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Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 21, 2013

PlayStation 4 to get jump in U.S.

Sony Corp. will start selling the PlayStation 4 in North America on Nov. 15, moving to obtain an early advantage in the largest video game market against Microsoft Corp.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 19, 2013

Samsung, Sony set pre-emptive strikes

Samsung Electronics Co. and Sony Corp. reportedly plan to unveil new devices next month as two of Asia's biggest technology companies try to showcase their products before Apple Inc. releases new iPhones and iPads.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 18, 2013

Sony to release flagship Xperia smartphone in September: sources

Sony Corp. will launch a flagship smartphone for its Xperia brand next month that features imaging technology developed for its cameras and ultrahigh definition TVs, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 18, 2013

A drone of your own in the near future?

Kevin Good thought there was an 80 percent chance he could successfully deliver his brother's wedding rings with a drone.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 18, 2013

Surveillance prompts creation of covert clothing

At the Pentagon and CIA, they are known as "countermeasures," the jargony adaptation of Newton's Third Law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2013

Newspaper rescue defines today's good citizen

It would appear that Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos wants less to own The Washington Post than to set its values free financially, for at least a generation or two.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 17, 2013

Trekking back in time among Okinawa's fronded wonders

A heavy fog hangs around the forested area of Yambaru in the northern hills of Okinawa. On this rainy-season morning in June, there's a steady dripping all around, though what I can see of the sky is cloudless. Instead, this "rain" is droplets that the trees have garnered into their canopies from...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 16, 2013

Deadly postwar bomb blast almost forgotten

On Sept. 5, 1945, weeks after World War II had ended, an unexploded bomb went off on the coast of the Otani district in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, killing seven children.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 16, 2013

Flying reptiles that weren't so scary after all

For most of us, "pterodactyls" are large, vicious and ugly gargoyles with leathery wings and jaws lined with savage teeth, the sort of disreputable brutes we find in Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World," the "Jurassic Park" franchise — even a recent episode of "Doctor Who."
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Aug 12, 2013

The perennial 'half, bi or double?' debate rolls on

Confounding 'half' stereotypes
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Aug 12, 2013

MLB chatter sure to increase as Tanaka dominates in NPB

It was Friday morning in Japan when Detroit Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer earned his 17th win of the MLB season.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 9, 2013

Nagoya landlord-envoy keeps Pacific island state in public eye

Passengers on the Tokaido Shinkansen can see the office sign for the state of Ngeremlengui in the Republic of Palau as the train rolls through Nagoya.
CULTURE / Music / JAZZ NOTES
Aug 7, 2013

Sumida Fest offers newcomers a dip into the jazz scene

Jazz accounts for around 5 percent of total recorded music sales in Japan, but despite that the genre is ubiquitous in cities nationwide.
PRESS / Corporate Trends
Aug 7, 2013

New pricing plans for The Japan Times / International New York Times; details of renewed product lineup

In March this year, The Japan Times announced a publishing agreement with the New York Times Company that will see its daily newspaper, "The Japan Times" packaged with the "International New York Times" in the Japan market commencing with the Oct. 16 issue. The new combined newspaper will be called "The...
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Aug 3, 2013

Is new yakuza journal good news for Japan?

If you're a well-connected Japanese gangster, you now have your own newspaper to keep you abreast of underworld life. Another perk of the job.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2013

Obsessing over inequality threatens capitalism

It's wrong to see income gains at the top as proof of U.S. capitalism's ingrained wickedness, or to forget that clumsy intervention might affect everybody else's income.
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 2, 2013

Salesman sets out to prevent inheritance fights

As an insurance salesman in Tsushima, Aichi Prefecture, Hisao Ito, 55, has seen times when family members and relatives fight over inheritances.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2013

'Kurenai no Buta (Porco Rosso)'

Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 30, 2013

Fairley tries to avoid spoilers but it's all part of the game

The standard opening line when speaking to someone about the TV series "Game of Thrones" basically amounts to a spoiler alert.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2013

Right royal load of parochial hot air

BBC World television coverage of the birth of the new British prince, including the mindless prattling and cooing about what he would look like, was a disgrace.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 29, 2013

There is more to my son than the fact he's a 'half'

For foreign residents, having a child in Japan can be a daunting prospect. Going to the hospital and trying to figure out what the doctor is saying in complex Japanese medical terms is just one of myriad trials.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jul 27, 2013

Log-jamming in Shin Kiba

Last month, readers of this column found me frolicking in the sawdust and lumberyards of Shin Kiba — meaning "New Wood Place" — which arose on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay in the 1970s when the city's timber businesses were moved there from their traditional home in nearby Kiba to make way for rapid...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 27, 2013

Story of return to bachelorhood provides vicarious experience

'The difficult thing with a column," the late Margaret Thatcher once told the journalist Jenny McCartney, "is thinking of something new to say every week." Yes, indeed.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jul 26, 2013

Nagoya commuters get their cycle on

Nagoya is seeing a growing number of "tsukinists," a term coined for those who commute to work by bicycle, pointing to the public's higher awareness of environmental and personal health issues.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jul 25, 2013

Okinawans know how to beat the heat

Now that most of Japan is in the midst of a hot, sweltering summer, it's a good time to take a look at the traditional cuisine of a part of the country that lives with warm weather throughout the year: Okinawa.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 24, 2013

Supergroup Muddy Apes get album out just in time to rock Fuji

From the beginning, rock act Muddy Apes set a lofty goal for themselves.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2013

Letting the changes out at the beach

A visit to a beach in southern Europe reveals a gender divide as well as a physical laissez-faire that occurs when people have real things to worry about.

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