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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 1, 2011

Producer Miyahara wants more J-pop on the world stage

Tucked away in a cozy corner of Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, million-selling singer and rapper Soulja twirls an unsmoked cigarillo in his fingers while nodding his head to a hip-hop beat. "Yeah, that's good. I like that," he says to the man beside him, who is seated in front of a sound board and a colossal...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2011

Fukushima crisis fueling the third opening of Japan

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's announcement that Japan would join talks on a Pacific free trade agreement (FTA) triggered a nationwide debate over whether to open Japan's market.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 1, 2011

EKD "Bon Voyage!"

Comprised of a guitarist, a DJ, and a percussionist, EKD have opened Japan dates for globe-trotting rabble rousers such as France's Manu Chao and Spain's Obrint Pas. This year, the Tokyo three-piece have showcased their infectious multicultural tunes in Europe and also performed at Fuji Rock. Praised...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 1, 2011

Issues that covered up Japan's nudes

In his popular anecdotal encyclopedia of Japan, "Things Japanese," the 19th-century British Japanologist, Basil Hall Chamberlain, included the comment that "the nude is seen in Japan but not looked at." This reflected a reality in 1890, when the book was published: Nudity was not a big deal, at least...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 1, 2011

'Ryoko Suzuki: "I am ..."'

Zeit Foto Salone Closes Dec. 17
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Dec 1, 2011

Restless Arab region presents curatorial challenge

In mid-February, Mori Art Museum Associate Curator Kenichi Kondo noticed an article on the Nafas website, which specializes in art news from the Middle East. Egyptian media artist Ahmed Basiony, it said, had gone to Tahrir Square in Cairo to join the protests against president Hosni Mubarak. He had been...
COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2011

TPP: APEC's anti-China son?

The French have a saying: "The more something changes, the more it remains the same thing."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Nov 29, 2011

Jose Alvares finds Portugal-Japan links

Jose Alvares has tried to "reconnect" the Portuguese and Japanese cultures over the last 43 years he has spent in Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 29, 2011

Euro crisis significantly worse: top French banker

Bank of France Gov. Christian Noyer said the European crisis has worsened "significantly," as deepening investor concern over the region worsens market volatility.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 27, 2011

Viral entertainment at full throttle

REAMDE, by Neal Stephenson. William Morrow, 2011, 1042 pp., $35 (paperback). Neal Stephenson's novels can be counted upon to offer two things: a lot of information and a lot of pages.
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2011

Woodford: Board must be purged

Rehabilitating disgraced Olympus Corp. should begin with the ouster of many of its current board members, former President Michael C. Woodford said Friday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2011

Consumer prices fall for first time since June

Consumer prices fell for the first time since June, casting doubt on the central bank's forecasts for the world's third-biggest economy to emerge from more than a decade of deflation.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Nov 25, 2011

Are digital newspaper subscriptions worth it?

Japanese newspapers still have cold feet when it comes to embracing their digital editions.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 25, 2011

Self-Defense Forces to put on air show in Gifu

Japan's Air Self-Defence Forces are inviting crowds to Gifu for a Sunday stroll to peek inside jet engines and admire their aircraft as they take to the skies for formation flybys and acrobatic displays — earplugs are not included.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 25, 2011

Friendly Fires to indulge pop pleasures on tour

Friendly Fires are happy to finally be back on home turf. It's no wonder, the year has been predominantly spent living out the tale of their song "Hawaiian Air," the highlight of second album "Pala" that typifies the trio's dance-pop vision while bemoaning the monotony of tour travel. Consequently, drummer...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 25, 2011

Irish culture extravaganza to come to Aichi

After performing here on a sold-out tour in 2009, The Ragus Show will return to perform their brand of Irish dancing at Nagoya's Aichi Prefectural Art Theater.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 25, 2011

Balloons over Biwa make for beautiful pics

Sleep in and you'll miss it. Pilots are briefed at 6 a.m., and 30 minutes later, propane burners will blast and fabric will unfurl as hot-air-balloon teams soar above Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture this weekend.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Nov 24, 2011

Dressed to impress Tokyo's art crowd

A life-size bucking brown horse, pieced together from old leather jackets. A loom operated by a Noah's Ark collection of polar bears, birds and other beasts. A fashion boutique till that scans barcodes to create a cacophony of musical sounds.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 24, 2011

Ruins Alone "Ruins Alone"

Widely recognized as one of the most innovative drummers in the Japanese underground music scene, Tatsuya Yoshida spent nearly two decades playing as part of the bass and drums duo, Ruins. During his time in the group, Yoshida worked with four different bassists. After his last bassist split in 2003,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 24, 2011

Blackwoods

In a city like Tokyo, with more than 13 million people and who knows how many aspiring musicians, what does a band need to do to set their show apart from the others?
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Nov 24, 2011

The rivaling schools of classic Japanese art

From its original base in Kyoto to its later establishment in Edo, present-day Tokyo, the Kano school held a firm grip on the Japanese art world from the middle of the Muromachi Period (1392-1573) to the Meiji Era (1868-1912) — a grip aided by its close ties with powerful patrons such as the samurai...
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 2011

Disturbing Iressa ruling

The Tokyo High Court on Nov. 15 overturned a lower court ruling that had ordered the government and the Japanese unit of the British drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC to pay compensation to bereaved family members of two people who died allegedly because of a side effect caused by the lung cancer drug Iressa....
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2011

Time to stop worshipping stirrers of stone soup

Last month I was in Kiev, speaking at a conference focused on entrepreneurs. I wanted to give a talk that would be of general interest but also concrete. So I started with one of my favorite parables.
EDITORIALS
Nov 22, 2011

Supporting the unemployed

The government has started a job-seeker support system from the beginning of October, under which unemployed people can receive allowances while undergoing vocational training. The new system will serve as the second safety net for workers, besides unemployment insurance. So far, if the period of unemployment...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 22, 2011

MacArthur, identity theory and Japan's lingering eigo woes

Some years ago I was teaching an advanced English class in San Francisco that featured a hodgepodge of students from all over the world. Just as the range of cultures and accents extended from Europe to the Middle East to Asia and South America, so did the array of communication styles. Yet while the...

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