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Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2015
Jan 21, 2015

Japanese architects making mark on Swiss design landscape

As part of the events commemorating 150 years of diplomatic relations between Switzerland and Japan, an exhibition titled "JP-CH 2014: Building in Context" was held in Tokyo last October featuring five recent projects in Switzerland by four eminent Japanese architects.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 17, 2015

Longevity, genetics and the whale

The oldest person in the world — and the oldest ever Japanese person — is Misao Okawa. She lives in Osaka and is 116. She'll be 117 in March.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2014

Asahi plans system to review reports, limit editorial interference

The president of the Asahi Shimbun on Friday expressed regret for the way the newspaper handled the retraction of some of its reports on the thousands of mostly Korean women who were coerced into Japan's military brothels before and during the war, and said it would establish a system to review past...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 20, 2014

Love of robots may pave way for better treatment of animals

If chimps had history books, a few individuals would have important chapters devoted to them. One would be David Greybeard, the chimp who in 1960 was observed by Jane Goodall using a piece of grass as a tool.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 21, 2014

How economist Krugman's meeting with Abe may have swung decision to postpone tax hike

When economist Etsuro Honda heard that Paul Krugman was planning a visit to Tokyo, he saw an opportunity to seize the advantage in Japan's sales-tax debate.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 15, 2014

Creative crooks stay one step ahead

The "Ore, ore" ("It's me") fraudsters and their ilk, who telephone elderly people and pretend to be a relative in need of money to help them out of a jam, keep coming up with new scams.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 15, 2014

Eels face the slippery slope to extinction

Last week I was crossing the River Thames on the way to work in London, and I happened to see a cormorant emerge from the water with a thrashing eel in its mouth. The bird juggled the fish, skillfully managing to position it so it could swallow the wriggling animal headfirst.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 4, 2014

Chinese Communist Party's great leap backward

Chinese President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign was supposed to signify a shift toward a more transparent system based on the rule of law, but the officials who have been purged so far have been Xi's political adversaries. Xi appears to be pulling China backward politically.
OLYMPICS / ROBERT WHITING'S 1964 OLYMPICS RETROSPECTIVE
Oct 24, 2014

Negative impact of 1964 Olympics profound

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics had a profound impact on the capital city and the nation. In the final installment of a five-part series running this month, best-selling author Robert Whiting, who lived in Japan at the time, focuses on the environmental and human impact that resulted from hosting the event....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 18, 2014

Suicidal cells and the immortal cells of Henrietta Lacks

You may not have heard of Henrietta Lacks — an African-American woman from Baltimore who died of cervical cancer in 1951 — but you have benefited from her.
JAPAN / History / IMPERIAL ANNALS
Oct 11, 2014

Selective history: Hirohito's chronicles

Between July 30 and Aug. 2, 1945, when most of Japan's cities, including Tokyo, lay in smoldering ruins from U.S. aerial bombing and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were days away from being incinerated by American nuclear weapons, Emperor Hirohito sent an envoy to several Shinto shrines to pray for the "crushing...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 10, 2014

Spanish nurse worsens; Madrid blames Ebola infection on human error

The health of a Spanish nurse with Ebola worsened on Thursday and four other people were put into isolation in Madrid, while the country's government rejected claims its methods for dealing with the disease weren't working and blamed human error.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Oct 1, 2014

Readers' letters: Ian Thorpe, the Yushukan, racism, teaching English, tipping and sunlight

Some emails received in response to recent Community articles.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Sep 24, 2014

Job insecurity among Japan's university teachers is a recipe for further decline

Increasing the number of academic working poor hired as part-time teachers flies in the face of the education ministry's call to build universities that 'can compete on the world stage.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 20, 2014

The feral felines of Cat Heaven Island

Cat heaven is a place on Earth — and it's just 20 minutes by ferry from Fukuoka.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 10, 2014

Ex-president's son wounded as Nigeria battles Boko Haram militants

Nigerian ground forces backed by warplanes on Tuesday battled Islamist Boko Haram militants in a second day of heavy fighting around a northeast town, in which the officer son of former President Olusegun Obasanjo was wounded, a senior official said.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 8, 2014

Stupid advice for women worried about rape

Anyone who doubts that politically correct online activitists are out to lunch need only read up on their reaction to a nail polish that allows women to discreetly discover whether their drink has been spiked by one of several common 'date rape' drugs.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 5, 2014

Ukraine, rebels vow to back peace plan, cease-fire

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the main pro-Russian rebel leader said they would both order cease-fires on Friday, provided that an agreement is signed on a new peace plan to end the five-month war in Ukraine's east.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 1, 2014

Putin calls for talks on east Ukraine 'statehood'; rebels fire on ship

Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Sunday for immediate talks on the "statehood" of southern and eastern Ukraine, although his spokesman said this did not mean Moscow now endorsed rebel calls for independence for territory they have seized.
WORLD
Sep 1, 2014

U.S. lawmakers call for arming Ukraine government

U.S. Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Sunday urged Washington to arm the Ukrainian government, saying it needed help to repel what they called Russia's invasion of the country.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 30, 2014

Ukraine says Russian tanks flatten entire town; EU ready to prepare sanctions

Ukraine said on Saturday Russian tanks had flattened a small border town and pro-Russian rebels had made fresh gains in its east, as EU leaders signaled they were ready to prepare more sanctions on Moscow over the crisis.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 21, 2014

Ballet's dance with the avant-garde

On May 29, 1913, the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris witnessed what has become a tale of artistic scandal re-told and exaggerated to almost mythic proportions. It is said that just seconds after the stage curtain was raised, the Ballet Russes' performance of Igor Stravinksy's "The Rite of Spring"...
Reader Mail
Aug 20, 2014

Help the 'Well Said' translations

I appreciate the Japanese-language learning columns included in The Japan Times, and read them almost every week. However, I feel that two aspects of the "Well Said" column need improvement.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 17, 2014

Ukraine rebels gearing up for eastern counterstrike

Pro-Russian separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine are receiving new armored vehicles and fighters trained in Russia, and plan to launch a major counteroffensive against government forces, a rebel leader said in a video released on Saturday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 16, 2014

What kind of life could live in the clouds?

Do you remember seeing clouds from an airplane for the first time? Even if that first time was as an adult, you were probably struck by the appearance of solidity. Seen from above, a cloudscape looks like a landscape — it looks like a place where things might live.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Aug 13, 2014

Past victimhood blinds Japan to present-day racial discrimination

Until Japan gets over itself and accepts that racialization processes are intrinsic to every society, it will never resolve its constant and unwarranted exceptionalism.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 27, 2014

The pathetic state of infrastructure in America

The deliberate starving of public funding for America's roads, bridges, parks, schools, public hospitals, even hospitals charged with caring for U.S. veterans, reflects the economic and political system's ass-backward priorities.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 19, 2014

If chimps inherit their intelligence, does that prove humans do, too?

Some people are smarter than others. And though animal intelligence is far less well studied, it turns out that within a particular population, say of chimpanzees, some animals are smarter than others, too — and these differences are heritable. To put it another way, some chimps' mothers are smarter...

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan