Search - information

 
 
JAPAN / Media
Jun 6, 2010

The timing behind yakuza crackdown

The media has been filled with revelations of ties between professional sumo and organized crime. Since late May, the tabloids and gossipy "wide shows" on TV have made a huge flap over Sehei Kimura and one other stable master for allowing senior gang members to obtain box-seat tickets to the Nagoya Grand...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 6, 2010

A guided tour to Akihabara

Maid cafes, cosplay (costume play), gachapon vending machines, canned oden noodles and otaku (geeks) — lots of otaku: I thought I knew Akihabara, or "Akiba" as its fans affectionately call it. I bought my first Apple computer (a secondhand Macintosh Powerbook) there in the early 1990s and had visited...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 6, 2010

Grappling with the gangsters

Some years ago, a Japanese friend suggested we have dinner together at a chanko-nabe restaurant because neither of us had ever been to one. Chanko-nabe is the fortifying stew that sumo wrestlers grow fat on, and they all learn how to make it. Many rikishi (sumo wrestler) who don't become stable masters...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 4, 2010

Brody gets graphic in Ginza

Receive a New Year's card from the Royal Family of Jordan last year? No? Perhaps you recently opened a bottle of Dom Perignon, or read a copy of the U.K.'s Times newspaper, or saw the Johnny Depp film "Public Enemies"?
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 4, 2010

Kyoto performance blurs line between entertainers, audience

I can try to describe what you will find at Kyoto's Gallery Raku this weekend, but chances are the performance will change by the time you get there.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 4, 2010

Singer-songwriter Nozuka's 'train' picks up speed

In the fall of 2007 and 2008, the Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA) hosted Asian Trade Missions in Tokyo to cement stronger footholds in Japan for Canuck music companies and acts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 4, 2010

Brothers brought together by differences

Takejiro Inagaki was a nihonga (Japanese style) painter who later turned to crafting gold and lacquer wares. These artistic skills were shared by two of his sons, whose bodies of work are the subject of "The Inagaki Brothers: Chusei and Toshijiro" at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 4, 2010

Red and black and spread all over

The avant-garde generally gravitates toward absolutes; you're either with them or against them. But how often in history has progressive art been created in service of the state's one-size-fits-all ideology? Not many, and perhaps the best-known example is the group that appeared in a brief window of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 4, 2010

Mika

Even in an age where Lady Gaga's flamboyant extravagance has made all her contemporaries seem dull and plaid, it is fair to say Michael "Mika" Penniman is not your average pop star.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2010

Hatoyama quits as prime minister

Ending a turbulent eight months in office, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Wednesday he will step down to take the blame for his Cabinet's plunging approval rate, brought on by funds scandals and the row over relocating a U.S. base in Okinawa.
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2010

Dongguan gives investment pitch

A visiting senior executive from the southern Chinese city of Dongguan is urging Japanese corporations to invest more in the vibrant manufacturing hub noted for its electronics information industry.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 1, 2010

Gunma city does battle with beards

I would like to draw readers' attention to the outstanding work of the municipal government of Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture. After receiving complaints that citizens find bearded men unpleasant, Isesaki — just as all levels of Japanese government often do — took decisive action to address an important...
COMMENTARY
May 31, 2010

Internet leveling the news field

SEATTLE — The debate is no longer confined to a few academics in distant universities. It is now a mainstream topic of discussion: How will the news of the future be distributed?
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
May 30, 2010

Does democracy still count if it's conditional?

NEW YORK — With Barack Obama's military policy in the Middle East getting murkier by the day, his predecessor George W. Bush's stated goal of democratizing the region through violence has to be judged to have failed. The thought prompts the reflection that forced democratization could entail considerable...
Reader Mail
May 30, 2010

How low should population go?

I appreciate the spirit in which Jeff Huffman wrote his May 16 letter, "Japan will become more livable." But Huffman seems to make some big claims without providing facts to back them up. He says that Japan, in relation to its usable land mass and resources, is probably overpopulated "by 25 million to...
Japan Times
LIFE
May 30, 2010

How can it get too late to learn?

Professor Ryusuke Yoneyama was in the middle of explaining to the members of his music-production class why Baroque-era violin bows, which resembled loosely strung archery bows, produced a weaker sound than their contemporary counterparts when he paused to ask a question.
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2010

Political murders are killing justice in Russia

PRAGUE — The death of Eduard Chuvashov, a judge killed in cold blood April 12 in Moscow, is another in a long and growing list of murders perpetrated on those in Russia who try to seek justice for the victims of crimes — an essential task for the future development of the Russian society.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 28, 2010

Rising star set to shine

In September 1984 — three years after MTV: Music Television had kicked into life with British electro-pop duo The Buggles' appropriately titled 1979 classic "Video Killed the Radio Star" — Madonna strode onto a New York stage for the fledgling channel's first Music Video Awards.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 28, 2010

Sober approach pays dividends for these puritans

Jack Barnett, the scrawny, intense singer/songwriter with English post-art rockers These New Puritans, is stood on a rest area off a German autobahn on his way to Freiburg. This can be an unedifying business at the best of times, but the banality of the situation seems a world away from the sonic sorcery...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 28, 2010

Rainbow 21

Around this time last year, music students at six universities were asked to consider what projects would best suit Suntory concert hall's 2010 "Rainbow 21" educational program. Each year only three projects survive a fierce selection process. This year's winners are Toho Gakuen School of Music with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 28, 2010

The goddesses are protecting Araki

"Is my shirt OK?" asks Nobuyoshi Araki as he straightens it to give me a good view. "I looked through my things, but this was the most newspaper-appropriate one I could find."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 28, 2010

Contemporary works created in loving memory of the 'now'

"Memory does not belong to the past; it is the continuous present and future." Artist Kimio Tsuchiya's words speak volumes about "Plastic Memories — to illuminate 'now,' " currently showing at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. Her work "Fragments of the Moon" (2004) features old bits of chipped...
EDITORIALS
May 27, 2010

Akatsuki heads for Venus

An H-2A rocket successfully blasted Japan's new planetary probe Akatsuki (daybreak) into orbit early May 21. Also sent into orbit were four small satellites developed by university students and the "space yacht" Ikaros, which will be propelled by sunlight.
JAPAN
May 26, 2010

Fukushima's Okinawa trip makes waves

The chasm within the ruling coalition grew deeper Tuesday as Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama expressed dissatisfaction over a visit by Social Democratic Party chief Mizuho Fukushima to Okinawa.

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