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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 1, 2013

Yoko Ono: 'I feel that I am starting a new life at 80'

Sitting at her kitchen table, sipping green tea, Yoko Ono looks much the same as she did when I met her 20 years ago. Dressed in black and peering intently over tinted spectacles, her face bears little trace of the passing of time and her diminutive form exudes utter calmness. Having crossed the famous...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 27, 2013

Sibling spy case spotlights North Korean defectors

Earlier this year, one of the most prominent North Korean defectors, Yoo Woo Sung, walked out of his apartment building in Seoul and found four South Korean government vehicles waiting for him.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 26, 2013

The rarely, if ever, told story of Japanese sold as slaves by Portuguese traders

The subject of this slim volume is “a series of events that are essential in understanding Japanese history” — events “totally unknown, incredible, and unpleasant to read.”
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
May 22, 2013

Cracked cellphone screens become the latest youth status symbol

Brittany Lofton spots them all the time: teens and college students clutching their beat-up cellphones, with screens so cracked that spider-web-like patterns creep across the glass.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 18, 2013

Taking care of an aging smartphone — until the end

I thought I had bought a smartphone, but I ended up with a dumb phone instead. It's probably my fault for not asking for documentation showing it had passed an IQ test.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 16, 2013

Line app lined up for DoCoMo smartphones

NTT DoCoMo said Wednesday it will team up with the popular social network provider Line to offer a special app for DoCoMo users, aiming to deepen its relationship with the operator of the growing communication tool.
Japan Times
LIFE
May 12, 2013

'Beauty' as beheld in Japan through the ages

In July 2006, Shinzo Abe published a book titled 'Utsukushii Kuni e' ('Toward a Beautiful Country'), but what does he mean by 'beautiful country'?
CULTURE / Books
May 12, 2013

The boys who built a bridge between Japan and Europe

One of the most sensational events of Japan's "Christian century" was the European trip of "the four boys," described some years ago by Michael Cooper in "The Japanese Mission to Europe" (2005). The sight of these gracious princelings in the Catholic courts of Italy, Spain and Portugal moved and astonished...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 9, 2013

Replaying people's actions with a twist

Much of Belgian artist Francis Alu00ffs' work and life have been determined by chance.
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2013

'Genetic' warfare getting less violent

Many people don't want to admit how violent our 'primitive' past was, because they are afraid that our past will define our future — despite evidence to the contrary.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 8, 2013

Hong Kong artists emerge from the shadow of China in new show

Some artists suffer more to create their work than others. Angela Su certainly has.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 5, 2013

Revealing the many masks of Mishima

This is a whale of a book — both unusually massive and extremely informative and stimulating. The title means "mask" in Latin and is probably an allusion to Yukio Mishima's first full-length novel, "Confessions of a Mask," published in Japan in 1949 and translated into English by Meredith Weatherby...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 4, 2013

Not everyone in England would welcome Mourinho back with open arms

Jose Mourinho wants to be where people love him.
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2013

Selective rights, illegal wars

One cannot help thinking these days that the legal, political and even moral blind spots that exist in the United States must always somehow involve Muslims.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 1, 2013

A most dangerous spy

Ana Montes has been locked up for a decade with some of the most frightening women in America. Once a highly decorated U.S. intelligence analyst with a two-bedroom co-op in Washington, Montes today lives in a two-bunk cell in the highest-security women's prison in the nation.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 30, 2013

U.S. seeks to expand wiretaps for Web use

A government task force is preparing legislation that would pressure companies such as Facebook and Google to enable law enforcement officials to intercept online communications as they occur, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the effort.
JAPAN / Media
Apr 21, 2013

News-literacy lessons teach students how to find fact amid fiction

When Ife Adelona saw a picture circulating on Twitter of singer Selena Gomez as an adult-magazine cover girl, the 17-year-old knew what she had to do.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 19, 2013

Teen 'sexting' case in Virginia fuels debate on right response

Three high school students in Fairfax County, Virginia, made cellphone videos of drunken sex acts with fellow teens and shared them among themselves. Now they are going on trial, facing a charge usually reserved for adult predators: child pornography.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 18, 2013

Scroll displays the human side of Perry's arrival

"It's come pretty much out of nowhere," says British Museum curator Tim Clark, placing a small wooden box on the table — it's about the dimensions of a shoebox, slightly weathered and lightly inscribed with fluid kanji characters. "It was in Japan until last summer, where it belonged to a dealer, and...
LIFE / Digital / ON: TECH
Apr 16, 2013

Can we talk?

LG's Optimus G Pro gets a Japan release
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2013

Hokkaido opposition to TPP surges

On a late March afternoon in central Sapporo's "raccoon trail," a covered shopping arcade, business is particularly brisk. While Honshu's main cities celebrate under the cherry blossoms, several meters of snow remain piled up beside icy sidewalks — with more expected.
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 9, 2013

'Natch' gets ghostly on stage

"If I thought too much about my future plans, I would kind of get stuck," says Natsumi Abe. "So I just try to concentrate on the next day's work and do it as well as I can."
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2013

When freedom to make laws is license to restrict freedom

Since the presumably rigged elections of December 2011, Russia's Parliament/president machine has been stamping human-rights-restricting and authorities-power-enhancing laws one after another.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2013

Fallen tycoon Horie freed from jail

Takafumi Horie, former president of the Internet firm Livedoor Co. and an entrepreneurial hero for young generations, is paroled after spending 21 months behind bars.
Reader Mail
Mar 28, 2013

Cherry-picking text from Bible

Regarding the recent thread of readers' letters concerning religion, I would like to add four points.
WORLD
Mar 26, 2013

Berezovsky was 'down' but wouldn't bow to Putin: allies

Associates of exiled Russian oligarch and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky, who was found dead Saturday, questioned claims that he had begged President Vladimir Putin for forgiveness, but said he had been depressed and suicidal.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 25, 2013

Yoisho! A word to move mountains (and smaller things)

The man from next door says it. My mother-in-law says it. The guy in the grocery store says it. The nurse on TV says it. Seems like everyone says Yoisho! (よいしょ!) It's one of those expressions that appear to be a common part of everyday Japanese life but are not usually taught in Japanese language...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 23, 2013

Are Russian assassins on the streets of Britain?

Shortly after 5:15 p.m. on Nov. 10, a jogger turned into Granville Road in Weybridge, southern England, running along the hedge-lined street of one of Britain's wealthiest enclaves. Then, 50 meters from his home, he staggered into the road and died.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building