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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
Jun 28, 2013

Cheap or fancy Chinatown feasts

Dining doesn't get more democratic than in Yokohama's Chinatown, where visitors can spend big bucks on a single meal or fill up on steamed buns for a single coin. Here's a personal guide to some notable dishes; in the spirit of the neighborhood, there's a selection to suit all tastes and budgets.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 27, 2013

Everyday goods: the Japanese art of convenience

"Mingei" translates as "folk art" and is connected to objects that are made or used by ordinary people on an everyday basis. Usually this evokes hand-crafted objects, such as ceramics, baskets, items of woodwork, etc. As such, the term is evocative of the era before mass global trade. In modern Japan,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 25, 2013

The neglected stars of Norwegian design

What do you think of as a typical example of Scandinavian design? The massively copied 1950s bentwood chair series "Seven Chairs" by Danish architect Arne Jacobsen? The vividly colored Unikko poppy patterns by the Finnish textile company Marimekko? Or the ready-to-assemble furniture available at the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 25, 2013

'Yellow fever' and the fantasy of the Asian female

Here is a dumb thing you should never do: watch the 007 caper "You Only Live Twice" with your feminist American girlfriend — a woman of color to boot. In a series renowned for its sexism, the Japan entry takes the biscuit.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 23, 2013

Temples, dragon boats and fireworks in Chinese Nagasaki

There was a time when the journey from East China to Nagasaki was a long and treacherous one across an unpredictable sea. Once a ship entered the verdant hill-sheltered bay that led to the city, the passengers thanked the gods for their safe arrival. After anchoring in the harbor, a procession accompanied...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 23, 2013

'Hate speech' in the media, but not the legal code

This writer, on previous occasions, has expressed irritation over the recent tendency for the vernacular media to rely heavily on English borrowings for neologisms with socially negative connotations, such as sexual harassment, stalking and domestic violence — to name three examples.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 22, 2013

Vienna embraces the culture of the bicycle

On the Praterstern, where cars, buses and trams converge from several busy streets on a road that loops around Vienna's central train station, a new digital counter stands under the eye of the Riesenrad Ferris wheel.
LIFE / Style & Design / Japan Pulse
Jun 21, 2013

Fundoshi: the innerwear sanctum of Cool Biz

Wacoal butts into the retro underwear market with cheeky fundoshi.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2013

Online drugstore chief cheers Abe on in deregulation fight

Genri Goto, CEO and founder of online drugstore Kenko.com, senses victory after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced in his growth strategy earlier this month that the government would relax rules for online sales of nonprescription drugs.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 18, 2013

Turkish unrest could spread as potential flash points abound

The turmoil in Turkey entered a new stage Sunday, with riot police tearing through residential neighborhoods in Istanbul to clear streets of protesters as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered a fiery speech to tens of thousands of supporters on the city's outskirts.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 18, 2013

'Big data' — a digital sea of personal info ripe for the taking?

Shop at Amazon.com and one automatically receives recommendations on books and other items based on previous queries and purchases. Similarly, checking a Facebook entry causes ads for local products and services to pop up.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 18, 2013

Quickies on bringing in psychotropics and bags, calling Japan, buying shoes

A variety of queries from readers have arrived at Lifelines over the last few weeks, so we'll address some of them in this column.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 17, 2013

Support grows for Snowden in Hong Kong

Political pressure is growing in Hong Kong for its government to protect Edward Snowden, who has said he will remain in the city and allow its people to "decide his fate."
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 16, 2013

Family-crest master fears he's one of a dying breed

Dressed in a black kimono and wearing a pair of eye-catching black, triple-framed spectacles, Shoryu Hatoba straightens his back as he sits on the tatami floor of his quaint studio in Ueno, central Tokyo, holding a pair of bamboo compasses fitted with a brush dipped in ink in place of a pencil.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jun 12, 2013

Preserving a classic Japanese art form: tokusatsu magic

Our monster is scaly, spiky, reptilian — a cross between a dinosaur and an irradiated insect that shrieks like an angry bird. Our hero is lean, faintly muscular in a rubbery skintight suit with inscrutable praying-mantis eyes. They face one another, stomping left to right like sumo wrestlers, posing...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 11, 2013

Japan's Nigerians see symbol of change in masquerade

Anyone wandering the back streets near Omiya Station at 7:20 a.m. on Sunday, June 2, might have passed a particular office building, unremarkable except for two African men standing on a 2nd floor balcony, rope in hand, lowering a car-sized Ugo (eagle) costume down to the parking lot. One of them was...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 9, 2013

Dark sides of Toyota's drive to be No. 1

Like most corporate giants, Toyota isn't all squeaky clean. Yet in their book 'Toyota no Shotai' ('The True Colors of Toyota') published in Japanese in 2006, Hajime Yokota and Makoto Sataka catalog the Japanese media's timidity when it comes to covering the nation's top advertiser.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 8, 2013

Yoga teacher finds creative voice — and success — in 'surreal' Tokyo

While hammering nails and cutting planks in the prop department at New York's Lincoln Center for the Metropolitan Opera in the early 2000s, Barry Silver never dreamed of a life in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 8, 2013

Upcoming Clinton biopic stirs speculation

The U.S. presidential election may be three years away, but speculation is already rife about the runners and riders in what is sure to be an epic battle for the White House.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jun 7, 2013

U.S. baby boomers kill selves at high rate

Last spring, Frank Turkaly tried to kill himself. A retiree in a Pittsburgh suburb living on disability checks, he was estranged from friends and family, mired in credit card debt and taking medication for depression, cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 7, 2013

British, U.S. music no longer dominates world

When John Lennon declared that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, it didn't seem that far-fetched. It was 1966, and rock 'n' roll was the new religion sweeping the globe.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Jun 7, 2013

Japanese desserts with an alcohol kick

"There are two types of people," my dear old landlady used to say, handing me a bowl of frothing matcha tea: "Those who like alcohol, and those who like sweets."
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Jun 5, 2013

It's lots of tasty, messy fun when babies bake

The master chefs are hard at work: slicing bananas, whisking a sticky mixture in a bowl, squeezing piped cream across a cake.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2013

Tunisian leader touts investment opportunities

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki on Sunday invited Japan's businesses to invest and play a major role in his country's transition toward democracy and a free-market economy.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 2, 2013

Abe to Africa: Use aid as you see fit

The fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development opens with a look back over the forum's past 20 years and discussions about its future.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear