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JAPAN
Jul 2, 2009

Aso adds to Cabinet but LDP execs stay

Prime Minister Taro Aso gave up an apparent plan to rejigger the Liberal Democratic Party's top posts Wednesday as strong opposition from LDP heavyweights only left him leeway to fill two Cabinet posts concurrently held by other ministers.
COMMENTARY
Jul 1, 2009

Tough to thwart North Korean arms exports

The cargo ship Kang Nam 1 has long been on a watch-list of North Korean vessels suspected of illicit trading. But it recently emerged from the shadows at the center of a cat-and-mouse game in Asian waters, tracked by U.S. warships, maritime reconnaissance planes and satellites under a United Nations...
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2009

Flight canceled over copilot's indiscretion

Japan Airlines Corp. was forced to cancel a flight from Hawaii to Narita airport last week because a copilot was detained by police for urinating in a public place, the airline said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2009

Reactive oil markets won't wait

HONG KONG — Economists are arguing whether they can see the green shoots of economic recovery or whether they are still only the yellow weeds of continuing recession. But global oil markets have been hyperactive and reacting as if the green shoots have already burst into flower on the way to a full-grown...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 26, 2009

A re-imagining of Osaka's riverfront

"Tadao Ando Exhibition 2009: The City of Water/Osaka vs. Venice" seems like a fixed fight. Many would even balk at the idea of the match-up.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 26, 2009

Misia changes with charity

I think that you can convey a fact by words, but you can not convey the truth only with those words," says Misia, taking a break from recording sessions in Tokyo's Shibuya district. "And I believe music is what can fill it out."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 26, 2009

A creative life that blossomed in the asylum

To view the pictures of Aloise Corbaz is to enter a fantastic, colorful world of a beautiful young woman with her handsome suitor, filled with carriages and crowns, roses and nights at the opera. The belle is Aloise herself, or, perhaps more precisely, Aloise's ideal self, center stage in a theatrical...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 26, 2009

How to conjure worlds from the fewest words

One evening in late May, a cozy rehearsal room in Yokohama was more like a drill hall as Mikuni Yanaihara called for another run through a dance scene in her latest play, "Gonin Shimai" ("Five Sisters").
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Jun 23, 2009

Global torch run lights up day for Kamakura children

In a tranquil neighborhood surrounded by green mountains in Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture, near a trickling brook and houses with colorful gardens, a group of excited children, aged 4 and 5, emerged from Kobato Nursery school, and headed for a nearby park.
EDITORIALS
Jun 21, 2009

In Japan we trust

In a poll commissioned by the Foreign Ministry, a record 80 percent of the American public said Japan was a dependable country. The results of this poll, undertaken by the famed Gallup Organization and released in late May, showed a considerable shift in attitudes toward Japan.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 21, 2009

Eleventh-century lord cracks Kyoto crimes in the worst of times

In Shamus Award-winning mystery author's I.J. Parker's previous work, "Island of Exiles," Heian Period (794-1185) official Sugawara Akitada embarked on a harrowing undercover investigation of a suspicious death on Sado Island. Assuming the guise of a convict, the scholarly Akitada soon found himself...
BUSINESS / Q&A
Jun 20, 2009

List of goods qualified for Eco-points now out

The government revealed a list of products and services Friday that can be exchanged for Eco-points, a type of currency to stimulate consumption and promote use of energy-efficient goods.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 19, 2009

Asian Kung-Fu Generation @ Nano-Mugen Festival

There are few success stories in Japanese rock as satisfying as Asian Kung-Fu Generation's. Formed at Yokohama's Kanto Gakuin University in 1996, the punk quartet slowly garnered a following in the Tokyo metropolitan area before appearing at both Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic in 2003. That same summer,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 19, 2009

De De Mouse

Here's some unsolicited advice for De De Mouse — whatever you've done to capture the ears of promoters, keep on doing it.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2009

Can an Android conquer Japan's finicky mobile phone culture?

Google Inc. is taking aim at Japan's cell phone market, but whether the search giant can win over the nation's notoriously picky consumers is very much an open question.
BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2009

Citi settles Nikko Cordial accounting lawsuits

Citigroup Inc. said Wednesday it has settled a lawsuit against three former executives of subsidiary Nikko Cordial Corp., ending a two-year court battle stemming from an accounting scandal at the firm.
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Jun 16, 2009

Racing dragon boats in Yokohama

At 8:15 on a drizzly, windy Saturday morning at the end of May, cheerful shouting could be heard coming from Yokohama's seaside Yamashita Park. Even at the early hour, people had already gathered to participate in the 16th Yokohama Dragon Boat Race, spanning four days over two successive weekends.
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2009

Low gasoline prices may put damper on Honda's U.S. Insight sales forecast

Honda Motor Co. may miss its U.S. sales target for the Insight hybrid because cheap fuel and consumer reluctance to buy cars amid the recession are hampering its efforts to loosen Toyota Motor Corp.'s grip on the green market. Sales of Honda's gasoline-electric Insight, which debuted at U.S. dealerships...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 14, 2009

Is a national 'Manga Museum' at last set to get off the ground?

When it was announced in April that ¥11.7 billion had been set aside in 2009's supplementary budget to create a new National Center for Media Arts (NCMA) — a museum for manga, anime, video games and technology art — the news was greeted in the same way that most cultural-policy issues are in Japan....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 14, 2009

What lit the fuse of culture?

In this month's column, we solve the mystery of the emergence of modern human culture. As a bonus, there's a bit of good news for Tokyoites — and for those of us who may worry that success is solely down to brainpower.
COMMENTARY
Jun 12, 2009

The deficits of democracy

LONDON — Britain and Japan have prime ministers who have not been endorsed by the electorate in a general election. Both are hanging on to power and argue that it is their right as prime minister to choose the date for the next election. Under our constitutions this is a valid claim, but is it in accordance...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 12, 2009

Drinking the Japanese way

Sake lovers will have an opportunity to sample 500 varieties of the drink from around the country at the Nihon-shu Fair 2009, to be held at Tokyo's Ikebukuro Sunshine City on June 17.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 12, 2009

BMO Music Fest

The BMO Music Fest is a one-night urban music extravaganza that squeezes a lot of entertainment into a limited space of time. Seven major hip-hop and R&B artists will be on hand, all of whom could fill a club or even an auditorium on their own. This year's headliner is Shaggy, who remains the biggest...
CULTURE / Film
Jun 12, 2009

'Seishin'

Mental illness, as Kazuhiro Soda notes in his documentary "Seishin" ("Mental"), is one of the big taboos of Japanese society.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 12, 2009

The first 'Japanese' opera?

Kabuki actor and designated Living National Treasure Sakata Tojuro (b. 1931) stages an opera, for the first time in his career, this month at the New National Theatre.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2009

Argentine wins poster contest

An Argentine university student has won the Global Student Poster Competition for raising public awareness of climate change, its organizers said.

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