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EDITORIALS
Dec 5, 2013

Voter inequality under the law

The disparity in vote value between more and less populous Upper House constituencies has grown so wide that it is undermining the principle of equality under the law with regard to the representation of voters's will.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Dec 4, 2013

Mao has much at stake in Grand Prix Final in Fukuoka

With only two months to go until the Sochi Olympics, two-time world champion Mao Asada heads into this week's Grand Prix Final as a prohibitive favorite while skating on home ice.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Dec 1, 2013

Painstaking work and a devoted team unearthed the Buddha's secret

When professor Robin Coningham's youngest son, Gus, was 5, he was asked at school what his father did. "He works for the Buddha," said the boy. Which led to a bit of confusion, recalls Coningham.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Nov 30, 2013

Christmas in Japan is only lonely if you let it be

Fifty-one years have rushed by since I first spent a winter in Japan, and 33 years since I first spent a Christmas and New Year in Kurohime, northern Nagano Prefecture. We got our first snows in early November, but at the time of writing, although the mountain peaks are dusted with white, the snow around...
EDITORIALS
Nov 30, 2013

Employees temper claims to holidays

The government's plan to make sure full-time regular employees take their paid holidays has apparently failed. A survey shows that workers claimed even fewer holidays in 2012 than they did in 2011.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 27, 2013

Kawakami's philosophy as manager never wavered

A famous Tetsuharu Kawakami watchword was wa (harmony).
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.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 7, 2013

Franz Ferdinand gets it right on latest album

When I speak to Paul Thomson, drummer with Scottish art-poppers Franz Ferdinand, it is just over 36 hours since James Blake's second album, "Overgrown," was announced as the surprise winner of this year's Mercury Prize, the award for the best record to come out of the U.K. and Ireland in the past year....
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Nov 6, 2013

Mao aims for fourth NHK Trophy title as Sochi looms

Two-time world champion Mao Asada continues her quest for the Olympic gold medal at the Sochi Olympics at the NHK Trophy starting on Friday in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices
Nov 4, 2013

No safe country for foreign women: the debate

Holly Lanasolyluna's article published Oct. 23 attracted an unprecedented number of online comments. More than 5,000 people also answered the accompanying poll about safety in Japan. Here are just some of the mails and comments.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 4, 2013

Diet reform paralyzed by hypocritical habits

Indecision is a much-criticized feature of Japanese politics. Diet sessions are rife with unproductive wrangling as the ruling and opposition camps dispute the timing of the submission of bills while avoiding constructive discussions on them.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Oct 21, 2013

Medical bills mount for 'fired' Tokyo English teacher fighting cancer and HIV

A British language school teacher in Tokyo is struggling to pay for his chemotherapy and cancer surgery after his Waseda University-linked former employer failed to renew his contract, citing his nonattendance due to illness.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 20, 2013

House GOP has little to show while forcing one crisis after another

There was so much more they wanted to do.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Oct 16, 2013

Adoption and fostering, animal homes and a tribute: readers' mail

In response to a recent story about adoption and foster parenting in Japan, one woman recounts her life of doing both.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 15, 2013

Perfume dances to No. 1 with hard-edged new album 'Level3'

"Level3" is No. 1 on Japan's Oricon music chart this week, but it is not a J-pop album.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 12, 2013

Just picture that — and know how to

A sleek, black anchor shape, etched against the blue sky, hurtles in pursuit of prey. A Northern Hobby, a flashy falcon, is chasing dragonflies. Sighting one alone speaks to me of summer in Hokkaido, especially with its mate brooding or feeding a growing fledgling in a nearby treetop nest.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 10, 2013

Wins signal step forward for Osaka coach Todo's team

The Osaka Evessa went through three head coaches — Zoran Kreckovic, Takao Furuya and Bill Cartwright — last season before handing the reins to Shunsuke Todo for the 2013-14 campaign.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 8, 2013

At 77, he flips burgers to earn his old hourly wage in a week

It seems like another life. At the height of his corporate career, Tom Palome was pulling in a salary in the low six-figures and flying first class on business trips to Europe.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 6, 2013

Ginsburg's tough decision: to stay or go?

Who dreamed up this bit of kismet? How did the stars align to make this spot of New Mexico desert the best place in the world on a late summer evening to be Ruth Bader Ginsburg?
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 6, 2013

Deep political divisions at root of U.S. shutdown

The government shutdown did not happen by accident. It is the latest manifestation — an extreme one by any measure — of divisions long in the making and now deeply embedded in the country's politics.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 5, 2013

Downtown comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto leans from TV to film

The Downtown comedy duo — comprising Hitoshi Matsumoto and Masatoshi Hamada — are sitting on a train speeding towards Narita Airport outside Tokyo. It's not like they're going anywhere, or doing anything, even — they're just sitting there and waiting for something to happen. "Something" in this...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Oct 4, 2013

Beatlemania: 'The screamers' and other tales of fandom

The first time Scottish concert promoter Andi Lothian booked the Beatles, in the frozen January of 1963, only 15 people showed up. The next time he brought them north of the border, to Glasgow Odeon on Oct. 5, they had scored a No. 1 album and three No. 1 singles, and it was as if a hurricane had blown...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Sep 30, 2013

Triumph of Tokyo Olympic bid sends wrong signal to Japan's resurgent right

International events undermine Japan's democracy. Shame on the International Olympic Committee for being a party to it.
Reader Mail
Sep 28, 2013

Results don't match the bustle

Regarding Kevin Rafferty's Sept. 25 article, "The limits of multitasking": There was a time when I used to regret that I am pretty inept at multitasking. I tried to get with it, but not without sometimes hilarious and usually failed results. I grew out of trying to multitask all the time, although it...
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.
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?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Sep 22, 2013

Pacman, Peso and Pyongyang

A few weeks ago, a Kickstarter project was posted on the Internet featuring two young men who went by the names of Pacman and Peso.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 21, 2013

Tsushima: a boundary island of Japan

If you want to get to Tsushima, an island in Nagasaki Prefecture, by ferry, you will have to start in Fukuoka — or a quicker option would be to start your journey in Busan, South Korea. The jet foil from Busan zips passengers across the nearly 50 km separating it from Tsushima in little over an hour....
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Japan Pulse
Sep 18, 2013

Rent a dude for ¥1,000: an interview with Takanobu Nishimoto of Ossan Rental

Would you pay u00a51,000 to kill time with a hip 46-year-old guy?

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