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Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 7, 2014

It's all a matter of character — but which one to choose?

Much has been made of the alleged difficulty of the Japanese language for non-native and even native speakers. My personal impression is that this view is most commonly cherished by two types of people: those who don't know much Japanese (or any at all), and those who only know Japanese.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 3, 2014

Nothing is ordinary for Leandro Erlich

'Swimming pools, staircases and elevators are ordinary places that we never question, as we think that we know about them already. But is that true? Do we really know them?' — Leandro Erlich.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jun 28, 2014

Not ducking tradition in Higashi-Ueno

With its lotus-laden Shinobazu pond, park grounds, and national museums, the Ueno area in Tokyo draws millions of visitors a year. Nearby Higashi-Ueno (Eastern Ueno), however, seems to be another world altogether. When I exit Shin-Okachimachi station, under skies portending summer heat, this low-lying...
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jun 25, 2014

Is Japan a haven for expats with psychological problems? Readers discuss

Readers clash on the merits of William Bradbury's recent Foreign Agenda article, 'Japan: a haven for the psychologically troubled.'
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 23, 2014

Can Japan show the West how to live peacefully with Islam?

Uniting a colorful mix of expats, removed from the context of sectarian strife and the historical Western interference still haunting many Muslim countries, could the Japanese brand of Islam be a showcase for its peaceful essence?
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 21, 2014

Advances in robotics present singular worry

'Singularity' is an odd word. Originally it meant peculiarity. Then 20th-century physicists got hold of it and situated it at the very boundary of space-time, to the eternal bafflement of the lay mind.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 19, 2014

Paul Haggis: Spinning reality into a web of fiction

"Today, too often, we've gotten used to telling the audience things in bold, in all-caps or underlined, and solving everything for everybody." So says Paul Haggis, the screenwriter and director who won Oscars back-to-back with "Million Dollar Baby" in 2004 and "Crash" in 2005. His new film, "Third Person,"...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Jun 17, 2014

New Lions slugger Mejia relishes opportunity to play in NPB

Ernesto Mejia remembers the bus rides. Those long trips to games in rookie ball, Single-A and a notch up the ladder in Double-A. Some of those rides could last for seven, eight, nine hours.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2014

Sectarian monster reawakens

The systematic political marginalization of Iraq's Sunni communities demands the establishment of a new political and social contract to re-order the mess created by the U.S. invasion and Iran's intervention.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2014

The damage done by 'moderates'

Every day the insipid overlords of America's inane corporate news media put out the same message: Extremism is extremely bad. But might the so-called moderates be worse?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 16, 2014

Harassers exploit Gaba's 'man-to-man' lesson format

The first sign that Olivia's Gaba lesson would be anything but ordinary came when her student insisted during the warmup that he didn't like wearing clothes.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Jun 15, 2014

Activist yearns to return to a truly democratic Burma

From his adopted home in Tokyo, veteran democracy advocate Kyaw Kyaw Soe pushes for change in Myanmar and supports his fellow refugees in Japan.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Jun 13, 2014

JOC grooms young athletes for international success at Elite Academy

Since 2008, the Japanese Olympic Committee has run a national youth athlete development program called the JOC Elite Academy. It's a part of the JOC Gold Plan, which was drawn up to improve Japan's international competitiveness in sports seven years before the development program was established.
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Jun 11, 2014

Japan ready to make experience count at fifth World Cup

Japanese soccer can be rightfully proud of the progress it has made as the national team prepares to begin its fifth straight World Cup campaign, but no one in the squad will be happy just to take part.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 11, 2014

Imagination runs wild in Japanese contemporary art

"Nostalgia and Fantasy: Imagination and its Origins in Contemporary Art" is a ragtag grouping of nine individual artists and one unit, each of whom focus on extremely different things. It is difficult to say, in fact, where "nostalgia" and "fantasy" come into play in some instances. With only minimal...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2014

The unspoken disease that can destroy families

Of the 17,500 cases of uterine cancer reported yearly in Japan, nearly half are cervical cancer, usually triggered by a virus spread by sexual intercourse. Because of this, sufferers often conceal the fact from friends and families and continue working at their jobs as if nothing is wrong — until pain...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 3, 2014

Especia takes a road less traveled by idol acts

The eldest member of six-member idol unit Especia was born in 1989, so when I ask them about life during Japan's early '90s bubble era they can only imagine what it was like.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 2, 2014

Japan's Good Design Award hits the mark with new store in Hong Kong

Japan's Good Design Award just got better. Or, at least, broader.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2014

Obama's cold-eyed 'management' of policy

The White House faces a strange conundrum. Polls show that many Americans want a foreign policy that does not go out looking for fights and Obama is delivering on that. Yet his approval ratings remain generally low.
Japan Times
CULTURE
May 31, 2014

Essential summer festivals 2014

A summer without festivals simply wouldn’t be a proper summer in Japan, so now that the humidity has returned, it’s time to slop on an extra layer of sunscreen and line up some outdoor activities.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2014

Why Google's self-driving car terrifies Detroit

Perhaps the U.S. auto industry's biggest problem right now is that the usually slavish press is going crazy for the Google self-driving car prototype in ways that the carmakers haven't been able to inspire in a long time.
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2014

The ideology of those who kidnap schoolgirls

Until we clean the education soil in which the plants producing the poisonous ideologies enforced by Boko Haram and other extremist groups take root, the life chances of millions of young people around the world will be jeopardized.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 28, 2014

'Inside Llewyn Davis'

The Coen Brothers are exceptional among American filmmakers for having had a long and prosperous career without ever significantly watering down or altering their sensibility along the way. You could draw a line from their indie debut "Blood Simple" through to Oscar-winners "Fargo" and "No Country For...
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
May 27, 2014

Forget drugs, monotony is the real threat to Japan's music industry

Japan has a drug problem. Everywhere you look — from the creepy, teen-host-club pop of Sexy Zone to the soft-rock balladry of Ikimono Gakari — children are being exposed to music that has been made with no obvious influence from drugs whatsoever.

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