Search - life

 
 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 26, 2013

Place university academics on an annual wage system

In academics as in other fields, traditional Japanese systems and practices are hampering the nation's globalization.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 26, 2013

If your baby needs a name, let the Internet decide

There's little doubt that Mei Xiang is a thoroughly modern mother, what with the fertility treatments and 24/7 video baby monitor and all. But if you need one more piece of evidence that the giant panda of the National Zoo in Washington is perfectly on trend, consider the process for naming her new cub:...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2013

Hezbollah suffers blowback in Beirut bombings

The Sunni jihad in Syria has come to Beirut, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his Iranian masters have to accept that this is the war they made.
LIFE / Digital
Nov 26, 2013

What's Twitter's real value?

A national economy is an unimaginably complex system. And yet we compress all its complexity into a single measure, and then focus obsessively on that. If you want a metaphor for this, think of King Kong spending most of his time staring at a pinhead, worrying about whether it is moving or not. That...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 26, 2013

Daito Manabe set to work his visual magic at Electraglide

In late 2008, a YouTube video began to circulate online of a bespectacled man with electrodes attached to his face, short bursts of electricity making his muscles twitch in time to a soundtrack of glitchy electronica. Titled "electric stimulus to face -test3", the clip would eventually rack up more than...
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Nov 26, 2013

Look to pop culture if you want to blame someone for A-Chan's gay gaffe

All art is political. All pop culture is political.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 26, 2013

Ruling bloc rams secrets bill through Lower House

The ruling coalition forced its contentious state secrets bill through the Lower House on Tuesday evening amid calls from all but one of the opposition forces for further deliberations on its provisions.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2013

U.S. pushing new trade treaties at expense of national sovereignty

New trade treaties being pushed by the United States undermine national sovereignty.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2013

China's Xi is no Gorbachev

Trying to censor reality will only further undermine China's governing narrative, not strengthen its authority.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 25, 2013

Nissan road-tests self-driving vehicle

In what it calls the world's first experiment of its kind, Nissan Motor Co. on Monday tests a self-driving vehicle on a public expressway in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a view to marketing such vehicles by 2020.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 24, 2013

The immigration question

Despite Japan's low birthrate and rapidly graying population, only one in seven Japanese support the idea of increased immigration.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 24, 2013

Police, mine officials met before Marikana killings

On Aug. 16, 2012, the summertime sun streamed through the leafy canopy of central London's Green Park and into the windows of the headquarters of platinum mine company Lonmin PLC. But 8,800 km away there was a chill in the air as the company's biggest South African mine became a frenzy of activity.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 24, 2013

'The Stranger': Nobel Prize-winning author Camus an outsider in France

It is a century since French Nobel Prize-winning author Albert Camus was born — and more than 50 years since he died in an accident on an icy road — yet the polemics over his legacy and "mysterious" death rumble on.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 24, 2013

Can Christie lead GOP back to White House?

Since Chris Christie's landslide re-election as governor of New Jersey earlier this month, which has seen him confirmed as an early favorite for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, the question of the precise nature of his political personality, and its appeal, has loomed as large as the man...
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 23, 2013

Re-engineering Shinto

Japan's ancient, indigenous religion, premodern Shinto, was considered one of the world's least dogmatic, laidback belief systems. Many of its earthy, animist rituals were tied to a love of nature and tradition, anchored around festivals and ceremonies honoring kami (gods) found in all aspects of life....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 23, 2013

Ozeki's work reflects her complex identity

Ruth Ozeki's recent novel, the 2013 Man Booker-shortlisted "A Tale For the Time Being," is best described as a hybrid: a fictional masterpiece with footnotes and appendices like a research paper; a colorful scrawl of inventive creativity marked by scientific asides ranging from ocean gyres to quantum...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Nov 22, 2013

Putting down roots with Ryukyu Underground

Keith Gordon, the English half of the Okinawan fusion duo, has found his 'spiritual home' on the southern island.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
Nov 21, 2013

Japan's love for curry means endless variety

It's only a slight exaggeration to say that Japanese curry saved my life. After relocating to Japan in the late 1990s, I found myself underemployed, surrounded by unfamiliar foodstuffs and suffering from a near-total lack of cooking skills. Yet I managed to fill up at the cafeteria of a local university,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2013

'Gokudo Kyofu Dai-gekijo: Gozu (Gozu)'

Director: Takashi Miike
Japan Times
JAPAN / EMBASSY AVENUE
Nov 21, 2013

Philippines lures Japanese investment

The Philippine government, ASEAN-Japan Center and World Trade Center Tokyo Inc. co-organized a seminar on investment in the Philippines in Tokyo, with the venue packed with hundreds of Japanese business people, Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 20, 2013

Yoji Sakate celebrates in style

To celebrate its 30th anniversary this year, the Tokyo-based Rinkogun theater company determined to present four original plays by its founder, the renowned playwright and director Yoji Sakate.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2013

China's billionaire problem remains in Xi Jinping's way

Chinese President Xi Jinping's economic program so far is looking all too much like 'Abenomics.'
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / NOTES ON A SCORECARD
Nov 19, 2013

Mizuno best man to lead Tokyo organizing committee for 2020 Games

It is amazing how often the answer to a question can be right in front of you.
MORE SPORTS / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Nov 19, 2013

A tale of passion for football and Southern hospitality

It took a bad break — a flat tire and bent rim — to open a window for MAS to view both Southern hospitality AND a classic intrastate football rivalry — Alabama vs. Auburn.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 18, 2013

It's a dog's life, but architects can find ways to improve it

What would our cities look like if they had been built with a different scale in mind? What if we considered building structures for creatures other than humans? "Architecture for Dogs" explores that idea with an exhibition of 13 architectural works made for specific canine breeds. After debuting at...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Nov 18, 2013

Wife fights decades-long battle to free Shibuya riot leader Hoshino

Fumiaki Hoshino has spent nearly 40 years behind bars for a murder he maintains he did not commit and due to a conviction he and his supporters believe was politically motivated.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo