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Japan Times
BUSINESS / Women at Work
Sep 20, 2022

Working with a belief that art has the power to change the world

First as curator and now as director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Mami Kataoka has aimed to shape a society that respects individuals by using contemporary art as her medium.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 18, 2022

Ukraine's Donbas, where Putin sowed the seeds of war

In the Donbas region, everything suddenly fell apart. This was part of Putin's grand plan, and it helped lay the groundwork for the invasion of Ukraine. Now things are heating up again.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 11, 2022

Perfume looks to the future with kindness

The pop group taps into the nostalgic sounds of city pop and melancholic views of the present in its seventh full-length album, “Plasma.”
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 9, 2022

Ahmaud Arbery’s killers sentenced on hate crimes charges

The three already are serving life sentences after being convicted of murder in a state trial last November.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 24, 2022

Professionals-turned-pilgrims embrace Shikoku’s divine boredom

The Shikoku pilgrimage is known for its long stretches of nothing, which is exactly why these high-powered executives (now retired) took it on.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 17, 2022

On Chiba's coast, a secret herb garden thrives

Hiromi Sasaki left her life in Osaka and Tokyo behind. Her new one? Grown straight from the soil of the Boso Peninsula.
An Albanian communist hangs a banner with Enver Hoxha's image in a public cemetery in Tirana in April 2012 to mark the anniversary of the hard-line Stalinist dictator's death.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2023

When freedom does not bring about justice

From communism to capitalism, Lea Ypi's book,"Free: Coming of Age at the End of History" reflects on Albania's transition to freedom.
A man wearing a t-shirt in support of QAnon, participates in a 'Back the Blue' rally in New York on Aug. 9, 2020.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 16, 2023

U.S. political violence driven by new breed of 'grab-bag' extremists

Such radicals eschew firm creeds. Instead, they embrace notions, no matter how divergent, that blends with their particular grievances.
Internally displaced Palestinians keep warm by a fire at a school where they are sheltering in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
WORLD
Nov 23, 2023

Displaced Palestinians search for warm clothes as cold draws in

When fleeing their homes in the northern Gaza Strip under Israeli bombardment in early October, some were wearing just shorts and T-shirts.
Toyosu, a reclaimed area and former industrial zone in the Tokyo Bay area, has become popular with a new wave of Chinese immigrants for its breathtaking views of the Tokyo skyline.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 28, 2023

A new wave of Chinese elites is flocking to Japan

Recent newcomers are affluent and financially savvy, and choose Japan after weighing the pros and cons of other potential overseas destinations.
The question of when a person dies is a scientific and moral issue with far-reaching implications in the area of organ transplants, among others.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 16, 2023

When does science say we die?

Debates about when a human being dies are yet unresolved, with profound implications for the medical profession and areas such as organ transplants.
Many moods come and go, inspiring our art. Though love could be fleeting, it proved the most inspirational of all.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Nov 27, 2023

Tales of a Closed Country: Part 2

Even Japan's "sakoku" policies couldn't deter the lovers, artists and poets from their muses. After all, we humans tend to look for beauty where we can.
A view inside of Sai Life Sciences' manufacturing facility in Bindar, Karnataka, India, in September.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 27, 2023

Indian drugmakers benefit from Big Pharma interest beyond China

Rising tensions with China have prompted more Western governments to recommend that firms "de-risk" supply chains from exposure to the Asian superpower.
A statue depicting Brazilian football legend Pele, designed by Brazilian artist Luis Costa, at Rei Pele pier in Brazil's Sao Paulo state. Friday will mark the first anniversary of the former player's death.
SOCCER
Dec 26, 2023

Pele 'would have been sad' at state of Brazil team, says son

"This crisis didn't appear overnight, there are big and complex problems," said Edinho, 53, who is one of Pele's seven children.
Toshiya Ikehata (center) helps prepare rice balls at a community kitchen in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 7. Ikehata runs a fine-dining restaurant in the city, which was among the hardest-hit areas in the Noto Peninsula earthquake.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2024

Shattered lives, unbroken spirits: Chefs step up to serve Noto communities

Fine-dining chefs rise to the challenge of feeding disaster victims in the hardest-hit areas of Ishikawa Prefecture.
Mitsuko Tottori (right), incoming president of Japan Airlines, and Yuji Akasaka, outgoing president, during a news conference in Tokyo on Jan. 17
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 31, 2024

