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Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
May 22, 2013

Is computing speed set to make a quantum leap?

"Our imagination is stretched to the utmost," wrote Richard Feynman, the greatest physicist of his day, "not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things that are there." Which is another way of saying that physics is weird. And particle physics —...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 22, 2013

Osaka takes plunge with canal pool

If an Osaka company has its way, getting roaring drunk and jumping, or falling, into Dotonbori Canal after either a Hanshin Tigers victory or a wild night out in neighboring Shinsaibashi will be less risky, healthwise, but it will no longer be free.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 21, 2013

Ambivalent Japan turns on its 'insular' youth

Japan's decision to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade negotiations shows that at least some in government have accepted the fact that 'opening up' Japan is in the nation's best long-term interests.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: TECH
May 21, 2013

Apps to stay healthy, hear the news and keep in touch

Taking time to shake a leg
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 21, 2013

Outsider art that comes from within

'Outsider art' is relatively new in Japan and, as a genre, works made by self-taught Japanese artists are still not very well known on the category-delineating, label-loving international art scene.
BUSINESS / Economy / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 20, 2013

Utility, ubiquity playing key roles in corrupting policymakers' thinking

Two mind-sets seem to be catching on in Japan these days. They worry me. One is the notion that something has to be useful to be of value. The other is that anything is justifiable on the grounds that everybody else is doing it.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 20, 2013

Yokohama captures first-ever bj-league title

One team's quest for a first title has ended. The other team's fight will continue next season.
WORLD
May 20, 2013

English-language education proposal has French up in arms

There was a time, not so long ago, when anyone with a proper education spoke French. Diplomacy and business were conducted in French. Knowledge was spread in French. Travelers made their way in French and, of course, lovers traded sweet nothings in French.
EDITORIALS
May 20, 2013

Avoiding food allergy tragedies

The death of an 11-year-old female Chofu (Tokyo) student in December 2012 prompts the education ministry to set up a panel to consider how to prevent such accidents.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 20, 2013

For a more 'friendly' Japan

A Shiga University professor has some reservations about a government industrial council's proposals to make Japan 'the world's most business-friendly environment.'
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2013

Green sovereign wealth offering benefits to all

The growing might of sovereign wealth funds is causing concern that economic power is shifting to emerging nations with different political regimes from OECD countries.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 20, 2013

Product names show language creativity at work

Recently I was asked to write a blurb for a new liquid plant-nutrient. As soon as I saw the name of the product, u65e9u6839u65e9u8d77 uff08Hayane Hayaoki), I smiled at this example of linguistic creativity.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 19, 2013

Family drama is reimagined for today's Japan

"Kazoku Game (The Family Game)," directed by the late Yoshimitsu Morita and released in 1983, remains a movie milestone. A cynical black comedy, it presented to the world a distillation of the less edifying social outcomes of Japan's postwar economic miracle. The Numata family are invaded by a private...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
May 19, 2013

Learning to live with your death

It can be a big challenge, even a burden, to strategize your life and prioritize your goals — and then stick to them.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WEEK 3
May 19, 2013

The other costs of concrete

Where does concrete come from? The material has become such a pervasive symbol of human alienation from nature that it's tempting to assume it's just another brutish product of the 18th-century Industrial Revolution.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 19, 2013

Taking it easy on stroll-size Omi-jima

Mr. Hirohisa had made it clear when I called him from the nearest mainland city to the island — Nagato in western Honshu's Yamaguchi Prefecture — that there would be no supper provided that night; nor would he be able to pick me up from the station as expected.
Reader Mail
May 19, 2013

Where do these guys come from?

Regarding the May 15 front-page article "Hashimoto takes flak for sex slave rationale" and related media stories: Why would a system of government-sponsored brothels be considered inappropriate, not to mention criminal, in this day and age?
Reader Mail
May 19, 2013

Floatable cars for tsunami

Regarding the March 6 Kyodo brief "Tsunami 'Noah's Ark": It would be a great idea for the infrastructure ministry to make special lifeboats for evacuation during tsunami. But we could save many more lives if car companies would make a new car or adapt an existing model to float for many hours or even...
Reader Mail
May 19, 2013

Turning logic upside-down

Regarding the May 12 editorial, "Who's to blame in Bangladesh?": Globalization will inevitably proceed no matter what we want, but why must we hastily remove the boundaries that restrict the movement of money when borders prevent us from saving millions of people from abuse by their governments.
Reader Mail
May 19, 2013

More serious than their parents

I notice that a lot of senior employees of traditional Japanese companies often bemoan the fact that their daughters cannot easily find desirable husbands these days. Some people describe Japanese young men today as "grass-eating boys" who are too timid to find girlfriends. Others say today's parents...
EDITORIALS
May 18, 2013

Shut Monju down permanently

The Abe government should give up on the trouble-plagued Monju fast-breeder reactor project after the Nuclear Regulation Authority cited safety management problems.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 18, 2013

Game maker GungHo blows by rivals

GungHo Online Entertainment Inc.'s presence on the stock market has been growing rapidly on the growth of its monstrously popular smartphone game "Puzzle and Dragons."
JAPAN
May 18, 2013

New textile able to absorb more influenza antibodies

Researchers have come up with new technology that lets textiles absorb more flu antibodies, a development likely to make face masks more effective in warding off the flu bug, the Textile Industry Research Institute of Gunma said.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
May 18, 2013

Psychiatrists under fire in mental health battle

It has the distinctly un-catchy, abbreviated title "DSM-5," and is known to no one outside the world of mental health.

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped