Search - author

 
 
WORLD
Dec 18, 2014

Cuba detente a smokin' deal? Close, but no cigar

American cigar smokers anxiously flicked their lacquered lighters this morning when news broke that President Barack Obama would be easing the decades-old restrictions on Cuban travel and goods. Since 1962, Cuba's legendary cigars have been banned from the shelves of American tobacconists and many travelers...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 17, 2014

A Promise: 'It's hard to care about these doomed lovers'

'A Promise" seeks to be an intensely intimate portrait of repressed desire; a European "In The Mood For Love" set in pre-Great War Germany, with enough attentive butlers, elegant interiors and Sunday-finest promenades to make any Merchant-Ivory fan swoon.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 16, 2014

Mosquito-borne dengue targeted by antibody with hope for vaccine

Scientists have discovered new antibodies that neutralize viruses that cause dengue, potentially putting a universal vaccine within reach for a mosquito-borne illness that strikes an estimated 400 million people a year.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2014

Indonesia, Thailand: rising and falling stars

At the moment, no spot on our troubled planet offers a better illustration of the dynamic of citizen participation in politics than Southeast Asia, with triumphant Indonesia and tragic Thailand.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2014

Time to stop viewing torture as a policy option

President Barack Obama's refusal to enforce an unequivocal prohibition against unauthorized interrogation techniques means that torture effectively remains a U.S. policy option rather than a criminal offense.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 11, 2014

Armies ready for battle in final 'Hobbit' film

There's a scene in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill: Volume 2" where Michael Madsen's Budd character asks Daryl Hannah's Elle: "Now you ain't gonna hafta face your enemy on the battlefield no more, which 'R' are you filled with: relief or regret?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 10, 2014

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies: 'initial exhilaration gives way to fatigue'

On the one hand, we have the fanboys, for whom "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" will be the "Best. Film. Ever.," as director Peter Jackson delivers a ginormously action-packed finale to his second Middle Earth trilogy. Kicking things off with a fire-breathing dragon razing the town of Lakewood,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 10, 2014

Gone Girl: 'Misogynistic or a pointed satire of the illusions underlying some marriages?'

The Bible tells us that Elijah came unto the people and asked, "How long halt ye between two opinions?" David Fincher came forth and spake: "One hour and five minutes." Which is precisely how long he keeps us guessing in his new murder mystery "Gone Girl." Is Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) a disgruntled husband...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 10, 2014

Get festive with a legend at Matsuyama's 'Nutcracker'

Christmas in the ballet world means "The Nutcracker," and fans in Japan can take their pick from numerous productions of this mistle-toed magic originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov and premiered at the Marinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on Dec. 18, 1892, with music by Pyotr Ilyich...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 9, 2014

Jordan could have begun career with different team

This is the second installment from Hall of Fame writer Sam Smith's new book "There Is No Next: NBA Legends on the Legacy of Michael Jordan."
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 9, 2014

Japan now at a crossroads

Japan has the opportunity in the Dec. 14 election to break away from its past obsession with measuring GDP growth. Voters can change the national scorecard to a system-wide view of infrastructural assets and quality of life.
WORLD
Dec 9, 2014

Rockefeller's memory endures at Aleppo hotel as fighting intensifies

The Baron Hotel in the battered Syrian city of Aleppo is packed with memories for owner Armen Mazloumian that bullets and bombs can never destroy.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2014

Xi's cultural revolution looks doomed to fail

China's government has just reserved the right to send film and television actors, directors, writers and producers on all-expenses-paid, involuntary, 30-day sabbaticals to rural mining sites, border areas, and other remote locations.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 7, 2014

'Game of drones' draws us toward apocalypse

Drone technology is relatively simple and cheap to acquire — which is why more than 70 countries, plus nonstate actors like Hezbollah, have combat drones. And that should worry Americans.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 6, 2014

E-cigarettes could prime brain for harder drugs

Like conventional cigarettes, electronic cigarettes may function as a "gateway drug" that can prime the brain to be more receptive to harder drugs, U.S. researchers recently announced.
Japan Times
Places
Dec 6, 2014

Day trips from Tokyo

Tokyo has plenty to offer to visitors and residents, but for those times when you need something different, something slower, something roomier, here are few select days trips out of Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 5, 2014

Japan's media needs to act as a watchdog, not a lapdog

Cozy relationships between Japan's mainstream media and politicians have helped to enable much of the cronyism, irresponsible behavior and policy drift that the prime minister is supposedly trying to eradicate.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2014

Islamic State's siren call for Western Muslims

It is through increased confidence and conviction, rather than bland tolerance, that democratic societies can counter the appeal of fanatical causes like Islamic State and their charismatic leaders.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2014

U.S. drones kill 28 innocents for every 'bad guy'

Every single day, U.S. drone aircraft are stalking and killing innocent people in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere — all in the name of every American.
COMMENTARY
Dec 5, 2014

The pope has a point in denouncing materialism

Pope Francis finds himself ranged against a pitilessly Darwinian outlook in Europe, which, maintained by self-interested political and business elites, seems to go unexamined by apathetic voters.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2014

U.K.'s immigration distraction

If the British public truly opposes immigration, they are probably referring to non-EU immigration.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2014

Putin's risky gamble on a weakening ruble

Russian President Vladimir Putin is betting Russians will weather worsening economic conditions, if only because the cost of revolt is so high.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 2, 2014

Ishin no To is fighting for its political life

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), co-headed by populist Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, captured 54 seats in the December 2012 Lower House election, making it, and him, national political forces.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 2, 2014

HIV may evolve to cause AIDS less frequently

HIV may be evolving to become less aggressive, suggesting that one day it may infect humans without causing AIDS.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2014

Putin makes a big bet on the French far right

A large Russian loan to Marine Le Pen's far-right party is one more reason for France's mainstream parties to get their act together and keep the National Front from making it big.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2014

Tibet core to Sino-Indian ties

Tibet historically was the buffer that separated the Chinese and Indian civilizations. Ever since Communist China, in one of its first acts, gobbled up that buffer with India, Tibet has remained the core matter with India.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 29, 2014

Newspapers take sides on 'Abenomics'

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's dissolution of the Diet has become another point of contention between right- and left-leaning entities in Japan. One of the more revealing responses involved a website set up by a member of a nonprofit organization called Bokura no Ippo ga Nihon wo Kaeru (Our One Step Will...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2014

EU should encourage Ukraine's aspirations

The European Union should strive to turn Ukraine into a success story that can serve as an example for Russians who now see no alternative to Vladimir Putin.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Nov 28, 2014

Cool Japan sets its sights on Southeast Asia

A full year and a half has passed since the Japanese government gave its final approval for the Cool Japan Fund — a 20-year, public-private entity aimed at spreading Japan's cultural appeal overseas — the official soft-power push that some bureaucrats and academics had been advocating for at least...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2014

South China Sea competition takes a toll on reefs

Competing territorial claims and rogue fishermen are taking a toll on the South China Sea's coral reefs.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes