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COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2013

Deflating the hype on big data

Big data holds the promise of harnessing huge amounts of information to help us better understand the world. But the hype is causing contrarians to fall into hyberbole.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2013

Exercising society's right to ignore the ignorant

Regardless of their reasoning, people have a right to choose ignorance. But letting that choice drive public policy constitutes a serious threat to scientific and economic development.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 17, 2013

Revisiting the works of director Takashi Miike

Takashi Miike is one of the few Japanese filmmakers now working, Takeshi Kitano and Hayao Miyazaki being two others, who enjoy a measure of recognition outside Japan's insular film world. Though hardly a household name in Kansas, Miike has long been a favorite with the international Asian Extreme Cinema...
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 16, 2013

Exercise 'no quick fix for insomnia'

While exercise has long been a prescription for insomnia, new research suggests that exercise does not immediately translate into a better night's sleep — unless you stick with it for months.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 14, 2013

Build a multifunction restroom and they will come

Statistics show seniors will patronize your establishment because of your toilet
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 8, 2013

Incan child sacrifice victims may have been drugged

More than 500 years ago, three children climbed the Llullaillaco volcano in Argentina and never returned, the probable victims of human sacrifice. Their bodies — naturally mummified in the cold, dry mountain air — have been studied by scientists since they were discovered, sitting in shrines, in...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 6, 2013

Digital records raise thorny issue for Generation Y

Digital longevity raises a thorny issue for recent college grads: The not-so-appealing 'phases' that this generation might have acted out over social media may live on.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 3, 2013

Toyohiro Akiyama: Cautionary tales from one not afraid to risk all

In December 1990, journalist Toyohiro Akiyama made headlines the world over when he blasted off aboard a Soviet rocket to become the very first "space correspondent" in history.
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 2, 2013

Salesman sets out to prevent inheritance fights

As an insurance salesman in Tsushima, Aichi Prefecture, Hisao Ito, 55, has seen times when family members and relatives fight over inheritances.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 2, 2013

Could the PTA and bowling leagues breed extremists?

What if exposure to civic organizations — and not social isolation, per se — is more likely to contribute to the rise of extreme movements, including fascism?
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 2, 2013

Curiosity rover's descent to Mars — the story so far

Nestled below the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory outside Pasadena has a surprisingly low-tech feel. For more than 40 years, space missions to the planets have been controlled from its operations rooms, yet the place is still striking for its bucolic charm. Mule...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 2, 2013

Why acupuncture is giving doubters the needle

You can't get crystal healing on the National Health Service. It doesn't fund faith healing. And most doctors believe magnets are best stuck on fridges, not patients. But ask for a treatment in which an expert examines your tongue, smells your skin and tries to unblock the flow of life force running...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 2, 2013

Different perceptions of smell linked to genetics

The next time you argue with a friend about the whiff of cilantro in your stir-fry that he finds disgusting, blame his genes.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 31, 2013

Chinese dismiss Japan auto brands

Japanese auto brands posted a significant decline in customer satisfaction in China among foreign automakers, after the Senkaku Islands dispute sparked nationwide protests last year.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 31, 2013

Hands-free tools make driving more dangerous

Makers of cars and mobile electronics are pushing a tempting vision of the future, one in which you can stay fully connected while driving. In the name of safety, they provide hands-free wireless setups for your cellphone, so you can talk with both hands on the wheel. The latest additions are voice-to-text...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2013

A maddening category in which America soars

The focus on economic indicators has prevented consideration of the geopolitical implications of the ever-increasing rates of severe mental disease in America.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2013

Dioxin found in buried barrels near Kadena

The Okinawa Defense Bureau recently found dioxin and other hazardous chemicals from barrels unearthed at a former U.S. military installation in the city of Okinawa, officials said Monday, suggesting they may have contained herbicides or agricultural chemicals.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 27, 2013

At home on the Maasai Mara range

Asuka Takita has a passion for Africa and its wildlife that took root during her childhood in Singapore and flourished in the soils of Kenya during her third year of university.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2013

Japan bucks trend: Captive dolphin biz big

Despite an international trend taking the opposite tack, the number of aquariums in Japan is growing and sales of dolphins continue to flourish, results of an independent study have revealed.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 18, 2013

Extra Down syndrome gene silenced

Scientists silenced the extra copy of a chromosome that causes Down syndrome in laboratory stem cells, offering the first evidence that it may be possible to correct the genes responsible for the disorder.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 17, 2013

Body fat sheds calories when chilled

Transforming fat cells into calorie-burning machines may sound like a fantasy — the ultimate form of weight control — but the idea is not as far-fetched as it sounds.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2013

Gold's slumber is not the cue to stop hedging

The recent collapse of gold prices has not really changed the case for investing in it one way or the other, says a former chief economist for the IMF.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 13, 2013

Water issues around Asia; the world of solo karaoke; CM of the Week: Recruit

Monday is Marine Day, a national holiday, and as has been its tradition for a decade, Nippon TV will air a 90-minute afternoon special about sustainability hosted by Osaka-based announcer Seiji Miyane. "Nippon no Shoku no Mirai" ("The Future of Food in Japan," 2:55 p.m.) attempts to project the future...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jul 12, 2013

Okinawan musician, club owner keeps folk traditions going strong

The back streets of Naha were dark, making it more difficult to find Shima-Umui, a music club run by Okinawan folk singer Misako Oshiro. The torpid air and smell of papaya rinds from a nearby bin spoke of the subtropics. A small sign, barely visible from the street, directed customers to the basement...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2013

Okinawans explore secession option

Okinawans are losing patience with Tokyo's repeated vows to reduce the prefecture's burden of hosting U.S. military installations and other hollow pledges, and some are seriously looking into the possibility of having the territory secede from Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 8, 2013

Propaganda: artifice by design

The word "propaganda" derives its modern use from the name of a 17th-century Roman Catholic institution, the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, or Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. Established during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648, a sectarian conflict that devastated Europe following...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society / FOCUS
Jul 7, 2013

'Winning' noises from slot machines spur gamblers

Whether you're in Las Vegas or the small-town casino down the street, slot machines sound more or less the same: jangly music, the whir of spinning reels, accompanied by loud beeps and chimes.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 6, 2013

U.S. butterfly decline signals environment woes

Butterflies are a favorite muse for poets and songwriters who hold them up as symbols of love, beauty, transformation and good fortune.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2013

Documenting Japan's 'strange' election campaigns

A native of Tochigi Prefecture and a graduate of the University of Tokyo, where he majored in religious studies, Kazuhiro Soda took an early turn off a conventional career path when he went to New York in 1993 to study filmmaking at the School of Visual Arts. After a stab at fiction filmmaking, which...

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan