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September 20, 2025
 

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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Nov 26, 2010

'Catalysis for Life: New Language of Dutch Art and Design'

Museum of Contemporary
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 8, 2009

Looking forward to a 200-year-old human

If you believe everything you read about the health-giving properties of the traditional Japanese diet — and if you were to eat traditionally every day — you might expect to live to at least 150, in rude health.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 31, 2008

Living a clean, green life

Sporting a smart, modern exterior, the home of Keiko and Yoshiyuki Shimizu and their children Ayano, 13, and Haruki, 11, in a residential area of Kawasaki, south of Tokyo in Kanagawa Prefecture, is full of fun features inside. The three- story house has a grassy garden on its flat roof, where you can...
COMMUNITY
Dec 16, 2001

Wright's modern masterpiece comes back to life

All too often in this country, modern buildings of architectural and historical value are bulldozed to make way for new commercial development. The "lucky" ones may be granted a stay of execution, if only to survive as unused and lifeless monuments.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Aug 10, 2021

Surviving the atomic bomb, only to live a life of regret

Miyako Yano was absent from school the day Hiroshima was bombed. Decades later, she was reunited with her deceased friends in a school register.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Aug 21, 2015

Don't take my life, please, as Pakistan's comics roast nation's woes, try not to bomb, blaspheme

The crowd exploded into laughter as Pakistani comedian Shehzad Ghias Shaikh threw them his final punchline, gripping the microphone as he roasted the dating app Tindr and traditional South Asian family matchmaking.
Japan Times
JAPAN / TELLING LIVES
May 13, 2015

Nagoya DJ brings Japanese history to life

Chris Glenn's participation in relief efforts in the disaster-hit Tohoku region made the news in 2011, when as a member of a group of pilots he flew a helicopter to deliver food, water and medicines for evacuees.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 15, 2005

For better or worse: the 400th column

Welcome to the 400th Japan Lite column! If you have been reading this column since 1997, then congratulations on our 400th anniversary. Four hundred weekend dates is longer than most unmarried couples make it. How does it feel to be 400?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 9, 2017

Thank you, Jean Pearce, for helping us get things done in Japan

If the U.S. had Ann Landers and Dear Abby, and Britain had Marge Proops, then Japan had Jean Pearce — someone who transcended the title of 'columnist' and became a media icon for generations of readers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 2, 2018

Japan according to Don Maloney: Still amusing and relevant, mostly, 40 years on

Irreverent accounts of an American businessman in the 1970s in Tokyo hold up surprisingly well today.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 15, 2012

Wild Watch turns 30 this month

As April 2nd's 30th anniversary of my first Wild Watch column in The Japan Times neared, I was in India — teeming Delhi to be precise, with its cacophony of people, honking traffic and barking dogs, though a tailorbird would stop and call outside my window, where a palm squirrel never tired of chattering....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jul 9, 2017

Tributes to Jean Pearce, who shaped the foreign community's experience of Japan

Jean Pearce, who for decades helped Japan's foreign community feel more at home in their adopted country through her columns in The Japan Times, passed away peacefully on June 14 at the age of 96 in Washington, D.C.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 9, 2013

A friend to kanji learners worldwide

Mary Sisk Noguchi helped readers unravel the complexities of Chinese characters, adding an element of fun to a process often fraught with frustration for many learners of Japanese.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 18, 2001

A seductive city reveals its essence

One of the places where a little Vivaldi would make perfect background music is the exhibition "Venetian Paintings of the 18th Century," now at the Ueno Royal Museum.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2019

How Iacocca created the celebrity CEO, for better or worse

Saving Chrysler was a big accomplishment, but Iacocca's legacy is more about making the covers of Time and Newsweek.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 2, 2002

20 years of writing on the wild side

The biological exuberance of the equatorial region is staggering to behold. Walking through a temperate forest (as one might find in many areas of northern Japan, the northern United States or across much of central Europe), it is commonplace to have a clear view for hundreds of meters -- even to the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 29, 2020

'The Only Gaijin in the Village' offers laugh-out-loud lessons from Japan's proud countryside

Iain Maloney's 'The Only Gaijin in the Village' is a thought-provoking, lively examination of one immigrant's quest to create a new home outside his country of birth.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 20, 2018

Bill Hersey, man about Tokyo, 1930-2018: some tributes

Writer's kindness was legend, and his photos and columns told the story of a Tokyo social scene's rebirth after war and Occupation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 7, 2013

Russia's homophobic curse

With the general mood in Russia's populace favoring a ban on gay culture, homophobic mobsters of all colors feel cozy under an official umbrella.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jan 8, 2013

From Taiji to Okinawa, readers dissect some issues of 2012

In the first of our new Community Chest letters columns, we bring together a selection of mails received in response to some of the final Community stories of 2012.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 17, 2007

