author

 
 

Meta

Natalie Thomas
For Natalie Thomas's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
A screen grab shows Anton Kuznetsov, a fighter in the BARS 9 volunteer force of the Russian military, in an apartment in Balakliia, Ukraine, in September 2022
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 25, 2024
How Russia's military uses volunteer fighters to plug gaps in Ukraine
Approach provides Moscow with an additional avenue from which to mobilize parts of the population, get them trained and provide additional mass.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Mar 21, 2022
Defiant Odessa is seen as vulnerable to Russian sea assault
Military experts said an attempt to capture Odessa, which has so far been spared intense bombardment and fighting, was possible given its strategic and symbolic importance to Ukraine.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 22, 2020
'Devastating' loss pushes Arctic sea ice to second-lowest level on record
This year's decline was especially fast between Aug. 31 and Sept. 5, thanks to warm air coming off a heat wave in Siberia almost certainly caused by climate change.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 15, 2020
Sea of slush: Arctic sea ice lows mark a new polar climate regime
With climate change driving up Arctic temperatures, the once-solid sea ice cover has been shrinking to stark, new lows in recent years.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 9, 2018
Preserving skiing's horsehide origins in China's remote west
On the western edge of China, Sulita straps on his skis and heads out into a winter morning. The temperature is minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit).
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 12, 2017
A grimace and a shrug, but no fear of U.S. strike in Pyongyang
Residents thronged the wide boulevards of North Korea's capital Pyongyang on Wednesday, some practicing for a parade to be held during the weekend, with no visible signs of the tensions engulfing the region over the isolated state's weapons programs.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Sep 18, 2016
Master of obscure 'body-shrinking' form of kung fu looks to bend the trend on martial art
For 50 years, kung fu master Li Liangui has been contorting his body into eye-watering positions while practicing one of the more unusual and less popular Chinese martial art forms.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Apr 3, 2016
Young Chinese question marriage pressure as divorce rate climbs
At a registry office in Beijing, Sun Xiangshu and Shi Ci posed for photographs, their wedding certificates in hand, having just become man and wife.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 7, 2016
Some unpaid Chinese workers skip Lunar New Year holidays to protest
This year, laborer Fan Fu and 20 or so colleagues working on the Zixia Garden apartment complex in Hebei province have not joined China's legion of migrant workers returning home to celebrate the Lunar New Year with their families.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 9, 2015
Beijing seeks hearts and minds with Tibetan resettlements
Nineteen-year-old Longsel Tsondre sees nothing romantic about the itinerant life his Tibetan herder family left behind when the government in his remote corner of southwestern China offered to resettle them a few years ago.

Longform

High-end tourism is becoming more about the kinds of experiences that Japan's lesser-known places can provide.
Can Japan lure the jet-set class off the beaten path?