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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 31, 2017

Views From Osaka: What are your hopes for yourself, Japan and the world for 2018?

Young people in Kansai's commercial hub talk about their wishes for the coming year.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 31, 2017

A decade on, Shonan surfer is still making waves in the world of soba

Fate intervened when the heavens opened, guiding Ippei Hayashimoto on his path to mastery in the art of pure buckwheat noodles.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 24, 2017

Clear regulations needed for international schools

If the government allows some Japanese children to attend non-Article 1 schools, it should allow all Japanese children to do this.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / The Big Questions
Dec 24, 2017

Exceptional skills, passion needed to sell luxury goods

A 2017 report released by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. on luxury consumers identified two major interrelated trends for the year. The first shows how the essence of luxury is moving to an experiential focus, with the second seeing changing luxury shopper behavior demanding a more individualized response.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 23, 2017

Men still making houses as women try to leave home

Dogen Ogata's name is known worldwide before he knows it himself. He's 8 months old. One day last month, in all innocence, cradled in his mother's arms, he attended a session of the Kumamoto municipal assembly.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 2017

Sex panic harkens back to the era of coddling women

The outcome of #BelieveAllWomen is no utopia. We've seen such a repressive regime before.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 19, 2017

An outside perspective may be just what the Japanese stage needs

There aren't many non-Japanese people working in the world of Japanese theater. That's a shame, because often an outside perspective can help spot weaknesses that the majority aren't able to see.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Dec 9, 2017

Artist Saeko Ando forms a bond with Vietnam

Vietnamese lacquer is the medium Aichi-native Ando chose to bring to life artistic ideas.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2017

Paris to host Japonismes 2018 cultural expo to mark 160 years of diplomatic ties

Paris will host the Japonismes 2018 cultural exposition to commemorate the 160th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and Japan next year.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 6, 2017

The EU's crisis starts at home

A deep divide within EU states poses the biggest threat to the European project.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 6, 2017

Accepting Europe's anti-immigration parties

Europe's populist parties are deeply flawed, but their nativist outlook will become increasingly mainstream
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2017

Homegrown food and technology target global audience

Showcasing the latest and the greatest in supermarket and food and beverage products, packaging, displays and fixtures, the 52nd Supermarket Trade Show 2018 (SMTS) will be held on Feb. 14, 15 and 16.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / The Big Questions
Dec 3, 2017

Global citizen keen to take on new environments

Fikdanel Thaufik cannot pinpoint exactly how many languages he speaks. 'For sure, Indonesian,' Thaufik said laughing. 'And English — that's international.' But as the vice president and representative of Garuda Indonesia's Japan, Korea, and U.S. regions slowly lists off languages, whereas most of us would recall time spent in a classroom or poring over textbooks, Thaufik appears to be flitting through memories of all the places he's lived and the countless people he has met throughout his life.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 3, 2017

Yes, this time is different: A new and strong Japan emerges

While the past decades were marked by defeatism and fatalism, today's Japan is marked by ambition, confidence and a newfound idealism.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 29, 2017

Students benefit from homestays without going overseas

Traveling overseas for a homestay to brush up their English or try life in another culture has become almost de rigueur for Japanese students, with many going as teenagers through their schools or as a private arrangement. However, the costs involved mean such an experience is often beyond the reach...
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2017

Nominees announced for Japan's sixth annual Black Company Awards

Hollywood's bad-film awards are not much more than a joke.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / Gourmet Trails
Nov 25, 2017

Slow food and easy pedaling along Seto Inland Sea's Shimanami Kaido

Japanese-Western fusion cuisine abounds along this six-island cycle path connecting Hiroshima to Ehime.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 25, 2017

The popularity of the psychopath is a mind puzzle

Psychopaths, says neuroscientist Nobuko Nakano in her 2016 bestseller "Saikopasu" ("Psychopaths"), tend to share two personality traits. Freedom from fear and anxiety is one. Indifference to other people's feelings is another.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 22, 2017

The Yoshida Brothers get in on Kubo's big adventure

Speaking as a Japanese person, I can't help but feel a short burst of national pride when Hollywood gives my country any kind of attention, like with the animated film "Kubo and the Two Strings."
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2017

Hindu nationalists lay siege to the Taj Mahal

Hindu extremists have long considered it humiliating that a monument built by a Muslim emperor could be Hindu-majority India's most recognizable site. Now the Taj Mahal is being rejected even by India's own government.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 17, 2017

Communing with the gods in Hiroshima's kagura performances

Music and dance spectacle is part of Japan's rich performing arts heritage.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 14, 2017

The music you didn't realize you grew up with: Chip Tanaka's 8-bit revolution

If you grew up during the 1980s or 1990s, there's a good chance that you spent more time listening to the music of Hirokazu Tanaka than to many of your favorite pop songs. Such was the reach of the work that the Kyoto native created during his nearly 20-year tenure as a sound designer at Nintendo, as...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 11, 2017

Fuji TV's wishful thinking is food for thought

Since 1987, Fuji TV has owned Monday night, specifically the 9 to 10 p.m. time slot, when it broadcasts fluffy romantic drama series starring the season's hottest actress and often a prominent member of a boy band.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Nov 8, 2017

When 'Charisma Man' in Japan meets 'chikan,' women get hurt

Perhaps my own failing was not to challenge the locker-room code — not with the wagging finger of a spoiler, but as a man who is also learning.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 8, 2017

Klassik Underground attempts to shake up your typical classical music performance

Roppongi isn't the first place that jumps to mind when you're looking to have a night out with Beethoven. A concert hall with plush velvet seats, women in pearls listening to Symphony No. 9 — that's more of a Ginza thing.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / Taking the Lead
Nov 5, 2017

Yoshiharu Hoshino: Inn innovator's winning formula born from bubble's crash

Yoshiharu Hoshino describes his experience taking over the reins of his century-old family business in 1991 as a "hard landing."
CULTURE / Art
Oct 31, 2017

What makes a National Treasure?

Together, Japan's National Treasures provide a cacophonous ode to the nation and its heritage for its historical, cultural, geographical and stylistic dissonances. Yet, this is the first time in 41 years that 210 such works (or sets) have been displayed en masse.
EDITORIALS
Oct 30, 2017

A turning point in the war on sexual harassment?

The solution to the problem of sexual harassment lies in lifting the sense of immunity that perpetrators feel.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear