COVER

What's Right with Japan (Special Report | What's Right With Japan)

Forget about salarymen, gridlocked politics and zombie corporations. Japan is transforming itself into Asia's cultural dynamoand might be reinventing its economy in the process

SPECIAL REPORT

The Hip Sell (Special Report | What's Right With Japan)

Small, fresh firms are waging a creative revolution in the ad industry

Scene Change (Special Report | What's Right With Japan)

Hirokazu Kore-eda is cultivating Japan's next crop of filmmakers

Redrawing Rules (Special Report | What's Right With Japan)

Koji Yamamura is a lone wolf in the world of assembly-line animation

Rinngo's a Star (Special Report | What's Right With Japan)

On the cookie-cutter pop scene, one singer goes for the unique

Rock-It-Yourselfers (Special Report | What's Right With Japan)

Rage against the idol machineindie acts get shelf space, fans and respect

TomorrowLand (Special Report | What's Right With Japan)

Tycoon Minoru Mori wants to make Tokyo a more livable city

Playing in Place (Special Report | What's Right With Japan)

Funky architects are redesigning where Japan shops, works and plays

Winning Combini (Special Report | What's Right With Japan)

The rise of 7-Eleven is a welcome victory for corporate Japan

Street Wise (Special Report | What's Right With Japan)

Haute designers team up with urban brands for wearable fashion

Cool Under Fire (Special Report | What's Right With Japan)

Heizo Takenaka is determined to rid Japan's financial house of disorder

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Turning Up the Heat (Movies)

Canto-pop star Leon Lai makes his action-hero debut in director Benny Chan's latest film Heroic Duo

Those Chinatown Blues (Books)

Iris Chang's narrative history The Chinese in America provides a useful, if shrill, reassessment

TRAVEL

ASIA

India's Great Divide

Mounting fury over religious discrimination by the Hindu majority is triggering an increasingly violent Muslim backlash

You Can't Go Home Again (Viewpoint)

Yang Jianli returned to China to see how his country was faringand was jailed

BRIEFING

Talking About Talks (Notebook | North Korea)

The U.S. and North Korea exchange barbs as negotiations draw closer

Third Term Lucky (Notebook | Cambodia)

Little surprise as Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is reelected

Drama Court (Notebook | Terror)

The trial of the accused Bali bombers has had some interesting moments

Bad Boys (Notebook | Philippines)

Philippines President Arroyo survives a mini-mutiny, but many fear other protests may follow

Verbatim (Notebook)

Quotes of the Week

Letters (Notebook)

Hong Kong's Velvet Revolution