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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Apr 27, 2013

Trendsetting restauranteurs succeed in bringing bit of Bohemia to Osaka

You're in a breezy, open space, bathed in light. Frothy indoor plants and burnished wood surrounds vibrant splashes of azure. While sipping a "green fairy," that traditional spirit of artists around the world, someone passes you a shisha, or water pipe, and you inhale sweet, fruit-soaked tobacco. You...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 27, 2013

Carping on carp

Whenever you find someone tossing bits of bread into a pond, you have to assume this:
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 27, 2013

Can you really train your brain to be more intelligent?

My week has been pretty hectic so far. On Monday, I manned a busy beach bar and had to remember a range of ice-cream and pizza orders for a constant stream of customers.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 27, 2013

What will allow the last Briton in Guantanamo to come home?

Shaker Aamer remembers the frantic knocking on the door, the voices screaming for him to get out. Outside, in the dark streets of Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan, the soldiers stripped him of his belongings at gunpoint and marched away their latest prisoner.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 26, 2013

Young Gree chief loses $2.6 billion to smartphone boom

In five years, Yoshikazu Tanaka became Japan's youngest billionaire as investors piled into Gree Inc., valuing his controlling stake in the early maker of phone-based games at $4 billion. Just 18 months later, that has shriveled to about $1.4 billion.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 26, 2013

JAAF selects marathon runners, race walkers for World Athletics Championships squad

The Japan Association of Athletics Federations announced the selection of eight marathoners and seven race walkers for the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Moscow on Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Apr 26, 2013

Why are investors punishing Apple?

By almost any measure, Apple Inc. had an awfully good start to the year.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2013

Azerbaijan has more than oil: envoy

While on outstanding terms diplomatically and politically, Japan and Azerbaijan still have room for improvement on the economic front, Azerbaijan Ambassador to Japan Gursel Ismayilzada said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 26, 2013

Gondry's bus proves a great vehicle for teen drama

Franu00e7ois Truffaut once said that the most important quality for a filmmaker is to retain his inner child. In that sense, Michel Gondry fits the bill almost to a fault.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2013

Reassessing Thatcher's legacy

Now that her funeral is over, let's begin a dispassionate assessment of why politicians of all parties remain enthralled by the legacy of Margaret Thatcher.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Apr 25, 2013

Baucus retirement sets stage for sweeping legislative changes

Montana Sen. Max Baucus, one of the most influential congressional figures of his era, announced his intention Tuesday to retire, a move that could produce sweeping changes in the political and legislative landscape over the next two years.
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2013

Fewer babies no cause for panic

Regarding the April 17 editorial, "Japan's depopulation time bomb": So much fuss has been made in the news media about the declining birthrate that it would be easy to mistake it for an impending disaster. Despite the pressure on an overburdened pension system, perhaps Japan should be looking further...
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2013

War industry still sustains U.S.

I agree with Gregory Clark's April 18 article, "Blame Western 'demonists' for Pyongyang's belligerence." The U.S. economy depends on its war industry. The U.S. bluff with its theory of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was seen by all. In Afghanistan, it is leaving without achieving much. So it searches...
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2013

Christian witness to abolitionism

Vimal Malik's hyper-literal April 18 response, "Christians' false claims of credit," to my April 14 letter ignores history: Abolitionism was almost entirely driven by Christian witness.
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2013

Polarization in modern politics

I found the April 18 Bloomberg article by Cass R. Sunstein, "Why well-informed people are also close-minded," very interesting. The problem here is figuring out what phrases like "well-informed" and "political knowledge" actually mean.
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2013

Rightward-bound regardless

Regarding Paul Gaysford's April 14 eulogy of Margaret Thatcher, 'Iron Lady' is worth emulating": I don't believe history is made only by leaders. With or without Thatcher, Britain would have swung right. It was already happening with James Callaghan (prime minister 1976-79), who could be described as...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2013

Rape and gender discrimination related in India

It is hard to equate India's rapid technological development with practices such as female feticide, the earliest manifestation of violence against women.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2013

Record 168 lawmakers visit Yasukuni

A record 168 Diet members visit Tokyo's war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, following visits by three Cabinet ministers and offerings by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday.
SPORTS / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Apr 24, 2013

Remembering Jackie and lessons learned

One cool thing about being an old coot like MAS is that when Hollywood cranks out a historic docudrama, you often remember experiencing the event portrayed first-hand.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2013

Cote d'Ivoire envoy seeks cocoa boost

Cote d'Ivoire's ambassador to Japan, Jerome Kloh Weya, says his mission is to enhance economic ties between his country and Tokyo — equal to the level of amicable diplomatic relations that the two countries have shared over the past 53 years.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2013

Boston's terrible theater of terrorism

The attack on the Boston Marathon is a reminder of the adage that terror is theater — as is the response to terror. It matters who gives the better performance.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2013

Boston's terror and the children of the fault lines

Civilizational battles were once waged by warriors who donned garments of different lands. Today it is boys with baseball caps who carry death in their backpacks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Apr 24, 2013

Yoshimoto seeks laughs and profit beyond Japan

Osaka-based Yoshimoto Kogyo, the giant talent agency that celebrated its 100th anniversary last year, has made an enduring business out of that fleeting phenomenon: laughter.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 23, 2013

Renter guarantor system a headache for foreigners

Things were going well for Patrick after a year in Japan. He had found a job he liked, met a girl he planned to marry and was ready to move out of the small room his older brother, a longtime resident, was letting him use.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic