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Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 22, 2014

Cure sought in the blood of Ebola survivors

For months, Vanderbilt University researcher Dr. James Crowe has been desperately seeking access to the blood of U.S. Ebola survivors, hoping to extract the proteins that helped them overcome the deadly virus for use in new, potent drugs.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2014

Christians a vanishing species in Arab world

The observance of the Christian holiday in the Middle East is a sad reminder that the region's distinctive relgious, ethnic and cultural diversity is rapidly disappearing.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 22, 2014

Abe's election victory means gain for big companies, pain for smaller ones

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's victory in the snap Lower House election earlier this month, an endorsement of his economic policies, may help the nation's biggest companies get richer while extending a surge in bankruptcies among smaller ones.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Dec 22, 2014

Rewinding some of Japan's top YouTubers

YouTube highlighted 14 of the Internet's best Japanese vloggers.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 21, 2014

'The Interview': It's time for Sony Japan to say no

To put the lame, ill-conceived comedy film 'The Interview' on the frontline of a trumped-up battle in defense of Western values is a bit like betting the bank on Bozo the Clown and refusing to back down.
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Dec 21, 2014

In no-surprise poll, parties' main players re-elected in Kinki

In an election that produced no surprises, it's little wonder the biggest political names in the six prefectures that make up the Kinki region (Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara and Wakayama) were all returned to the Diet, though one or two had a close call.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 20, 2014

Love of robots may pave way for better treatment of animals

If chimps had history books, a few individuals would have important chapters devoted to them. One would be David Greybeard, the chimp who in 1960 was observed by Jane Goodall using a piece of grass as a tool.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 20, 2014

Blowing the dust off Edo Period erotica

You always remember your first time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 20, 2014

Rivers

Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 20, 2014

Cuba's Raul Castro sees support surge as he steps out of brother's shadow, brings historic changes

Stepping out of his legendary brother's shadow, President Raul Castro has scored a diplomatic triumph and a surge in popular support with the deal that ends decades of open hostility with the United States.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2014

Sculpting the uncanny space between permanence and evanescence

Sculpture is supposedly the most solid and permanent of the creative arts, so it is a paradox that an artist like Junichi Mori — whose work often focuses on impermanence and evanescence — has chosen to work in this style, using materials like marble and wood, instead of something more fleeting and...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Dec 18, 2014

In magazine interview, Obama reveals experiences with racism, including being mistaken for a waiter, valet

As national protests over the death of unarmed black men by white police officers pushed race relations to the top of the headlines, President Barack Obama revealed his own experiences of racism, including being mistaken for a waiter and a parking valet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 17, 2014

Elena: 'A face permanently set in lines of disappointment'

A Russian friend once defined the Russian temperament with one word: "heavy." That certainly holds for the characters in "Elena," an excellent tale of a Russian family struggling to navigate a world defined by Western capitalism and the supposed magical powers afforded by digital technology. A cold,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 17, 2014

Venus in Fur: 'Polanski crams a lot into this uncomfortable comedy of mind games'

Roman Polanski, not content with having cast his actress wife Emmanuelle Seigner as a cruel and sultry dominatrix in "Bitter Moon" (1994), repeats the trick with "Venus in Fur." But if the first film was tragedy, this time it's farce. Rather like he did in the excellent "Carnage" (2011), Polanski is...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 17, 2014

3 Days to Kill (Last Mission)

Director: McG Language: English, French, German (subtitled in English)
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 17, 2014

Hitting 60 in Japan offers a chance to start over, so don't waste time looking back

If one measures life in a 60-year cycle — and if you use the Chinese zodiac calendar, you do — then age 60 marks a new beginning or birth: You can be a child once again.
Reader Mail
Dec 17, 2014

Despicable attack on violinist

As a musician and composer, I was greatly saddened to read in The Japan Times-incorporated International New York Times the Dec. 9 article "Fraud accusations stir violin world," describing an American violinist's despicable attack on the late Shinichi Suzuki, Japan's highly respected founder of the world-famous...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 17, 2014

Japan recast as a konbini state

Following its May world premiere in Mannheim, Germany, and a summer spent gathering great reviews from its European tour, "Super Premium Soft Double Vanilla Rich" finally debuted in Japan last week at the Kanagawa Arts Theatre in Yokohama.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 17, 2014

'Entrance/Exit' shows the way for new arts fest

Bulging like a half moon out into the Seto Inland Sea from Kyushu's northeast corner, the Kunisaki Peninsula in Oita Prefecture may be remote and lack rail links to the rest of the country, but since time immemorial it has been a crossroads for travelers in both directions between Japan, the Korean Peninsula...
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 17, 2014

Former Sony employees sue studio over 'nightmare' data breach

The massive hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. computers has spurred two lawsuits by former employees accusing the company of failing to protect the personal information of thousands of workers.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Dec 16, 2014

Hanyu reasserts dominance with Grand Prix Final win

Olympic and world champion Yuzuru Hanyu showed he has regained both his form and confidence with his dominating victory at the Grand Prix Final in Barcelona, Spain, on Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2014

No excuse for tolerating torture

Already 'torture' is fading from the headlines. Anti-torture Americans have been way too polite the past 12 years. They should have shouted down the torturers and apologists, ridiculed them, locked them away.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2014

What economics can learn from human beings

Legend has it that it's hard even to get bank staff to read the 'World Development Report' published annually by the World Bank. The report for 2015 should prove to be an exception, though, as it appears to help policymakers understand deeply ingrained habits or cultural settings.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2014

U.S. soft power takes a hit in wake of report

It's a testimony to U.S. soft power that Washington persuaded so many allies to take part in a policy of torture that they must have known would one day blow up in their faces.
WORLD
Dec 16, 2014

Rogen defends lampooning of Kim in movie

Actor-director Seth Rogen defended the choice to parody North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in raunchy comedy "The Interview," the movie that sparked a real-life threat from the country and has been suspected as the possible cause of a damaging cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 15, 2014

Time to take away the punch bowl in Japan

The BOJ's policies are allowing the government to sidestep its responsibility. That must stop if 'Abenomics' is to come off life support.

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