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JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Feb 22, 2015

Where's the beef? Kyoto looks to carve out global niche

The quintessential tourist image of Kyoto cuisine is one of a refined "bento" (boxed lunch) containing all sorts of small treats, but heavy on fish, tofu and vegetables, with much attention devoted to presentation and tastes that are sublime, but not overpowering. Certain Kyoto vegetables like "kujo...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Feb 21, 2015

'You should never hide negative information': Edano

At 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano was sitting in an Upper House committee along with then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his Cabinet. Without warning, the room they had gathered in began to shake violently, and looks of concern intensified on lawmakers' faces. Edano...
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 18, 2015

Tougher times awaiting Abe?

Times are getting tougher for Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's right-hand man.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 18, 2015

'Mercury Fur' exposes a caring kind of depravity

After the premiere of "Mercury Fur" at Theatre Tram in Tokyo's lively Sangenjaya district this month, Issey Takahashi, who stars in that dystopian 2005 play by Philip Ridley, declared: "I think this is a very dark prophecy, but as I was acting my character Elliot today, I also felt it's a story of hope...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2015

The world is less dangerous than we imagine

The world is a dangerous place and can be even more so by making errors bred by unwarranted pessimism.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Feb 15, 2015

Iwate's Oketani earns 300th career victory

When the bj-league tipped off in the fall of 2005, Dai Oketani was working as an assistant under Oita HeatDevils head coach Jawann Oldham, a former NBA big man.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Feb 12, 2015

Shimane showing surprising improvement

Despite a disastrous start this season, the Shimane Susanoo Magic won't challenge the Takamatsu Five Arrows' league record of 50 losses.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Feb 12, 2015

Tyson-Douglas anniversary brings back mixed emotions

For MAS, it was the best — and worst — of times.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 11, 2015

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: 'a compelling and ambitious five-hour love story'

'The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby" is a sprawling, three-part love story opening on Valentine's Day that wraps itself around the senses like a thick curtain. Director Ned Benson is trying to do something radically different as he takes us through a single love story told from three different perspectives:...
WORLD
Feb 11, 2015

Child murders in Cote d'Ivoire spark fears of pre-election ritual killings, organ trade

Nina rarely ventures outside of her house in Cote d'Ivoire's commercial capital, Abidjan, since her 5-year-old son, Benitier, was kidnapped and mutilated in November. She won't let her oldest son go to school.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Feb 10, 2015

Horiguchi lands UFC flyweight title shot against Johnson

Several years ago, Kyoji Horiguchi went basically straight from high school to the gym, where he began training with the Krazy Bees MMA team, soon finding himself under the wing of Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto, one of Japan's biggest MMA stars. In a few weeks' time, Horiguchi will get the chance of the lifetime,...
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 7, 2015

Breaking down the barriers: Can Tokyo improve access for people with disabilities?

In the summer of 2020, Tokyo will once again host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. It's the first time the Paralympics will be hosted by a city for the second time.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Feb 5, 2015

India bets on U.S. aircraft carrier technology

India wants to use state-of-the-art U.S. technology to boost the range and potency of a planned aircraft carrier, defense sources said, a move that would tie their arms programs closer together and counter China's military influence in the region.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 4, 2015

Malakhov brings borscht to ballet

"In my free time when I'm not taking classes or conducting rehearsals, I like to go to theaters and museums — or just go shopping and visit different parts of the city," Vladimir Malakhov, The Tokyo Ballet's new artistic adviser explained during our recent Japan Times interview.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 3, 2015

Negicco's new album turns the onion idols into Shibuya-kei's new hope

The crowd at the sold-out Liquidroom show furiously pumps glowsticks shaped like green onions in time with the beat coming out of the venue's sound system. They scream when three young women appear, and the energy only grows as the first song of the night gets rolling. It gets especially loud when they...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 3, 2015

Don Matsuo to take solo experiences into Zoobombs' new act

In September 2013, weeks away from celebrating their 20th anniversary, Tokyo rock act Zoobombs announced they were disbanding. The group's leader, guitarist and vocalist Don Matsuo, and his wife, Zoobombs' keyboardist Matta, went on to form a new group called The Randolf. However, that project was short-lived...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 31, 2015

Call to arms: Hunters dwindle as animal numbers explode

Asians who crossed land bridges into today's Ryukyu Islands more than 30,000 years ago encountered plenty of game. In addition to deer and boar, they hunted elephant and steppe bison until the larger mammals were hunted to extinction in Japan about 17,000 years ago.
Japan Times
SPORTS
Jan 31, 2015

Japan Coaches' Awards recognize top coaches from throughout the nation

Sometimes, or perhaps many times, the success of athletes and sports teams can be achieved with an enormous amount of effort provided by those who give them instructions and strategies — coaches.
Japan Times
SPORTS / NOTES ON A SCORECARD
Jan 30, 2015

No reason for fans to despair over Nishikori's defeat

What a difference three years makes.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 29, 2015

Marlins glad to add Ichiro

Ichiro Suzuki sipped green tea, elicited a few laughs and turned the tables on a media member with three questions of his own during his introductory news conference with the Miami Marlins.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 29, 2015

Scott delivers epic tale with 'Exodus'

While promoting his new film "Exodus: Gods and Kings," Christian Bale referred to his character, Moses, as "likely schizophrenic" and "one of the most barbaric individuals that I ever read about in my life."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2015

Say goodnight to the bad guy: The cost of making enemies in the age of globalized cinema

In the summer of 2010, Hollywood studio MGM had the film "Red Dawn" in the bag and ready for release. There was one little problem, though: The movie — a remake of the 1984 film of the same name, a Cold War paranoid-fantasy about a Soviet invasion of America — had rebooted itself by imagining a more...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2015

Washington suffers from a tolerance problem

For the next two years, the chances are good that the U.S. government will be almost completely paralyzed.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jan 27, 2015

Kuwata's left jab has nothing on the politics of ad money

If this column is going to be about one thing in 2015, it will be politics in music.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBA / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 27, 2015

Shameful practice of resting healthy players must end

"Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing them."
COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jan 26, 2015

Sex slave wrangling misses human picture

When a dispute arises between the South Korea and Japan, such as the 'comfort women' controversy, the South Koreans who most fiercely criticize Japan are 'liberals' while the Japanese who criticize South Korea are 'conservative rightists.'
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2015

Are the poor better off than King Louis XIV?

To argue that common folk live better now than royalty did in earlier times is a fatuous and politically inspired attempt to minimize the issue of income inequality.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 24, 2015

Can the DPJ reinvigorate Japanese democracy?

Columbia University's Gerald Curtis recently wrote, "It is a sad commentary on Japan's politics that after nearly 70 years of democracy a competitive party system has all but disintegrated."

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers