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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 14, 2014

Ghostly footprints of the 'modern girl' along Kamakura's coastline

There's a scene in Junichiro Tanizaki's serialized novel "Naomi" (originally titled "A Fool's Love") from 1924 where the besotted protagonist, Joji, watches his wife, Naomi — part Lolita, part Madame Bovary, all trouble — through the pine trees. Having just emerged from a seaside villa, she is sashaying...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 14, 2014

The thrill of the job won't pay the rent

"If your work isn't what you love, then something isn't right." — Talking Heads
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 14, 2014

The hormone behind man's best friend

The other day I saw a picture of a dead dog on Twitter. Gross, right? Not at all, for this wasn't just any old dog: This was Hachiko, perhaps the most famous dog in the world, and certainly the most famous in Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 14, 2014

Iraq's top Shiite cleric issues call to fight jihadist rebels

Iraq's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric urged followers to take up arms against a full-blown Sunni militant insurgency to topple Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a conflict that threatens civil war and a possible break-up of the country.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 17, 2014

Tiananmen's silver year: from protest to massacre

Twenty-five years ago on June 4 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) turned on Chinese citizens in a ruthless display of violence, not for the first time, slaughtering many in the streets of Beijing to crush a pro-democracy movement lead by university students.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 17, 2014

Alien invasion threatening native species

An invasion has been going on under our noses. It is multipronged, ruthless and very difficult to repel. It has been called an "ecological apocalypse."
Japan Times
WORLD
May 11, 2014

Eternal City celebrates legacy of first emperor

Rome, a city that thinks in millenniums, is going through a bout of "Augustus fever" to mark the 2,000th anniversary of the death of its first emperor, who left his mark on Rome and Western civilization like few others.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
May 7, 2014

Economic divide fueling surge in Xinjiang unrest

Hundreds of migrant workers from distant corners of China pour daily into the Urumqi South railway station, their first waypoint on a journey carrying them to lucrative work in other parts of the far western Xinjiang region.
JAPAN / Media
Apr 30, 2014

Advisers assess Japan Times performance after INYT tie-up

Now that The Japan Times is being distributed together with the International New York Times, the advisory board members agreed that there should be a newsroom shift toward even more coverage of Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2014

Reverberations of the Ukraine crisis

Having annexed Crimea, Russia has lost Ukraine, turning it from friend to foe. There can be no return to business as usual anytime soon.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2014

Unfortunately torture is an all-American value

Even when Americans rose up in 2011 to protest their government as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, torture was less than an afterthought on activists' menu of complaints.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 19, 2014

Now is the time to research Alzheimer's

The team leader at the Laboratory for Proteolytic Neuroscience at Riken's Brain Science Institute is not a man usually given to making apocalyptic statements.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2014

Confronting unending lies

Perhaps what is most amazing and regretful about the situation in Russia is the nearly complete absence of truth and objectivity in the mass media covering Ukrainian events.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2014

Annexation by other means

Ukraine's former prime minister, Yuliya Tymoshenko, warns that Russian President Putin seeks to make the West complicit in the dismemberment of Ukraine by negotiating a Kremlin-designed federal constitution that would create a dozen Crimeas that Russia could devour later.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2014

Voters do not deserve blame for low turnout

There was a time in America when political activitists used to say that a candidate whose main strategy was to talk about how rotten the other side was wasn't worth a vote. Can the today's voters who share that sentiment be blamed for not voting on Nov. 4?
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2014

Mitsui Fudosan finds building flaws

Mitsui Fudosan Co., Japan's largest property developer by sales, reported defects in a residential complex being built by Shimizu Corp. and will start repairing them this month, the city of Kawasaki said in a statement Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2014

In love with the spirit of the 'Ban Bossy' campaign

A British columnist can't help falling in love with the spirit of the American campaign to ban the word 'bossy' on the grounds that it discourages little girls from ambition and leadership.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 15, 2014

West prepares sanctions as Russia presses on with Crimea takeover

Six hours of crisis talks between Washington and Moscow ended with both sides still far apart Friday, and dozens of Russians linked to Russia's gradual takeover of Crimea could face U.S. and EU travel bans and asset freezes on Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Mar 12, 2014

J. League and media must show red card to racism

On Saturday, during their J. League match against Sagan Tosu at Saitama Stadium, some Urawa Reds fans hung a 'Japanese only' banner over an entrance to the stands.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 8, 2014

Still hunting shadows three years after 3/11

One of the great statistical mysteries that persist several years after a natural disaster is the figure that appears without fail each month in columns representing the number of people that are still missing.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 4, 2014

Our beastly post-Fukushima age

We have to remember the Fukushima nuclear disaster from the perspective of how Japan's system for providing meat, vegetables, rice, fish and other foods is still suffering as a result.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Feb 20, 2014

Family flashbacks to a psychedelic day with Kitty

In this column, it has been my sworn duty to share Tokyo's bounty of kid-friendly activities with interested parents like you. I hope earlier columns indicate that I take this responsibility seriously, striving to showcase only places that add much-needed components of fun, culture and education to the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 15, 2014

Dazaifu dalliance reveals curious case of a plum-struck deity

It's all thanks to the Spanish ambassador, really. Angeles and I were at the Spanish Consulate in Fukuoka, Kyushu's biggest city, to pick up her new passport. By midday, we'd done the business, slurped our way through the obligatory bowl of Hakata ramen, and were looking for a way to fill a few hours...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 11, 2014

Cibo Matto's Yuka and Miho share the secrets to their 'second marriage'

The story of Cibo Matto's return to the public eye is, thankfully, not one powered by cold, hard cash. Not for these two.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jan 27, 2014

Have your say on English education

Letters and online responses to the Jan. 6, 13 and 20 Learning Curve columns by Teru Clavel on English education.
LIFE / Digital
Jan 23, 2014

Kid-friendly app cat gets its claws into your iWallet

It's 4.30 on a gloomy winter's afternoon. I'm sitting with my grandson having one of those conversations in which grandsons explain complicated stuff to their grandads. He is 4 years old, omniscient in the way that 4-year-olds are, and tolerant of my ignorance of important matters.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 20, 2014

Lego could help girls build their future careers

Writer Rachel Cooke believes that if more girls were encouraged to play with building toys such as Lego, then there may be more female architects and engineers.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 5, 2014

Chinese gaming mecca attempts to shed its gaudy image

Walk into a casino in China's gambling mecca of Macau, and the first thing that strikes you is the silence. There's no blaring music, no sharp cries of victory; all you hear is the rustle of clothing, a hushed conversation, the occasional thump on a table — subtle signs of fortunes being made and lost....
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Jan 4, 2014

Kagoshima volcano erupts, warplanes fly over Tokyo, exhibit shows Okamoto's bold side, Emperor dies

A terrible eruption on Sakurajima, an island in Kagoshima Bay having an active volcano, occurred yesterday at 10 a.m. Up to that time, since the night of the 10th, more than 70 earthquakes had been experienced in Kagoshima. With thundering sounds, the eruption was visible from all sides of Kagoshima.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Jan 4, 2014

Here's eyeing Japan 2014 — warts an' all

"To know the future, look at the past," is a familiar Buddhist aphorism. However, it's also said that a prophet isn't honored in his hometown — which is why I live in Tokyo. As we ride into the Year of the Horse, I thought I'd canter awhile through times to come and report back on what I found. My...

Longform

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