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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 24, 2017

Make our cities great again

As cities build taller, they must keep three benchmarks for livability in mind — community, resilience and sustainability.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 15, 2017

The unintentional causes of 'abandonment'

Six years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated the Tohoku region, leaving more than 18,000 people dead or missing, and triggering meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant that has left a deeply embedded mistrust of nuclear power in the Japanese consciousness....
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 6, 2017

BOJ faces call to release handbrake, let longer yields rise

The Bank of Japan is caught in a quandary: to let bond yields rise or not.
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Feb 28, 2017

JSF erred in sending Uno to Asian Winter Games

What a difference a week makes.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Feb 25, 2017

East of Meiji Shrine, west of Jingu Stadium

It's a brisk February day, with a neoprene blue and cloudless sky. I alight at Harajuku Station and head northeast, threading narrow alleyways filled with cute guys and kawaii gals browsing boutiques.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Feb 22, 2017

Standing up to alienation on Tokyo's comedy scene

Japan is an easy place to foster self-delusion, and a failure at comedy is like a bucket of ice water to the face.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 25, 2017

The unglamorous side to a model lifestyle

Fun facts: As of December 2016, the average rent for an apartment in New York was $3,046. The rent for a 23-sq.-meter unit at a micro-apartment that went up in Kips Bay last year comes to $2,570, according to 6sqft.com.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 31, 2016

New year, new you: What to expect personally and professionally in the Year of the Rooster

If you haven't made a New Year's resolution or have been too busy for the customary ōsōji (big cleanup) this holiday season, there is still time, according to feng shui. Under the Chinese philosophical system, the new year is marked by the lunar, rather than Gregorian, or solar, calendar, giving us...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Dec 16, 2016

One of the first Syrians granted refugee status in Japan discusses the hardships of status limbo

For refugees, the first six months are the most difficult, according to one of the first people from Syria whose application was accepted by Japan.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 12, 2016

What it was like to look up to John Glenn

Truly larger than life American heros like John Glenn are a breed that just doesn't come around anymore.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Dec 10, 2016

Meiji Restoration leader's lessons of sincerity

Is there any understanding a man like Saigo Takamori? His spirit seems as vast as his bulk, and his bulk was that of a sumo wrestler. He is "the quintessential hero of modern Japanese history," said historian Ivan Morris.
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Nov 7, 2016

Pepper gets to work in Taiwan

Pepper, SoftBank Corp.'s humanoid robot, has started work at a bank and a life insurer in Taiwan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 31, 2016

Why you won't learn natural Japanese from dubbed foreign TV

It seems that in Japanese dubbing there is always something found rather than lost in translation — something that wasn't in the English original and is not part of regular Japanese either.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 29, 2016

Mina Perhonen: a natural-born style

Be it a dress, a teacup or a chair, there is something instantly recognizable about a Mina Perhonen creation. Perhaps it's the natural motifs, exquisite textiles and unexpected color combinations. Or maybe it's the nostalgia-tinged atmosphere paired with clean-lined contemporary silhouettes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 25, 2016

'Short-term' visitor to Japan serves up a rare Shakespeare treat after only 20 years

When Peter Goessner's wife got a contract to teach at a university in the city of Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, and they came to Japan with their 3-year-old daughter in 1993, the Leipzig, East German-born director and actor thought it would just be "a short-term life experience," he told The Japan...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2016

Theresa May's risky search for the elusive center ground

The search for the political center ground sometimes leads to no-man's land.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Oct 16, 2016

Dancing from Dakar to Tokyo, my brother Baye

Abdou Baye Fall, who used to dance in exchange for fish in Dakar, now travels the length and breadth of Japan teaching children about the cultures of Senegal.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Oct 15, 2016

Is Japan leaving the Rohingya out in the cold?

As violence flares around the world's largest group of stateless people in Myanmar, an exile is pleading with Tokyo to come to their aid.
EDITORIALS
Oct 14, 2016

Questioning capital punishment

The time has come for truly meaningful discussions on whether Japan should keep executing prisoners.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 14, 2016

Controversies surrounding Thailand's next king

Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn's accession to the Thai throne could be good news for Thai democracy.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 8, 2016

Oki Sato of Nendo: on the objects of design

This year alone, Oki Sato, founder and director of Nendo, has not one, but two major retrospective exhibitions of the design unit's work — one at the Design Museum Holon in Israel, the other at the Taiwan Design Museum. His acclaimed "50 Manga Chairs" installation for Friedman Benda, which first debuted...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 25, 2016

Will Hikaru Utada's new album 'Fantome' change the rules of modern J-pop?

'As trends fade into the cultural rearview mirror, Hikaru Utada is a prime candidate to bring back what J-pop has lost in her absence: relatability.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 20, 2016

Out of the ordinary comes a new art festival

I've never been comfortable with the idea that Japan has three "most beautiful" places. It's a tradition, or a received wisdom, if you like, to rank the triad of the land bridge Ama-no Hashidate, the rocky islands of Matsushima and the sacred torii in the water at Miyajima as the indisputable height...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Sep 18, 2016

Londoner finds her voice on the Tokyo stage

Originally setting out to be a Japanese voice actress, Reina has arrived at a destination she had not foreseen, a place where outside voices are rarely heard.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 14, 2016

'Someone's Xylophone': Yoichi Higashi hits an unusual tone

Yoichi Higashi has made everything from commercial hits to festival favorites in his five-plus decades as a director, while taking up politically sensitive subjects and unpopular issues. His 1992 smash "The Bridge with No River" ("Hashi no Nai Kawa") depicted the raw prejudice endured by burakumin outcasts...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Sep 3, 2016

New horse lodge signals the way ahead

On July 15, 2016, just a few minutes' gentle canter from our splendid Afan Trust Centre here in the hills outside Kurohime in northern Nagano Prefecture, we officially opened our brand-new, first-ever horse lodge.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Aug 20, 2016

An awakening gives birth to modern medicine

Illness we share with our ancestors. Diagnosis and remedies set us and them apart.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Aug 14, 2016

After 30 years in Japan, teacher from Zambia is still learning

Globe-trotting son of Zambian envoy thought he'd seen it all until he arrived on these shores.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?