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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2015

Isao Takahata's stark world of reality

Having survived a devastating U.S. air raid on his hometown in World War II, film director Isao Takahata has firsthand experience of the horrors of war. It's perhaps not surprising, therefore, that he staunchly opposes Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's attempt to push controversial security bills through the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 29, 2015

Only a teenager, yet an expert on war

'The last war was the worst."
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / OLYMPIC NOTEBOOK
Jun 20, 2015

Clarke’s legendary records still resonate 50 years later

Nearly three weeks after American sprinter Henry Carr's passing, another iconic runner from the 1964 Tokyo Games has passed away.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 11, 2015

Algorithms give us what we want, but little else

Algorithms may take the guesswork out of marketing, crime prevention and even romance. But they also take the guesswork out of life itself, making it predictably dull.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 26, 2015

Queens' tale speaks to now

Though it's 40 years since Italian playwright Dacia Maraini wrote "Mary Stuart," this story of two queens — Elizabeth I of England and Ireland and Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots — remains as relevant now as ever in its portrayal of two women burning with anger about their exploitation by men despite...
JAPAN / History
Mar 14, 2015

Cult attraction: Aum Shinrikyo's power of persuasion

Ahead of the 20th anniversary of Aum Shinrikyo's deadly sarin attack in Tokyo, we talk to three people with intimate knowledge of the cult in a bid to find out how it was able to exert so much influence over its followers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 10, 2015

Former Supergrass front man Gaz Coombes is bullish on 'Matador'

Gaz Coombes has grown up, but he hasn't grown old. The carefree effervescence that characterized his band Supergrass, Britpop's cheeky monkeys, has vanished, but five years into a solo career the band's erstwhile frontman refuses to settle into the traditional post-split career trajectory.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 21, 2015

Goto's stories put Japan woes in perspective

"More than diamonds, I want peace."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 4, 2015

Growing younger in a super-aged society

Old age. It used to be a subject people tried to avoid, but now, as Japan hurtles toward a super-aged society where almost 15 percent of the populace is over 75 years old, the general feeling is that we had better deal with it.
EDITORIALS
Jan 24, 2015

Kepler still studying the skies

NASA's Kepler spacecraft, launched in 2009, continues to troll for planets in the Milky Way galaxy. Early this month, scientists announced it had made its 1,000th find.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 18, 2014

Global population living six years longer than in 1990: study

Global life expectancy has risen by more than six years since 1990 thanks to falling death rates from cancer and heart disease in rich countries and better survival in poor countries from diarrhoea, tuberculosis and malaria.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 9, 2014

NASA Mars rover Curiosity finds key evidence for lake at landing site

Billions of years ago, a lake once filled the 96-mile- (154-km) wide crater being explored by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, bolstering evidence that the planet most like Earth in the solar system was suitable for microbial life, scientists said on Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Nov 28, 2014

A world away from Ferguson but feeling the flames

I went through an entire day in Yokohama without a single person mentioning that my country was on fire. Of course, they knew, but what could they have said, anyway?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Nov 21, 2014

The birth of a new kind of personal documentarian

A baby who, diagnosed with trisomy 18, is expected to live only one year; a man devastated by the recent death of his wife; and a father and son whose familial bond is as strong as any other, despite not being blood related — at first glance, these people seem like they have nothing in common.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Nov 10, 2014

Foreign wives of Japan offer NHK and 'Massan' criticism and kudos

Ellie's successors question the character's swift mastery of Japanese and penchant for hugs but welcome the issues she raises.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 25, 2014

The romantic notion of rural relocation

Yu Iwamoto began adult life working in the slums, refugee camps and precarious schools of Afghanistan. Had he even heard, back then, of the Oki Islands off the coast of Shimane Prefecture?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Oct 22, 2014

Another island nation, idolized and imitated: Jamaica and I

Only in my 30s did I learn that I, too, had roots, or at least branches aside from my mother's, which only extended to some cotton plantation south of the Mason-Dixon line.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 17, 2014

Rising hope for nations with falling birthrates

The lamentations of some economists in the advanced economies would have us believe that a shrinking population is a bad thing. In fact, the benefits of demographic stability, or even a slight decline, outweigh any adverse effects.
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jul 19, 2014

House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories

Yasunari Kawabata's novella "House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories" is one of his finest works. It is primarily concerned with the connections between the youth and old age, sex, death, life and memory.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 16, 2014

Reflections on the dark side of a tropical island

Naomi Kawase was once Japan's best-known female director abroad; now she is one of its most internationally prominent directors, regardless of gender.
JAPAN / JAPAN TIMES FORUM ON FEMALE SCIENCE MAJORS
Jun 30, 2014

Examining women's roles in Japan's corporate structure

Rikejo, or women majoring in the sciences, are currently under the spotlight in Japan. As the country faces a severe labor shortage, a declining birthrate and a rapidly aging population, there is a need to employ more female talent.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
May 25, 2014

With one eye on the future, globe-trotter builds a foundation for change

Having lived in Punjab, California, London and Tokyo and set herself one huge goal after another, Sonia Dhillon-Marty is now trying to make a difference through her Tokyo-based nonprofit foundation.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / ANALYSIS
May 22, 2014

For 'dirty man of Asia,' Russian gas deal offers clean solution

"If I work in your Beijing, I would shorten my life at least five years," Premier Zhu Rongji, a career politician from Shanghai, quipped in 1999, referring to the notorious air pollution in China's northern capital.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 21, 2014

Shirai triumphs with 'The Tempest'

"I'd like 'The Tempest' I am creating to be on the smallest scale ever, but as it's a very spacious stage at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, it won't have the most compact set. Nonetheless, I will try to present it as stories from within the confines of one man's memory."
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 30, 2014

To boost economy, recruiting stay-at-home dads

Manabu Tsukagoshi, a Tokyo-based consultant, took a month of paternity leave after his second child was born. That prompted his wife, a homemaker, to get a full-time job in the financial industry.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 13, 2014

Surviving the latest trend in American cinema

Who is this man? The protagonist in "All is Lost" is also its sole character — an older (but astoundingly fit) stranded sailor portrayed by 77-year-old Robert Redford. He's unnamed, and does not speak except for right at the beginning of the film when he's reciting a letter to persons unknown. The...
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 1, 2014

Pursuit of happiness

The merry residents of Japan have long sought to attain the 'pleasantest of all diversions

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