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Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2014

Tainted water problems still plague Fukushima, despite some positive signs

More than three years since it was crippled by a megaquake, tsunami and triple core meltdown, the Fukushima No. 1 power plant is still bleeding tons of toxic radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.
EDITORIALS
Sep 19, 2014

Defeating dengue fever

We should probably expect infections of the mosquito-borne virus that causes dengue fever somewhere in Japan every summer because of the effects of global warming and the rise in overseas travel.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2014

Parliaments need a say on war

Democracies urgently need to modernize procedures and structures for going to war with parliamentary debate and sanction, instead of by government fiat based on the instincts of a strong-willed prime minister or president.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 19, 2014

Independence-minded Scots spur signs of life in currency trading

Secession-minded Scots and diverging interest-rate outlooks have benefited at least one part of financial markets. They have eased the recent drought in currency trading with some platforms witnessing record volumes.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2014

Corruption exists; it's the response that matters

Contrasting approaches to fighting recent cases of political corruption in the U.S. and China underscore how China remains more a nation ruled by one party than by law.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 17, 2014

Many skins of Britain's cinematic chameleon

Jim Broadbent is one of those ubiquitous British actors whose face you'd recognize long before you knew his name. I first spotted him as Dr. Jaffe, the quack plastic surgeon in Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" (1985), but others will recall the small parts he played in cult TV show "Blackadder," and the art-house...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 17, 2014

Le Week-End

Glancing at the promotional posters for "Le Week-End" — with their romantic shots of the Eiffel Tower and a beaming, laughing couple — you might suspect this is a warm, fuzzy rom-com for the over-50 set. Paris is for lovers, as they say, and it's easy to imagine a long-married couple revisiting their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 17, 2014

Deliver Us From Evil

It used to be that the horrors of the real world marched pretty much in lock step with the horrors being touted by the media — a centuries-old case in point is how the Spanish Inquisition hired professional artists to paint scenes of torture and misery for advertising purposes.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 17, 2014

Fear of flying: What to do when trapped next to a weirdo?

Airlines advise us what to do in in-flight emergencies, but what should you do if you get seated beside a nutter?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 17, 2014

Tokyo Ballet's 'Don Quixote' revels in its Russian roots

From its inception, the ballet "Don Quixote" has been a global collaboration.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 17, 2014

Korea's new 'Goddess' of musicals

The central Seoul district of Daehangno is renowned for its small theaters in much the same way as Shimokitazawa is in Tokyo. But whereas the latter boasts teens of venues, Daehangno has upward of 140 — so really there's no comparison.
WORLD
Sep 17, 2014

NSA chief on tech-savvy Islamic State: 'I'm watching'

While U.S. military leaders appeared before Congress to outline their strategy to fight Islamic State militants on the battlefield, the National Security Agency chief said on Tuesday he was watching the media-savvy group's cybercapabilities.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 16, 2014

The ghost of Emperor Hirohito

The recently completed 61-volume record of the life of Emperor Hirohito shows him hopelessly ambivalent about how to end Word War II as he sought 'another brilliant military gain' for Japan so that it would have diplomatic clout in negotiating a settlement.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 16, 2014

Haioka wants to represent Japanese style at RBMA

By his own admission, Shintaro Haioka was a late bloomer. The 32-year-old producer, one of only two Japanese artists taking part in the upcoming Red Bull Music Academy Tokyo, says he was an avid music fan as a teenager — but a lousy musician.
BUSINESS / NOTEBOOK
Sep 16, 2014

Premium highballs; Noritake dinnerware fair; Hennessy pop-up bar

New Products
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 13, 2014

Kibiji bike path: eating local in the slow lane

It doesn't take a great mind to read a map, and neither does it take one to get lost. I found myself doubting my direction three times as the Kibiji bike path — one of Japan's top 100 cycling roads — wound its way through pear- and grape-growing country, past a continuous patchwork of rice fields...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 13, 2014

Social media aids rehashing of historical hate

After rain caused deadly mudslides in Hiroshima Prefecture last month, rumors spread over the Internet about burglaries of evacuated homes by "foreigners," including Zainichi (ethnic Korean residents of Japan). Such rumors tend to accompany disasters, so Tokyo Shimbun talked directly to police in the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 13, 2014

A world of fear for Japan's shut-ins

Several years ago, a vogue of interest in shut-ins, or hikikomori, saw researchers from France touring Japan and meeting reclusive youths. Such was the prevalence of the disorder, said psychologist Nicolas Tajan, that "if you ask people in Japan about hikikomori, almost everyone will say, 'I know somebody...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Sep 13, 2014

Low City, High City

Best known for his translations of "The Tale of Genji" and the fiction of Yasunari Kawabata, for which the author won a Nobel Prize, Edward G. Seidensticker was also an accomplished essayist and historian.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 13, 2014

Millennium Snow vol. 1-2

Bisco Hatori, author of the popular manga series and anime "Ouran High School Host Club," delivers a romantic comedy with a supernatural twist with "Millennium Snow," a series that will make any fan of shōjo (young girl) manga blush.
COMMUNITY / Voices / OVERHEARD
Sep 13, 2014

Life's a beach

Teenage boy #1: It's so hot. I wish I was at the beach.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 12, 2014

Women's work culture under fire

One morning in February, the government personnel department began an experiment in a nondescript building in a Tokyo residential area that could end up rewriting the rules of the nation's powerful bureaucracy.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 12, 2014

Matsushima stays course on death penalty but targets rape

Newly appointed Justice Minister Midori Matsushima on Thursday backed the death penalty as a deterrent against crime and said she planned to stiffen the penalty for rape and bolster immigration staff.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Sep 12, 2014

For toddlers, Anpanman doesn't have a use-by date

He has a big red nose, two rosy cheeks and an edible head that is regularly rebaked in his uncle's oven.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 12, 2014

Warmer air caused ice shelf collapse off Antarctica

Warmer air triggered the collapse of a huge ice shelf off Antarctica in 2002, according to a report on Thursday that may help scientists predict future break-ups around the frozen continent.

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