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COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2014

Why Google's self-driving car terrifies Detroit

Perhaps the U.S. auto industry's biggest problem right now is that the usually slavish press is going crazy for the Google self-driving car prototype in ways that the carmakers haven't been able to inspire in a long time.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 30, 2014

Yokohama celebrates 155 years as a trade port

It might surprise you to know that Yokohama was once a tiny village with less than 100 households living off farming and fishing. It wasn't until the port opened to foreign trade in 1859 that it began to expand to become Japan's second most populated city. Now it is one of the most popular tourist destinations...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 29, 2014

Short-film festival offers flicks for free

Short films are today both everywhere but nowhere, even for many who consider themselves film fans.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
May 29, 2014

Getting healthy with Maqui berries; time to try Portuguese barbecue; enjoying beer and summer views

Getting healthy with Maqui berries The Rihga Royal Hotel Tokyo is offering a special accommodation plan featuring treatment using Maqui berries, which are also known as Chilean wineberries, through March 2015.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2014

A memorial to horror and honor

More fitting than any commentary about Memorial Day, just celebrated in the U.S., is the description of Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox to Ulysses S. Grant, which ended the Civil War.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 24, 2014

Ball and chain: gambling's darker side

With lawmakers debating whether to legalize gambling in time for the 2020 Olympics, we look at the other side of the coin — addiction
Events / KANSAI: WHO & WHAT
May 23, 2014

Overnight disaster prep for non-Japanese

Foreign residents can attend overnight training sessions from 4 p.m. June 7 to 10 a.m. the next day in Kyoto to learn how to reduce damage from disasters such as earthquakes.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
May 23, 2014

Baffled foreign tourists get little help on trains

Although Asian tourists are flocking to Japan in greater numbers, many are at a loss in railway stations, where few signs are written in languages other than Japanese and English.
EDITORIALS
May 23, 2014

Reflect on Fukui nuclear ruling

The Fukui District Court's ruling that prohibits the restart of two nuclear power reactors run by Kansai Electric Power Co. challenges the Abe administration's energy policy of relying on nuclear power as a key source of the nation's electricity supply.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 22, 2014

Ryukyu favored to win third title

This season's title chase features three teams that have won 40 or more games, and the winner will be crowned at Ariake Colosseum on Sunday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2014

'Last Vegas'

"Last Vegas" is about as clever as the pun of its title. It's a geriatric riff on "The Hangover" that features four Oscar-winning actors playing to type. Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline play old neighborhood buddies from New York City who get together for a stag party...
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
May 22, 2014

Beating the summer heat

Summer is approaching and people will soon be hunting for something cold to beat the heat. From June 1, the Hilton Tokyo will hold an original unlimited drink plan called Happy Awa (bubble in Japanese, also a pun on hour) at the hotel's St. George's Bar, through September 30.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 22, 2014

Marty Friedman reminds metalheads he hasn't forgotten his roots on 'Inferno'

Former Cacophony/Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman returns with his first solo album of original material in four years, "Inferno," after releasing a series of Japan-only cover albums in which he deconstructed and amped-up J-pop tunes.
EDITORIALS
May 21, 2014

Caring for dementia sufferers

Steps must be taken to minimize hazards for the nation's growing number of elderly people with dementia and to ease the burden on their families.
CULTURE / Music
May 20, 2014

Qrion reaches for softer EDM

Qrion "Sink" (SenSe)
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2014

Rise of aspirational India

The charismatic Narendra Modi will lead a majority government in India, as voters decisively repudiate the politics of dynasty, inheritance, entitlement, corruption and sycophancy.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 17, 2014

Dying for democracy: 1980 Gwangju uprising transformed South Korea

As South Korea marks the 34th anniversary of the Gwangju uprising, we examine the massacre's influence on national identity and the country's struggle for democracy.
CULTURE / Books
May 17, 2014

The Politics Of Dialogic Imagination

"The Politics Of Dialogic Imagination: Power and Popular Culture in Early Modern Japan" attempts to ascertain the relationship that existed between well-known cultural portrayals and the configuration of social order in the late Edo Period (1603-1867). It peels back the layers behind the political effects...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
May 16, 2014

Circus troupe takes anti-nuclear act on road

A circus troupe led by Keiichi Nishida, founder of a street performance and circus training institution in Midori, Gunma Prefecture, has embarked on a tour to call for a nuclear-free Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 15, 2014

Time to get over the 'shock' of aging actresses

"Americans can be strange about aging," said French actress Jeanne Moreau, in a brief interview she gave me back in 2005. She was then at the tail end of her 70s and had just co-starred with French heartthrob Melvil Poupaud in "Le Temps Qui Reste," as his sympathetic but alluring grandmother. As the...
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
May 15, 2014

Eat, drink and be merry at Manpaku festival

A healthy appetite is all you'll need to take to the Manpaku festival at the Green Culture Zone of the Showa Kinen Park (Tachikawa Park) in Tachikawa, western Tokyo. "Manpaku" is a play on the words "manpuku" ("enjoy food to the fullest) and "mankitsu hakurankai," which roughly translates to "enjoying...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 14, 2014

Nagoya hosts works from one of the largest collections in the U.S.

For Malcolm Rogers, the Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), visiting Japan in mid-April had a special resonance. The MFA this year celebrates its 15th anniversary of ties with what is not only its very first sister museum, but also its sole sister museum in Asia: the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / TRAVEL INSIDER
May 13, 2014

High-flying Italian food; SAS offers new meals; jet fuel goes green

High-flying Italian food
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 12, 2014

Bald men get special treatment at new Tokyo pub

Bald is beautiful at a new Tokyo establishment where "follicularly challenged" customers are welcomed with open arms and offered discounts not available to their hairier brethren.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech / ADVANCES IN PROGRESS
May 11, 2014

High-tech Japan jumps on wearable device bandwagon

Japanese firms are jumping into the race to manufacture a new generation of wearable devices that will link people more intimately with the Internet as they grow more dependent on gadgets to manage their lives.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 9, 2014

Women go medieval as Dark Age combat-fest turns politically correct

For the first time, two women are now free to whack each other with swords until one of them falls down in internationally sanctioned competition. This is progress.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
May 9, 2014

Housing bank matches empty properties, renters

Since the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, merged with six towns and villages 10 years ago, the population has grown by 3.4 percent to more than 421,000 people.

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