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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2014

What to make of a president who'd rather crack the whip

President Vladimir Putin wants a strong sovereign and prosperous Russia, but he believes that Russians are incapable of deciding for themselves and need a shepherd with a whip — an almighty autocrat.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 17, 2014

Knights vs. samurai: It's the ultimate crossing of swords

Is the samurai blade swift enough to outsmart the knight's sturdier sword? Japan's first Armored Battle is about to find out.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 17, 2014

Massive GPIF should own $600 billion of stocks: panel

The world's biggest retirement fund should put half its $1.2 trillion of assets in stocks and increase its yearly return goal to 5 percent, according to the head of a panel advising lawmakers on overhauling public pensions.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / ICE TIME
Feb 16, 2014

Canada's Chan dignified in defeat

Canada's Patrick Chan held a press conference on Saturday, the day after settling for the silver medal behind Yuzuru Hanyu.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 15, 2014

Dazaifu dalliance reveals curious case of a plum-struck deity

It's all thanks to the Spanish ambassador, really. Angeles and I were at the Spanish Consulate in Fukuoka, Kyushu's biggest city, to pick up her new passport. By midday, we'd done the business, slurped our way through the obligatory bowl of Hakata ramen, and were looking for a way to fill a few hours...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 15, 2014

Miyuki Miyabe's latest puts the history in Japanese horror

Better known for her crime and fantasy writing abroad, precious few of the prolific Miyuki Miyabe's tales of terror have actually made it into the English language. Haikasoru's publication of "Apparitions: Ghosts of Old Edo" addresses this oversight. Capably translated by Daniel Huddleston, this collection...
COMMUNITY / Voices / OVERHEARD
Feb 15, 2014

Hot stuff

Vietnamese food can be quite hot when it's cold.
Reader Mail
Feb 15, 2014

Dumb reason for embracing English class

Regarding Michael Hoffman's Feb. 2 article, "For Japan's foreign residents, the little things make such a big difference": The other day I saw a language-school ad showing an interracial wedding between a Japanese man and his blonde, blue-eyed bride, with a white male gesturing frustratedly in the background....
Reader Mail
Feb 15, 2014

In defense of our 'ocean elders'

Regarding the Feb. 2 editorial "Defend dolphins, not a 'tradition": Japanese society must join with the rest of the world in ending the exploitation and mistreatment of cetacean mammals — dolphins and whales. We now know they are advanced in intelligence, awareness and social organization. We should...
Reader Mail
Feb 15, 2014

Time for project on climate reality

Readers might find it puzzling that the subject of the Feb. 3 editorial, "Rising costs of climate change," was not front-page news. Increasingly extreme weather events brought about by man-made global warming should be a priority today precisely because it is the No. 1 threat to our future.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 15, 2014

Rakuten acquires Viber web phone/messaging service for $900 million

Rakuten Inc., the Japanese online retailer controlled by billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani, is buying the Viber Internet messaging and calling service for $900 million as it moves into social networking.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 14, 2014

Asia's democratic dramas

Socially and economically, Asia now stands roughly where Europe was at the start of the 20th century. One can only hope that its democratic journey will be shorter and less violent.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2014

Drift rightward has been building for years

Fashion model Junko Amo made headlines on Aug. 15, 2002, when she initiated a visit to controversial Yasukuni Shrine with a group of some 180 people she met via 2channel, Japan's biggest Internet forum.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 13, 2014

Feed desire with our seductive Valentine's pairings

When I was a student at the University of California at Berkeley, I taught a class called Female Sexuality with some of my fellow schoolmates (yes, everything you've heard about Berkeley is true). As my work with food and drinks seldom crosses into the realm of sex education, few people know this about...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 13, 2014

Making sense of cultural nonsense

In today's complicated world of mass media and communication, contemporary British artists are finding new means of expression.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 12, 2014

The Pre-Raphaelites: Britain’s Romantic rule breakers

Some paintings will always be identified with the place where you first saw them. You may even feel surprised to see them somewhere else. This is how I felt when I visited the Mori Arts Center Gallery, one of Tokyo's high-rise art venues, to see "Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 12, 2014

Double-take for a new one-woman 'Tinkerbell'

Life is hard for Marcello Magni. Not only is he directing a production separately starring famed actress Tomoko Mariya and upcoming talent Kae Okumura, but the work, in Japanese, is also his brand-new version of an early play by his great friend — and Japan's leading contemporary dramatist — Hideki...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 12, 2014

Kushida's 'Flapper' comes roaring back

"Young people these days won't be too familiar with the term the Roaring Twenties, but the 1920s still hold interest as a period. It was a time of changing values, not only in the United States, but in Europe: Dadaism, Cubism, Expressionism and other non-mainstream arts were blossoming. All over the...
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 12, 2014

Dance, Kobe — dance!

Whatever springs to mind when you think of Kobe, it's unlikely to be dance. Yet, from the fourth floor of a nondescript building in the port city's multiethnic district of Shin-Nagata there shines forth a veritable beacon called Dance Box.
Reader Mail
Feb 12, 2014

Creative tale of deductive thought

Regarding the Jan. 30 article by Mark Gottlieb, "The confounding case of Japan's creativity crisis": While the premise that describes "creativity" appears generally sound, Gottlieb's assertion that "At its heart, creativity is really nothing more than deductive reasoning" doesn't seem to hold up.
Reader Mail
Feb 12, 2014

Career limits due to language

I have spent 14 years in Japan's academic/research fields. Every morning I get up with three questions in mind: How can I contribute to the science and technology of this country more efficiently? What can be my career path in this country? And what will become of my children after 10 or 20 years?
Reader Mail
Feb 12, 2014

Contrary to the apologetic spirit

With regard to Franz Pichler's Feb. 6 letter, "Get on with a positive future," I'd like to add my two-pence worth. Pichler hopes that "people in Europe gain some information before starting to judge the Japan of almost 70 years ago." He also mentions that when China and Japan normalized relations, Japan...
Reader Mail
Feb 12, 2014

Close Futenma unconditionally

Both Washington and Tokyo threaten the Okinawan people when they make comments to the effect that if the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is not relocated to Henoko (northern part of Okinawa Island), it will remain at the present site (Ginowan) permanently and as dangerously as ever.
Reader Mail
Feb 12, 2014

Let the Chinese see the real Japan

Regarding the Feb. 7 Kyodo/AP article "U.S. warns China over 'risky' activity near Senkakus": Some eminent Japanese scholars argue that China seeks to establish domination of the Pacific and won't stop expanding its military capability unless Japan restrains it. But do the Chinese people in general,...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Feb 12, 2014

Second-year pro Togashi orchestrates high-octane offense

The Akita Northern Happinets have had no difficulty scoring points this season.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person