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ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 8, 2013

With latest tensions, Seoul puts North at arm's length

Despite years of tensions, a majority of South Koreans have long clung to a cautiously optimistic vision for their peninsula's future. Even if North and South Korea weren't one day unified, the thinking went, the countries would at least be connected by joint business ventures and rail lines, with some...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2013

China gets Apple's 'iKowtow'

Leading computer maker Apple has responded to weeks of remorseless criticism in China's official media with 'iKowtow' — aka a groveling apology.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 8, 2013

The life and times of the destitute girl

I was one of those suckers who thought that the seifu (u653fu5e9c, government) might get it right this time.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 7, 2013

Shigeru Ban: 'People's architect' combines permanence and paper

Generally speaking, an architect's style is defined by particular forms or shapes. There's Frank Lloyd Wright's prominent horizontal lines, for instance; Le Corbusier's simple white boxes; or, more recently, the deliberately abstract masses of Frank Gehry — of Guggenheim Bilbao fame.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 7, 2013

A portrait of the poet as a child

This remarkable book is an autobiography of childhood, written by the poet Mutsuo Takahashi (born 1937) when he was 32, and issued in 1970, although its separate chapters had appeared as a series of essays in a magazine the year before.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Apr 7, 2013

What's with the police purge on dance clubs?

If you're ever minded to dance the night away to trance music, or even old-fashioned rock, you may have a tough time finding a venue in Japan these days. In fact, you may end up waltzing away hours inside a police station, peeing into a cup after being rounded up in a raid. Yes, indeed, a War on Dance...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Apr 7, 2013

Many in Japan can't see the stars; some not even their home

Generally speaking, an architect's style is defined by particular forms or shapes. There's Frank Lloyd Wright's prominent horizontal lines, for instance; Le Corbusier's simple white boxes; or, more recently, the deliberately abstract masses of Frank Gehry — of Guggenheim Bilbao fame.
BASEBALL
Apr 7, 2013

High honor for Nagashima, Matsui

Shigeo Nagashima and Hideki Matsui both had legendary careers with the Yomiuri Giants, the latter also excelling in the major leagues after leaving the Giants. Now their accomplishments are being officially recognized with the People's Honor Award.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 6, 2013

Ethics row over publishing DNA of unwitting heroine festers

The astonishing story of Henrietta Lacks, who died of cancer in 1951 but whose still living cells are now the basis for much medical research, has captivated the U.S. for the past two years — and there is no sign of the debate, or its controversies, abating.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 6, 2013

Di Canio hiring destined for disaster

Blunderland FC is searching for a new manager. Chairman Ellis Long heads a board meeting.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 6, 2013

Who turns a company into a 'wonderful place to be'?

Kazuhiro Tsuga, president of Panasonic Corp., addressed his new recruits on Monday telling them that he hopes they will turn the company into "a wonderful place to be." President Akio Toyoda encouraged his recruits at Toyota Motor Corp. to exhibit "the strength seen in cherry blossoms that can persevere...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2013

Can China's new government end corruption?

The typical Chinese public servant today collects feudal wages, yet he can afford cars, homes, travel, luxury goods and a Harvard education for kids.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 5, 2013

Subway riders get connected thanks to free Tokyo Metro Wi-Fi service

Life underground has grown more mobile-Internet friendly with Tokyo Metro Co.'s trial free Wi-Fi service expanding to effectively all of its subway stations at the start of the month.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 5, 2013

'Extreme' characters fuel the plot of 'The Master'

Critics have called 'The Master' a triumph of style over substance. That is, the acting wins out over direction and writing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 5, 2013

Audiard's method: as slow and steady as the waves

My first impression of director Jacques Audiard is that he's almost as wired as the street-punk hero of his film "The Beat That My Heart Skipped," fidgeting in his chair, desperate for a smoke, jumping in mid-translation to clarify a point. Entering his sixth decade, Audiard shows no signs of slowing...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 5, 2013

China touts sea burials as space for graves shrinks

In a country of almost 1.4 billion people, life for Chinese is an unending struggle for resources. And it doesn't get easier in death. Prices for graves are skyrocketing, driven by decades of unbridled development and scarce city land. The government's answer to this conundrum: sea burials.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 4, 2013

Rubens' best work is collaborative

The 17th-century Flemish baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens is a great historical painter, not because of the scenes from ancient Roman history that he sometimes painted, but because, when we encounter his works, we find ourselves trying to understand what kind of society could possibly have produced art...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 4, 2013

Exploring India's rapid urbanization, alienation

The art space now known as Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo was originally part of the luxury brand's store, designed by Jun Aoki and opened in 2002 in the fashionable Tokyo shopping district of Omotesando. It was reimagined in 2011 as a space for the company to showcase contemporary art, and is now holding...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 4, 2013

"Ainu Crafts: Patterns with a Prayer"

Ainu are the aboriginal people of Hokkaido, who have a history characterized by years of deprivation and forced cultural assimilation. In the face of such hardships, the Ainu believed in the omnipresent existence of God in their everyday life, which long ago led them to worship almost everything around...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2013

Supreme Court has been no friend of freedom

The mythology of a heroic Supreme Court makes Americans forget that, for the most part, they've secured their status as a free people outside the courts.
Reader Mail
Apr 4, 2013

More reform from the Stone Age

Earth to Abe, Earth to Abe: Requiring the TOEFL test for university entry — or exit — will do diddly squat to enhance Japan's global competitiveness. It's just more harebrained "reform" from the Stone Age: If students need better skills, let's mandate another test!
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 3, 2013

Lewis relishing challenge after joining Carp

Fred Lewis' first season with the Hiroshima Carp will be mostly spent getting used to Japanese, ouendans and games that can end in ties. Luckily, the 32-year old is already used to playing baseball at a high level, and for now that's enough.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 3, 2013

As U.S. wallows in debt, bright ideas to save country billions go to waste

After President Barack Obama set up a national online suggestion box in 2009 asking federal workers for new ways to cut the budget, 86,000 ideas came in. Some, inevitably, were a little odd.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society / FOCUS
Apr 3, 2013

Egypt's fundamentalist rulers crush lives, hopes of women

The ambush came from the left, from a side street which led up the hill to Mokattam Mosque. A rush of hundreds of men running down on the march of antigovernment protesters, bringing a sudden clatter of rocks landing all around, the crack of shots fired and the whizz of tear gas canisters. Sticks, stones...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Apr 2, 2013

Osaka: If you could live in any city outside Japan, which would it be?

Amsterdam comes to mind, but on second thoughts, I would choose to live in Maastricht, the Netherlands, because I love the pastoral atmosphere there. It has many of the same benefits as the more famous capital — canals, nice people, coffee shops — but without the tourists, and combined with a wonderful countryside feeling, so for me it is the best of both worlds, combining city and country life.

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