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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 23, 2014

What words alone cannot convey

"Can writing succeed as the subject of photography?" This is a question that troubles Paris-based artist Yuki Onodera.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 23, 2014

Paraguayan plant stevia upends sugar market

The maker of America's top sugar brand, Domino Sugar, is launching its first no-calorie "natural" sweetener extracted from the stevia plant in Paraguay, the strongest sign yet that the upstart product is threatening to eat into demand for sugar.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2014

TIFF Critic's Picks: Japanese directors to watch

Despite TIFF's anime focus this year, its lineup of live-action Japanese films is as wide ranging as ever, with one glaring exception: Classic Japanese movies are almost nowhere on the program, and only one Japanese film, Daisuke Yoshida's "Kami no Tsuki (Pale Moon)," is being shown in the competition....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2014

A Most Wanted Man: 'Philip Seymour Hoffman's final performance'

Much-loved character actor Philip Seymour Hoffman's sudden death due to a heroin overdose back in February this year was a shock, one of those things that no one saw coming. But look hard at his final performance in "A Most Wanted Man" and behind the role you can see it in his eyes — that funk, that...
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 21, 2014

Gough Whitlam, former Australian prime minister, dies at 98

Former Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam, who died on Tuesday at the age of 98, was one of his country's most revolutionary yet divisive statesmen, forging ties with China but triggering a constitutional crisis that split the country.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2014

Future of Chinese democracy

The Chinese government's insistence that candidates for election to the post of Hong Kong chief executive first be approved by Beijing makes a mockery of its undertaking to introduce universal suffrage.
COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2014

Ebola: a wake-up call for America

The transmission of Ebola to two nurses responsible for the care of an Ebola patient in the U.S. has focused intense scrutiny on U.S. preparedness for a possible outbreak. Robust health agencies should not be taken for granted.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2014

Joining Islamic State is about 'sex and aggression'

As a psychological counter to Islamic State, might young men vulnerable to the appeal of such extremist ideology be persuaded to fight the desecration of their religion and promised a place in history by defeating the satanic evil that soils their faith?
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2014

New ministers pledge no interruption to nuclear policy, female empowerment

On his first day in his new job, industry minister Yoichi Miyazawa said Tuesday he will soon be ready to visit communities near nuclear power plants, apparently pledging to maintain the momentum for reactor restarts.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 20, 2014

Sidney Shapiro, famed U.S.-born translator and Chinese citizen, dies at 98

Sidney Shapiro, a famed U.S.-born translator who was one of the few Westerners to gain Chinese citizenship and become a member of a high-level parliamentary body, died over the weekend in Beijing, his granddaughter said. He was 98.
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Oct 19, 2014

Abe's shift to regional woes fails to erase mistrust in LDP

Local experts and ex-bureaucrats pan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plans to rejuvenate stalled local economies, saying the idea is another half-baked initiative from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2014

Takata air bag defects far more severe than revealed

Manufacturing problems with Takata Corp. air bags go beyond what the Tokyo-based company has disclosed to U.S. safety regulators about why the devices are at risk of exploding with dangerous force, according to internal company documents reviewed by Reuters.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 18, 2014

Tigers advance to Japan Series for first time since 2005

Check the locks on all the Colonel Sanders statues in Osaka, because the Hanshin Tigers are headed back to the Japan Series and it was a big home run from a bearded foreign star that helped get them there.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 18, 2014

If you'd nuked a city, you'd feel guilty too

The author T.C. Boyle in the preface to his book "Stories II" published last year made a convincing argument that runs counter to the conventional wisdom to "write what you know." Boyle said: "A story is an exercise of imagination — or, as Flannery O'Connor has it, an act of discovery."
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 18, 2014

Cuban players experienced mixed success this season

The first season of the so-called "Cuban invasion" into Japanese baseball has ended with mixed results and the uncertainty as to whether it will continue in 2015 or was a one-time fad that will fade quickly. Eight Cuban-born players were signed to contracts in Japan in 2014, and their performances ranged...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 17, 2014

Don't overstate Japan 'danger'

Chinese allegations that the Abe government is moving toward a militarist foreign policy demonstrate China's inability or unwillingness to acknowledge that current Chinese behavior contributes to the enhancements in Japanese security policy that China wishes to avoid.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2014

Pakistan's internal dynamics keep a lasting peace with India at bay

Every time a Pakistani leader has moved to build better ties with India, Pakistan's politically strong military has masterminded a cross-border attack or terrorist strike. India is signaling that its response to Pakistan's military strategy will no longer be survival by a thousand bandages.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2014

Relax, Ebola's not going to cause 'World War Z'

Author Max Brooks explains why the current outbreak of Ebola is nowhere near as bad as a real-life incarnation of his 2006 novel, 'World War Z,' about a fictional plague.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Oct 17, 2014

How to keep it in the right family

Mitsuo Tsuchida, 65, is a bilingual tax accountant and the founder of Tsuchida & Associates in Tokyo. He and his team help people of various nationalities file Japanese and U.S. tax returns, regardless of which country they may live in. As an enrolled agent of the IRS, he has the privilege and right...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: TECH
Oct 17, 2014

Self-indulge with perfect selfies, twilight baths and more

Paying by iPhone
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Oct 17, 2014

Survivor looks to save images of deadliest typhoon to hit Japan

After Typhoon Vera, also known as the Isewan Typhoon, struck Japan in September 1959, local history researcher Kaneo Ogawa dedicated the next few months of his life to photographing the aftermath in his hometown.
WORLD
Oct 17, 2014

Australian gets spider removed from stomach

An Australian man had a spider removed from his stomach after it burrowed into his body and survived there for three days before being removed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 16, 2014

Pleasure in the History of Fashion: From the Akira Ishiyama Collection

Akira Ishiyama (1918-2011), a Japanese researcher of Western fashion, dedicated nearly 70 years of his life to fashion history, accumulating a wealth of valuable books and 18th- to 19th-century fashion plates and illustrations portraying the popular styles of their times. This extensive collection of...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2014

Japanese golfer tests Pyongyang's links to check dictator's legendary score

Who would have the temerity to challenge Kim Jong Il's superhuman abilities?
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 16, 2014

China likely set to expel disgraced security chief from party

China's disgraced former domestic security chief, Zhou Yongkang, looks set to be expelled from the ruling Communist Party at a key meeting next week, sources said, possibly paving the way for his formal prosecution.
WORLD
Oct 16, 2014

Michael Jackson tops Forbes list of highest-earning dead celebrities

Five years after his death, singer Michael Jackson is generating a fortune and is the top-earning dead celebrity, raking in an estimated $140 million in the past year for his estate, according to Forbes magazine.

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