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CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Dec 24, 2013

Familiar obstacles stymie change in domestic music industry

While the Japanese music industry ended last year on a promise of change, 2013 has highlighted a few of the ingrained practices that are going to be a little bit more difficult to dislodge.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 24, 2013

Sony sells Gracenote unit for $170 million

Sony Corp. has agreed to sell its Gracenote audio-recognition software business to Tribune Co. for $170 million, part of its effort to shed units as it focuses on fewer products.
WORLD
Dec 22, 2013

U.S. secretly helps Colombia kill rebel leaders

The 50-year-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), once considered the best-funded insurgency in the world, is at its smallest and most vulnerable state in decades, due in part to a CIA covert action program that has helped Colombian forces kill at least two dozen rebel leaders, according...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 22, 2013

Rental video stores ponder their reason for existing

DVDs still may be the cheapest, and easiest, way to watch videos at home.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 21, 2013

The envelope, please (and don't lick it)

One of the most sensational news stories emanating from Japan over the past year never actually happened.
EDITORIALS
Dec 19, 2013

Defense buildup won't bring security

With the adoption of Japan's first comprehensive guideline for security policy and diplomacy, the Abe Cabinet appears to operate under the illusion that the use of force ultimately could resolve the difficult situation the nation finds itself in.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 18, 2013

Sony exploring sale of Gracenote audio-recognition service

Sony Corp., looking to shed units to focus on fewer products, hired Frank Quattrone's Qatalyst Partners to explore a sale of its Gracenote audio-recognition software business, two sources said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 18, 2013

Sanrio said to violate children's privacy

Iron Man, Captain America and Spider-Man greet visitors to Disney's MarvelKids.com website, but parents may be surprised to learn that these superheroes may also open the door to tools that track their children's activities across the Web, according to federal complaints to be filed Wednesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 15, 2013

Infant tablet devices hit by parents, experts

A newborn baby cannot hold or even swipe at an iPad, but Fisher-Price is providing a way to keep infants glued to the device.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 13, 2013

Bike-riding bureaucracy may threaten the classic 'obāchan dismount'

The new regulation decrees that bicycles must be ridden on the left side of the road, in the direction of the flow of traffic. Seems logical, doesn't it? But no one has said how this will prevent accidents or make anything safer; we're just presuming it will.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 13, 2013

Hoax photo of Mandela after death brings anger

The South African government said Thursday it would not release photographs of former President Nelson Mandela lying in state, and urged people to shun a hoax image purporting to be of the dead president that was posted on the Internet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2013

Director Cuaron examines all angles when shooting 'space'

Last month, we heard Paul Greengrass, director of "Captain Phillips," talk in detail about his choppy, handheld, visceral filming style. This month, we get to hear from Alfonso Cuarón, director of the massive hit "Gravity," whose style is about 180 degrees different.
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 11, 2013

Tokyo: Where do you get your news fix from?

NHK, The Japan Times, 2channel, Nihon TV . . . Fox? Tokyoites look to a wide range of sources to sate their thirst for news.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 11, 2013

Tokyo's 'fayrest that ever was'

Scene 1: Late evening, Sept. 23, 1990, at the tiny Greek amphitheater, Shin-Okubo, Tokyo
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Dec 7, 2013

Tales from on the trail of Okinawa's rail

Thirty-one years ago I set off on a quest to look for a species so rare that it seemed as mythical as a Phoenix. Not only was it almost unknown, but also the Okinawa Rail had only recently been discovered. It was, as reporters like to say, a species new to science. Nothing was known about its numbers,...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 6, 2013

Right renews its war on democracy in Thailand

In most democracies, government spending on free health care and anti-poverty programs would be seen as part of the normal political process, but in Thailand, it is regarded by many rich opponents of the current 'Thaksin' administration as a form of bribery.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 4, 2013

Nintendo seen missing target as Sony, Microsoft dwarf Wii U

Nintendo Co.'s prospects for meeting its profit and sales forecasts for the year are diminishing after Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. each sold more game consoles in 24 hours than the Wii U maker did in nine months.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 30, 2013

Imagining post-nuclear Japan

Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has sent shock waves through the political establishment by calling for the end of nuclear power generation in Japan. "There is nothing more costly than nuclear power," Koizumi was quoted as saying during an interview with Tokyo Shimbun — something Japanese taxpayers...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 29, 2013

Of smartphones sold in October, 76% were Apple

Apple Inc. sold three of every four smartphones in Japan in October after the largest carrier, NTT Docomo Inc., began carrying the iPhone, according to a market researcher.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Nov 25, 2013

Brazilians wary over renewed mass beach robberies

Rio de Janeiro
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 24, 2013

Twitter beefs up users' data security

Twitter has announced a significant increase in its data security as it moves to protect users from attacks by the "apex predators" of the Internet.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 22, 2013

Serial 911 caller may land in guardian's care

Martha Rigsby collapsed to the ground for the first time in 1977. The spells continued, and she began calling the emergency number 911 for help.
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN WEB WATCH
Nov 19, 2013

Homegrown social networks struggle with how to get rid of redundant staff

Social-network services that once led the domestic Web-industry are now facing a downturn and they are finding that IT companies are not immune to labor toubles.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 18, 2013

Japan's readers slower to make e-book leap

According to the media, the e-book era in Japan began in 2010, with the debut of Apple Inc.'s iPad, Sony Corp.'s Sony Reader and other e-book services.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 17, 2013

Turkey confronts policy missteps over Syria

A group affiliated with al-Qaida controls the road leading south into Syria from the key Kilis border crossing on the front line of the debacle that Turkey's Syria policy has become.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami