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JAPAN / Politics
Oct 30, 2013

Anti-nuclear Koizumi agitating for comeback?

Long out of the public eye, ex-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's recent rumblings against nuclear power are causing many to wonder if the most popular leader of recent decades seeks a political comeback.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 30, 2013

'The Suit' squares a love triangle

In his seminal 1968 work "The Empty Space," Peter Brook wrote: "Certainly, we still wish to capture in our arts the invisible currents that rule our lives, but our vision is now locked to the dark end of the spectrum. Today the theatre of doubting, of unease, of trouble, of alarm, seems truer than the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 30, 2013

'Total abandon' for two landmark duos

Ballet audiences in Japan are widely acknowledged to be among the best in the world, but there's still a lot to be learned here about contemporary dance. However, those seeing a show in a short tour of works by French choreographers Mathilde Monnier and Jean-Francois Duroure can be sure of enjoying a...
Reader Mail
Oct 30, 2013

Coexist under any circumstances

The Oct. 28/29 editorial of "Pushing for nuclear disarmament" prompted me to share some thoughts on the abolition of nuclear weapons. Needless to say, it is good news that Japan has signed a United Nations statement calling for the nonuse of nuclear weapons "under any circumstances."
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2013

The sectarian war at hand: redrawing the Mideast again

Groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, a powerful component of Syria's savage war, could not have moved with such ease if it had not been for the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2013

Blame liberals for illegal drone war

Critics of the George W. Bush administration didn't realize that condemning quasi-lawless detention at Guantanamo Bay would lead a Democratic president to break new ground with drones.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 29, 2013

Damo Suzuki sees promise in young artists

"I don't like to make music, I like to make energy. Music is just a way to get energy, so why not just make energy?"
BASEBALL
Oct 28, 2013

Flawless Tanaka wins Sawamura Award

Masahiro Tanaka followed up an amazing career first with something even more impressive the second time around.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Oct 28, 2013

'Fired' English teacher fights cancer and HIV: readers' mail

Readers offer a range of views on the case of Briton Neil Grainger, the English teacher struggling with cancer and HIV whose contract was not renewed by his employer, Waseda International.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Oct 28, 2013

Getting published is easy; getting noticed is trickier

How can writers make themselves heard in the age of blog and self-publishing saturation? Japan-based authors offer a diverse range of views
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 28, 2013

Smashing ideas on future design and technology

While contemporary art is still transfixed by its own reflection, veteran Japanese curator Yuko Hasegawa has focused her cultural microscope on something quite different. "Bunny Smash Design to touch the world," the current group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, is a hit-and-miss...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: ARCHITECTURE
Oct 28, 2013

Tokyo's new National Stadium faces opposition

Now that the celebrations surrounding the announcement that Tokyo will host the 2020 Summer Olympics have died down, attention is turning to the physical transformations that this will bring the city, for better or for worse.
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2013

Half of public opposes secrecy protection bill: poll

A government bill aimed at toughening penalties for leaking state secrets is opposed by 50.6 percent of the public, a survey says.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 27, 2013

Taking count of the sufficiency of Japanese suffixes

One of the first things new learners of Japanese must struggle with is the amazing variety of classifiers for numbers. When counting books, for instance, the number is followed by 冊 (satsu, volumes, as in issatsu, nisatsu etc.); for thin, elongated objects such as pencils it's 本 (hon, as in ippon,...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2013

Chemical weapons watchdog has tighter leash

The Nobel Committee's decision to honor the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons with this year's Peace Prize should compel world leaders to increase their support for it.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Oct 27, 2013

Rookie Norimoto gives Eagles hope for promising future

When the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles lost ace Hisashi Iwakuma to the major leagues in 2011, they had another, Masahiro Tanaka, waiting in the wings.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 27, 2013

Rajapaksa: Sri Lanka's affable authoritarian?

Down in the deep south of Sri Lanka, where life usually moves at a leisurely pace, there is one small town that is less tranquil. Hambantota — population 20,000 — is expanding fast. There is a vast new deepwater port, built with $360 million of borrowed Chinese cash; a new 35,000-seat cricket stadium;...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 26, 2013

Get Koizumi: Nuclear village goes on offensive

This is a first for Japan: A political figure who not only undergoes a change of mind in public, but tries to make a difference after giving up the political power to do so.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Oct 26, 2013

Strolling old Fukagawa, where gardens and true glitterati mingle

I may be jumping the gun a bit on fall colors, but early October's glorious weather has got me craving some autumnal arboreality.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Oct 26, 2013

Oh, to be blissfully unfree in Nippon's isles . . .

"Freedom." "Liberty." Ringing words. Better than any other, they define modern times. They sparked three early-modern revolutions — England's "Glorious Revolution" (1688), the American Revolution of 1776-83, and the French Revolution beginning around 1789.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Japan Pulse
Oct 26, 2013

Flip a skirt a month in 2014

Kaori Kato's Skirt Flipping Calendar enters its second year, while sticky notes debut.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 25, 2013

U.S. health site tests 'began too late'

Private contractors in charge of building the federal online health insurance marketplace testified Thursday that the administration went ahead with the Oct. 1 launch of HealthCare.gov despite insufficient testing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 24, 2013

Tokyo Designers Week uses music, art as draws

The definition of design in Japan is changing. Depending on who you speak to, what falls under its umbrella is either shrinking or expanding to include nearly all aspects of modern life.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Oct 24, 2013

Food tradition with a long shelf life

A type of speciality food store that has almost disappeared from the streets of Japan is the kanbutsu-ya (dried-foods store). These days we can get fresh produce all year round, but that wasn't the case before canning and refrigeration became widespread.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2013

Trading identity for compassion in the Middle East

Filmmaker Lorraine Lévy likes to tread lightly wherever she goes. Her aversion to intrusiveness affects the way she looks at the world, and defines her approach to filmmaking. It's certainly a significant part of "Le Fils de l'Autre (The Other Son)," Lévy's latest film (and arguably her most successful),...

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