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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 24, 2016

Meryl Streep as a runaway rocker in 'Ricki and the Flash'

It has been seven long years since Jonathan Demme came out with what is popularly known as a "woman's movie" (don't say "chick flick" — there's a difference) with "Rachel Getting Married." In many ways, "Ricki and the Flash" feels like the sequel to that earlier film. Both movies examined the behavioral...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 23, 2016

Kyoto Experiment goes from strength to strength

“It may be wrong to mix different wines, but old and new wisdom make an excellent mixture." So claims The Singer in Bertolt Brecht's 1944 play, "The Caucasian Chalk Circle."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Feb 23, 2016

Pokémon catches nostalgia fever for its 20th anniversary

Nintendo is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Poku00e9mon with a year full of new products, re-releases and huge doses of nostalgia around the world.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 22, 2016

Samsung launches new campaign against Apple with Galaxy S7, virtual reality gear

Samsung Electronics Co. showed off virtual reality hardware alongside its latest Galaxy S7 smartphones, in its latest attempt to breathe life into its premium line and wrest ascendancy back from Apple Inc.
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 22, 2016

Just take a snap and let Aichi smartphone app explain what's seen, and where

An Aichi-based electronic parts manufacturer has developed a free smartphone app that allows people to obtain information on tourist spots simply by taking photos of them.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 20, 2016

Deja vu as Shukan Shincho turns back the clock

The title of the Japanese government's White Paper on the Economy for the 31st year of Showa (1956) was "The 'postwar' era is over." That same year, a delegation from the World Bank headed by Alfred Watkins spent five months studying the feasibility of extending a loan for an expressway linking the cities...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 17, 2016

Breaking into and out of Japanese show biz

Eiji Uchida's scabrous new comedy about the struggles of a down-and-out indie film director, "Lowlife Love" ("Gesu no Ai"), confirms what I have known for years: Japanese show business can be brutal to the weak or clueless. They end up used and discarded, like so many human Kleenexes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 17, 2016

'The Shell Collector' wields a healing kind of poison

In English, you usually don't want to be compared to marine life. "Cold fish," "shark" and "whale" are not often intended as compliments, and "come out of your shell" is commonly addressed to the anti-social.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 17, 2016

'Sherlock: The Abominable Bride' leaps off the BBC and into cinemas across Japan

Red alert to Sherlockians. You have likely been suffering from withdrawals after the cliffhanger finale to the BBC series "Sherlock," which left us on a veritable desert island without murder mysteries or the comforting presence of Martin Freeman as John Watson and — worst of all — no Benedict Cumberbatch...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 17, 2016

Tokyo festival for 'alternative visions' is loaded with art films

The Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2016 is on until Feb. 20 and is taking place in one of Tokyo's most highfalutin chunks of real estate: the area around Yebisu Garden Place in the Ebisu neighborhood.
BUSINESS / TRAVEL INSIDER
Feb 16, 2016

Garuda adds luxury seats; Cathay offering discounts; China Airlines expands flights

Garuda adds luxury seats
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 15, 2016

Top U.S. Navy official warns against Chinese fighter flights from South China Sea runways

Any move by China to fly fighter jets from runways on its new man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea would be destablizing and would not deter U.S. flights over the area, a senior U.S. naval officer said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 15, 2016

Making the most of Obama's awkward ASEAN summit

The U.S. president needs to prod Southeast Asian leaders to get their act together on trade and security.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 15, 2016

Temples putting donated snacks to good use: feeding Japan's impoverished kids

With 1 in 6 children in Japan living in a household with financial difficulties, a growing number of temples nationwide are donating snacks that they have received as offerings to impoverished youngsters.
JAPAN / FUKUSHIMA FILE
Feb 15, 2016

Five years on, tsunami debris on ocean floor near Fukushima nuclear plant remains untouched

The Fisheries Agency will continue to subsidize efforts by Fukushima Prefecture to remove tsunami-related debris from the ocean floor.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 13, 2016

Give me chocolate: Japan's growing obsession with the 'food of the gods'

People with a sweet tooth can get a glimpse of how Charlie Bucket felt when he first stepped into Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory in Roald Dahl's popular 1964 tale by popping into Musee du Chocolat Theobroma in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 13, 2016

Japan is losing its drive to get behind the wheel

Even domestic automakers seem to be concentrating on expanding overseas as the market at home looks bleak.
Japan Times
Restaurants
Feb 12, 2016

Chocolatiers in Tokyo

For those who are shopping for Valentine’s or White Day chocolates, why go cheap when you can really show your love with premium chocolate? We have a list of some of the best chocolatiers in Tokyo that will satisfy your sweet tooth but may break the bank.
Restaurants
Feb 11, 2016

Matters of the flesh: Meat restaurants in Tokyo

COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2016

The return of fear-based governance in China

With China's international influence growing by the day, the revival of totalitarian scare tactics there has far-reaching — and deeply unsettling — implications for Asia and the world.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 8, 2016

Aichi university group helping refugees with language study

A group of university students from Aichi Prefecture has started a volunteer group to assist refugees.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech / ADVANCES IN PROGRESS
Feb 7, 2016

As technology improves, future of organic solar cells looks bright

The stereotypical image of solar cells may be of panels placed on the roofs of homes or of vast rivers of panels lined up on large swaths of land, often called mega-solar projects.
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Feb 6, 2016

A Cat, a Man, and Two Women

It took the wise Junichiro Tanizaki, partial to hanky-panky of all shades, to see that a perfect love triangle (oops — make that a square) involves a cat. True to form, in "A Cat, a Man, and Two Women" Tanizaki flips master and servant, and one of the charms of this light-hearted work, first published...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 5, 2016

Prehistoric cousin of wildebeest boasted dinosaur-like nasal horn

In an ancient streambed on Kenya's Rusinga Island, scientists have unearthed fossils of a wildebeest-like creature named Rusingoryx that boasted a weird nasal structure more befitting of a dinosaur than a mammal.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 3, 2016

U.S. groundhog Punxsutawney Phil predicts early spring

Punxsutawney Phil, the Pennsylvania groundhog renowned for his ability to forecast the onset of spring, did not see his shadow after emerging from his burrow on Tuesday morning, predicting an early spring.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan