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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2013

'Hannah Arendt'

Hannah Arendt was the Jewish-German emigre philosopher and theorist who would become most famous for coining the term "the banality of evil" to refer to Nazi figures such as Adolf Eichmann, who could take a conscience-free, bureaucratic view of sending Jews to the gas chambers. This biopic by German...
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2013

Future of liberal arts education

Regarding Geoffry Hinton's Oct. 20 letter, "Liberal arts foster a lifelong quest": The definition of liberal arts is confusing. Hinton appears to have quoted Wikipedia's 13th-century definition in which even medicine, law, and all arts and sciences are liberal arts.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 23, 2013

Balloon to offer luxury, $75,000 ride to edge of space

There's a new player in the bustling world of "commercial space," although the "space" part is a matter of definition.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Oct 22, 2013

Russia eyeing NSA-like surveillance

Less than three months after granting asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, Russia is preparing to implement the kind of electronic surveillance that Snowden uncovered in the U.S.
CULTURE
Oct 22, 2013

Birth-control pills work well — except when they don't

I used the pill for a decade before I began having children in my early 30s. It seemed like a foolproof method of birth control.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 22, 2013

Biollante "Alone in this World"

Tokyo's Biollante has found a clever way of standing out among the ever-crowded field of Japanese bedroom music producers — get melancholic.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2013

Brain drain taking toll on India, China

Disillusionment with India's seemingly ineradicable corruption and inefficiency has resulted in a brain drain abroad. A similar quest for more congenial climes affects China's privileged classes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 22, 2013

Perfume "Level3"

"Level3" is going to look amazing live. Perfume member Ayaka "A-Chan" Nishiwaki reportedly told producer Yasutaka Nakata that her trio wanted songs suited to the huge venues they'd perform it in. Nakata has obliged. Perfume's fourth studio album — the first with access to Universal Music's deep pockets...
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2013

No. 1 water woes laid to Tepco's ineptitude

Two and a half years after the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant experienced its three reactor-core meltdowns, the effort to clean up what remains of the complex is turning into another kind of disaster.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 20, 2013

Former member of military police battalion takes up the case of a missing statue

Lifelines was recently contacted by Jack Marquardt, who served with the United States Army's 720th Military Police Battalion in Tokyo from 1946-48. Jack, who still calls Tokyo home, is trying to locate a statue of significance to the battalion and its veterans. He shared the story of the battalion's...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 20, 2013

Georgian PM's clout unlikely to fade after polls

Georgia's billionaire prime minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili, looks surprised at the suggestion that he might be a touch sensitive to criticism.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 19, 2013

Enough already: Can Japan settle for less?

The pua-ju016b philosophy in short: Poverty as Japan understands it is not real poverty and does not rule out happiness. In fact, it may even be conducive to it.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 19, 2013

Sado Island: Iconic birds, gold mines, magic caves and art

"The people in our town, they died without ever seeing the ocean."
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 19, 2013

Crossing the Mediterranean 'cemetery'

Italians don't want the economic and political migrants crossing the 'Mediterranean cemetery' in flimsy boats to drown, but they don't want them to stay in Italy either.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 19, 2013

Abe ought to show a red card to hate speech now

Last week I ended this column by noting that Myanmar (also known as Burma) can ill afford bigotry and intolerance. Neither can Japan. The outpouring here of hate speech targeting ethnic Korean residents is a disturbing development even if it is not representative. And certainly, it is encouraging that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 19, 2013

The Little Book of Japan

Covering a broad range of topics for the first time visitor, yet comprehensive enough for the truly Japan-obsessed, "The Little Book of Japan" is certainly not small in scope. Sectioned into four chapters — Cultural Icons, Traditions, Places and Spiritual Life — this book includes 44 essays from...
Reader Mail
Oct 19, 2013

Liberal arts foster a lifelong quest

With regard to Dipak Basu's Oct. 13 letter, "Limited time to learn essentials," and to the recent debate on the letters page concerning the liberal arts and their link, if any, to "innovation": There is confusion as to what constitutes the liberal arts, as established at the universities of Cambridge,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 19, 2013

Loco in Yokohama

I remember heading to the pub years ago, after teaching English at a high school, to swap horror stories with my peers. Baye McNeil's "Loco in Yokohama" is, in that sense, a trip down memory lane.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 19, 2013

Imagining civil servants who actually serve

As a comedy, Nippon TV's 'Dandarin' not only pokes fun at bureaucratic privilege, but also wags its finger at Japan's storied management style, which succeeds on the backs of put-upon employees.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Oct 19, 2013

Ian Philip Tozer: 'Like good wine, age helps'

If you want to create something with longevity in my business (which I do), you have to balance creative inspiration with reliable and constant back-of-the-house grunt work.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Oct 19, 2013

Guantanamo's fate tied to Afghan exit

The approaching end of the U.S. war in Afghanistan could help President Barack Obama move toward what he has said he wanted to do since his first day in office: close the American prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Oct 19, 2013

Feds return to work dreading unread email trove

There were a few times in recent weeks when Sophia Casey found herself mindlessly walking toward her laptop, ready to scan for new work messages as she's always done at nights and on weekends. Then she would see the computer — powered down, closed and unplugged — and remember: furlough.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 19, 2013

Top-two primary systems could counter American extremist tendencies

The latest game of political chicken that drove Washington to a government shutdown and the very edge of the debt ceiling gave new life to the omnipresent complaint of elder statesmen and centrist wise guys: If only congressional districts weren't so gerrymandered in the decennial redistricting process,...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2013

Lack of U.S. vision hurts TPP

If President Barack Obama is really shopping for a legacy, then he should widen his gaze and look to the global stage. There is no need to rush the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks.
EDITORIALS
Oct 18, 2013

Revitalizing the SDP

Under its newly elected leader, the Social Democratic Party must go beyond shouting 'Protect the pacifist Constitution!' if its mission is to build a more equitable Japanese society.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 18, 2013

Sugano basks in glow of Game 2 brilliance

Tomoyuki Sugano stood on the mound at Tokyo Dome in the top of the ninth inning of his first postseason game with a three-run lead, over 45,000 people screaming — Yomiuri Giants fans in support, Hiroshima Carp fans in opposition — and the bases full of other team's players.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 18, 2013

Controversy over Hodgson's joke a bunch of hogwash

The feel-good factor lasted 24 hours.

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