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SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 15, 2013

Hodgson short on matches to select World Cup squad

Roy Hodgson has three games in which to finalize his England squad for the World Cup finals.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 13, 2013

An audience with Sylvie Guillem

There are many wonderful ballet dancers the world over, but Sylvie Guillem is undoubtedly in a category of her own — and not only because of her famously self-willed ways.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 12, 2013

Thailand must overcome obsession with Thaksin

It's frustrating to think where Thailand — Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy — might be today had the nation not squandered the last seven years on all things Thaksin.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 9, 2013

Stairway to heavenly Haguro

Some of the more interesting spots in Japan are the ones that are not really on the way to anywhere else at all. A sense of remoteness and being firmly off the beaten track lends them a particularly beguiling character.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Nov 9, 2013

Mammals choose when to reward my quest

My thoughts were miles away as I crossed the parking lot outside my Hokkaido home. Then a nagging doubt intruded: Had there — or had there not — just been a formless blur of movement on the ground beyond my car? I had certainly not seen anything, so if there had been something, then my awareness...
EDITORIALS
Nov 2, 2013

Washoku as a cultural heritage

Coming this December, traditional Japanese cuisine, 'washoku,' is likely to be designated an Intangible Cultural Heritage if the voting by UNESCO goes as expected.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Nov 2, 2013

Can Japanese really be such cold sushi in the sack?

Sex in Japan is a knotty issue — even if you're not a fan of tying up your lover with rope, also known as shibari. No matter how you write about it, it raises ire. If you point out that Japan has a vibrant sex industry in which every sexual act other than vaginal penetration can be legally bought and...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2013

Next euro country in need of reform is Germany

The next German government — probably a grand coalition — will need to concentrate on basic issues affecting the next generation, including whether to establish a minimum wage.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 30, 2013

Anti-nuclear Koizumi agitating for comeback?

Long out of the public eye, ex-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's recent rumblings against nuclear power are causing many to wonder if the most popular leader of recent decades seeks a political comeback.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 30, 2013

NSA chief: European spy agencies gave us data

The director of the National Security Agency on Tuesday dismissed as "completely false" reports that his agency swept up millions of phone records of European citizens, and he revealed that data collected by NATO allies were shared with the United States.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Oct 28, 2013

Getting published is easy; getting noticed is trickier

How can writers make themselves heard in the age of blog and self-publishing saturation? Japan-based authors offer a diverse range of views
WORLD / Society / FOCUS
Oct 25, 2013

Americans' debt growing faster than retirement savings, report warns

A majority of Americans with 401(k)-type savings accounts are accumulating debt faster than they are setting aside money for retirement, further undermining the nation's troubled system for old age saving, a new report has found.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 19, 2013

Sado Island: Iconic birds, gold mines, magic caves and art

"The people in our town, they died without ever seeing the ocean."
CULTURE / Music / JAZZ NOTES
Oct 9, 2013

Hakuei Kim heads to the border for Yokohama Jazz Promenade

When you think about a so-called jazz capital of Japan, there are a couple of contenders. Kobe makes a claim to history, the first Japanese jazz band Laughing Stars started up there around 90 years ago. Tokyo has the overseas stars, being the actual capital gets you that kind of clout. Yokohama also...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 7, 2013

Areva: New reactors to end uranium slump by 2015

Nuclear power plant operators benefited from a slump in uranium prices after the reactor meltdowns in the Fukushima No. 1 plant. Areva SA, the second-biggest producer of the metal, says that's about to end.
EDITORIALS
Oct 4, 2013

U.S. government on Cruz control

To starve the feared 'Obamacare' of funding, a hard core of America's Republican right seems prepared to paralyze the U.S. government and cripple its creditworthiness.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 27, 2013

Dutch banker turned writer finds a home and inspiration in Japan

The first taxi driver really didn't have a clue, going as far as to suggest that the address given him was a fabrication. The second driver, with the aid of a car navigation device, had more luck in finding the Fukuoka apartment of Dutch writer Hans Brinckmann.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 27, 2013

'There will be people who walk out of the cinema, I'm sure'

In a drab building in central Scotland, one afternoon in the armpit of winter, an actor who looks a lot like nice-guy James McAvoy is persuading a room full of blokes to — I'm paraphrasing here — Xerox their cocks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 26, 2013

Suede plays it anew with 'Bloodsports' album

Ten years ago, Suede was in the process of fizzling out to a backdrop of apathy. For a band whose initial brilliance inadvertently help kick-start Britpop in the 1990s, it all seemed unedifying.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 23, 2013

The PTA: a survival guide for foreign parents

PTA — the mere mention of the three initials is enough to elicit a scowl from many a Japanese mother. So how do foreign women cope in such an environment?
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2013

Challenges to India's indigenous naval buildup

Last month India became the fifth nation with the capability to design and build its own aircraft carrier. Even so, India's indigenous naval achievements face challenges.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 20, 2013

Handset makers brace for turbulence

With all three of Japan's top telecoms firms selling the iPhone, industry observers say handset makers are in for tough times.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 20, 2013

Putin: arch manipulator on a mission to check U.S. will

In novelist Victor Pelevin's pungent satire on contemporary Russia, "The Sacred Book of the Werewolf," its narrator, a 2,000-year-old shape-shifter, kisses Alexander, a brutish but alluring officer with the FSB, the Russian security service — who is a werewolf, like all his colleagues. In doing so,...
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 19, 2013

Syrian crisis exposes Obama's frayed ties with U.S. military

The Syrian crisis over the past few weeks has thrust President Barack Obama into a role in which at times he has seemed uneasy: that of commander in chief.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 16, 2013

Fukushima and the right to responsible government

A responsibility-shirking government is ultimately the people's problem — and responsibility — just as much as the nuclear disaster and all the nation's other problems are, argues Colin P.A. Jones.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 15, 2013

Abe's 2020 vision challenged

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared that the Olympics would put Tokyo 'at the center of the world.' But the real question is: Will Japan use the Olympics to join the real world
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2013

Aoyama looks to the 1980s without nostalgia

Shinji Aoyama is the director as cinephile. That is, while winning awards for his own films, including two prizes at Cannes for his 2000 drama "Eureka," he has long been a serious student of films by others, beginning with his days at Rikkyo University as a disciple of eminent film scholar Shigehiko...
WORLD
Sep 7, 2013

Google races to keep out government spies

Google is racing to encrypt the torrents of information that flow among its data centers around the world in a bid to thwart snooping by the U.S. National Security Agency and the intelligence agencies of foreign governments, company officials said Friday.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Aug 26, 2013

Plugging Tepco's brain drain

One reason Tepco paid a uniform ¥100,000 special summer bonus to each of some 5,000 managerial employees is to plug a brain drain. Core workers are quitting.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 24, 2013

Australian coalition ahead of Labor: poll

Australia's opposition Liberal-National coalition has widened its lead over the Labor government in an opinion poll, signaling leader Tony Abbott may replace Kevin Rudd as prime minister after the Sept. 7 election.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami