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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 19, 2006

A Japanese Jim Jarmusch

If the name Atsushi Funahashi doesn't ring any bells in the Japanese film industry, it's mainly because the domestic film scene had never been his primary concern.
EDITORIALS
May 18, 2006

Futenma relocation agreement

Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine's tense expression while shaking hands with Defense Agency chief Fukushiro Nukaga and Prime Minister Junichiro Koiziumi last week told a lot about an agreement between him and the central government on the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. The Okinawa governor...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 18, 2006

Tamasaburo Bando and Kodo reach for primitive emotions

Kabuki and taiko drumming seem worlds apart: kabuki is a quintessentially urban art form based on nuance and restraint; taiko drumming, from the festival world of matsuri and shrine dances, thrives on athleticism and exuberance. But recently they have been brought together by an unusual collaboration...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 17, 2006

Barcelona-Arsenal final puts two great stars on a grand stage

PARIS -- There are signs around the Nou Camp reminding everyone that Barcelona is "more than a club." There should also be signs in Catalonia to say that Ronaldinho is "more than a player."
SPORTS / E-LIST
May 17, 2006

A WBC curse for Matsui?

No one should hate Hideki Matsui. Save that for the New York Yankees as a whole and for George Steinbrenner, who can be a decent guy if you're a schoolkid from Iowa. But for the part of the world not obsessed with the Bronx Bombers, it is a little bit easier.
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2006

An 'OPEC' with nuclear weapons?

LONDON -- When I was in Moscow a few months ago I got into an argument with a retired high-level NATO official.
JAPAN
May 16, 2006

Crime reporting turns murky as cops clam up

Police are increasingly opting not to release names of crime victims, giving rise to fears that criminal cases will become opaque, facts will become obscure and the validity of evidence in doubt.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 14, 2006

Beware the muted enemy within remilitarizing Japan

On April 30, the Asahi Shimbun reported on the results of a Cabinet Office survey of public opinion regarding the Self-Defense Forces (SDF). The telephone survey was conducted between Feb. 16 and 26, with 1,657 of the 3,000 people contacted replying. Overall, 84.9 percent of respondents indicated they...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 12, 2006

Raunchy blues-rock duo takes audiences on a trip

If music writers were more creative, the term "garage band" wouldn't be used in so cavalier a fashion.
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2006

A power to resist the currents of history

One cold morning in December 1941, I was running through the frozen streets of Tokyo during the predawn hours, delivering newspapers. I saw this as my way to contribute to the family finances. I was 13 at the time, my father was bedridden with rheumatism, and my four elder brothers had been sent off...
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2006

Alliances to meet this century's threats

WASHINGTON -- In 1970 I traveled to Egypt as part of a delegation representing the United States at the funeral of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Back then, Egypt was closely aligned with the Soviet Union. When we arrived in Cairo, it seemed that everywhere one looked there was evidence of the Soviet...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
May 9, 2006

Kae Wakita

Kae Wakita, 35, is a dermatologist and owner of Skin Solution Clinic in Shintomicho, not far from Tokyo's Ginza area. A confessed workaholic, she is perfectly happy with her life but not with the state of the Japanese medical system. She does, however, have a few good ideas about how to treat this ailing...
COMMENTARY
May 8, 2006

China unlikely to double-deal over Korea

LOS ANGELES -- China is acting in bad faith on the Korean nuclear issue. That's the provocative suggestion now coming from some Western intelligence circles. It's a scary, foul and ultimately upsetting thought. It may also be wrong.
EDITORIALS
May 7, 2006

The making of a plagiarist

There is not much to be said in defense of 19-year-old Kaavya Viswanathan, the Indian-born Harvard student whose first novel was pulled from bookstores worldwide last month after she failed to disprove charges of plagiarism. But there is something.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
May 7, 2006

Not such a wild conservation idea?

It is late afternoon, and over sundowner drinks in the hunting lodge the talk around the table is of lions. Or, to be more specific, one particular lion -- "Old Black Mane," the night raider, cattle killer, and terror of the local tribesmen. Man eater!
CULTURE / Books
May 7, 2006

Following the great haiku poet on the road

BASHO'S JOURNEY: The Literary Prose of Matsuo Basho, translated with an introduction by David Landis Barnhill. State University of New York Press, 2005, 191 pp., $19.95 (paper). The great haiku poet Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) was first represented to the West just over a century ago. This was in W.G. Aston's...
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 Times
JAPAN
May 5, 2006

Program develops Dutch dropouts' vocational, social skills

AMSTERDAM -- As Japan gropes for ways to motivate undereducated youths to look for jobs, other developed nations facing similar challenges are experimenting with steps to integrate them into the working population.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 5, 2006

The man in gray

Fatih Akin, at 33, made several good films before "Head On," but it was this more intense concoction that put him on the map, winning the top prize at 2004's Berlin Film Festival.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
May 4, 2006

World Cup hopeful Maki helps lift Chiba past Urawa

CHIBA -- Seiichiro Maki is not going to give up on a World Cup place without a fight.
BASKETBALL
May 4, 2006

Tabuse still has eyes on NBA dream

Yuta Tabuse always watches NBA games, even when he's at a dinner table. And the sought-after dream has not changed at all since then.
SUMO
May 3, 2006

Expectations rise as Natsu nears

With a popular new ozeki in the shape of Mongolian Hakuho to whet appetites and a couple of faithful old Japanese types who were toughening the soles of their feet while he was still a toddler, we have a rather interesting mix of past and present, Japanese and foreign at the rank for the May 7th to 21st...
JAPAN
May 3, 2006

Part-time work OK to achieve dreams: students

Forty percent of university freshmen say they would become "freeters," or part-time workers, to achieve their dreams, while nearly half of their parents don't like the idea, according to a survey released Tuesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
May 3, 2006

Yearning for Canada's high north

I spent most of the latter part of March in Vancouver, British Columbia. I have friends and family there, and when the cherry and magnolia trees blossom and the mountains still gleam with snow, Vancouver is a very special place to be.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 2, 2006

How to kill a bill

On Oct. 12, 2005, the Tottori Prefectural Assembly approved Japan's first human rights ordinance, a local law forbidding and punishing racial discrimination.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 2, 2006

Are trains safe?

Yayoi Miyahara Cook, 32 Japanese trains always run on time, but there have been accidents where the train comes off-track. I think JR should have more workers to protect people when the trains are crowded and to perform routine safety checks.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 2, 2006

A long life on the island

Reaching 100 has long fascinated societies. The century mark is regarded as an almost supernatural seal of hardiness and good health.

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