Search - life

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2013

Even Pope Francis waits for Putin

Being 50 minutes late for his first meeting with Pope Francis was nothing unusual for Russian President Vladimir Putin. That's just the way he is — a character trait that provides some insight into his attitude toward power.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 29, 2013

Islanders must think bigger to thrive, not just survive

As a resident, may I be so bold as to suggest that we don't need an NPO to save our island from aging and depopulation. What we need is for an NPO, or anyone, to save our island from itself!
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 29, 2013

Fickle Premier League sees dark clouds replace sun shining on Villas-Boas

We live in an age of knee-jerk reaction, of instant judgment.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 29, 2013

Karzai says U.S. drone strike killed 2-year-old

Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused the United States of launching a drone strike that killed a 2-year-old child Thursday and vowed to not sign a long-term security agreement if similar attacks continue.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2013

Paul Greengrass brings real-life action to the screen with 'Captain Phillips'

Paul Greengrass once seemed like the least likely candidate to be a director of Hollywood blockbusters: the Cambridge graduate started his career by putting in 10 years as a documentary filmmaker/journalist for the hard-hitting British current affairs program "World In Action." When he moved into feature...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2013

'Liv & Ingmar'

Like Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, some actresses can get too close to their directors and go up in flames. This was certainly the case with Liv Ullmann (she was born in Tokyo, by the way), who met Ingmar Bergman in the mid 1960s on the set of "Persona." Bibi Anderson was the lead — at the...
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Nov 28, 2013

Ethiopia's traditional rhythms are about to dance across the nation

The Ethiopian National Cultural Troupe is in Japan from Nov. 30 to hold performances, workshops, and dance nights at eight different venues across the country. Offering a variety of dance performances from different ethnic groups of the east African country, this is a great opportunity for anyone wanting...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 28, 2013

Tax-free gifts unlocking retiree savings

Shoko Iwasaki looked for years for a tax-free way to pass down a lifetime of savings to her grandson. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has offered the 71-year-old an answer with a program now helping unlock pensioners' hoarded wealth.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 28, 2013

Bitcoins now valued at more than $1,000 each

It's been an amazing month for Bitcoin, the decentralized payment network that got a surprisingly positive reception last week at a pair of Senate hearings.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 27, 2013

Kichiemon Nakamura II : For the love of 'Chushingura'

As December draws near, the streets are decorated with Christmas ornaments and in Japan, concerts of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony are held all over the nation. In addition to these Western-inspired traditions, there is a made-in-Japan December tradition that has been held since the 18th century and is...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 27, 2013

Portraits of an artist as a young man — and an older one

Yasumasa Morimura is a weird mixture of curator, artist and simple art lover. Throughout his career he has selected famous portraits and paintings of people and then faithfully recreated them, with the exception of superimposing his own face on the subjects.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Nov 27, 2013

'Disabled' in Britain, just 'foreign' in Japan

For myself, a British citizen who has cerebral palsy living in Japan, it is the liberatory power of being a foreigner here that leaves the deepest impression on me.
Reader Mail
Nov 27, 2013

A tale of two untimely deaths

William Andrews' Nov. 19 article "Wife fights decades-long battle to free activist leader," underscores the typical treatment of a death, or a human life, because a riot police member trumps a citizen. On the one hand a poor policeman, dispatched to Shibuya from Niigata was fatally set afire by demonstrators...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Nov 27, 2013

Pope criticizes unfettered capitalism in statement

Pope Francis on Tuesday sharply criticized growing economic inequality and unfettered markets in a lengthy paper outlining a populist philosophy that he says will guide his papacy as he pushes the Catholic Church to reach out more, particularly to the disenfranchised.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 27, 2013

Sony seeks patent for high-tech 'SmartWig'

Sony Corp. is seeking a U.S. patent for "SmartWig" hairpieces that could help navigate roads, check blood pressure or flip through slides in a presentation.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Nov 27, 2013

Pope denounces trickle-down economics in critique of inequality

Pope Francis on Tuesday sharply criticized growing economic inequality and unfettered markets in a lengthy paper outlining a populist philosophy that he says will guide his papacy as he pushes the Catholic Church to reach out more, particularly to the disenfranchised.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 26, 2013

Place university academics on an annual wage system

In academics as in other fields, traditional Japanese systems and practices are hampering the nation's globalization.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 26, 2013

If your baby needs a name, let the Internet decide

There's little doubt that Mei Xiang is a thoroughly modern mother, what with the fertility treatments and 24/7 video baby monitor and all. But if you need one more piece of evidence that the giant panda of the National Zoo in Washington is perfectly on trend, consider the process for naming her new cub:...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2013

Hezbollah suffers blowback in Beirut bombings

The Sunni jihad in Syria has come to Beirut, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his Iranian masters have to accept that this is the war they made.
LIFE / Digital
Nov 26, 2013

What's Twitter's real value?

A national economy is an unimaginably complex system. And yet we compress all its complexity into a single measure, and then focus obsessively on that. If you want a metaphor for this, think of King Kong spending most of his time staring at a pinhead, worrying about whether it is moving or not. That...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 26, 2013

Daito Manabe set to work his visual magic at Electraglide

In late 2008, a YouTube video began to circulate online of a bespectacled man with electrodes attached to his face, short bursts of electricity making his muscles twitch in time to a soundtrack of glitchy electronica. Titled "electric stimulus to face -test3", the clip would eventually rack up more than...
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Nov 26, 2013

Look to pop culture if you want to blame someone for A-Chan's gay gaffe

All art is political. All pop culture is political.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 26, 2013

Ruling bloc rams secrets bill through Lower House

The ruling coalition forced its contentious state secrets bill through the Lower House on Tuesday evening amid calls from all but one of the opposition forces for further deliberations on its provisions.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2013

U.S. pushing new trade treaties at expense of national sovereignty

New trade treaties being pushed by the United States undermine national sovereignty.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2013

China's Xi is no Gorbachev

Trying to censor reality will only further undermine China's governing narrative, not strengthen its authority.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 25, 2013

Nissan road-tests self-driving vehicle

In what it calls the world's first experiment of its kind, Nissan Motor Co. on Monday tests a self-driving vehicle on a public expressway in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a view to marketing such vehicles by 2020.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 24, 2013

The immigration question

Despite Japan's low birthrate and rapidly graying population, only one in seven Japanese support the idea of increased immigration.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 24, 2013

Police, mine officials met before Marikana killings

On Aug. 16, 2012, the summertime sun streamed through the leafy canopy of central London's Green Park and into the windows of the headquarters of platinum mine company Lonmin PLC. But 8,800 km away there was a chill in the air as the company's biggest South African mine became a frenzy of activity.

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