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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 3, 2013

Tokyo's wilderness within

What did our cities' natural landscapes originally look like? In a sprawling metropolis such as Tokyo, with concrete encrusting almost every inch of earth, walling every riverbank and towering up to the skies, it is almost impossible to imagine.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2013

Court hands Somali pirates 10-year term

The Tokyo District Court jails two Somali pirates for 10 years for trying to hijack an oil tanker operated by a Japanese company in the Indian Ocean in 2011.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Feb 2, 2013

Hugo, Manet unveiled Paris' poor and privileged

The iron gates of the short passageway, a stone's throw from the increasingly trendy Montorgueil district of Paris and a brief walk from the prostitutes of Saint Denis, are closed to the public these days. It was here, in what was Passage Saumon off the Rue du Bout du Monde — the end of the world road...
Events / KANSAI: WHO & WHAT
Feb 2, 2013

Check out 'cake shrine' for Valentine's Day

Around 80 students from a cooking school in Osaka will demonstrate their final procedure to complete a shrine made of 500 "dorayaki" pancakes, 40 kg of chocolate and 400 cookies from Wednesday through Friday to pray for good luck on Valentine's Day.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Feb 1, 2013

Six months on, U.K. schools are losing the Olympic legacy

Near the entrance of York High School in northern England, painted in large letters, are the words of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." It is not a bad motto, particularly for a school that prides itself on its sporting prowess. Along all the corridors and outside...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 1, 2013

Antigun advocates tackle law shielding arms makers

A legal shield written by Congress to benefit the firearms industry is posing unexpected hurdles for parents in Newtown, Connecticut, and victims of other mass shootings who want to use the courts to hold gun makers accountable and push them to adopt stricter safety standards.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 1, 2013

Andaman tribe freed at last from 'human safaris'

Human safaris to see the Jarawa tribe of the Andaman Islands have finally come to an end as the authorities there bow to domestic and international pressure.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Feb 1, 2013

AKB48 member's 'penance' shows flaws in idol culture

The image of a young girl in front of a camera, her head recently shaved, sobbing into the lens is one that's guaranteed to shock. But when that girl is a key member of idol group AKB48, the reaction is bound to be stronger.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2013

AKB48 idol begs for fans' mercy after breaking dating ban

A member of AKB48 stirs up an online frenzy by getting a crew cut and posting an apology for breaking the all-girl group's rule against romantic relationships.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 1, 2013

Two sides to corporal punishment practices in Japan

The December suicide of an Osaka high school basketball team captain who had been physically punished by his coach cast a harsh light on corporal punishment in Japan, and this week's admission by the All Japan Judo Federation that Olympic female judoka had been physically abused and harassed by their...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2013

A futile fight against nature

Let the 'amateur' majority enjoy their 'clean' sports, but is it fair that the most resolute athletes are robbed of the chance to perform at their best?
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 1, 2013

Mummies yield ancient clues to origins of disease

As a pathologist, Michael Zimmerman was familiar with dead bodies, but when he was asked to autopsy a mummy for the first time he wasn't sure what to expect. There were a dozen layers of wrapping that he peeled off one at a time "like Chinese boxes," he said. When he finished, he found the body was dark...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2013

Dedication on a plate in 'Jiro Dreams of Sushi'

To be a shokunin (artisan) in Japan means, among other things, rising in the morning to do the exact same thing as yesterday and the day before and the day before.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2013

Ticket giveaway: Attend an advance screening of 'Silver Linings Playbook'

Ahead of the Feb. 22 Japan release of "Silver Linings Playbook," the acclaimed new film from director David O. Russell and starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro, a special preview screening will be held in Tokyo. The Japan Times has 10 pairs of tickets to give away free to readers...
Reader Mail
Jan 31, 2013

Retiring teachers deserve better

Shame on The Japan Times for implicitly joining in with the wholly unjustified criticism of teachers who have retired early to avoid cuts to their retirement allowance. The use of the word "dodge" in the Jan. 23 article titled "Teachers retire to dodge benefit cut" implies that teachers are doing something...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 31, 2013

Hidden truths laid bare in the details of realism

With a population of around 35 million, Greater Tokyo is the ultimate "modernist" conurbation; a vast megacity, where something as old-fashioned as realist art might seem out-of-date and out-of-place. Maybe so, but on the metropolis' western and eastern extremities stand two museums that, each in their...
Reader Mail
Jan 31, 2013

Failure could be the answer

Since coming to Japan some years ago, the most surprising fact I learned about the education system was that it is impossible for elementary and middle school students to fail and repeat a grade.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 31, 2013

February: My Bloody Valentine returns

January featured a ton of great concerts across Japan, but February might be even better — hope your wallet isn't too thin this month.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jan 30, 2013

Local 3-D printing pioneers make it easy for all to join in

Whether it's hobbyists making toys, designers prototyping products or a doctor creating artificial organs, the 3-D printing boom has clearly hit Japan.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jan 30, 2013

Otani ready for new challenges with Fighters

Shohei Otani spent part of his Saturday afternoon being shepherded around one of Makuhari Messe's spacious international exhibition halls while having ham shoved in his mouth.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jan 30, 2013

'Printed' copies of human organs can help surgeons and patients alike

Maki Sugimoto believes that 3-D printers can take medicine — and mankind — to the next level.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2013

Rhetoric won't solve problems

For Asia, it is potentially bad news that the U.S. president seems to have little room for seriously considering the delicate balances between nations.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 30, 2013

Calls grow for U.S. to release first WTC bomber

Before bin Laden, there was the blind sheik. A generation ago, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman stood as the embodiment of Islamist terrorism: a bearded, religious extremist with a trademark red and white cap and dark sunglasses who helped orchestrate the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 and plotted...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / NOTEBOOK
Jan 30, 2013

Daiwa House starts Singapore venture; EU showcases environment technology

Announcements
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 29, 2013

Policy speech by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the 183rd session of the Diet

Delivered Jan. 28, 2013
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 29, 2013

12-year term urged in Somalis' piracy trial

Prosecutors on Monday demanded 12-year prison terms for two Somalis being tried on charges of boarding and attempting to hijack a Bahama-registered oil tanker operated by a Japanese company in the Indian Ocean in 2011.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 28, 2013

Blame it on the hara: harassment vocabulary makes us all victims

Japan has a new hara. No, the nice couple down the hall didn't just have a baby; according to recent news, yet another form of harassment is supposedly becoming a social problem.
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2013

Mr. Obama throws down gauntlet

Trivia buffs have noted that only U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and Franklin D. Roosevelt have taken the oath of office four times. FDR did so because he was elected president four times. Mr. Obama has done it because he and Supreme Court Justice John Roberts flubbed the first oath four years ago and...

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