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COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2013

The limits of multitasking

Studies of the effects of chronic multitasking suggest that the overwhelming risk of letting no task go untended is that you do nothing well.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2013

Brazilians demand long-term change in slums

Brazilian demonstraters want the government to invest in public transportation, better schools and hospitals instead of hosting mega-events such as the 2014 World Cup.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 24, 2013

Producer gets deep inside the otaku heart

Masaaki Katabami is a content producer working in Tokyo. Besides producing manga and mascot design for clients, Katabami publishes Burgeon, a biannual free manga magazine aimed at a female otaku (geek) readership. Available at Tokyo's Comiket (Comic Market fair), the magazine is in its sixth year. In...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2013

Japan losing competitive edge due to poor practical training, expert warns

There may be many unemployed young people in Japan, but there are also a lot of companies that can't fill their vacancies due to a shortage of talented applicants, Darryl Green, president of major staffing and workforce solution service company ManpowerGroup, said in a recent interview.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 23, 2013

The PTA: a survival guide for foreign parents

PTA — the mere mention of the three initials is enough to elicit a scowl from many a Japanese mother. So how do foreign women cope in such an environment?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Sep 23, 2013

Matahara: turning the clock back on women's rights

Both statutory and case law are crystal clear on the illegality of firings due to pregnancy. But the law is one thing; practice is quite another.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Sep 23, 2013

Tokyo: What would you like to be reincarnated as?

Is it a bird? Is it a Pacific islander? Tokyoites tackle the big existential question: What do you want to be in your next life
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 23, 2013

Transit project brings macabre past of London to the surface

In an open pit near the old Bedlam insane asylum, where the curious once ogled chained lunatics for the price of a shiny coin, the skeletons in London's closet are climbing to the surface. And dead men do tell tales.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 23, 2013

Privacy analysts question iPhone fingerprint scanner

One of the highlights of the iPhone 5S, the fingerprint scanner, is facing two concerns that may take a little shine off Apple's cool new feature. Privacy advocates have raised concerns over how Apple plans to handle this highly sensitive data.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 23, 2013

Smells can help dispel fear factor

It can take only an instant for fear to take hold in the brain — a fear of snakes after being bitten, or of water after witnessing a drowning — and overcoming that fear can take a long time. But now researchers are saying it can be done in your sleep.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2013

Will financial rumors spark crisis for developing states?

Already, the so-called emerging markets have been badly hit by the rumors of the U.S. Fed tapering $85 billion a month in asset purchases.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 22, 2013

SMAP's Tsuyoshi Kusanagi plays cartoonist Osamu Tezuka; "Tamori Club" tackles shotgun microphones; CM of the week: Hair Jam

In celebration of Kansai TV's 55th anniversary, Fuji TV is presenting a drama, "Kamisama no Beret-bo" ("God's Beret"; Tues., 9 p.m.), about a late episode in the life of cartoonist Osamu Tezuka.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Sep 21, 2013

Internet NPO links kids worldwide

Earlier this month, when the nation's Olympic bid ambassador Christel Takigawa referred to "omotenashi" (the spirit of Japanese-style hospitality) in her speech to the International Olympic Committee, the term quickly turned into a buzzword in Japan.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Sep 21, 2013

Ancient tales by the 'savages' of Hokkaido have lessons for today

Imagine living in a culture with none or very little of the following: politics, economics, property, history, time, agriculture, money, war ambition, heaven, hell, progress, writing ...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2013

How poverty harms people's mental resources

In a series of U.S. studies, it's been found that being poor, and having to manage serious financial problems, can be a lot like going through life with no sleep.
Reader Mail
Sep 21, 2013

Are Japanese minds closing?

Japan's science and technology universities, including all engineering departments, should heed what the president of Shiga University, Takamitsu Sawa, had to say about the critical link between innovations in manufacturing and the humanities. Creativity takes inspiration from the heart as well as the...
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 21, 2013

Savvy pope wooing the Catholic middle

On Thursday, Pope Francis said in a historic interview that the Catholic Church talks too much about abortion. The following day, he gave his most forceful anti-abortion comments to date. What's the strategy here?
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 20, 2013

Putin: arch manipulator on a mission to check U.S. will

In novelist Victor Pelevin's pungent satire on contemporary Russia, "The Sacred Book of the Werewolf," its narrator, a 2,000-year-old shape-shifter, kisses Alexander, a brutish but alluring officer with the FSB, the Russian security service — who is a werewolf, like all his colleagues. In doing so,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Sep 20, 2013

Animal shelters strive to reduce euthanasia

The Welfare and Management of Animals Law was revised Sept. 1 in an attempt to reduce the number of abandoned dogs and cats.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 20, 2013

E-cigarettes are popular, but do they really work?

The rules governing personal conduct on the top deck of a Glasgow bus are known to international peacekeeping forces everywhere: keep your head down; do not make eye contact and on no account attempt to make polite conversation with strangers. Refrain too from making jerky or unpredictable movements....
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2013

Domestic factors also drive Putin's Syria gamble

Russian President Vladimir Putin's strategic win over the U.S. in Syria vindicates his foreign policy at a time when he faces difficulties at home.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2013

Finding forgiveness: Japan reworks a Western classic

Clint Eastwood's 1992 Academy Award winner “Unforgiven” has undergone a Japanese remake. “Yurusarezaru Mono” is loyal to Eastwood's classic Western but adds a pulsating core of Japanese-ness.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Sep 19, 2013

Candles to remember Tohoku

News media continue to report on the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, but it's important to remember that people across the Tohoku region are still recovering from the Great East Japan Earthquake that happened there two years ago.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2013

'Chronicle'

The found-footage thing: It can be addictive. Though as a movie ploy, it always stumps me how the characters would actually go into a dark woods in the middle of the night ("The Blair Witch Project") or move their family into a house where a gruesome murder had taken place ("Sinister"). So much of the...
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 19, 2013

Syrian crisis exposes Obama's frayed ties with U.S. military

The Syrian crisis over the past few weeks has thrust President Barack Obama into a role in which at times he has seemed uneasy: that of commander in chief.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2013

This glorious English language that is open to all

The multinational Man Booker shortlist shows 'outsiders' are the new normal. It's time to celebrate the unruly English tongue.

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