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CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 1, 2014

Women doctors profiled and advances in medical tech revealed; CM of the week: Nissan

It's a big week for physicians on television. First there's the two-hour special "Uman Dokuta, Mitchaku" ("Close Coverage of Women Doctors"; TV Tokyo, Mon., 7:54 p.m.), which reports on the activities of various female doctors working throughout the country. Japan has 300,000 doctors, 20 percent of which...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 27, 2014

Smaug the dragon to get fans fired up for 'Hobbit' sequel

The middle film in a trilogy can be a risky venture. The first film? Audiences are introduced to new characters and exciting possibilities. The final film? Hollywood pulls out all the stops to send those characters off with a bang. The middle? Well, directors often save their best tricks for the finale....
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 25, 2014

Okinawa assembly probes why Nakaima reversed base stance

A special investigative committee of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly met last week and early this week to determine why Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima reversed his campaign pledge to get U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma moved outside Okinawa.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Feb 22, 2014

Arisugawa-no-Miya's no mere people's park

Tokyo's weather in February is unpredictable, so when the day I have set aside for exploring features a record-breaking blizzard, I'm not surprised. So, bundled up like Everest conqueror Edmund Hillary, I exit Hiroo Station in Minato Ward to find the air feathered with swirling flakes and the streets...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 22, 2014

Japan takes baby steps toward a proper debate about animal rights

On Jan. 10, convenience store chain Family Mart started selling a new bentō (boxed lunch) with a heavy-duty name to complement its hefty ¥600 price: Famima Premium Koroge Wagyu-iri Hamburger Bento, which "contains" high-quality Japanese ground beef. For an added touch of extravagance, it also came...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Feb 20, 2014

Spa retreat in Hakone, The Oak Door wine cellar, Osaka Restaurants Week

Spa retreat in Hakone From March 1, the Odakyu Hotel de Yama in the resort area of Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, will offer an accommodation package featuring a spa treatment to help rejuvenate bodies worn down by the cold weather.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 19, 2014

Young K-Ballet School dancers get set for the big time

The splendid news about two Japanese high school students' outstanding achievement swept around the world this month.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 18, 2014

Vegan metalheads go to the Extreme

A little-known part of the music scene will be celebrated next week at Tokyo's Asakusa Kurawood venue, far from the candy-pop quirk of Harajuku. Obscene Extreme Festival (OEF) promises to be confrontational and dark and — yes, the capital letters are insisted upon — "UNLEASH HELL."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 18, 2014

Fukushima kids compose for Philharmonic

The Sony Music Foundation took the opportunity of the New York Philharmonic's current Asia tour to organize a special event on Feb. 11. The concert aimed to provide Japanese youth — some of whom were from Fukushima Prefecture — with first-class live performances by a top-rate orchestra.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2014

Westin feels it's perfectly positioned to pamper, keep ahead of rivals

The Westin Tokyo is currently enjoying brisk sales and expects business to continue to thrive as consumers presently have a propensity to spend money on luxurious food and accommodations, the hotel's general manager said recently.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Feb 17, 2014

Filipino academic community in Japan unites to aid typhoon-hit homeland

Reggy Figer saw the news. A rapidly intensifying typhoon was heading towards his family in Tacloban. Concerned and nearly 3,000 km away in Nagoya, Figer sent a text message to his sister, Aileen Rose Figer-Peru, asking her to go to his parents' home.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Feb 17, 2014

Coastal shipping

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 15, 2014

Culture and nature vie over ancient hinoki

If you're looking for a fine piece of wood, you'd be hard put to improve on a slab of hinoki (Hinoki cypress, Chamaecyparis obtusa) from the Kiso Valley straddling Nagano and Gifu prefectures.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 15, 2014

Iran's religious war on minority Arab poets

It is a sad time for the world when Iran, birthplace of humanity's more revered writers and intellectuals, decides instead to kill its poets, the latest being the Ahwazi Arab poet Hashem Shaabani on Jan. 27.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 15, 2014

Samuragochi scandal shows that tin-eared classical music fans can be suckers for stories

What makes Mamoru Samuragochi's story interesting is not that he got away with his subterfuge for so long, but that the media, the public and even professional musicians accepted the story as being proof of his value as an artist.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Feb 13, 2014

Japan gets in the mood for love this Valentine's Day

Love is all around at this time of year, but on Valentine's Day in Japan it isn't so evenly distributed. The festival of romance has long suffered from a gender imbalance here: Feb. 14 is traditionally a day for women to give presents to men — not just their partners, but also often fellow students,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 9, 2014

Getting the colors clear when filing taxes in Japan

Filing a tax return isn't easy at the best of times, but doing it in another country can be particularly challenging. Fortunately, if you work for a company and that's your sole source of income in Japan, they will take care of everything for you. However, those who are self-employed or have multiple...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 5, 2014

Tokyo Ballet turns 50 in romantic style

This year marks the 50th anniversary of The Tokyo Ballet, and the company plans to celebrate every step of the way.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 2, 2014

It's never too early to start juken

It's that time of year again, when hundreds of thousands of soon-to-be high school graduates are busy taking university entrance exams for the coming academic year. This activity is commonly known as juken (受験), and usually translated into English as "taking an examination." The translation is somewhat...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 31, 2014

Rampant City set to expose Mourinho's hypocrisy

We are in for a masterclass of offensive football on Monday when Chelsea travel to the Etihad stadium to attack Manchester City. No sitting back or parking the bus, no defensive strategy in the hope of being the first team to win a Premier League point at Fortress Etihad this season. Ambitious Chelsea...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2014

Once admired from afar, now enjoyed up close

Billed as an exhibition of masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), 'Admired from Afar' is the latest in a number of exhibitions of Japanese art from American collections.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 28, 2014

SAS Plus inaugural sale, Garuda to join Skyteam, Hong Kong trip on Cathay

SAS Plus inaugural sale
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Jan 28, 2014

Murakami surging toward Sochi with style, confidence

When you work in this business, there is nothing more rewarding than watching an athlete truly come into their own.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2014

Why the world must remember the Holocaust

This year's observance of the International Remembrance Day — the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp — fell at a time when there are reminders all around us of the dangers of forgetting.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 24, 2014

From the ditches of Nara to the Otohime, a lav story

Ever wondered what's with the toilet slippers in Japan? Surely I am not the only foreigner to question whether we need to be entirely reshod before entering the restroom in a Japanese house.
EDITORIALS
Jan 19, 2014

Trouble for U.S.-India relations

The speed with which last month's arrest an Indian diplomat on charges of perjury and visa fraud escalated to become a full-blown diplomatic crisis reveals the weakness of ties between the U.S. and India.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 18, 2014

After Aum, post-9/11 lull, weeklies rediscover faith

March 20 will mark the 19th anniversary of the toxic nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway system by members of the Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) doomsday cult. That attack, which shook Japanese society to its very foundations, resulted in 13 deaths and thousands of injuries. Thirteen high-ranking Aum...
BASEBALL
Jan 17, 2014

Nomo inducted into Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame

People don't remember Hideo Nomo by his records. They remember him as a trailblazer.

Longform

The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.