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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 6, 2014

Kanazawa City: the architecture of tea

One of the first things you see as you exit Kanazawa Station is a giant brass sculpture of a teapot sunken drunkenly into a mound of grass or, depending on your interpretation, tilting to fill a cup of the refreshing green brew the city is noted for. That a municipal piece of art should be dedicated...
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 3, 2014

Leak clouds Apple's shiny image

Apple Inc. has often displayed uncanny timing with its well-orchestrated end-of-year iPhone releases. But the leak of racy celebrity photos in the past few days put the company in the unusual position of having to mend its image just days before a highly anticipated product launch next Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 2, 2014

Modi goes to Japan chasing a foolish crush

It is hard not to suspect naivete in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plan to model India's economy on Japan's postwar achievements. After all, Japan owes much of that economic miracle to America's willingness to open its own markets to Japanese manufacturers while turning a blind eye to Japan's blatantly protectionist trade policies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 2, 2014

Review: Lisa Loeb at Billboard Live

Everyone has probably heard at least one Lisa Loeb song, and most likely it was her debut single "Stay (I Missed You)" — a worldwide hit exactly 20 years ago. Loeb remains thrilled with the song's continued success.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 1, 2014

Farewell to the sun-scorched suffering of another summer

Back in the day, the customary question among Japanese gakusei around this time of year was 'Natsu yasumi du014d datta?' (How was summer vacation?). But that was in the days of no smartphones or Skype, when there was a lot less of this hankering for tsunagari (connectedness).
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 30, 2014

Richard Katz on the failures of 'Voodoo Abenomics'

Richard Katz, editor-in-chief at The Oriental Economist, is the author of "Voodoo Abenomics: Japan's Failed Comeback Plan," an article published in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. Katz went into more detail about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "Abenomics" policy in a recent email interview...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Aug 27, 2014

UFC star Tate prepared to take fight to Nakai

Miesha Tate wants Rin Nakai to remember her after their fight next month. Nakai, who is undefeated (16-0-1), likely already knows all about Tate, a superstar in women's mixed martial arts, but Tate wants a special place in Nakai's world.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 27, 2014

On this island, depopulation isn't the problem — inertia is

There is one thing most people don't realize about this island paradise amid the Seto Inland Sea: that despite many people wanting to move here, none of them can.
MORE SPORTS / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Aug 26, 2014

New NCAA playoff system filled with complex issues

As homespun ex-Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden might say, this U.S. college football season promises to be pretty "dad gum" interesting.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2014

Strong leaders in an increasingly fragile Asia

Stronger leaders are finally in place in fragile Asia — leaders who can deliver domestic reform and economic growth. But if these leaders assert their strength against each other or vis-a-vis the U.S. over security matters, regional stability could be upended.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 26, 2014

Reggae revival in Jamaica recalls golden era of 1970s

The main event at fight night in Kingston, a popular boxing showcase, was hours away, but the crowd at the National Stadium's indoor arena, from the young and hip to the elderly, was already pumped.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 24, 2014

New buildings can take the sunshine out of life

As residents of Japan, most of us probably expect that our right to sunlight is protected by law. However, as reader Y found, that isn't really the case.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 23, 2014

The well-off families who are feeling unwell

We're not living right. It's obvious, though whose fault it is may not be, and what to do about it is certainly not.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 22, 2014

National Guard to withdraw from riot-torn Ferguson as tensions ease

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon ordered the withdrawal on Thursday of National Guard troops from riot-torn Ferguson, where tensions have eased after sometimes violent protests were staged nightly since police killed an unarmed black teenager.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 20, 2014

Dreaming of shoveling snow in high summer

Yeah, I know. The thermometer is shooting for the moon and the humidity makes each stride forward seem more like a breaststroke.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 20, 2014

'Babel' dance speaks volumes

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet have lots in common.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 19, 2014

As Gaza war subsides, a battle over how it is investigated begins

Even before starting work as chairman of a U.N. human rights commission investigating the Gaza war, Canadian law professor William Schabas has been vilified as an apologist for Iran who is incapable of setting aside his perceived anti-Israel bias.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 16, 2014

Punk author Kou Machida on his offbeat samurai story

You wouldn't expect a punk musician to write decent novels, any more than you'd expect a boxer to be good at darning. The talents prized by the former vocation — restlessness, insouciance, hard-wired disregard for authority — don't lend themselves to the rigors of the author's life: all those long,...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2014

What should the U.S. do about Islamic State?

The U.S. lost the Iraq War years ago. The sooner it accepts that there is nothing to be saved there and moves on, the better off it'll be. That includes refraining from attacking the Islamic State.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 15, 2014

GPIF law change may be shelved, Kihara says

A law to transform how the world's biggest pension fund is run can wait and may even be shelved, said a ruling party official, contradicting his deputy policy chief who called it the top priority.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Aug 12, 2014

Togashi shining for Japan after Summer League success

Asked if he's gotten noticed by ordinary people on the street more often than before, point guard Yuki Togashi replied with a mild smile, saying, "Not so much."
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2014

Obama should follow Nixon's lead and do the right thing

Richard M. Nixon's White House efforts to cover up the Watergate scandal in 1972 look positively penny-ante compared to President Barack Obama's coverup of government-approved torture 40 years later.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2014

Never trust a realist when it comes to politicians

If you're looking for one big reason the U.S. seems to be on the wrong track, try the marginalization of idealism that coincided with the collapse of the peace movement and the American Left at the end of the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Aug 11, 2014

Tokyo: Which famous person have you been compared to?

Don't let it go to your head, but as a foreigner in Japan, there's no escaping those often-flattering comparisons to famous faces.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 9, 2014

Okinawa: pocket of resistance

The battle over Henoko Bay looks set to challenge the power of the archipelago's protest movement.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Aug 6, 2014

Think you've got rights as a foreigner in Japan? Well, it's complicated

If you imagine paying taxes in Japan entitles you to welfare, you may want to take a seat.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 6, 2014

Canadian couple held in China caught in political battle, son says

The son of a Canadian couple detained in China over spying allegations said Tuesday his parents did not attempt to obtain military secrets and have been caught instead by the increasingly tense relations between Ottawa and Beijing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 2, 2014

Hot in the city: scorching Kumagaya

Exploring new ways of dealing with the heat from a city in Saitama that certainly knows a thing or two about keeping cool

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb