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JAPAN
Feb 19, 2015

Diet may take up gambling bill again, but odds are low Japan will see casinos by 2020

As lawmakers discuss reintroducing a bill to legalize casino-style gambling during the current Diet session, Osaka and Yokohama are reportedly favorites to host the first resort complexes with casinos.
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2015

Imagica, Cool Japan Fund in venture to buy translation company SDI Media

Imagica Robot Holdings Inc. is teaming up with Cool Japan Fund Inc., the government-backed promoter of Japanese cultural exports, and Sumitomo Corp. to acquire U.S. movie translation company SDI Media Group Inc.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 19, 2015

Secretive robot maker Fanuc targeted by activist investor Loeb

Fanuc Corp., one of Japan's most reclusive companies, has spent decades building a wall of secrecy around its ultra-profitable industrial-robotics business.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 18, 2015

Sony CEO Hirai says selling TV business now an option

After years of refusing to entertain the idea of selling its long-struggling TV business, Sony Corp. CEO Kazuo Hirai said Wednesday that putting the unit on the auction block is now an option.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 18, 2015

'Mercury Fur' exposes a caring kind of depravity

After the premiere of "Mercury Fur" at Theatre Tram in Tokyo's lively Sangenjaya district this month, Issey Takahashi, who stars in that dystopian 2005 play by Philip Ridley, declared: "I think this is a very dark prophecy, but as I was acting my character Elliot today, I also felt it's a story of hope...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE KIDS' TABLE
Feb 17, 2015

Kiddie comfort food reigns supreme at Baby King Kitchen

Blink and you might miss it, but tucked away on a side street, off the old-school shōtengai (shopping street) in Tokyo's Koenji neighborhood, is Baby King Kitchen, an establishment where even adults eat off the kid's menu.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2015

Time to rein in greedy airlines

Hundreds of millions of airline passengers are facing unnecessary turbulence as airlines squeeze as much money as possible from them, and governments look away rather than see that passengers get a fair deal.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 15, 2015

Nine couples set marathon dance record of 35:01:01

Nine couples have broken the world record for the longest dance marathon in the seaside town of Pattaya, southeast of Thailand's capital, Bangkok.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 14, 2015

Is Sony coming back as a competitive icon?

If Sony's just-posted quarterly profits — the best in seven years — signal the revival of the Japanese icon, then the transformation might have begun last April, when Kenichiro Yoshida was promoted to chief financial officer.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 13, 2015

Obama to encourage companies to share cyberthreat data

President Barack Obama is set to sign an executive order on Friday aimed at encouraging companies to share more information about cybersecurity threats with the government and each other, a response to attacks like that on Sony Entertainment.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 11, 2015

Misono Universe: Screaming from the gutter to the stars

Amnesia is one of those medical conditions that might have been invented for the movies. For scriptwriters, it's a godsend — one bump on the hero's head and the story is rolling.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Feb 6, 2015

Revival in Sony shares credited to ascent of CFO Yoshida

Investors' newfound enthusiasm for bloated Sony owes much to ascendant CFO Kenichiro Yoshida's ability to cut jobs, exit money-losing businesses and rein in its outsized ambitions.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 5, 2015

New threats, new costs as Japanese companies face up to new tactics from cyberattackers

A spate of high-profile cybercrimes and data leaks in recent months has left companies wondering if they will be next. They worry about the safety of their computer networks as hackers devise new ways to penetrate traditional defenses.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 4, 2015

Growing younger in a super-aged society

Old age. It used to be a subject people tried to avoid, but now, as Japan hurtles toward a super-aged society where almost 15 percent of the populace is over 75 years old, the general feeling is that we had better deal with it.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 3, 2015

Alibaba scores a hollow victory over Beijing

Alibaba's success in its confrontation with the Chinese Communist Party is not a sign that life is generally improving for private business in China,
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 2, 2015

Japan's political satire offers comic wordplay — but rarely any offense

The tragic murders at the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo touched off worldwide debate about what forms of satire in the public sphere are appropriate, and under what conditions.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 30, 2015

Laser's co-inventor, Nobel laureate Charles Townes, dead at 99

Charles Townes, who shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in physics for invention of the laser, a feat that revolutionized science, medicine, telecommunications and entertainment, has died at age 99, the University of California at Berkeley reported.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jan 28, 2015

Kawabuchi to help lead task force charged with solving Japan's basketball impasse

FIBA, basketball's world governing body, on Wednesday announced the formation of a task force to lay a new foundation for the sport in Japan, and former J. League chairman Saburo Kawabuchi was appointed co-chairman.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 27, 2015

Sugar's Campaign come up with some sweet city pop for debut album 'Friends'

Seiho Hayakawa and Takuma Hosokawa think modern pop music is "grotesque," but that's exactly how they wanted the debut album by their band Sugar's Campaign to sound.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 23, 2015

Tourists tempted by paid, free Wi-Fi access campaigns

As tourists visit Japan in increasing numbers, mobile phone operators are moving to tap the market by providing better Wi-Fi services.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2015

Former owner of club Noon sees acquittal upheld

The former owner of an Osaka nightclub charged under Japan's controversial "no dancing" law has been cleared of wrongdoing after a High Court upheld his acquittal last year.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jan 22, 2015

Israeli arrested over Madonna song leak

An Israeli man was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of hacking Madonna's computer and selling the pop icon's songs online, a private investigator involved in the case said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 21, 2015

Sayonara Kabukicho: Life and love in Shinjuku's red-light district

Ryuichi Hiroki has become a victim of his own success, though his studio employers probably don't see it that way. This one-time maker of so-called pink films (i.e., soft pornography), who became internationally celebrated for intimate indie dramas like "Vibrator" from 2003 and "Yawarakai Seikatsu (It's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 21, 2015

Avignon chief sees culture and politics sharing the stage

"The Avignon Festival is not only about shows and theater, but also about thinking, searching and seeking to understand the world and its politics — and offering an opportunity for three weeks' intellectual life experience every year," Olivier Py, the event's artistic director, declared with passion...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jan 21, 2015

Sony's 'The Interview' surpasses $40 million in digital sales

"The Interview," the Sony Pictures comedy believed to have triggered a cyberattack on the studio, has racked up over $40 million in sales from 5.8 million digital downloads, the studio said on Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 20, 2015

2014 a groundhog year for top record labels

Avex has landed another No. 1 spot on the charts, but this time it's for the record label itself.

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