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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 7, 2017

'20th Century Women': Smoke signals from the late 1970s

American culture in the mid-20th century begs a multitude of descriptions, but if I had to sum it up in one word, it would probably be "smoking." People chain-smoked through the Vietnam protests, Watergate scandal, Stonewall riots and innumerable other events, both historic and mundane.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 7, 2017

'To Each His Own': Every wage slave needs a friend like this, but who is he?

Izuru Narushima's 'To Each His Own' is a serious treatment of the theme of 'black companies' that flirts with fantasy in its first half but shades to heart-warming melodrama in its second.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Jun 3, 2017

Takashi Miyazaki: Food ambassador to Ireland

Chef Takashi Miyazaki has a Cork accent.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2017

Coming to grips with the terrorist mind

Responses to terrorism must not undermine the rule of law and democratic principles of tolerance that lie at the heart of Western traditions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 31, 2017

Love comes as a light in the dark in 'Radiance'

'Radiance,' winner of the Ecumenical Prize at Cannes, is being promoted as a love story, but director-scriptwriter Naomi Kawase has more on her mind than getting her age-inappropriate pair into a clinch.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2017

A Leiter shade of New York

Mix up Miles Davis, some French post-impressionism, Max Ernst, haiku by Matsuo Basho, experimental scores of Morton Feldman, Cubism, Utamaro shunga (erotic art) and Hokusai ukiyo-e, plus some Norman Rockwell, Mark Rothko and Franz Kline. Steep for 60-odd years. Saul Leiter's work is all that, but also...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
May 27, 2017

Kyoko Sato: Curator inspired by New York's artistic energy

Kyoko Sato hit bottom soon after arriving in New York in 2002 to be with the man who was to become her husband (since divorced). "I had been able to work freely in Japanese society, so I really suffered when I came (to the States) since I couldn't do that anymore," she says. "I had really loved my job...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / A MATTER OF HEALTH
May 24, 2017

Experts say Japan should examine male infertility amid falling birthrate

In mid-December, when news emerged that the number of newborn babies in Japan in 2016 would likely fall below 1 million for the first time since the government started collecting data in 1899, it sparked a renewed debate on how to reverse the downtrend in the fertility rate.
JAPAN / Society
May 13, 2017

In Fukushima, a land where few return

The evacuation orders for most of the village of Iitate have been lifted. But where are the people?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
May 13, 2017

Designer Yuri Suzuki chases his dreams through sound

As a boy in the 1980s, Yuri Suzuki fell under the spell of video games and his father's record collection. The family home was in bustling Shibuya Ward, near the border with Shinjuku, and the influence of global cultures within its walls was strong.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 13, 2017

How the lost recipe of Hiroe Tanaka's dying father made her a millionaire

When Hiroe Tanaka's father died, he left behind something that would change her life: a recipe for fried meat on a stick. It was an act of love. His daughter adored the Japanese street food known as kushikatsu, and he'd spent endless hours working out how to make it just right.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
May 12, 2017

Macron win seen ending Japan's record sale of French bonds

Like any good love affair, it has had its ups and downs.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 12, 2017

Siblings retrace role of Japanese diplomat in mother's escape from Holocaust

Tracing the path of their mother, who escaped the Holocaust with help from some defiant Japanese, New Yorkers Deborah and Shelley Reed experienced myriad emotions on their first visit to Japan during the peak cherry blossom season last month.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2017

History uprooted in Thailand

The theft of a historic plaque in Bangkok may have given new life to pro-democracy forces.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 1, 2017

Three years after Japan signed Hague, parents who abduct still win

Despite winning return orders in court, foreign fathers are treated like offenders.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Apr 30, 2017

Political risk scares away Japanese investors in French bonds

Japanese investors, traditionally among France's most loyal lenders, are not yet convinced that French political risks have faded and are staying away from buying the country's bonds.
JAPAN / History
Apr 29, 2017

Power politics: Japan's most popular political platforms

Looking back at some of the political platforms that have been heavily endorsed by voters over the past century in a bid to predict where the country might be headed under the 'third generation' of postwar Japanese.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Apr 29, 2017

Professional cyclist Mayuko Hagiwara: 'Challenge yourself as much as possible'

Wiggle High5 rider on determination and the power of teamwork.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 27, 2017

All Shizuoka's a stage for SPAC's theater festival

At a recent news conference, Satoshi Miyagi, the artistic director of Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC), gave notice of an imminent invasion — by girigirijin.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 25, 2017

When high achievement is a pyrrhic victory

The results of tests of international competition have long been the sole basis for ranking a country's schools, but these tests fail to provide a complete picture.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 22, 2017

In shadow of Chinese development, Philippines seeks upgrade for patriots living on remote isle

If the Filipinos on the remote South China Sea island of Thitu had binoculars, they might just be envious of how their neighbors on the next island live.
LIFE / Language / NEWS IN NIHONGO
Apr 10, 2017

1 in 4 Japanese remain unmarried until age 50

Nearly 1 in 4 men and 1 in 7 women had remained unmarried, in a sign that people in Japan are increasingly hesitant to tie the knot.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Apr 10, 2017

Robotics whiz envisions prosthetic limbs for all

A high school teacher in a black coat enters the classroom. "Good morning," he says to the students before starting his lecture, with his right hand busily scribbling something on a blackboard and his left holding a physics textbook.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 7, 2017

Of hidden Christians and electric cars on the Goto Islands

I was promised that my journey to Fukue — the largest of the Goto Islands west of Kyushu — would be an uneventful one. My berth, a simple bunk with a matt screen for privacy, was comfortable, and the gentle rocking of the ferry as it crossed the Genkai Sea, combined with a midnight departure, sent...

Longform

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