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Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 20, 2014

Getting crafty with ideas at Maker Faire Tokyo

Walking into the makeshift laboratory of Skeletonics, Inc. in the Tokyo suburb of Hachioji, it's impossible not to notice the nearly 3-meter-tall robotic exoskeleton in the room.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 19, 2014

Abe's snap election claims first victim as Your Party disbands

An opposition party once seen as a possible third force in Japanese politics has decided to disband ahead of next month's snap election.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Nov 19, 2014

San Francisco's huff with Hashimoto over 'comfort women' reveals double standards

San Francisco's reaction to Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's comments about 'comfort women' says much about equality between nations, about how we judge each other through cultural lenses and blinders, and how we have to keep finding ways to address grievances from our past.
Reader Mail
Nov 19, 2014

Coexisting with differences

The Nov. 8 editorial "A shameful statement on Ainu" reminded me of my experiences overseas and made me think of living in peace with differences.
Reader Mail
Nov 19, 2014

Teach more about the Ainu

Why hasn't LDP Hokkaido prefectural assembly group member Masaru Onodera been asked to resign? The Ainu are among the most indigenous of people to ever dwell in the archipelago now called Japan since the Jomon era. It's believed by many cultural anthropologists that the Ainu have lived in northern Japan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 19, 2014

New 'Dick Whittington' pantomime spells fun for all the family

Now a language-school teacher in Tokyo, Gareth Hinchley worked for Britain's chief forestry agency before coming to Japan in 2005. Originally from Manchester, he'd done a bit of writing as a child but hadn't pursued it seriously before he wrote "Dick Whittington," the upcoming production by Tokyo Theatre...
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 19, 2014

China blames rise in violence on drug smuggling from Southeast Asia

An increase in the smuggling of synthetic drugs like methamphetamine from Southeast Asia has fueled a rise in violent crime in China this year, a state-run newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 18, 2014

Abe is banking on getting a new voter mandate

It's finally official. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday he will dissolve the Lower House and call a snap election next month, after his administration decided to delay the next hike in the consumption tax until April 2017.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 18, 2014

Why better economic policy may not save ailing Japan

Japan's economic problems, particularly its long demographic shift, may not be very amendable to better policy.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Nov 18, 2014

Warm up over a shared hot pot

What comes to mind when you think of convivial home-cooked family meals? In Japan, the answer is usually nabe, or hot-pot cooking.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 18, 2014

Many of China's TV shows, films are rubbish, top government official says

Many of the television shows, movies and publications produced in China each year are rubbish, and the solution is to banish decadent themes and concentrate on uplifting social values instead, a senior government minister has said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2014

Japan helps too few refugees: UNHCR chief

The ongoing conflicts in Syria and Iraq have produced more than 12 million refugees and internally displaced people. They are flooding across borders in the region, and some neighboring states have reached their limit. One-third of Lebanon's population now comprises refugees.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 17, 2014

Okinawa election a big win for opponents of Futenma relocation

With Takeshi Onaga's election as governor of Okinawa, opponents of building a replacement facility in Nago's Henoko district for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma now have a powerful ally.
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2014

Iwate taps Google's 'Ingress' to boost tourism

Since it was introduced, Google's location-based game "Ingress" has engrossed many Japanese smartphone users, and officials in Iwate Prefecture have found it to be a great tool to boost tourism.
Japan Times
BASEBALL
Nov 16, 2014

Rays outfielder Zobrist gets crash course in Japanese baseball culture

They play the game with the same rules on the same diamond. But how they develop their game based on practice looks to be a little different between Japan and the United States.
Japan Times
BASEBALL
Nov 16, 2014

Infielders Kikuchi, Escobar showcase defensive skills in MLB-Japan All-Star Series

One thing an event like the MLB-Japan All-Star Series does is allow fans to ask the question, what if? What if this NPBer or that NPBer was in the major leagues and vice versa.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Nov 16, 2014

IBM Big Blue pound Lixil Deer, qualify for X League playoffs

Kevin Craft threw three touchdown passes and scored two more on the ground, leading the IBM BigBlue to a 38-10 victory over the Lixil Deers on the final day of the X League regular season on Sunday at Yokohama Stadium.
Japan Times
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Nov 16, 2014

Abe bill would steal from temps to engorge industrialists

Akemi Hirose, 39, recalls when her contract as a temporary worker at a medical organization in Kanagawa Prefecture was suddenly terminated three years and three months after she started.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 16, 2014

In Iraq, Iranian masters behind feared Shiite militias

Among the thousands of militia fighters who flocked to northern Iraq to battle the extremist Islamic State group over the summer was Qais al-Khazali.
BASEBALL
Nov 15, 2014

Norimoto, three relievers toss combined no-hitter against MLB All-Stars

Takahiro Norimoto didn't have any problems during his matchup against a lineup of major league hitters. Yuki Nishi didn't have many either, nor did Kazuhisa Makita or even Yuji Nishino.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 15, 2014

Shrinking well: Is depopulation affecting Japan's energy, climate goals?

Keishi looks a lot like it did when Toshiko Nakamura first moved there four decades ago. The quiet farming community in Nagano Prefecture is a patchwork of verdant rice fields, lush kitchen gardens and picturesque post-and-beam houses nestled between pine and chestnut trees on the slopes of Mount Hijiri....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 15, 2014

Tomonoura: lost in a storied landscape

The priest from Fukuzenji Temple is sitting cross-legged on a cushion in front of us like a Zen-sage. He has his back to a window of the Taichoro Guesthouse as he explains the significance of the astounding view before us. We are looking out at the nearby islands of Sensuijima and Bentenjima floating...
COMMUNITY / Voices / OVERHEARD
Nov 15, 2014

Fast learner

Look, there's an empty seat.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 15, 2014

As Okinawa votes, Futenma base looms

In an election widely viewed as the final referendum on relocating the U.S. Futenma base within their prefecture, Okinawans prepare to choose a new governor.
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Nov 15, 2014

At Kyoto University, police blitz line of legal protests

On Nov. 4, a man in his 30s stepped onto the grounds of Kyoto University. A couple of days earlier, in Tokyo, two Kyoto University students had been arrested at a demonstration after an alleged scuffle with police. Those arrested were allegedly connected to the radical left-wing group Chukaku-ha (Middle...

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers