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CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 2014

Artist takes a jab at social identity

What will it take to save the world? If you visit Maison Hermes Le Forum in Ginza in the next few weeks, artist Tsuneko Taniuchi — in the guise of Ninja Girl, wearing a flower in her hair and with a toy M16 rifle tucked in her belt — will ask you to respond to this question, and you may be surprised...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 28, 2014

She came, she stole and she conquered

In my family of many brothers, the "Lupin III" animated TV series was the only program we could agree to watch. Once the electric guitar riffs of the Yuji Ohno-penned theme song began, a blissful peace descended on our living room. The fighting stopped and all eyes were glued to the family's beat-up...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 2014

The Goude, the bad and the ugly

On Aug. 15, 1977, an issue of New York Magazine was released with an image of Jamaican singer and model Grace Jones on the cover: She is almost naked, standing on one very long leg; her oil-coated torso twisting to face the camera, with one hand lightly holding a microphone and the other effortlessly...
WORLD
Aug 28, 2014

Shaun the sheep, when shorn, may turn out to be world's woolliest

Two Australian farmers may have found the world's woolliest sheep, whose estimated 25-kg (55-pound) coat, if confirmed, could shatter the world record, currently held by New Zealand.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 28, 2014

Baby may have infected Briton with deadly Ebola virus

A British nurse infected with Ebola may have caught the deadly virus after playing with a 1-year-old boy whose mother died in a treatment center but who himself had initially tested negative for the disease, a medical colleague said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 27, 2014

Stories We Tell

Diane Polley, the mother of Canadian actress and director Sarah Polley, was, by all accounts, a vivacious woman who could light up a room upon her arrival. She was ditzy, impulsive and passionate, with a big horsey laugh. If an actress had played her on-screen, it would have been Gena Rowlands, for sure....
EDITORIALS
Aug 27, 2014

Deng Xiaoping's lasting legacy

Seventeen years after his death, Deng Xiaoping's grip on China remains as tight as ever.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 27, 2014

Tokyo Ballet turns 50 with a glorious Gala of thanks

Ahead of The Tokyo Ballet's official 50th anniversary on Aug. 30, its website is already garlanded with tributes from international dancers and choreographers such as Sweden's Mats Ek and Britain's Akram Khan — and even from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 27, 2014

Bunraku meets the Bard in new 'Sir Falstaff'

The type of Japanese puppetry known as ningyō-jōruri (aka bunraku) has its roots in 17th-century Osaka. Since then, though, there will rarely if ever have been a bunraku play drawn from stories written a little earlier on the other side of the world — yet that's what awaits Tokyo audiences next month...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 27, 2014

SGT's oldies take dance in stride

In 2006, when the world-renowned director Yukio Ninagawa announced open auditions for Saitama Gold Theatre — a project he launched with the slogan, "If you are over 55, let's create theater together and go on a foreign tour" — there were cynics eager to brand the applicants as dreamy wannabe Cinderellas...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 27, 2014

Demonstrations resume in Missouri over shooting death of black teen

More than 100 demonstrators marched peacefully in St. Louis on Tuesday, demanding the arrest of a white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, almost three weeks ago.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 27, 2014

Obama woos veterans with mental health care, military home loans

President Barack Obama sought to make amends with veterans on Tuesday, announcing steps to expand their access to mental health care and an initiative with financial firms to lower home loan costs for military families.
EDITORIALS
Aug 26, 2014

Opposition strength through unity

The current Japanese political landscape shows the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito alliance dwarfing all opposition forces in both chambers of the Diet. Could the merger of two opposition parties now in negotiations make a difference?
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2014

A transformative global agenda for development

Following a year and a half of twists and turns, U.N. member states have completed a proposal for sustainable development goals to steer the international agenda once the Millennium Development Goals expire at the end of 2015.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 26, 2014

Jazz artist Emi Meyer teams up with guitarist Seiichi Nagai for a warm, poppy album

Jazz artist Emi Meyer had plenty to be happy about in 2008. She had just self-released her debut album "Curious Creature," she was performing shows around Kyoto and major labels in Tokyo were attempting to woo her. The half-American, half-Japanese Meyer, though, says the situation wasn't so sunny.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 26, 2014

Reggae revival in Jamaica recalls golden era of 1970s

The main event at fight night in Kingston, a popular boxing showcase, was hours away, but the crowd at the National Stadium's indoor arena, from the young and hip to the elderly, was already pumped.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 26, 2014

Younger Japanese staying away from stocks despite NISA tax lure

History is working against the Abe administration as it seeks to convince a new generation of investors that equities are the best bet for funding retirement.
WORLD
Aug 26, 2014

Happiness study draws frowns from critics

A high-profile 2013 study that concluded that different kinds of happiness are associated with dramatically different patterns of gene activity is fatally flawed, according to an analysis published on Monday that tore into its target with language rarely seen in science journals.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Aug 25, 2014

Use them or lose them: There's more at stake than language in reviving Ryukyuan tongues

With the last speakers of the Ryukyuan languages dying out, an identity is vanishing too.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2014

Kiwanis campaign helping to stamp out tetanus

Around the world, a baby dies every nine minutes from tetanus.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Aug 25, 2014

Ferguson's lone black councilman keeps low profile amid protests

In many ways Dwayne James is a beacon of hope in Ferguson, which has been torn apart by racially charged riots. The only black councilman in a predominantly black town, James is widely respected even by political opponents and talked of as a candidate for mayor.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Aug 24, 2014

Brazil denies Japan World Grand Prix title

Brazil retained its title with a three-set (25-15, 25-18, 27-25) victory over Japan on the final day of play in the FIVB World Grand Prix Finals at Ariake Colosseum on Sunday night.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 24, 2014

New buildings can take the sunshine out of life

As residents of Japan, most of us probably expect that our right to sunlight is protected by law. However, as reader Y found, that isn't really the case.
WORLD / Society
Aug 24, 2014

U.K. Muslims lash out at 'jihadi cool' after beheading

A British Muslim leader has called for action to tackle a jihadi subculture after an Islamic State video showed a suspected Briton beheading U.S. journalist James Foley in Syria.

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