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WORLD
May 26, 2014

Mexico rebel leader Marcos retires

Subcommandante Marcos, who led an indigenous uprising in southern Mexico and became one of Latin America's most prominent revolutionaries, Sunday said he was stepping down as spokesman for the Zapatista rebels and will slip out of public life.
WORLD / Society
May 25, 2014

'Revenge porn' ruling ignites debate

A court in Koblenz, Germany, has ruled that intimate, compromising photographs should be deleted at the end of a relationship if one partner wants it. In this case, the woman wanted the man to delete erotic photographs she had consented to pose for. When he refused, she sought legal help.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 25, 2014

Decisive battle looms for Syrian rebels in Aleppo

High spring in Syria's largest city and the final battle has arrived. From his vantage point on a front line in Aleppo's northeast, Abu Bilal, a rebel commander, had spent the past month staring at a ridge line about a kilometer away that marked the closest Syrian military position.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 25, 2014

'Fort Kill the Jews': Spanish village votes on fate of controversial name

At 4 p.m. Friday, it's eerily quiet in this tiny Spanish village. The blinds on the stone houses are drawn and there's not a person to be seen wandering the few streets that make up Castrillo Matajudios.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
May 25, 2014

A cat named Blanco: In my time

Blanco came to ARK as a kitten last June with his siblings. Most of his brothers and sisters were adopted quickly but Blanco got passed over, as he was often too busy sleeping or playing to entertain visitors.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 25, 2014

Learning Japanese by singing along

Several years before I was taught to read and sing the traditional song 「さくら、さくら」("Sakura, sakura") in introductory Japanese class, I recall driving my father's 1963 Ford Galaxie and humming along to the melody of Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki Song," broadcast over WFAY AM radio in North...
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2014

World largely turns a blind eye to male rape

The number of male victims of rape in some conflict situations is staggering. And when they return to their communities, men are particularly reluctant to declare that they were subjected to sexual violence.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 24, 2014

Thai coup leader insists on reform before election

Thai Army chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha set out his plans for the country on Friday, a day after seizing power in a coup, saying reforms were needed before an election can be held and enlisting the help of the civil service.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 24, 2014

Small presses fill a niche in books about Japan

Isobar Press (Tokyo)Speciality: Poetry
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 24, 2014

Godzilla Awakening

The first thing that must be said about the comic prequel to the new "Godzilla" movie is that it seems to contain a massive spoiler! So if you haven't yet seen the movie, then perhaps you should wait until you have, before reading either the comic or this review.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 24, 2014

The Reason I Jump

The No. 1 best-seller "The Reason I Jump" is now available in paperback. Written by Naoki Higashida, an autistic Japanese boy in his early teens, this incredible book gives readers a glimpse into what it's like to be autistic, and along the way shatters many preconceptions people may have regarding those...
EDITORIALS
May 24, 2014

Stop the bullying of LGBT students

A recent survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the Kanto area finds that 70 percent were bullied during their school years. Learning respect and tolerance for individual differences should start earlier.
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2014

Is the tea party dead or just misunderstood?

Much of American political journalism last week consisted of people who have not understood the tea party since its birth in 2009 saying that it's now dead.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
May 23, 2014

Five suicide bombers involved in latest Urumqi attack: state media

Five suicide bombers carried out the attack that killed 31 people in the capital of China's troubled Xinjiang region, state media reported a day after the deadliest terrorist attack to date in the region.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
May 23, 2014

Motel owner provides rooms to the roaming

Makoto Kai, 62, is the founder and CEO of Hatagoya Co., which operates Japan's only motel chain. Kai, an avid biker, started the business in 1994 out of frustration with the lack of comfortable and inexpensive accommodation across the Japanese countryside. After traveling around the United States and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2014

Godzilla: the monster with multiple personalities

"Godzilla" was the first Japanese movie I saw. It was also the first for many other American baby boomers, though we did not view Ishiro Honda's 1954 original, but a version that had been heavily edited and dubbed for the U.S. market, with additional footage featuring Raymond Burr as an intrepid American...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2014

'Sake Bomb'

On the one hand, I'm prepared to love this movie. Junya Sakino, director of "Sake Bomb," gets it, as they say. He is one of a growing breed of Japanese filmmakers who studied in the U.S. and are now working there. "Sake Bomb" — a film about a nice, unassuming Japanese guy who travels to America looking...
BUSINESS / Economy
May 21, 2014

Import slowdown narrows trade gap

The trade deficit shrank in April as imports rose the least in 16 months, after the consumption tax hike crimped consumer spending, Finance Ministry data showed on Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 21, 2014

'The Bee' stings Paris audience

With its title "The Bee," this work co-written in 2006 by leading dramatist Hideki Noda and Irish playwright Colin Teevan immediately brought to mind Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" and the ghastly, unbidden and unexplained changes to which the protgonist of that seminal novella is subjected.
Reader Mail
May 21, 2014

Spare Japan a Vietnam spectacle

Most of us are against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plan for collective self-defense. If Japan had legalized this in 1965, thousands of Japanese soldiers might have been sent to fight in the jungles of South Vietnam with the United States. What a meaningless loss of life that would have proven to be....
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
May 20, 2014

Cromartie book available in digital

Former Yomiuri Giants star outfielder Warren Cromartie's book on his life in Japanese baseball, "Slugging It Out In Japan," which was co-written with best-selling author Robert Whiting, is now available in digital form for the first time.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 20, 2014

Amid 'witch hunt,' S. Korea crew adrift

Tried and convicted by an angry public before their case has even come to court, South Korea's legal system appears to be failing 15 surviving crew members of the Sewol ferry, which sank last month, killing hundreds of children.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2014

Why censoring search engines is a good idea

The European Court of Justice deserves praise for ruling recently that a Spanish national should not suffer shame or embarrassment for his former financial difficulties every time an acquaintance or potential employer types his name into a brower.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 20, 2014

Design tests to measure priority outcomes

The discovery of fraud in the adminstration of the high-stakes TOEFL and TOEIC tests is disturbing, but the larger issue — which has been given short shrift — is that these tests are designed to emphasize written English rather than spoken English.
Japan Times
PRESS / Publications
May 20, 2014

"Konnichiha, Nihongo! (Vietnamese Edition)" on sale now

Full of simple, ready-to-use expressions for living in Japan

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo