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Reader Mail
Sep 16, 2016

Mother Teresa's enduring message

The news that Mother Teresa was made a saint Sept. 4 by the pope reminded me of her speech in Sendai and had me pondering her life as well.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 13, 2016

Why burkini bans are unwise

Using bans to force immigrants to assimilate isn't the best way to integrate them into mainstream society.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 7, 2016

'Bittersweet': A Henry Higgins of vegetarianism

The idea of "love" in Japan used to be defined by literature until manga came along and changed the scenery. Now, almost everyone dips into manga to learn the ropes, and often that process starts as early as the first grade. My niece was just 6 years old when she was poring through "Detective Conan"...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2016

Polyglot U.S.-born comic sheds cloak, dagger for shtick

For Reina Saiki, 28, the world is her oyster.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Aug 24, 2016

Beyond silence: lessons learned from a Japanese spouse

You see it often in Tokyo: the attentive Japanese woman and the Western man filling silence. In fact, a lot of them end up married, sharing a house and 1,000 meals, albeit hardly a life of the mind.
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2016

War looms again in South Sudan

South Sudan will only realize lasting peace when all its people regardless of ethnicity feel that they are full citizens with equal rights.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 20, 2016

Inside Japan's racehorse breeding empire

Harry Sweeney has his hand up a horse's backside. The mare looks put out by this intrusion. Her eyes dart about nervously and she shifts her weight before accepting five thick human digits probing her insides. After feeling the uterus and the swelling of the ovaries, Sweeney's arm, slick with mucus and...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Aug 17, 2016

Sex trade a shaky safety net for Japan's working-poor women

For the past six years, 47-year-old single mother Kasumi Endo has lived a double life.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 13, 2016

The lure of Japan's mysterious ruins

Abandoned sites offer explorers a numinous mix of history, mortality and a sense of the passage of time
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 10, 2016

'Rudolph the Black Cat': Curiosity helps this little black cat

Many Japanese films for kids are entries in venerable anime series belonging to multiplatform franchises. To their target audience they are pre-sold and, in their formulas, pre-seen. And that audience is by and large domestic. One big exception is "Stand By Me Doraemon," a 3-D CG anime starring a blue...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 6, 2016

A contrary tale of two towns in Tohoku

The sea in Tohoku is beautiful and cruel. A vast mass that owns the horizon, it shimmers in the sun, abundant and giving, like a mother that charms and nurtures. However, it is also a primeval force, a deep darkness that may swell up in rage and devour its charges.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Aug 3, 2016

Foreign wives provide insight into temple lives

Japan's temples are an integral part of the country's traditional culture. For the majority of us, visits are usually limited to specific events such as New Year's Eve, or perhaps as part of a sightseeing agenda if the temple is a famous one. The lives of some Japanese, however, still revolve around...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Aug 2, 2016

Paul Smith has earned his stripes

Colorful and cluttered, the office bursts with paraphernalia, from stacked bicycles and piles of books on designer chairs to an apple-green iMac, a futuristic record player and a red Snoopy phone on the rosewood desk.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 29, 2016

FDA acts to protect Florida blood supply amid Zika scare, halts donations

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has ordered blood banks in Florida's two most densely populated counties to stop collecting blood as health officials determine whether Zika has begun transmission in the continental United States.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 28, 2016

Our favorite monster returns to terrorize Japan in 'Shin Godzilla'

After 12 years in storage (or on Monster Island) a Japanese Godzilla is roaring again. Toho film studios has revived the world's favorite atomic-breathed monster in "Shin Godzilla," which is set for nationwide release today.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 23, 2016

Is the eel industry on the slippery slope to extinction?

Dwindling domestic population threatens a centuries-old tradition.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 23, 2016

Wandering the 'real Japan': Following the far-north footsteps of Alan Booth

Renowned travel writer Bruce Chatwin believed passionately in the importance of walking in the wild. The problems of humanity, he contended, were borne out of people being settled and static.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jul 17, 2016

Feeling despair from a distance as black lives taken

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it — always." — Mahatma Gandhi
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2016

Tokyo voters seek out corruption-free governor

As the Tokyo gubernatorial election kicked off Thursday, voters said they were looking for a clean, corruption-free governor after the last two — Naoki Inose and Yoichi Masuzoe — resigned over money scandals.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Jul 9, 2016

Test the white waters this summer

As much as I love Japan's major cities, I quite enjoy leaving them as well. Places like Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto have played crucial roles in my family's life, but it has been equally important for the four of us to get out of town and back in touch with the natural world. Now that summer is in full swing,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 9, 2016

Baron Raimund von Stillfried: The photographer who invented Japan

To many in the West, Japan is an exotic country, seen through the distorting lens of tourist cliches: cherry blossoms, geisha, samurai, kamikaze. In that sense, little has changed since the Meiji Era (1868-1912), when Japan was first promoted abroad as a sort of Oriental theme park.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2016

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s humble nobility

Elie Wiesel set himself just one task: to become the cenotaph of his countless mates in the death camps.
WORLD / Society
Jul 4, 2016

Some 20% of Western Australian Aboriginal kids have no birth record

Nearly 1 in 5 Aboriginal children born in Western Australia has no birth documents with most unregistered children born to teenage mothers and facing further social disadvantage later in life, research showed on Sunday.

Longform

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