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Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Jan 5, 2014

Rebuilding hope, one stitch at a time

Most of the 19 women from the tsunami-hit city of Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, who work for Tamako Mitarai's knitwear company had no professional experience as knitters.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 5, 2014

Chinese gaming mecca attempts to shed its gaudy image

Walk into a casino in China's gambling mecca of Macau, and the first thing that strikes you is the silence. There's no blaring music, no sharp cries of victory; all you hear is the rustle of clothing, a hushed conversation, the occasional thump on a table — subtle signs of fortunes being made and lost....
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 4, 2014

Kenya Hara: the future of design

Sitting at a plain white table in a meeting room high up on the 12th floor of a narrow building in central Tokyo, product designer Kenya Hara asks me to picture a shallow plate in my mind. "Now imagine a slightly deeper plate," Hara says, "that gets deeper and deeper and eventually becomes a bowl."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 4, 2014

Kitsuki's double visions of delight

The guesthouse I was staying at in Kitsuki was named after the owner, a tough but warm-hearted example of Kyushu womanhood, someone who had learnt to stand her own ground on an island known for its almost theatrical levels of machismo.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jan 4, 2014

To the Simien and back — 47 years on

By the time you read this I should be in the Simien Mountains of northern Ethiopia. I have been asked to go back there to tell the nation's current generation what the forests and wildlife were like in 1967, '68 and '69 when I served the government of Haille Selassie as the country's first game warden...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 4, 2014

Imagining Edo Period intrigue from the U.S.

At the climax of "Shinju"(1994), Laura Joh Rowland's first mystery novel, gallant yoriki (police sergeant) Sano Ichiro rescues the shogun from an assassination plot and earns himself a big promotion. It's a pyrrhic victory leading to what Sano immediately realizes will be a thankless position that risks...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jan 4, 2014

Aisin routs Tsukuba, books spot in Emperor's Cup semifinals

Former UConn player Gavin Edwards and NBL rookie Makoto Hiejima scored 22 points apiece to help the Aisin SeaHorses advance to the semifinals of the 89th All-Japan Championship with a 96-79 win over the Tsukuba Robots on Saturday.
COMMUNITY / Voices / OVERHEARD
Jan 4, 2014

Chicken little

Customer: Have you got any chicken?
Reader Mail
Jan 4, 2014

Abe looks set to reinvent a personal Japan

Regarding the Jan. 1 article "Abe's quest to revive, reshape nation rides on the economy": The headline seems turned the wrong way. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's real revival target is not Japan's consumer economy, but rather Japan's economic prowess internationally.
Reader Mail
Jan 4, 2014

Mandela's dream not fully realized

Regarding Jennifer Kim's Dec. 15 letter, "Can't see Mandela as a 'peace icon," and Jim Makin's Dec. 22 letter, "Mandela halted vengeful politics": Nelson Mandela was a great admirer of Martin Luther King Jr. In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech (Dec. 10, 1993, Oslo), he recalled at the very end...
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Jan 4, 2014

Here's eyeing Japan 2014 — warts an' all

"To know the future, look at the past," is a familiar Buddhist aphorism. However, it's also said that a prophet isn't honored in his hometown — which is why I live in Tokyo. As we ride into the Year of the Horse, I thought I'd canter awhile through times to come and report back on what I found. My...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jan 4, 2014

Reform vows, Constitution to dog Abe in 2014

At the beginning of the new year, I would like to review the achievements of the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the challenges it faces in its second year on the economic and political fronts.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT ENGLISH
Jan 3, 2014

Immersion tactics come with risks and benefits

Some parents opt to immerse their children at a young age in a multilingual environment, hoping they will become not only bilingual but also have new avenues of opportunity open up.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2014

Let's score leaders by deeds

2013 has too many anti-heroes. We need to have leading newspapers, universities or think tanks judge world leaders' performances as if they were in a league.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2014

Business tie-ups that help the Himalayan poor

The private sector can be a powerful partner in any endeavor just as it is with commercial satellite launches. This must include the fight against poverty in Hindu Kush-Himalayas.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2014

Century engine starts now

The last two centuries (and possibly more) didn't 'start' with the turning of the calendar from 00 to 01. Each century began bending the arc of history, in essence, in its 14th year.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 3, 2014

Hard to figure out what Anelka was thinking with gesture

Let us assume, for a moment, Nicolas Anelka was telling the truth.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GERMAN JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Jan 3, 2014

Germany's role in EU divides bloc

Does Germany hurt or help Europe?
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 2, 2014

Abe's diplomatic overtures are likely to fall on deaf ears

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe saw relatively smooth diplomatic sailing in 2013, but he flushed his year-long effort down the drain with his surprising visit to Yasukuni Shrine.
Events / Events In Tokyo
Jan 2, 2014

Get kids in shape for New Year's

It's never too early to get potential Olympic stars into shape, so why not take your children to Kodomo-no-shiro (National Children's Castle) in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, which will be hosting various events for a kids' mini Olympic Games.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 2, 2014

Our movie highlights of the coming year

Another year, another raft of unmissable movies. Here are the most hotly anticipated releases for JT film critics Mark Schilling, Kaori Shoji and Giovanni Fazio — get them in your diary now.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 2, 2014

'Lore'

"Lore" is both gripping and suffocating; at times it feels like filmmaker Cate Shortland is forcibly prying open your eyelids like that scene in "A Clockwork Orange," impelling the viewer to confront the horror of what's happening on screen. And that's because feeling the unbearable heaviness of reality...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 2, 2014

The conspicuous tendency to wish China well

If China fails and falls, the rest of the world will suffer more than a headache or a short-term setback. We need to be cautious about pessimism that might fuel self-fulfilling prophecy.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 2, 2014

Part-timers skewing employment statistics

More restaurants and retailers are hiring short-hour employees to save money.
CULTURE
Jan 1, 2014

Boy band member Junichi Okada lands manly acting roles due to his physical prowess

Although he started his career as a member of boy band V6, Junichi Okada has become more well-known in recent years for the macho roles he plays as an actor.

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