Search - life

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 31, 2015

Islam takes center stage as Turkish election campaign enters final week

Evoking the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople and vowing the Muslim call to prayer would forever ring out, President Tayyip Erdogan put religion at center stage on Saturday as campaigning for Turkey's parliamentary election entered its final week.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
May 30, 2015

'Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings' reveals intricacies of Edo Period architecture and interiors

"Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings" was first published in 1886, less than two decades after the Meiji Restoration, a time when Japan reopened itself to the world. But the same openness that allowed Morse to document Japanese architecture as a living tradition would soon transform the urban landscape...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
May 30, 2015

Scientists pick top 10 new species of '15

Some 18,000 species, great and small, were discovered in 2014, adding to the 2 million already known, scientists said recently, as they released a top 10 list that highlights the diversity of life.
Reader Mail
May 30, 2015

Shikoku pilgrim says 'thank you'

Thank you Shikoku. Spent the month of October last year on the Shikoku pilgrimage walk. Want to say "thank you" to the people of Shikoku for their friendliness and hospitality.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 29, 2015

Expressive emoji win over Merriam-Webster's wordsmiths

From tsunami to head honcho, English boasts no end to Japanese loan words. Artsy chefs now talk of umami and revelers belt out karaoke, so it is no surprise to see the Merriam-Webster dictionary honoring another new arrival: emoji, familiar to mobile users worldwide.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / They're Playing Our Song
May 29, 2015

The tune that allowed Japan to lament

The sympathy of Michiko Namiki's "Ringo no Uta," the first pop music hit after World War II finished, endeared it to a battered nation. Four months later in May of 1946, however, a very different tune became a No. 1 hit. Noboru Kirishima's "Reijin no Uta" ("Song of a Beautiful Woman") played up lament...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 29, 2015

Ex-House Speaker Hastert charged with dodging banking law to make payoffs, lying to FBI

Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Dennis Hastert was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he evaded currency-reporting requirements and lied to the FBI as part of a hush-money scheme.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 28, 2015

Abe says Constitution would rule out full-scale invasion, but 'exceptions' are unclear

As debate rages in the Diet over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's security bills, the opposition has identified a key question: Could Japan use force on foreign territory to support the U.S.?
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 28, 2015

High-tech toilets targeted to reel in tourists ahead of Olympics

Japan's high-tech toilets are nothing new but their growing popularity has prompted the government to use them as a tool to promote tourism and sell the technology abroad.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
May 28, 2015

Coldest case? Spain cave yields 430,000-year-old murder mystery

This 430,000-year-old case may be the world's oldest murder mystery.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
May 27, 2015

Line's smash-hit Indonesia movie shows why company prefers to think local

When Line Corp. resurrected a popular 2002 Indonesian teen movie and filmed an online version portraying the same cast and characters, a decade older and using its Line Alumni app, the company quickly found it had a hit on its hands.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 27, 2015

The mysterious appeal of bras, cleavage and singing teenagers in 'Pitch Perfect'

'Pitch Perfect" is a lively, likable movie. I'm not saying that out of a fear of sounding like a curmudgeonly granny who has to Google "peach slapped" to know what it means — but there's always that risk.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 27, 2015

Why does the surrealism in Ryan Gosling's 'Lost River' fail?

'They flooded a bunch of towns when they dammed the river. That's why they call this Lost River," says Rat (Saoirse Ronan), a character in actor Ryan Gosling's directorial debut, "Lost River."
BUSINESS / Economy
May 27, 2015

Kuroda faces opposition even after BOJ extended price target

Even the Bank of Japan's recently extended time frame for achieving its inflation target may be too optimistic, according to some members of the BOJ Policy Board.
BASKETBALL
May 26, 2015

Police investigating match-fixing allegations in KBL

Police in South Korea are investigating a coach over allegations of possible match-fixing in the KBL, the nation's pro basketball league, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
JAPAN / Politics
May 26, 2015

Lower House finally takes up contentious security bills

The Lower House kicks off much-awaited deliberations on two contentious security bills that would greatly expand the scope of the Self-Defense Forces' missions overseas, and opposition lawmakers immediately go on the attack.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2015

NPT shows signs of fraying

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty shows signs of no longer being capable of coping with contemporary challenges.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 26, 2015

Unpopular but defiant, Myanmar's ruling party unfazed about poll prospects

Myanmar's ruling party is led by former members of a military junta, evolved from an organization that democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi once compared to a Nazi militia, and took office through electoral fraud.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 26, 2015

Indonesia's military re-enters civilian affairs after president crosses swords with police

Nearly two decades after Indonesia's military was squeezed out of civilian affairs with the downfall of strongman leader Suharto, President Joko Widodo is drawing the army more closely into his wars on drugs, terrorism, and corruption.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 26, 2015

Galapagos volcano erupts, posing threat to rare pink iguanas

A volcano perched atop one of Ecuador's Galapagos Islands erupted in the early hours of Monday, the local authorities said, potentially threatening a unique species of pink iguanas.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
May 25, 2015

Matsui finds comfort zone in ninth

When Yuki Matsui burst on the scene as a second-year player for Toko Gakuen at Summer Koshien in 2012, he was a sight to behold. He looked like one of the smallest players on the field, but the diminutive lefty's stature belied the fact that he was a giant with the ball in his hands.
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2015

China's unaddressed mental health problems

The Chinese government must take steps to deal with the country's mental health crisis.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 25, 2015

In North Korea, men call the shots, women make the money

North Korea is a militarized, male-dominated society, but it is women who are making the money as the insular nation allows an unofficial market-based economy to take shape.
BASKETBALL
May 24, 2015

Phoenix beat Northern Happinets to capture third bj-league title

The final two possessions determined the outcome, creating a thrilling finish to the bj-league's 10th Final Four.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 24, 2015

Nepal's sons return to rebuild quake-damaged family homes

Dressed in his brother's old British Army fatigues, Mohan Ghale is rebuilding his mother's home stone by stone, after returning to Barpak village, high in the Himalayas, which was demolished by last month's earthquake.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past