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Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 23, 2013

North Korea occupies Fukuoka in Murakami's alternate world

Not to be confused with another famous Japanese novelist who has the same surname, Ryu Murakami is known for being an overtly political, even subversive, writer. "From the Fatherland, With Love," his latest novel to be translated into English, cements that reputation. Taking place in an alternate world...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 23, 2013

French high school curriculum includes pitfalls U.S. should try to avoid with its Common Core

The rigorous French high school curriculum comes with pitfalls that the U.S. should try to avoid as it introduces a Common Core of national standards.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 23, 2013

Living in the material world

In 1961, Oxford archaeologists uncovered a pit at the site of Gen. Gnaeus Julius Agricola's headquarters at Inchtuthil, the site of a Roman legionary fortress, in Scotland. Unsavory Caledonians had made his troops' position untenable.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 22, 2013

Old school potter goes native in the wilds of southeast Okinawa

It took a devil of a time before finally managing to locate the home of potter Paul Lorimer, the building tucked into a rural lane on the fringes of the Sashiki community on Okinawa Island's southeast coast.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 21, 2013

U.S. government wraps up Apple e-book antitrust trial

The Justice Department on Thursday concluded its antitrust trial against Apple over alleged price-fixing of digital books, with a federal prosecutor saying the creator of the iPhone and iPad engaged in an "old-fashioned, straightforward" conspiracy and Apple's lead attorney warning that a ruling against...
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jun 21, 2013

Tweet Beat: #e3, #ふなっしー, #ジブリファン

The future of videogames, an energetic pear mascot and a mysterious Ghibli fan trended high on Japanese Twitter last week.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jun 21, 2013

Nara takes Yamashiro with first pick in expansion draft

Expansion squads Bambitious Nara and Aomori Wat's took their first steps in piecing together their rosters for the 2013-14 season on Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 21, 2013

The bell tolls on Demon Pond

The sound of the temple bell of "Yashagaike (Demon Pond)" will ring for the first time at the New National Theatre, Tokyo (NNTT) — but it's the bell's silence that will reverberate for the characters of this new Japanese-language opera.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 21, 2013

How top lowbrow U.S. humor translates in Japan

Somewhere in the history of American cinema, someone (maybe John Waters?) decided that gross and profane and funny could all sit on the same park bench and start up a friendship. That was way back in the 1970s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 21, 2013

'After Earth'

It's the year 1,000 A.E. — After Earth, hence the name of the movie — a millennium since humanity fled an ecologically ravaged Earth for a new home on another planet. Commander Cypher Raige (Will Smith) and his sulky 13-year-old son Kitai (Jaden Smith) are out on a routine training mission when their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 21, 2013

'The Numbers Station'

The CIA needs a major public-image overhaul. Last year's "Argo" and "Zero Dark Thirty" did much to salvage and then revamp what had essentially become Hollywood's go-to institution for portraying bad, bad stuff such as conspiracy, betrayal and government BS. Ultimately though, those two movies — though...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 21, 2013

'The Complete (Existing) Films of ...'

Director: Sadao Yamanaka
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 21, 2013

'Parker'

Director: Taylor Hackford
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2013

Strontium in groundwater at No. 1 soars

Groundwater contaminated with highly radioactive substances is detected from a monitoring well just 27 meters from the seashore within the compound of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 20, 2013

Producer Yosi Horikawa goes all natural on 'Vapor'

Yosi Horikawa's beats burble, hiss, slosh and gurgle. On his debut full-length, "Vapor," the 34-year-old producer may wield some identifiably hip-hop rhythms, but they're tangled in a rich, intricately detailed tapestry of field recordings, sampled percussion, snatches of tribal chants and warm, guileless...
WORLD / Politics
Jun 20, 2013

U.S. House passes bill with new limits on abortion

The House approved legislation Tuesday that would ban abortions starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy, the most sweeping abortion restriction to pass any chamber of Congress in a decade. The vote was 228-196.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 20, 2013

'Special exhibition on the 120th anniversary of Ryukyu Shimpo; 42 tumultuous years in Okinawa, as seen through the eyes of photojournalists'

Hiroaki Yamashiro, three-time winner of the Kyushu-Okinawa photojournalist association award, has been documenting Okinawa's history, its vanishing culture and rare aspects of its nature for more than 40 years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 20, 2013

miwa "Delight"

The title of miwa's first two releases, "Guitarissimo" and "Guitarium," seemingly announced her musical niche. Those top-selling albums (her debut made her the first Japanese performer born in the 1990s to take the Oricon album chart's top spot) revolved around guitar, in the form of frantic rock numbers...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2013

Lessons of a Greek tragedy

Had Greece quickly written down its debt burden by two-thirds in the first half of 2010, it could have gotten its economy moving again in no more than a year.
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Jun 18, 2013

Ramirez keeps focus, waits for next opportunity to contribute

It's the waiting that's the hardest part for Alex Ramirez. The wait for the next at-bat, for the next opportunity to contribute to the Yokohama BayStars, for another chance to show there is still life in his bat.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 18, 2013

Economists split on Abe plan

Top economists remained divided Monday over whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "Abenomics" policies will bear fruit but all saw eye-to-eye on the need for deregulation and new growth strategies.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 18, 2013

Chatting about Japan with Snowden, the NSA whistle-blower

Edward Snowden, the fugitive former CIA employee and NSA contractor who leaked secrets about America's spying operations, often hung out online with foreigners in Japan who shared his interests in anime, video games, martial arts, the stock market and the expat lifestyle.
WORLD
Jun 18, 2013

U.S. shad catch limited in bid to restore stocks

If things were this bad in the late 1770s, George Washington's starving Continental Army might never have made it out of Valley Forge.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Jun 18, 2013

Why workers can no longer wear their demands on their sleeves

Dear reader, where are you from? To what era do you belong? I was born in 1971 in Japan and grew up here, too, but I've never — in all my years visiting hotels, restaurants, shops or government offices — seen workers wearing vests, armbands, badges, ribbons or bandanas with political messages. I've...
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2013

What political parties have to offer

Voters shouldn't let the Upper House election campaign lull them into thinking that the Liberal Democratic Party no longer cares about constitutional revision.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2013

U.S. intelligence in bed with business

Thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies are working closely with U.S. national security agencies, providing sensitive information and in return receiving benefits that include access to classified intelligence, four people familiar with the process said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2013

'Man of Steel' shoulders quest to lift DC into Marvel's league

In Warner Bros.' "Man of Steel," Superman tries to save the world from powerful villains. His real-life task is no cakewalk either: Turn the studio's DC Comics into a hit factory like Walt Disney Co.'s Marvel.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 17, 2013

Thoughts of rice and Japanese men

If you're like me or the men in my life, you probably broke down and wept for joy on June 4, when Japanese midfielder Keisuke Honda scored the goal that bagged Japan's slot in the FIFA World Cup next year. At such sports events, one or another of my brothers turn up at my place, hauling their boozy,...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years