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Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 30, 2016

Idols put Band-Aids on fragile male egos

Two cities in Tottori Prefecture have set up a facility called the Tottori Deai Support Center, which is a kind of matchmaking service for young residents. In December it published a pamphlet to help people looking for mates better understand what the opposite sex wanted.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 17, 2016

Abenomics: state capitalism

Shinzo Abe's economic policies aren't really neoclassic or Keynesian. Rather they align more with the state capitalism practiced in China, Russia and Singapore.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 9, 2016

Publisher Takarajima-sha bets on shock therapy to revive its fortunes

With the temporary demise of its flagship publication, Takarajima looks to Showa nostalgia and shock ads in a bid to stay relevant.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2015

In defense of Donald Trump's name-calling

Winner or loser, Donald Trump has done political debate in America a huge favor by freeing 'stupid' from the rhetorical prison of words and phrases polite people aren't allowed to use.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Oct 31, 2015

'Obsolete' gangsters proving problematic

Organized crime syndicates are not fading away, they're just becoming obsolete.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Oct 18, 2015

Dan teaches us how to be 'the man' in Japan

Every time I turn around, it seems, people are always asking me, "Do you know Dan Smith?" Or, they'll assume I already know him — what with his being black, working in the media and living in Japan for, like, forever and all. Sometimes I nod that I do, sometimes I even front like I know him ("Oh yeah,...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2015

Pope Francis remains flamboyantly fact-free

The pope's ideas would devastate the poor on whose behalf he purports to speak — if his policy prescriptions were not as implausible as his social diagnoses are shrill.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 30, 2015

Despite long odds, independent media battle on in Putin's Russia

Alexei Venediktov, one of Russia's most prominent journalists, doesn't go out without a bodyguard and doesn't answer mobile phone calls for fear of being tracked.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Dec 22, 2014

Jeers, apologies and silence: Japan's 2014 in quotes

First of all, we're sorry. Everybody is sorry. This was the year that everyone apologized and everyone was sorry about something. The Asahi Shimbun was sorry so many times (even when maybe they shouldn't have been) that we're omitting them from the list. There's not enough space.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 29, 2014

Debating milk, names and workplace blues

Milk — liquid innocence. If milk lets you down, what won't? It looks healthy, tastes healthy — surely it is healthy? Appearances, we know, are deceiving; still, this particular illusion dies hard.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Nov 19, 2014

Jamaican sisters come bearing victuals and vibes

Baye McNeil profiles two Jamaican women who have built thriving careers for themselves in the Land of the Rising Sun, half a planet away from the Land of Wood and Water.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 14, 2014

Principles of feminism are an all-in proposition

An American female public policy columnist says she is disturbed by the number of feminists defending affirmative sexual consent laws on the grounds that they will rarely be enforced.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Oct 1, 2014

Readers' letters: Ian Thorpe, the Yushukan, racism, teaching English, tipping and sunlight

Some emails received in response to recent Community articles.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Sep 10, 2014

Five reasons why agricultural reform will be a tough slog

Today's column, in list form, tackles a subject that defies a more conventional presentation: Japanese agricultural regulation.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jul 7, 2014

Letters: adoption from Japan, book bores, returnees, workers' rights and fleeing U.S. guns

Some letters in response to recent articles in the Community section about a wide range of subjects.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 14, 2014

Kiev forces suffer heaviest losses yet as separatists ambush, kill troops

Pro-Russian separatists ambushed Ukrainian troops on Tuesday, killing seven, in the heaviest loss of life for government forces in a single clash since Kiev sent soldiers to put down a rebellion in the country's east.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2014

Tips for electing a leader with common sense

One way voters perhaps can eliminate a presidential candidate from consideration is to look at his or her watch. If it costs more than $500, they should find someone else to vote for, someone whose interests extend beyond personal enrichment.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 3, 2014

Uphold basic living standards

To attain a national minimum for social welfare, some urge introducing a basic income — provision of a fixed sum of money to each citizen — to replace social security, which covers only needy people.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jan 20, 2014

Expiry dates

It's hard when our children decide we're past our prime. Let's prove we've still got a little shelf life sorting out an admittedly tricky subject.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Nov 13, 2013

Real 'labor cops' also deserve to get the star treatment

The show 'Dandarin' says a great deal about Japanese office politics and corporate practices that are long overdue some serious scrutiny.
Reader Mail
Aug 28, 2013

Minority experience understood

Regarding Amy Chavez's Aug. 16 column titled "What being a minority allows us to see": Actually the fear and hurt I felt while dealing with certain bureaucratic nonsense in Japan allowed me to understand a small piece of the American minority experience.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 24, 2013

Reflecting at leisure on who we are and where we live

My day job as a professor in Japan offers precious few chances to take a step back from work and give the old brain a bit of free rein. But August is one such golden opportunity.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 23, 2013

'Senior moments' for foreigners — they could start in your 20s

"How do you know if you have Alzheimer's?" said the front of the pamphlet. The answer inside was: "If you can't remember what you ate for lunch, you don't have Alzheimer's. If you can't remember whether you ate lunch or not, that's Alzheimer's."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2013

Monster-film maker tackles other big menace

Norman England is the world's leading non-Japanese expert on all things Godzilla, if hours logged on the set are any measure. From 1999 to 2004, he spent, by his own estimate, 150 days at Toho Studios watching the king of kaiju (monsters) come to life in film after film, culminating with Ryuhei Kitamura's...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2013

Streets worldwide showing the failings of democracy

Historians examining our era will marvel at the proliferation of street protests defining the appeal of political community in old and new democracies.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 9, 2013

2014 NPB season-opening series in California appears unlikely

Reader and fan of Japanese baseball Leon DeHaven in Arizona wants to know if the proposed 2014 season-opening series between the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers in Southern California (Baseball Bullet-In, April 28) is still going to happen. "I'm ready to rent a room in Anaheim," he wrote in an email....
Reader Mail
May 30, 2013

Jump-starting the use of English

Amy Chavez's May 25 column, "English education and English sheepdogs," gives a clear-cut reason why Japanese people usually have a lot of difficulties speaking English.
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2013

Planting courage in China

After decades of crackdowns on freedom of expression and basic human rights, people in China often lack courage — the very prerequisite for one's well-being.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 3, 2013

'Harry Potter' star to feature in 'Tokyo Vice' yakuza thriller

Producers announce that Daniel Radcliffe will take the lead role in the film adaption of crime reporter Jake Adelstein's memoirs about Japan's underworld.

Longform

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