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Agata Sagan
For Agata Sagan's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2021
What is your moral plan for 2021?
Few people when making their New Year's resolutions— just 12%, according to one U.S. study — resolve to become a better person in general, meaning better in a moral sense.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 29, 2018
Why loving our animals just isn't enough
Despite the positive attitudes people have toward dogs and cats and other pets, many of these companion animals lead miserable lives.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2017
Do you want to be a cyborg?
Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is convinced that enhancing human intelligence and memory is our species' only alternative to elimination by our own super-intelligent inventions.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2012
How much should one's birth gender matter?
Jenna Talackova reached the finals of Miss Universe Canada last month, before being disqualified because she was not a "natural born" female. The tall, beautiful blonde told the media that she had considered herself a female since she was four years old, had begun hormone treatment at 14, and had sex reassignment surgery at 19. Her disqualification raises the question of what it really means to be a "Miss."
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2009
Do humanoid robots deserve to have rights?
PRINCETON/WARSAW — Last month, Gecko Systems announced that it had been running trials of its "fully autonomous personal companion home care robot," also known as a "carebot," designed to help elderly or disabled people to live independently. A woman with short-term memory loss broke into a big smile, the company reported, when the robot asked her, "Would you like a bowl of ice cream?" The woman answered "yes," and presumably the robot did the rest.

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on