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JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 15, 2011

Secret funds shadowed by abuse

Paying ransom to win the release of kidnapped Japanese, buying off foreign dignitaries to reach backdoor deals and giving cash in exchange for secrets.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Feb 15, 2011

Canadian's health issue unites couple

On their first date, Eiko Tiernan was told by her future husband, Laurier, that he has Marfan syndrome, a congenital hereditary disease that affects about 1 in 5,000 people. At first, she did not know how to react, as she knew nothing about the disease.
COMMUNITY / LIFELINES
Feb 15, 2011

Seeking advice on U.K. taxation; returning wartime photographs

British tax advice wanted MS in Kamakura wonders if we know of any consultants who advise individuals on their tax status under the U.K.-Japan Tax Treaty.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 13, 2011

Case of the mysterious mister

WHO IS MR SATOSHI?, by Jonathan Lee. William Heinemann, 2010, 295 pp., £12.99 (hardcover) Rob Fossick, a 41-year-old photographer, is drinking a glass of butterscotch schnapps when he witnesses the death of his mother in a retirement home, and is then left to sort out her effects.
COMMUNITY
Feb 12, 2011

For Kanagawa artist, past goods offer key to creation

View the sun through a shitajiki, those transparent, decorative pencil-boards ubiquitous to elementary school children in Japan, and you can gaze, squint-free, into its rays. The world transforms when you look directly at the sun because perceptions shift. Shoichi Sakurai, 49, artist, discovered this...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 12, 2011

Japan urged to beef up business ties with India

Japan has yet to explore the potential of its economic relations with India, even though the strategic importance of Tokyo-New Delhi ties has repeatedly been emphasized, Indian scholars and experts told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 11, 2011

Akihiro Namba

Last year's Fuji Rock was the place to be for fans of 1990s punk act Hi-Standard. The event boasted separate sets from former guitarist Ken Yokoyama and bassist Akihiro Namba. If ex-drummer Akira Tsuneoka had been on the bill, Naeba very well could have seen a one-off regrouping of the popular Japanese...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 11, 2011

Golf Fair shoots above par

While sports media has its eyes on golfer Ryo Ishikawa, who is currently preparing for the Northern Trust Open in California on Feb. 15-20, golf fans have their eyes on Tokyo as Asia's largest golf fair is set for that same weekend.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 11, 2011

Miila and the Geeks take Tokyo 'riot grrrl' sound international

A small girl, stylishly dressed in a short, black-and-white dress crouches hunched over a microphone, spitting out vocals that might be English or might be Martian for all the audience can tell beneath the thick overlay of distortion; a sax player with crazy hair is engaged in some kind of intense, seemingly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 11, 2011

Shindo Tsuji: From the trees to the earth

In 1948, the respected Zen elder Ian Kishizawa told the sculptor Shindo Tsuji, "Forget whatever you can and express whatever remains." Despite its enigmatic and paradoxical quality, this typically Zen-like admonition nevertheless manages to sum up the career of Tsuji (1910-1981), an important Japanese...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 11, 2011

Playwright Noda asks, 'What is a Japanese?'

In the early 1980s, when he was a student at the University of Tokyo, Hideki Noda began to emerge as a standard bearer of something new in Japan: Contemporary theater by — and for — young people seeking to change their country.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BY THE GLASS
Feb 11, 2011

Asia's top sommelier sees glass half full

Satoru Mori is a sommelier with almost unlimited reserves of drive and passion. At the age of 33, he is not only the winner of 2009's Best Sommelier of Asia-Oceania Competition, but also more recently a semifinalist in the Best Sommelier of the World Competition 2010.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 11, 2011

Fukuoka fair crafts a showcase to cater to all your hobby needs

Even the busiest executives need a hobby in order to relieve stress. Some find solace at the gym, others in sports, and in others, deep inside, there is an inner Martha Stewart just waiting to come out.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 11, 2011

The legacy of kyogen's Okura tigers

Noh, the Japanese theater form, is renowned for its highly stylized use of masks, elaborate costumes, literary and religious context, and difficult narratives. It's also known for its incredibly long performances — traditionally taking up an entire day.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 11, 2011

Should Japanese-style painting represent the nation as a whole?

Mise Natsunosuke has been drawn into the fold of neo-nihonga (new Japanese-style painting) practitioners, a pigeon-hole he happily investigates but is also troubled by. In earlier exhibitions he has shown complicity with both the destruction and the resurrection of nihonga, which he pursues in his current...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Feb 10, 2011

Artist Yoshitaka Amano

Artist Yoshitaka Amano, 58, is a world-famous creator of manga, anime and game characters. At age 15, he launched his professional career with the popular "Speed Racer" anime and has since worked on many hit shows, such as "Time Bokan," "Gatchaman" ("G-Force"), "Tekkaman" and "Honey Bee." He also illustrated...
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2011

North tripled executions to quell outcry

Public executions have more than tripled in North Korea since the dictatorship in late 2009 redenominated its currency and in the process sparked widespread public discontent, according to a recent report seen by The Japan Times.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 8, 2011

The second-most powerful job

Second in power only to the prime minister, Tokyo's governor manages a metropolis with a population several times that of any other prefecture and a gross domestic product larger than that of most other nations.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Feb 8, 2011

Indian works to serve expat enclave

Once you get out of Nishi-Kasai Station on the Tozai subway line, it's likely that you will bump into at least half a dozen Indians in the first five minutes on the street.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2011

Steel Partners Japan rep Tanaka set to go solo

Katsuyoshi Tanaka, the representative of Steel Partners Japan, is set to quit and establish a firm that will offer investment services in Japan, a source said.
EDITORIALS
Feb 7, 2011

Nature's eruptions

News of Mount Shinmoe in Kyushu has produced striking images of children cleaning dust at their school, people with high-caliber masks and footage of massive, expanding billows of volcanic ash from a crater — as well as volcanic lightning and lava. The volcanic eruption is another reminder, if any...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Feb 6, 2011

Threatening media not a wise move for league needing exposure

"I may be getting older but I refuse to grow up," someone once said.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2011

Edano to hold weekly press briefings for all reporters

The top government spokesman's news conferences will be open once a week to reporters outside members of the press club for Prime Minister Naoto Kan's office, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 5, 2011

The comic life of expats in Japan

Tales of expat life in Japan all too often get blown out of proportion and quickly become picaresque adventures that little resemble real life.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 5, 2011

Nagoya condos rising high

Condo towers 20 stories or higher are going up or will in central Nagoya this year as dwindling land prices driven by the 2008 financial collapse revitalize the depressed market.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 4, 2011

Cro-Magnon and Gagle

Thanks to a solid base of Japanese fans, acid jazz will probably never go out of style. However, that doesn't mean it won't evolve. Lesser known than acts such as the late Nujabes, Cro-Magnon is a part of that genre's evolution. The band is teaming up with hip-hop trio Gagle for a performance at Daikanyama...

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