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Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 25, 2019

All three aboard killed as cargo jet plunges into shallow Texas bay during landing approach

A widebody cargo plane hauling packages for Amazon abruptly plunged out of the sky and slammed into a bay on Saturday as it was preparing to land in Houston. All three people on board were killed.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 25, 2019

Microsoft boosts HoloLens performance and cuts price in hunt for corporate clients

Microsoft Corp. is introducing an improved version of its HoloLens augmented-reality goggles and lowering the price, as it tries to develop a bigger business selling the devices to corporate customers.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 25, 2019

Five reported killed as India toughens Kashmir crackdown against militants and detains over 160 separatists

Five people were killed in a gun battle between members of a Pakistani militant group and Indian security forces in disputed Kashmir on Sunday as India intensified a security crackdown, including detaining more than 160 separatists this weekend.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 24, 2019

More than 70% in Okinawa vote no to relocation of U.S. Futenma base to Henoko

More than 70 percent of voters in Okinawa on Sunday voted against a plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Ginowan to Henoko — a coastal area in the northeastern part of the main island — in a closely watched prefecture-wide referendum that was the first of its kind on the issue....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2019

Emperor reflects on Japan's past, future and his 'endlessly long' quest to pin down role after 30 years on throne

Emperor Akihito said he has dedicated the past 30 years of his reign to an “endlessly long” quest to fathom out his role as the symbol of the state.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 24, 2019

There's so much that bonobos and chimps can teach humans

About 6 million years ago in Africa there was an ape species that would change the world. We don't know much about that animal, but we do know that one population separated from the rest and would eventually evolve into our species, Homo sapiens.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 24, 2019

Trump's North Korea envoy Stephen Biegun: A capable man in an impossible job?

Days before a second U.S.-North Korea summit, much rests on the shoulders of a former auto executive trying to find common ground between an American president seeking a big foreign policy win and a North Korean leader who seems unlikely to hand him one.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 24, 2019

Venezuela's Juan Guaido says 'all options open' after Maduro's troops block aid, leaving two dead

Troops loyal to President Nicolas Maduro violently drove back foreign aid convoys from Venezuela's border on Saturday, killing two protesters and prompting opposition leader Juan Guaido to propose that Washington consider "all options" to oust him.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 24, 2019

China aims to 'optimize' spread of controversial Confucius Institutes

China plans to "optimize" the spread of its controversial Confucius Institutes, the government said, institutions to promote Chinese language and culture that have been criticized by some for spreading Communist Party influence.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Feb 24, 2019

Thirty years after U.S. curbs on exports to China were eased, two giants' politics and tech collide

"U.S. eases curbs on exports to China" read a Reuters headline on March 1, 1989, when Washington lifted long-standing restrictions on technology shipments to China.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2019

All the American presidents' pronouns

U.S. leaders' rhetoric has grown less analytical over the past century and more confident. But Trump may be as far as that trend can go.
JAPAN / Beyond Tokyo
Feb 24, 2019

As the world drowns in plastic, Kameoka in Kyoto and other cities across Japan fight back

Plastic pollution in the ocean has become one of the world's most urgent environmental problems. Footage of vast fields of floating plastic debris between California and Hawaii — now commonly known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — have driven home the gravity of the problem, with scientists and...
JAPAN / History / Defining the Heisei Era
Feb 23, 2019

Defining the Heisei Era: Women in Japan speak out on inequality

Last April, a female reporter from TV Asahi accused Junichi Fukuda, the top bureaucrat at the Finance Ministry, of sexual harassment.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 23, 2019

Leopalace21 scandal highlights the risk tenants face in Japan compared to building owners

The theme of the Nippon Television series "Shiawase! Bonbi Girl" (“Happy Poor Girls”) is one of the most resilient on Japanese television: People of limited means getting by. As the title indicates, the subject is young women and one of the regular segments, "Jokyo Girl," highlights a young woman...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 23, 2019

Artificial intelligence debate raises more questions than answers

"The human race, version 2" — a thought to inspire hope or fear, maybe a little (or a lot) of both. "We today," says Komazawa University economist Tomohiro Inoue, whose thought it is, "will soon be 'the former human race.'"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 23, 2019

'Tokyo Ueno Station' shows the dark side of the postwar boom

In her new novel, 'Tokyo Ueno Station,' writer Yu Miri connects Japan's modern past with the homeless in Ueno Park, giving faces and voices to the dispossessed.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 23, 2019

Jigokudani is Osaka's hidden 'Hell Valley' for barhopping

Jigokudani (Hell Valley) is a hidden labyrinth of about two-dozen small bars and restaurants near Noda Station in Osaka's Fukushima Ward.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Feb 23, 2019

Corey Mah: Fashioning a new life in Tokyo

From retro video games to avant-garde Comme des Garcons' fashion, moving to Japan became a calling for Corey Mah.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Feb 23, 2019

Sho: Oden, but not as you'd ever imagine it

At Nami Kawahara's oden restaurant, Sho, she hasn't been afraid to depart from tradition in both decor and dishes, opting for simplicity and elegance over a rough-and-tumble vibe.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Feb 23, 2019

Japanese teen's aborted bid to hitchhike across the United States divides social media

Twitter user @REIbahobahoanta had an ambitious dream: The 15-year-old junior high school student wanted to hitchhike across the United States.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 23, 2019

Kannon Bodhisattva robot unveiled at Kyoto temple to share Buddha's religious teachings

A robot modeled after Kannon Bodhisattva and designed to explain the teachings of Buddha in plain terms was unveiled to the media at Kodaiji Temple in the city of Kyoto on Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Feb 23, 2019

Meet one of Japan's greatest modern philosophers in 'Nishida Kitaro: The Man and His Thought'

First published in Japanese in 1985, 'Nishida Kitaro: The Man and His Thought' brings together diverse essays about both Nishida and his philosophy of 'absolute nothingness' written by his former pupil Keiji Nishitani (1900-90).
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 23, 2019

'I was like a prisoner': Saudi sisters trapped in Hong Kong recall beatings

Two sisters from Saudi Arabia who fled the conservative kingdom and have been hiding out in Hong Kong for nearly six months said they did so to escape beatings at the hands of their brothers and father.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2019

Tokyo Metro's Marunouchi Line puts new, more energy-efficient trains into operation

The first of Tokyo Metro Co.'s new 2000 series trains went into service on the Marunouchi Line on Saturday, with cars that include designated areas for wheelchairs and strollers.
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 23, 2019

Frontale, Tokyo battle to draw

After winning two straight J. League first division championships, Kawasaki Frontale was favored by many to become just the second team in the league's 26-year history to pull down a third.
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2019

Empower outside directors

Merely making it mandatory under the law for companies to have outside directors isn't enough. They have to be allowed to improve their company's governance.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 23, 2019

North Korea's Kim cites own children as reason to give up nukes: ex-CIA official

A former top CIA officer who took part in several meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said that Kim had voiced his sincerity to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about giving up his nuclear weapons by citing the burden that they would be for his children, media reports said Friday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 23, 2019

North Korea's surprise new nuclear envoy key to Trump-Kim talks

What little is known about the man North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has tapped to prepare his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump suggests he's more familiar with defending Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal than giving it up.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 23, 2019

Virgin Galactic flies first test passenger to the edge of space

A Virgin Galactic rocket plane on Friday soared to the edge of space with a test passenger for the first time, nudging British billionaire Richard Branson's company closer to its goal of suborbital flights for space tourists.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past