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COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Apr 5, 2017

Brando's turn as an Okinawan 'host in a shell' haunts debate over 'yellowface'

Why Marlon Brando's notorious performance in 'The Teahouse of the August Moon,' as an interpreter for the U.S. Occupation forces in Okinawa, deserves a second look.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Apr 5, 2017

60% of sexual minorities bullied at school, survey finds

Nearly 60 percent of sexual minorities have been bullied at school, according to a recent online survey that also found teachers did not help end the intimidation.
JAPAN / Science & Health / A MATTER OF HEALTH
Apr 5, 2017

When it comes to health info, online 'fake news' can have serious repercussions

A recent "fake news" scandal involving IT giant DeNA Co. shows how quickly bogus health information can make the rounds online.
EDITORIALS
Apr 3, 2017

Lifting Fukushima evacuation orders

Government decisions alone will not return evacuees' lives to a state of normalcy.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Apr 1, 2017

Lypa's art speaks of life 'out on the land' in the Arctic

On the wide wooden sill of the large window in my living room here in Kurohime, Nagano Prefecture, sits a soapstone carving of a gyrfalcon by one of Canada's most famous Inuit artists, Lypa Pitsiulak.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2017

We once listened to the Beatles; now we eat beetles

Since the 1960s and '70s, food has replaced music's centrality to American culture.
EDITORIALS
Mar 31, 2017

New rules on 'minpaku' lodging

Proposed Diet legislation will make it easier for people to rent out their private residences to tourists.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2017

Why the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts should be abolished

It's a government frill that needs to be sheared.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 29, 2017

Samuel L. Jackson: Always looking for the next big adventure

If you're one of those people who bought a Kangol cap in the late 1990s with the notion that maybe it will make you seem as cool as Samuel L. Jackson (I plead guilty), then read on.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 29, 2017

Families of 'karoshi' victims lambaste overtime cap recommendations as legalizing unhealthy working hours

Families of people who have died from overwork blasted a report adopted Tuesday by a government labor reform panel, saying its call for creating a monthly overtime cap of 100 hours could effectively legalize long working hours at the expense of workers' health.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 29, 2017

Iran steps up support for Shiite ally in Yemen proxy war

Iran is sending advanced weapons and military advisers to Yemen's rebel Houthi movement, stepping up support for its Shiite ally in a civil war whose outcome could sway the balance of power in the Middle East, regional and Western sources say.
EDITORIALS
Mar 26, 2017

Mixed recovery in land prices

The latest data on land prices testify to the slow progress in the government's efforts to reverse the population exodus from rural to urban areas and achieve more balanced economic growth nationally.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Mar 26, 2017

Music's shifting tides reveal a hunger for artistry in Japan

Music is often characterized over-simplistically as a battle between rock and pop, seriousness and fun, but the two are always in an ever-shifting balance. With this column coming to the end of its six-year run, it feels timely to cast a look back — and perhaps also a hopeful eye forward — over the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Mar 25, 2017

More than fare trade: backstreet by taxi

A combination of rain showers and tax prep in March signal Tokyo's segue into spring.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Mar 25, 2017

Designer Mikio Sakabe: 'Fashion itself is the creation of newness'

Fashion designer on why there's no real difference between being young or old.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Mar 25, 2017

Reassessing the negative impact of hosting the 2020 Olympics

The estimated cost of the 2020 Olympic Games has increased astronomically since Tokyo won the right to host it. On Dec. 22, Asahi Shimbun reported that the estimated price could be as much as ¥1.8 trillion. The original bid estimate for constructing new Olympic venues was ¥499 billion and that is now...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 24, 2017

Cherry blossom fever boosts companies' bottom lines

Every spring people across Japan are enraptured as the cherry trees explode into bloom, clothing the country in pink. The blossoms last for only a few short weeks, but in that time the fleeting flowers make for good business.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 24, 2017

London attacker Khalid Masood was a criminal with militant links

Before he killed at least four people in Britain's deadliest attack since the 2005 London bombings, Khalid Masood was considered by intelligence officers to be a criminal who posed little serious threat.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 22, 2017

Shinobu Yaguchi can make sparks fly, even off the grid

When I met Shinobu Yaguchi at a Chicago sushi restaurant on March 1, I made my usual mistake with well-known directors: mention that I had interviewed him before. He, understandably, blanked, since the interview was 20 years ago for his 1997 indie comedy "My Secret Cache" ("Himitsu no Hanazono")
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 22, 2017

'Jackie': More pomp than circumstance

There's a scene near the end of "Jackie" where the just-widowed first lady Jacqueline Kennedy (played by Natalie Portman) is talking with her priest (John Hurt) about the meaning of life and asks, somewhat bitterly, "Is that all there is?"
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 22, 2017

BAT finds strong Japan demand for its Glo smokeless tobacco device

British American Tobacco said demand for its Glo tobacco heating device overwhelmed supply in its Japan test marketing, as global cigarette giants shift focus to the new product category amid a declining smoking population.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 21, 2017

Street fighter to peacemaker: Northern Ireland's Martin McGuinness dies at 66

Martin McGuinness, a former Irish Republican Army commander and deputy first minister of Northern Ireland who was a key figure throughout five decades of conflict and peace, has died at 66, his party, Sinn Fein, said on Tuesday.
Japan Times
BASEBALL
Mar 21, 2017

Players encouraged by growing interest in WBC

Adam Jones on Saturday night in San Diego made the catch heard 'round the World Baseball Classic when he leapt against the wall to rob Manny Machado of a home run.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 21, 2017

Islamic State captures nine Iraqi officers in Mosul, kills at least 23 in Baghdad blast

Islamic State militants captured an Iraqi police colonel and eight other officers on Monday after they ran out of ammunition during a skirmish in the battle for western Mosul, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 20, 2017

Nagoya dye house looks abroad to keep traditional black in fashion

A dye house in Nagoya that specializes in kuro montsukizome, the dyeing of black-crested formal kimono that has been practiced since the Edo Period (1603 to 1868), is working on selling stoles and T-shirts that make use of the same technology.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Mar 19, 2017

Brazilian YouTubers Prit and Lohgann are channeling their daily bread in Japan

Japan is a real wonderland when it comes to neat little toys, gadgets and fun candies — navigating the variety of Kit Kats alone could be its own article. If you're new to the country, it may be hard to tell which treats are worth your yen, and that's where YouTube helps.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 19, 2017

What's so bad about Imperial Rescript on Education anyway?

The 19th century rescript caught up in the Moritomo Gakuen scandal is not just a collection of homely moral precepts.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 18, 2017

The Japan tabloid guide to health and happiness

An alien first encountering Japan's weekly tabloid magazines might conclude he has come to Earth in a nation of inquisitive hypochondriacs.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight