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Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2017

Iwate Prefecture introduces quirky signs and other initiatives to lure foreign visitors

Struggling to attract foreign visitors, Iwate Prefecture has embarked on a charm offensive using quirky signs and other techniques to endear tourists to the far-flung region.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 7, 2017

U.S. patients could end up paying the price if travel ban bars foreign doctors, Japanese researcher says

U.S. President Donald Trump's travel ban for citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries could end up impairing the health of Americans, according to a new study led by a Harvard University-based Japanese researcher.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2017

Venture brings freshest fish to cities, more money for fishermen

Ryohei Nomoto wants to put fresher sashimi on your plate, and more money in the wallets of Japan's struggling fishermen.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 4, 2017

What's life without a sip and a song?

First of all, I'd like to thank so many readers for your kind messages to me over the past two months. I raise a toast to all of you.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 3, 2017

Yakitori Imai: A new grill pairs tradition with ambience

What better way to mark the start of this new lunar year than with yakitori? It's the Year of the Fire Rooster, so that calls for some good skewers — prime jidori chicken, of course, carefully prepared over proper charcoal. At Yakitori Imai that's exactly what you get, in the most stylish of settings....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 3, 2017

Hotaru: Tokyo's first and only sake brew-pub

Uchi-Kanda has always been one of Tokyo's most colorful carousing districts. Just to the north of buttoned-up Otemachi and Marunouchi, its narrow streets are lined with low-budget eateries and boisterous izakaya taverns. Hotaru fits in perfectly but with one key distinction: It is Tokyo's first (and...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2017

Lawyers say U.S. tax plan would break WTO rules

A proposed U.S. corporate tax reform would almost certainly contravene international trade rules if implemented, lawyers have said, risking the biggest dispute in the history of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
WORLD / Society
Feb 2, 2017

Trump 'dismantling dreams' of 26,000 refugees stranded in Kenya, half of them after years of vetting

Somali refugee Ahmed Omar Bihi said on Wednesday that he fears for his wife's sanity following Donald Trump's travel ban and accused the U.S. president of "dismantling all our dreams.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2017

Time for U.S. left to start putting Americans first

Nationalism, not globalism, is the future of American politics — but right now, it's only the right that's riding the wave.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2017

'Tangerine': The fruitful use of smartphones

Tammy Wynette sang it so it must be true: "Sometimes it's hard to be a woman." In the case of Los Angeles-based transgender sex workers Alexandra (Mya Taylor) and Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) in "Tangerine," the hardships are doubled as they deal with the common issues of being a woman — unfaithful...
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2017

'Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children': A peculiar offering from Tim Burton

A date with Tim Burton isn't what it used to be; it hasn't been for a long time. The outrageous visionary who took us to amazing places that can only be described as cinematic nirvana, with titles such as "Edward Scissorhands," "Ed Wood" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," to name my favorites,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 31, 2017

The future looks bright for artists in the ancient capital

"Kyoto Art For Tomorrow" at The Museum of Kyoto draws together single pieces by 43 up-and-coming artists under the age of 40. Focusing on a new generation, the exhibition looks forward to the international attention Japan will receive for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Indeed, the show adopts Pierre de Coubertin...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 31, 2017

Steve Bannon's hard-line seen trumping moderates in contentious immigration ban

When Donald Trump's administration put together its controversial executive order on immigration, it was Steve Bannon — the populist firebrand fast emerging as the president's right-hand man — pushing a hard line.
LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
Jan 30, 2017

Let's discuss the recent heavy snow

A wide swath of the Sea of Japan coast was hit by heavy snow recently as a strong wintry air mass gripped much of the Japanese archipelago.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 29, 2017

In Trump era, Democrats and Republicans switch sides on states' rights

Five years ago, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, now President Donald Trump's nominee for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, sat in the front row as the U.S. Supreme Court debated the contentious Affordable Care Act.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jan 29, 2017

Happier times in the era of Tetsuya Komuro

A 58-year-old Japanese man with a dyed blond mullet in a thick, woolly sweater hunches over a series of a dozen keyboards. With a casual confidence his fingers trip through a few bright, up-tempo chords. There's something familiar about the sound — a nostalgia tinged with just a hint of guilty pleasure....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 28, 2017

Media starts to focus on Japan's aging prison population

When it comes to crime and punishment, Japan is a conundrum for progressives. It has low crime rates and small prison populations, but it is also one of the few developed countries that still enforces capital punishment, and its criminal justice system is often criticized for giving too much power to...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KNOWING KISSATEN
Jan 27, 2017

Chatei Hatou: A pilgrimage site for traditional coffee

When Starbucks arrived in Japan in 1996, it should have spelled trouble for Doutor, the dowdy coffee chain that had dominated the market since the 1980s. In fact, the opposite happened: by cultivating demand for gourmet coffee, Starbucks actually revived the fortunes of its hot dog-vending homegrown...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jan 26, 2017

HRW fears Trump's 'particularly ugly' refugee ban, torture threat

U.S. President Donald Trump is "closing the door" on people fleeing Islamic State, and may try to re-open secret detention centers where torture can be used, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday, calling on Congress to intervene.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 24, 2017

Childhood poverty rates need redefinition

A better education for children from poor families is key to breaking the chain of poverty.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 24, 2017

'Pokemon Go' unleashed on game-loving South Korea six months late

Nintendo's smash hit "Pokemon Go" was unleashed on South Korea on Tuesday, six months after it was released elsewhere in the world, a delay caused by security fears over Google Maps.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jan 22, 2017

Indian women attend rallies, demand safety in public places after reported mass molestation

Hundreds of women gathered in over 30 towns and cities across India late Saturday, saying they were "occupying the night streets" to demand safety in public spaces after reports of the mass molestation of women in the city of Bangalore on New Year's Eve.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 21, 2017

Media deployed to fight history wars in East Asia

At a recent conference funded by the Toshiba Foundation on the media's role in representing the shared wartime past in East Asia, scholars and journalists gathered at Cambridge University to assess the current state of play.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?