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LIFE / Digital
Mar 6, 2014

Nokia revolts against the smartphone revolution at Mobile World Congress

If you were hoping to find a hotel room in Barcelona last week, then tough luck. Barcelona was full, period. It was the week of the Mobile World Congress, you see, the annual convention of what is, for the moment at least, the most dynamic industry on the planet. Everybody and his dog was there, except...
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Mar 6, 2014

Everyone is invited to enjoy art

Over thousands of years, Japanese art has evolved through many phases and genres — from pottery to sculpture, ink paintings to woodblock prints, manga to anime and much more. Although contemporary art is often thought of as conceptual and difficult to comprehend, it hasn't stopped the public from enjoying...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 1, 2014

Women doctors profiled and advances in medical tech revealed; CM of the week: Nissan

It's a big week for physicians on television. First there's the two-hour special "Uman Dokuta, Mitchaku" ("Close Coverage of Women Doctors"; TV Tokyo, Mon., 7:54 p.m.), which reports on the activities of various female doctors working throughout the country. Japan has 300,000 doctors, 20 percent of which...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 28, 2014

Foreign nursing students get second chance

A private hospital group in Nagoya is supporting youths from Indonesia who went through three-year training stints in Japan to become licensed nurses but who had no choice but to return to their home country after failing to pass the state certification exam here.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 27, 2014

Exhausting the sense of the beautiful

The Aesthetic Movement, a loosely defined tendency in 19th-century European art, operated under the slogan of 'art of art's sake' and believed beauty was the end, not the means.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2014

How we lose our marbles — and get them back

A remark by American actor George Clooney has reignited the debate over whether removing the Parthenon Marbles (aka Elgin Marbles) from the British Museum and returning them to their ancient home in Athens would be the right thing to do.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEDGE
Feb 23, 2014

'Cloud matching' inspiring startups

Cloud matching, the practice of matching buyers and sellers from a large pool of people, organizations and companies, is a field entrepreneurs are seeking out as a new business opportunity.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Feb 22, 2014

Arisugawa-no-Miya's no mere people's park

Tokyo's weather in February is unpredictable, so when the day I have set aside for exploring features a record-breaking blizzard, I'm not surprised. So, bundled up like Everest conqueror Edmund Hillary, I exit Hiroo Station in Minato Ward to find the air feathered with swirling flakes and the streets...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 22, 2014

Can waste-made chic save the oceans?

Search online for "Pacific gyre" and you'll get about 455,000 results in 0.15 seconds. Try "Pacific trash vortex" and you'll get 474,000. Here's another: Do a search for "Pacific garbage patch" and, in 0.40 seconds, you'll have 593,000 hits.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 21, 2014

'Fallujah' asks where responsibility lies for 2004 Iraq War hostage issue

A movie documenting the lives of three Japanese who were taken hostage by an armed group in Iraq in 2004 during the Iraq War and were later released started playing on Feb. 8 in Cinemaskhole, a movie theater in Nagoya.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN WEB WATCH
Feb 20, 2014

'Kantai Collection': Social game of warships sets course for big money

Casual online games based on military themes and with a kawaii (cute) twist are currently a surprise hit in Japan. Is this related to the recent rightward tilt in national politics, or just part of Japan's creative desire to "cutify" everything.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 19, 2014

Merger of Jasdaq, Mothers, second section eyed

Japan Exchange Group Inc. will consider merging three smaller equity markets to simplify its exchange structure, a bourse official said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 18, 2014

Fukushima kids compose for Philharmonic

The Sony Music Foundation took the opportunity of the New York Philharmonic's current Asia tour to organize a special event on Feb. 11. The concert aimed to provide Japanese youth — some of whom were from Fukushima Prefecture — with first-class live performances by a top-rate orchestra.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / TRAVEL INSIDER
Feb 18, 2014

High-flying fashion, New SAS reward plan, Haneda to Jakarta

High-flying fashion
LIFE / Digital / ON: TECH
Feb 17, 2014

Personal devices to keep you fit and calm, plus Fujitsu's latest 'convertible' ultrabook

Earbuds that's aren't earbuds; a laptop that's not just a laptop; a mouse that's not really a mouse; and a wristband that's not for telling the time.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 14, 2014

Chinese students put Shiga residents online

Chinese exchange students at Shiga University have been interviewing local residents and posting the videos and articles in Chinese under a project called Interviewing 100 People in Hikone.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Feb 13, 2014

The symbiotic relationship between anime and games

Japan excels at making you play. From its flower arrangements to tea ceremonies to karaoke, nothing much happens until you get into the game, and a big part of Japan's appeal to non-natives is its invitation to engage.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Feb 12, 2014

ANA caricature speaks volumes about Japan's outdated mind-set

My personal opinion is that the ad is a disappointing anachronism, and a reminder of the parochial outlook of large Japanese corporations. The ad appeals to the facile formula that 'foreigner = white = blonde and big-nosed = English-speaking = globalization.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ADVANCES IN PROGRESS
Feb 9, 2014

Organic lights hold promise of softer glow

Cost-efficient and eco-friendly, lights powered by light-emitting diodes are taking off but may soon be upstaged by their organic cousins.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEDGE
Feb 9, 2014

Eco-labels urged to save endangered marine life

2013 highlighted the decline in Japan's fishery resources, with baby eel trading at ¥3 million per kilogram — more expensive than silver — and the catch quota of bluefin tuna being slashed at the December meeting of the Commission for the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Feb 9, 2014

Records broken in biathlon, speedskating events

Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen tied a Winter Olympics record with his 12th medal by taking gold in the biathlon 10-km sprint.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2014

Is wealth inequality near a tipping point?

Today's vast wealth inequality probably isn't the result of any economic conspiracy, or of vast differences in human skills. It's more likely the banal outcome of a fairly mechanical process that, unless altered, could easily carry us into a place where most of us would rather not be.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 7, 2014

Female scientists push for breakthrough in equality

Recent news that Haruko Obokata of Riken's Center for Developmental Biology found a new way to generate pluripotent cells cast a spotlight on women in the male-dominant field of science.
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Feb 5, 2014

Sendai's White recognizes importance of team chemistry, close-knit family

The Japan Times features periodic interviews with players in the bj-league. Wendell White of the Sendai 89ers is the subject of this week's profile.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 5, 2014

Can nature solve humankind's errors?

Masato Kodama's sculptures are concerned with light, gravity and air. For him, light is a symbol of tomorrow and potential futures, gravity represents the present and the past, and air is associated with memory.

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