Niseko -- snowflake Mecca

It snowed 30 cm last night. And another 30 cm today. Nature is expressing herself.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jul 12, 2000

With love, Jean

When I first arrived in Japan more than 40 years ago, one of the first words I learned was sayonara and that it meant "goodbye." As I stayed on, I began to learn that sayonara did not mean goodbye in the sense of "till we meet again" or "God watch over you" as such phrases are used in the West. The literal...
An exterior view of Qasr al-Basha in 2021 in Gaza City, where Napoleon Bonaparte slept for several nights during his campaign in Egypt and Palestine.
WORLD
Apr 15, 2024

Gaza's historic treasures saved by 'irony of history'

Invaluable artifacts remain intact thanks to the blockade that made life in the Gaza Strip such a struggle for the past 16 years.
Anti-abortion demonstrators take part in the annual March for Life rally in Washington on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 25, 2025

Trump targets abortion access at home and abroad

Trump revoked two executive orders signed by Joe Biden protecting abortion access.
Her, a self-described feminist bar in Shanghai, on March 15. Women in Shanghai gather in bars, salons and bookstores to reclaim their identities as the country’s leader calls for China to adopt a “childbearing culture.”
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 7, 2024

In China, ruled by men, women quietly find a powerful voice

Women in Shanghai gather to reclaim their identities as the country’s leader calls for China to adopt a “childbearing culture.”
Don Kenny leaves behind a wealth of English translations of kyogen as well as work on other aspects of Japanese culture.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Nov 14, 2024

A bridge between kyogen and the world, Don Kenny dies at 88

He came here a soldier, stationed at Atsugi air base after the war, and soon fell in love with the world of Japanese theater.
A woman and children place flags for friends who are in the Ukrainian military at Independence Square in Kyiv on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 25, 2024

Ukraine marks second anniversary of Russian invasion, determined despite setbacks

Western leaders gathered in Kyiv to pledge support for Ukraine amid U.S. reluctance, while its troops suffer growing losses on the battlefield.
The Rev. Munther Isaac lights a candle next to an improvised crèche in Bethlehem on Dec. 13. The baby Jesus is lying not in a makeshift cradle of hay and wood, but among the rubble of broken bricks, stones and tiles that represent Gaza’s destruction.
WORLD / Society
Dec 24, 2023

‘God is under the rubble in Gaza’: Bethlehem’s subdued Christmas

The Israel-Hamas war has cast a pall over the birthplace of Jesus.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands inside an enclosure for defendants during a court hearing on espionage charges in Moscow on Oct. 10.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2024

Remember the world’s political prisoners. One could be you.

Hostage diplomacy and arbitrary arrests by autocratic governments are a growing threat.
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron (right) and former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg are both experiencing a revival in U.K. political and business circles.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2024

Has the U.K. learned nothing from Brexit?

The current success of David Cameron and Nick Clegg in the U.K. suggests that the country — and the world — have learned little from populism's rise.
Wealthy foreign nationals picking up ultimate souvenir — a condo in Tokyo
A high-end property in the fashionable Daikanyama district in Tokyo
Bank of Japan to start unloading ETFs in surprise move that rattles market
BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda said it would take a century for the bank to sell all its ETFs at the pace proposed.
Over 90% of low-income families in Japan struggling to feed children
Save the Children Japan domestic program chief Sonoko Kawakami speaks at a news conference in Tokyo in July. A survey conducted by the group in June has found that over 90% of low-income households with children face food insecurity.
JAL to punish president and 36 others over pilot drinking scandal
Japan Airlines Managing Executive Officer Yukio Nakagawa (center) and others apologize after one of the airline's pilots was found to have been drinking alcohol, during a news conference in Tokyo on Sept. 4.
After seven decades, is it finally time for the LDP to split up?
Signage atop the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo. Japan’s ruling party faces a tough decision over its future as it searches for a new leader to replace outgoing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, reverse its waning popularity and reassure investors
Behold the glory of Japan’s fruit boxes
Otherwise common sights in Japan's supermarkets, the country's fruit and veggie boxes can hide surprising symbols of local pride.
World Athletics stars relish Tokyo atmosphere after COVID-hit Olympics
Organizers of the World Athletics Championships said over 500,000 tickets had been sold and that they are expecting to end the event in front of large crowds this weekend.
Japan’s front-line researchers see bright path ahead for dementia treatment
A scientist looks at scans of grains at the Memory Centre at the Department of Readaptation and Geriatrics of the University Hospital (HUG) in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 6, 2023.
Still plenty to fight for, says Japan’s team leader at worlds
Race walker Hayato Katsuki earned bronze for Japan on the opening day of the World Athletics Championships on Saturday.
Wealthy foreign nationals picking up ultimate souvenir — a condo in Tokyo
A high-end property in the fashionable Daikanyama district in Tokyo

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’
By Alex K.T. Martin

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