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LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 15, 2017

Kamiko: Growing paper clothes in rural Japan

A small community in Miyagi Prefecture is struggling to continue making one of its most-famous craft exports — Shiroishi handmade paper and paper clothes
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jul 15, 2017

Harsh lessons learned from Zen meditation

The monk Dogen lived in dreadful times. A revolution culminating in 1185 had brought to power warriors who for centuries had served perhaps the most unwar-like aristocracy in world history, the effete but highly cultured ladies and gentlemen of the Heian Period (794-1185). Their day was done. They were...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2017

Japanese recount memories of 'noble' Liu

Acquaintances of Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo recall a noble and friendly man who dedicated his life to promoting democratic reform and human rights in China.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 12, 2017

'Alley Cat': Hideo Sakaki delivers a fresh take on the buddy movie

In Japanese films, a lot of what used to be considered extreme is now routine. Geysers of blood and flying body parts may still thrill fanboys, but to me that sort of play violence has become about as exciting as the spin cycle.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jul 9, 2017

Tributes to Jean Pearce, who shaped the foreign community's experience of Japan

Jean Pearce, who for decades helped Japan's foreign community feel more at home in their adopted country through her columns in The Japan Times, passed away peacefully on June 14 at the age of 96 in Washington, D.C.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Jul 8, 2017

Leading cancer researcher Yusuke Nakamura pursues answers

Yusuke Nakamura could easily have had a long, successful career as a surgeon in Japan, but he isn't the kind of person who is satisfied with unanswered questions.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2017

Incident in Germany raises issues over Thai king's security

An air gun attack on King Vajiralongkorn in Germany last month raises questions about the adequacy of the security measures surrounding the Thai monarch.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jun 29, 2017

Bad medicine: Philippine police use hospitals to hide drug war killings

The residents of Old Balara hid in their homes when gunfire erupted in their Manila district last September. They didn't see the police operation that killed seven drug suspects that night.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2017

Issey Ogata finds wonderland in Riga in 'Magic Kimono'

Issey Ogata has built his career on virtuoso one-man theater shows in which he changes characters, from drunken salaryman to female fishmonger, as easily as other actors change clothes, while amusing audiences and winning critical accolades with sui generis portrayals that dig down to universal human...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2017

Global needs on mental health remain unmet

On a global scale, the magnitude of undiagnosed and unaddressed mental health problems remains high.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Jun 25, 2017

One woman's suicide shines a harsh light on the plight of Japan's doctors

I think many people hold the following preconceived notions of what it means to be a physician. Doctors, we believe, are:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Jun 17, 2017

Performance artist Eiko Otake is a stranger in New York

Move to rest, sleep, and dream. Move to pass time, bloom, and linger.' These are the opening lines of performing artist Eiko Otake's 'Delicious Movement Manifesto.'
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.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years