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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...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2014

Grading the Modi government

By the way he talks, new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi might appear to be replicating his Gujarat state model of learning to walk before starting to run with headstrong solutions to the big problems facing the country. Even so, he will have to walk the walk sooner than later.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2014

Brace for the coming CLASS war

The balkanization of global banking by the U.S.' requiring all foreign banks in the country to become subsidiary companies and international banks with U.S.-dollar clearing accounts to comply to some degree with U.S. foreign policy by refraining from trading with U.S. enemies defines a key threat facing the world today.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 25, 2014

Modi's focus on the India-Japan relationship

Given Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's admiration for India, expect Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Tokyo to bring about a major transformation in India-Japan relations.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Aug 22, 2014

Polarizing Abe learns the long game

Shinzo Abe is one of Japan's most polarizing prime ministers in decades. He may also have a good shot at becoming that rarity in Japanese politics — a long-serving leader.
WORLD
Aug 21, 2014

Islamic State video purportedly shows conversion of hundreds of Yazidis

Islamic State, a militant group that witnesses and officials say has executed hundreds of members of Iraq's Yazidis, has released a video that seeks to show it enlightened hundreds of members of the religious minority by converting them to Islam.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 11, 2014

Hillary Clinton faults Obama 'stupid stuff' foreign policy

Hillary Rodham Clinton is taking on President Barack Obama with the same issue he used against her in the 2008 Democratic primary: foreign policy vision.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 7, 2014

Kurds clash with Islamic State militants on outskirts of regional capital Irbil

Kurdish forces attacked Islamic State fighters near the Kurdish regional capital of Irbil in northern Iraq on Wednesday in a change of tactics supported by the Iraqi central government to try to break the Islamists' momentum.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 4, 2014

Courts, U.N. shine spotlight on hate speech in Japan

Rarely in the history of Japan have public concerns over hate speech appeared so intense and widespread as today.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 3, 2014

With 'Big Tiger' caught, Chinese media can finally name their prey

"Big Tiger" is gone. "Master Kang" has disappeared.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 29, 2014

Avengers in Sci-Fi talk about Zeppelin and the problem with festivals

You don't usually hear Led Zeppelin and science fiction mentioned in the same breath. But for Taro Kohata, who plays guitar and synthesizer, and sings for rock band Avengers In Sci-Fi, the two go hand in hand.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Jul 23, 2014

A democratically elected rep is every worker's legal right

The lack of a freely and fairly elected workers' rep could cost employees dearly in the long run.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 21, 2014

China ship spies on U.S.-led naval drills

China sent a surveillance vessel to waters off Hawaii even as the country participated for the first time in the world's largest international naval exercise led by the U.S.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 19, 2014

If chimps inherit their intelligence, does that prove humans do, too?

Some people are smarter than others. And though animal intelligence is far less well studied, it turns out that within a particular population, say of chimpanzees, some animals are smarter than others, too — and these differences are heritable. To put it another way, some chimps' mothers are smarter...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 19, 2014

Umami: the taste we love but can't describe

The word "umami" is, in many ways, literally a mouthful. First coined in 1909 by Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda, the term translates roughly as "deliciousness." With its satisfying, round consonants and open vowel sounds, the word approaches onomatopoeia — a phonetic approximation of the gustatory...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 17, 2014

Ryuichi Sakamoto delves into cities and nature at Sapporo International Art Festival

Sapporo is generally known for three things: snow, ramen and beer. These things, and festivals such as the Snow Festival or City Jazz, are what draw more than 14 million tourists to the city every year.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 15, 2014

BRICS neutrality on Ukraine a victory for Putin

A summit of the BRICS group of emerging market countries will abstain from criticizing Russia's recent actions in Ukraine, Brazilian officials said, a diplomatic victory for President Vladimir Putin.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2014

A caliph in his own mind

The recent declaration of a caliphate by the militant group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is an unprecedented event in modern times, showing that violent jihadism is now an entrenched feature of the Arab political landscape.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2014

Shale oil to push U.S. past Russia, Saudi Arabia

Four years into the shale revolution, the U.S. is on track to pass Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world's largest producer of crude oil, most analysts agree. When that happens and by how much, though, has produced disparate estimates that depend on uncertain factors ranging from progress in drilling...
WORLD / Politics
Jul 10, 2014

Obama-Perry Texas talks fraught over migrant children crisis

As a measure of how politically fraught President Barack Obama's Texas trip is Wednesday, Republican Gov. Rick Perry reluctantly agreed to a ritual public greeting of the nation's chief executive.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 8, 2014

Daymare puts its bands through a hardcore filter for Leave Them All Behind event

"There are people who like aggressive music the way they like sports, but I think 'hardcore' is about being self-aware of what you're doing, about how to create your own space," says Tadashi Hamada, manager of independent music label Daymare Recordings. "That's my first requirement for bands. So hardcore...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 7, 2014

Foreign women also face 'maternity harassment'

Non-Japanese women discuss their experiences of mata-hara, or 'maternity harassment' — discrimination in the workplace against women who are pregnant, on child-care leave or have returned to work after giving birth.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 7, 2014

Tanaka chosen for MLB All-Star Game

The $175 million the New Yankees spent to acquire Masahiro Tanaka is looking more and more like a bargain with each passing day.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 5, 2014

Off the beaten path on Japan's paper trail

At a little roadside store in rural Nagano, a foreign tourist is miming a rice bowl with her cupped left hand. Firm in the belief that Japanese washi (paper — wa meaning Japanese and shi meaning paper) was made from rice, she waves her flattened right hand across the "bowl," miming her desire for "sheets"...
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 4, 2014

With one eye on Washington, China plots its own Asia 'pivot'

The Silk Road, an obscure Kazakh-inspired security forum and a $50 billion Asian infrastructure bank are just some of the disparate elements in an evolving Chinese strategy to try to counter Washington's "pivot" to the region.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 2, 2014

Palestinian teen killed in possible revenge attack

The discovery of a body in a Jerusalem forest on Wednesday raised suspicions that a missing Palestinian youth had been killed by Israelis avenging the deaths of three abducted Jewish teens.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji