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Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 21, 2014

Mt. Gox CEO Karpeles sought both control, escape

In June 2011, when customers of now-bankrupt bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox agitated for proof that the Tokyo-based firm was still solvent after a hacking attack, CEO Mark Karpeles turned to the comedy science fiction novel "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2014

A moment of truth for the women of India

"The Power of 49": That's how Indian activists have started describing the potential influence of women, who make up just under 50 percent of the population, in the country's ongoing elections. Political parties are courting women for the first time as a bloc, a transformative force that could upend...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 21, 2014

Artists' mission to revitalize an onsen town

It begins with a long, slow hiss. The valves open, and a thick fog is released into the air, pouring from the roof of Dogo Onsen Honkan, the famous three-tiered bathhouse built in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, in 1894. It flows down the side of the building, past bathers in bathrobes on the open balcony...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Apr 21, 2014

Mario returns on wheels and in plastic, and the gun of a giant "Macross" robot fits in your hand

Start your Mario Karts
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 21, 2014

Jaws, the prequel: Scientists find the 'Model T Ford' of sharks

You have heard of the Ford Model T, the famed early 20th-century automobile that was the forerunner of the modern car. But how about the Model T shark?
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Apr 20, 2014

'STAPgate' shows Japan must get back to basics in science

On Jan. 30, as NHK kicked off its evening news program with upbeat music, footage aired of a young woman with immaculately coiffed brown hair wearing pearl earrings and her trademark "kappogi," a Japanese-style white apron.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 20, 2014

India's status quo is riskier

The political party that proudly led India into independence has been reduced to a self-serving coterie of sycophants, courtiers and court jesters. Is the status quo more risky than the 'Modi alternative' in the current election?
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Apr 20, 2014

Shimekiri-ni maniau yō-ni, minna-de ganbarimashō

Today we introduce some uses of the verb u304cu3093u3070u308b that can be used in various situations.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 19, 2014

Korean ferry death toll rises to 32; relatives give DNA swabs to identify dead

Some relatives of the more than 200 children missing in a sunken South Korean ferry offered DNA swabs on Saturday to help identify the dead as the rescue turned into a mission to recover the vessel and the bodies of those on board.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 19, 2014

Cannabis: the fabric of Japan

As counterculture groups around the world celebrate annual April 20 marijuana festivals, we examine the country's historical and cultural links to the much-maligned weed.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 19, 2014

The media get ready for open season on Tanaka

"In the Spring," wrote Alfred, Lord Tennyson in his famous poem "Locksley Hall," "a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 19, 2014

Dresden cashes in on German unification

American novelist Kurt Vonnegut, a prisoner of war in Dresden during World War II, has a scene in "Slaughterhouse Five" where time-traveling hero Billy Pilgrim sees the city's firebombing in reverse, with phosphorous bombs sucked back into warplanes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 19, 2014

How should a civilized nation treat women?

In 1872, a Peruvian ship transporting Chinese coolies docked at Yokohama for repairs. One of the coolies jumped overboard and sought refuge, complaining of gross ill-treatment. What to do?
JAPAN / History
Apr 19, 2014

Taking a maiden stab at expansionism in Taiwan

Taiwan is Japan's forgotten colony.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 19, 2014

Australian predator fierce but no Tasmanian devil

A fox-sized marsupial predator that roamed Australia from about 23 million to 12 million years ago had plenty of bite to go along with its bark. But while it was certainly fierce, it was no Tasmanian devil, Australia's famously ferocious bantamweight brute.
EDITORIALS
Apr 19, 2014

Isolation factor rising in Japan

Japan, once a family-based, group-oriented society, is becoming a place where people live alone.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 18, 2014

Adults bullied as kids still affected socially, economically years later

The negative social, physical and mental health effects of childhood bullying are still evident nearly 40 years later, according to research by British psychiatrists.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2014

Putin runs a costume drama in eastern Ukraine

There's one ploy Russian President Vladimir Putin has mastered and perfected in his 14 years in power: If something appears to threaten your power, create its evil twin.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2014

Restoring balance to LBJ's presidential record

Although only 20 percent of polled Americans rate Lyndon B. Johnson an above-average president — a lower ranking than George W. Bush or Jimmy Carter — the 36th president left a civil rights and medical welfare legacy that changed the fabric of today's society.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 17, 2014

For China's Xi, purging corruption a means to install loyalists

Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to use a purge of high-ranking officials suspected of corruption to instal people close to him and reform-minded bureaucrats into critical positions across the Communist Party, the government and the military, sources say.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Apr 17, 2014

Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai: Tales of the Weird and the Strange

While many overseas scholars are attracted to the retrained aesthetics of Japanese arts and letters, it was the country's wild and wooly folklore that captivated Zack Davisson, an American writer and translator. While pursuing his masters degree in Japanese studies Davisson immersed himself in the mysterious...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2014

'Captain America: The Winter Soldier'

Captain America was a comic-book superhero inherently tied to old-school American nationalism. Born as an anti-Nazi symbol in the unified America of the 1940s he was literally clad in the Stars and Stripes. For a time it seemed he wouldn't survive the post-Watergate cynicism of the '70s, at one point...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2014

'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones'

While other fantasy heroes and heroines — such as Katniss Everdeen ("The Hunger Games") or, heck, Harry Potter — had no time or funds to enjoy themselves, the heroine of "The Mortal Instruments," Clary Fray (Lily Collins), is a privileged teenager living in a cozy Brooklyn apartment with her attractive...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 16, 2014

Toyota tweaks Camry as Sonata makes gains

Toyota Motor Corp. is making rare styling changes in the Camry sedan just halfway into the car's usual design cycle, a sign the automaker is eager to stem gains made by Hyundai Motor Co.'s Sonata, which also is being reworked for 2015.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 16, 2014

Noh master Gensho appears to know no bounds on stage

Noh is a performing art originally developed by and for the samurai class that has continued without a break for 700 years — a mighty span through which Umewaka Rokuro Gensho, as the 56th-generation head of the Rokuro Umewaka family, can trace his lineage.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 16, 2014

'Balthus: A Retrospective'

One of the most controversial artists of the 20th century, Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, best known as Balthus (1908-2001), spent his life painting portraits of young girls. For the first time since his death, an exhibition of his work — including his masterpieces "Thésèse dreaming" and "Alice in...
Reader Mail
Apr 16, 2014

Future disasters on Abe's hands

As a man living in a prefecture that hosts nuclear plants, Fukushima, I was very interested in the April 12 editorial "Energy plan looks to the past."
Reader Mail
Apr 16, 2014

High hopes for special schools

Regarding the April 10 article "Ministry funds programs to hone high schoolers": The idea of Japan's education ministry injecting money into specially designated schools in line with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's growth strategy is an interesting one that, I believe, has a great deal of potential.

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