Japan opens door to more women directors, but managers still rare

Women account for only 13.4% of directors and executive officers at the 1,836 firms listed on the TSE's Prime market, and of these 13% are internal hires.
A tsugumi (dusky thrush). Bird-watching increasingly plays a critical role in mapping bird behaviors and paving the way for policy and conservation initiatives.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Feb 11, 2024

How a new flock of bird-watchers is contributing to science

The hobby increasingly plays a critical role in mapping bird behaviors and paving the way for policy and conservation initiatives.
Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan friar and a professor at the Gregorian, the Harvard of Rome's pontifical universities, in his office at the university in Rome on Jan. 29. Benanti advises the Vatican and the Italian government on navigating the tricky questions — moral and otherwise — raised by artificial intelligence.
WORLD / Society
Feb 14, 2024

The friar who became the Vatican’s go-to guy on AI

Father Paolo Benanti, an ethics professor and self-proclaimed geek, spends his days thinking about the Holy Ghost and the ghosts in the machines.
Director of the Akan International Crane Center, Miyuki Kawase, says tourism is incredibly helpful for the birds, but the people who come to take pictures of the birds have to remember they are still wild animals.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Feb 24, 2024

Miyuki Kawase: ‘Experience, whether happy, sad or painful, makes you grow’

The director of the Akan International Crane Center in Hokkaido tells us how she found herself in a career centered around the symbolic white birds.
Demonstrators protest the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in front of the Russian Embassy in Berlin on Feb. 16.
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2024

Vladimir Putin must be shown the limits of his power

Navalny’s death deprives Russia of its most thoughtful and powerful opposition to President Vladimir Putin and his criminal clique.
A satellite image shows the Rubymar cargo ship on Friday after it was heavily damaged in a Feb. 19 missile strike claimed by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
WORLD
Mar 3, 2024

Ship sunk by Houthis threatens Red Sea environment

The sinking marks the first vessel lost since the Houthis began targeting ships in November.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani speaks to members of the media in Glendale, Arizona, on Thursday.
BASEBALL / MLB / Sac Bunts
Mar 4, 2024

How Shohei Ohtani mastered the media

By promising to meet with the press, the star circumvented the need for people to go digging into his marriage.
Chai Wanrou at the Daming Palace National Heritage Park, in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China. The 28-year-old is part of a growing movement that envisions a future with no husband and no children.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Mar 7, 2024

More Chinese women choosing singledom as economy stutters

Chinese President Xi Jinping last year stressed the need to "cultivate a new culture of marriage and childbearing."
Wakana Nukui has been described as having a knack for storytelling and vividly sharing her vision with those around her.
BUSINESS / WOMEN AT WORK
Mar 24, 2024

A social entrepreneur who is determined to lift Cambodian women's status

Wakana Nukui has fostered new talent in design while opening shops dedicated to local products.
A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / Longform
Mar 15, 2024

Akira Toriyama's gift to the world

The artist's impact was such that he should be considered alongside greats such as Walt Disney and Stan Lee when it comes to cultural contributions.
In Hideo Yokoyama’s “The North Light,” an architect sets out to solve a mystery when he finds out the family he built a prizewinning house for has vanished.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 23, 2024

'The North Light': One man's psychological journey subverts the crime genre

Hideo Yokoyama's novel centered on a man confronting the shattered pieces of his life offers a look into post-bubble Japan's architectural world.
Directed and co-written by Sunao Katabuchi, animated film “In This Corner of the World” depicts the beauty of nature and the horrors of war with equal potency.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 27, 2024

Films that give the Japanese perspective of the atomic bomb

Movies about the nation's darkest days — in genres such as dramas, fantasies and anime — offer another side to Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' story.
People exit the platform at a train station along the Yamanote Line in Tokyo in 1986. A time-traveling TV comedy with a bawdy middle-aged hero from the era has become a big hit in Japan, juxtaposing brash 1980s attitudes with the more politically correct present day.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Mar 29, 2024

Satire TV show strikes a generation-spanning chord in Japan

"Extremely Inappropriate" uses a time-traveling protagonist to humorously highlight the gap between attitudes of the 1980s and the 2020s.
A helmet jellyfish recorded at depth in the Lurefjord, Norway. The creatures experience acute physical effects from short-term exposure to suspended sediment, which could be caused by deep-sea mining.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Apr 7, 2024

The weird deep-sea world, and how mining threatens it

Demand for metals such as lithium and nickel has driven a rush to take a stake in the seabed, with Japan being a major advocate of deep-sea mining.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan