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Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 2, 2015

NYC rang in new year with heightened security in Times Square

Roughly 1 million revelers packed New York's Times Square and rang in the new year with the city's annual crystal ball drop under unusually tight security for the nation's biggest New Year's Eve celebrations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 1, 2015

Son of God: 'There is little to no poetic license taken here'

Just in time to be too late for Christmas is "Son of God," Hollywood's latest attempt to reboot the Jesus franchise. Director Christopher Spencer tries to give a more family-friendly version of the life of Jesus than the torture-porn brutality of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ."
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 1, 2015

Most read Life stories of 2014

From cannabis growers to tips on learning Japanese, these were some of the most read Life section articles of 2014.
Japan Times
SPORTS
Jan 1, 2015

Most read Sports stories of 2014

With the exception of shooting star on the tennis court and a questionable ref at the World Cup, much of the big sports news stories  for Japan happened on the ice year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 31, 2014

Chinese man jailed for 13 years for eating tigers

A Chinese man has been jailed for 13 years for buying and eating endangered tigers and making wine made out of their blood, state media reported.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 31, 2014

Abe's goal of constitutional reform faces many challenges

This will be a tough year for the Abe administration as the calendar is full of policy goals that are unpopular with voters, observers say, particularly on defense policy.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 31, 2014

Hong Kong culls chickens and suspends imports after H7N9 bird flu found

Hong Kong began culling 15,000 chickens on Wednesday and suspended imports of live poultry from mainland China for 21 days after the H7N9 bird flu strain was discovered in a batch of live chickens from the southern province of Guangdong.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 31, 2014

Cuban open mic protest thwarted after dissidents detained

Cuban police detained several dissidents on Tuesday and thwarted an unauthorized political protest, dissidents said, in the first major test of U.S. President Barack Obama's policy shift toward normalizing relations with the communist-ruled island.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 31, 2014

Newborn found starved to death in Florida; parents charged with murder

The parents of a 22-day-old baby found starved to death in Florida have been charged with first-degree murder, police said on Tuesday, accusing them of neglecting the suffering infant.
WORLD
Dec 31, 2014

Gunmen rob two banks in east Yemen in coordinated raids

Gunmen raided two banks in the port town of al-Shahr in Yemen's eastern Hadramout province and stole about 52 million riyals ($240,000) on Tuesday, the defense ministry's news website said.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2014

Wanted: brides for millions of Chinese men

A fast-growing underclass is sure to pose an array of challenges for China. The victims are the millions of poor, mostly rural men, who cannot meet familial and social expectations that a man marry and start a family because of the country's skewed demographics.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 30, 2014

The young stars creating a buzz in the enka scene

Even though enka star Saburo Kitajima announced his retirement from NHK's annual "Kohaku Uta Gassen" music program last year, and U.S. singer Jero has seemingly moved into R&B, don't count enka out of the zeitgeist just yet.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 30, 2014

'Kohaku' rallies the J-pop acts, but don't count enka out just yet

On New Year's Eve, many families in Japan inevitably wind up gathered around the TV to watch a selection of holiday programming. One of the most popular shows is NHK's "Kohaku Uta Gassen."
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 30, 2014

Their nation in pieces, Iraqis ponder what comes next

The machine gun poking out from between a framed portrait of a Shiite imam and a stuffed toy Minnie Mouse was trained on anyone who approached the checkpoint.
WORLD
Dec 30, 2014

Indonesia seeks U.S. help to find missing plane: State Deptartment

Indonesia has asked the United States for help in locating the AirAsia jet that went missing on Sunday carrying 162 people, the U.S. State Department said Monday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 29, 2014

To shine or to die: the messy world of romanized Japanese

One of the also-rans in the competition for the best buzzword of 2014 was the little word "shine." It stirred some discussion this summer when it appeared as a one-word heading in the blog of Prime Minister Abe's just-established Kagayaku Josei Ō en Kaigi (輝く女性応援会議, Council for Supporting...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2014

The Sony hack and cyber ransoms

The recent Sony Pictures attack made clear that hackers have the ability to do more than just take sensitive data. The increasing popularity of extortion shows that big companies won't be the only targets.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2014

An all-Hindu vision of India

India's powerful, male-only Hindu nationalist outfit announces an intensive conversion program to recover its 'lost property' in India, feeding its dream of an India that is nothing less than '100 per cent Hindu.'
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2014

Texas license plate challenges sensitive people

The legal skirmish over a Texas license platet implicates a burgeoning new entitlement in the U.S.: the right to pass through life without encountering any disagreeable thought.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Dec 29, 2014

Sony bulls looking beyond hackings to lucrative turnaround play

It may not be as far-fetched as the CIA dispatching a celebrity tabloid show host and his producer to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Yet a 43 percent rally in the shares of money-losing Sony Corp. is pretty remarkable.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2014

Thai regime plays royal card to silence critics

The military regime in Thailand appears to be trying to silence political critics of the monarchy by charging them with lese-majeste offenses.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 28, 2014

Four officials reprimanded in China over developer's AIDS scare tactics

Police in central China detained five people and four officials were reprimanded after a construction firm reportedly employed HIV/AIDS sufferers to scare residents into vacating their houses, the state news agency reported on Saturday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 28, 2014

South Korea nuclear operator says cyberattacks continue, but reactors safe

South Korea's nuclear power operator said Sunday that cyberattacks on noncritical operations at its headquarters are continuing but the country's atomic plants are operating safely and are secure from attack.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2014

'STAP cells' claimed by Obokata were likely embryonic stem cells

An investigative panel at Riken says the debunked “STAP” cells generated by one of its scientists were likely created instead from embryonic stem cells.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2014

America's gun culture and the manly virtues

As growing economic autonomy among American women reshapes breadwinning and gender roles, it's getting tough out there for tough guys. So it doesn't take much imagination to grasp the appeal of holding a gun to some men.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past