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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2016

Bob Dylan and the wind of literary idiocy

The 'Bard of Hibbing' is a poetico-musical revolution in one man and one body of work. It is this tour de force that the Nobel committee has recognized in its selection.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 19, 2016

There's always drama at home

The most intriguing titles at this year's TIFF celebrate geographical diversity while homing in on social issues of modern life. Whether the characters are in Brazil or Croatia or Japan, or the filmmakers are from Romania, India or China, their stories feature the struggles of everyday people, some of...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 18, 2016

China's real 'House of Cards': TV series unveils corruption excesses

Chinese state television is airing a documentary series on President Xi Jinping's signature anti-corruption campaign in prime time this week, unveiling new footage and salacious details of high-profile corruption cases ahead of a key Communist Party meeting.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 14, 2016

Thai Crown set to pass to prince less revered than his father

Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn has been anointed Thailand's next monarch following his father's death, an elevation that would see him become the 10th king in the Chakri Dynasty and inherit control of a fortune that runs to the tens of billions.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 13, 2016

Liberal Party is reborn in Seikatsu no To rebranding ahead of possible election

Seikatsu no To (People's Life Party) has rebranded itself as the Liberal Party, adopting the name of a recently defunct conservative party in a bid to lure right-of-center voters away from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Oct 7, 2016

Sarasa Nishijin: A curious cafe in the bones of an old bathhouse

Sarasa Nishijin is a sentō (bathhouse) — well, it used to be. But using the past tense here belies how much of its old spirit still lives on. The waters may have drained away — replaced by sofas, tables, chairs and people lounging about fully clothed — but the sentō's old life is revealed in...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Oct 5, 2016

Fury opens up about cocaine use

Britain's world heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury has been drinking and using cocaine to help him deal with depression, he told Rolling Stone magazine in an interview released on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2016

Anyone want a one-way ticket to Mars?

Conditions for colonists on Mars will be far tougher than any faced by their counterparts in the Age of Exploration.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 30, 2016

From bit actor ‘bum’ to managing $2.7 billion Japanese fund

Takahiro Kusakari went from being a self-described bum getting by on bit-part acting roles in Tokyo to calling the shots at a $2.7 billion stock fund.
BUSINESS
Sep 29, 2016

Opaque Chinese insurers trail Japanese rivals in hunt for U.S. deals

The growth ambitions of China's insurers could be hindered by some of the companies' opaque structures when they pursue acquisitions in international markets, a banker at Citigroup Inc. said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Sep 24, 2016

Multimedia producer Randall Murchison: 'Remain thankful for whatever makes you wiser'

Media coordinator on balancing art and industry.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 21, 2016

Body image and the foreign female in Japan: survey shows frustration with one-size-fits-all thinking

Survey of nearly 600 women reveals that many feel society places pressure on them to meet narrow Japanese definition of beauty.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 17, 2016

'Elderly terrorists' and 'hidden poverty' — Japan's new normal?

It's hard to read Spa! magazine without feeling that something is dreadfully wrong with Japan. Week after week, it pursues themes that soon grow familiar: hopeless poverty, pointless toil, unrelieved loneliness. In just one issue this month (Sept. 6) it tackles, in separate articles, "hidden poverty,"...
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.

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