title released in 2010. That movie centered on a Tokyo executive who loses his job and decides to pursue his...
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2011

Shionogi hacker gets 3½ years in U.S.

A former information technology worker at the U.S. unit of drug maker Shionogi & Co. was sentenced to nearly 3½ years in prison for hacking into the company's computer network and deleting parts of it, court records show.
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 10, 2011

Shiga studies impact on Lake Biwa from possible Fukui nuke accident

The Shiga Prefectural Government plans to develop a computer system able to simulate the amount and dispersal of radioactive materials that would contaminate Lake Biwa in the event of an accident at one of the nuclear power plants in neighboring Fukui Prefecture.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 9, 2011

Chelfitsch's Okada returns to Japan with a special version of his hit play

Chelfitsch theater company founder Toshiki Okada is back with "Five Days in March," a play written in his hallmark style of youth slang.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 9, 2011

Ticket giveaway: 'Devil's Double'

The Japan Times has 15 pairs of tickets to give away free to readers for an exclusive prerelease screening of "Devil's Double" on Jan. 6 at a central Tokyo location.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 9, 2011

Jackson brothers to visit Michael's 'second home'

"Immortal," the new Michael Jackson-themed Cirque du Soleil show touring North America may sound grandiose but the self-proclaimed "King of Pop" was undoubtedly a larger-than-life character. While immortality was out of Jackson's reach, the singer's family are doing their best to keep his memory alive...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 9, 2011

Using your noodle

On entering the minimalist five-story cube opposite the Yokohama Cosmoworld ferris wheel in Minato Mirai, it's hard to believe that the huge white-walled atrium, with its monumental wooden staircase and beech floors, is not the entrance to a modern-art museum. The blurb in the museum's guide, too, seems...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Dec 8, 2011

Celebrating New Year's in the traditional way

As people in Japan prepare to celebrate New Year's Day, among the most notable tasks of the season are housecleaning, which echos the timeworn ritual of susuharai ("cleaning soot from the timbers under the roof") and placing shimenawa (sacred straw rope traditionally hung at the entrance to Shinto shrines)...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 8, 2011

Architects of the future build a better understanding of 3/11

With the new year in sight and 2011 about to slip into the annals of history, the defining event of this year, the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, is now starting to recede into the distance. Though for those directly touched by the tragedy, it will of course always be present in the absence...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Dec 8, 2011

A look into Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

It is hard to think of fin de siecle Paris without recalling the dancing girls and dandies of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's colorful prints. It is equally difficult to imagine work by the artist not centered on the city's hedonistic and decadent nightlife.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 8, 2011

Active Child, How To Dress Well find their voices

"It will leave you feeling inspired and loved."
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2011

Olympus board must go, panel says

Olympus Corp. hid ¥134.8 billion in losses amid efforts to conceal the camera and medical equipment maker's soured investments since the 1990s, an independent panel appointed by the firm to probe its accounting scandal concluded Tuesday, denying it found any mob links.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2011

Owners bet on Tohoku revival, restart businesses along coast

The day Masahiro Osada reopened his Chinese restaurant, the mayor showed up for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 5, 2011

Unknown consequences if Japan joins TPP

Japan couldn't make up its mind, so it was up to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. On Nov. 13 he made it official: Japan would join multilateral negotiations aimed at forging a free-trading Kan-Taiheiyo Keizai Renkei Kyotei (環太平洋経済連携協定, Trans-Pacific Partnership, TPP).
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 4, 2011

Extreme shopping special; 'martial-arts love comedy'; CM of the week: Mikakuto

Variety shows have been forging open collaborations with commercial enterprises for some time now, but never as blatantly as TV Tokyo's two-hour special "Sennyu! Mitchaku 24 Jikan Kuizu" ("Infiltrate! Intense 24-hour Quiz"; Mon., 8 p.m.).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 3, 2011

A graceful hand to help elderly Japanese in Holland

In 1941, in the then Dutch East Indies, thousands of people were forced into internment camps by the invading Japanese army. It is a slice of history almost forgotten today, along with so many other wartime atrocities. It is something Chieko van Santen remembers every day, as the Japanese widow of a...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 2, 2011

Annals of cheap: 5manika.com

A new website works a niche and specializes in cheap but decent apartments in Tokyo.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 2, 2011

Lights mark a city's recovery

With December's arrival comes the season of illumination in Japan. Trees are decorated and most public places boast remarkable displays of light. However, an event in Kobe is not like the others when it comes to the motivations behind it.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 2, 2011

Karuizawa resort makes winter special

Winters in Japan can get cold. The inland regions, in particular, are doused with a heavy blanket of snow every year. It can cause problems, but in the runup to the holidays it gives people exactly what they want: a white Christmas.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 1, 2011

The New Mastersounds hone a jazz-funk style at gigs

The New Mastersounds have many old friends in Japan. The British four-piece was first noticed on these shores by fans of Scottish Northern Soul and funk DJ Keb Darge's "Deep Funk" series of compilations in the early 2000s, and an impressive live resume has followed.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go