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Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
May 4, 2014

Jewelry innovator Shiraki puts ethics at the heart of beauty

Natsuko Shiraki, a jewelry designer and CEO of Tokyo-based jeweler Hasuna Co., vividly remembers the shocking experience in southern India that changed her life.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2014

Manga about work at Fukushima No. 1 stirs locals' ire

Cartoon characters who suffered nosebleeds after a visit to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant are turning into a headache for manga publisher Shogakukan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Apr 27, 2014

Hawaiian XLeague player Alo finds much that's familiar in his adopted land

For most people around the world, football means just what the word suggests: a sport played primarily with the feet in which the ball is rarely touched with the hands.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Apr 23, 2014

In a world of pretense, are Japanese just more honest about lying?

The net sum of lying may be similar in Japan and America, but in their acceptance of life exigencies, the Japanese may be more realistic, more charitable and forgiving about the role that deception plays in our social relations.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 20, 2014

Telescope to probe deepest space

Cerro Armazones is a crumbling dome of rock that dominates the parched peaks of the Chilean coastal range north of Santiago.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Apr 20, 2014

To teach to test or for communication — or both?

Which is more important: to communicate in a second language or to test well?
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2014

Philosophers still vital to our high-tech world

A Harvard University report showing a big dropoff across the U.S. in the proportion of bachelor degree graduates who majored in the humanities contrasts with the finding by a Swiss think tank that three or four of the top five 'Global Thought Leaders' are involved in philosophy.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 12, 2014

The curious tale of the man who slapped Tojo

On May 3, 1946, the indictments were read at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Among the defendants was a gangly, bespectacled, 59-year-old civilian named Shumei Okawa, who happened to be seated directly behind the former prime minister, army Gen. Hideki Tojo.
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 9, 2014

'In the Heights' sizzles across distant cultures

I had a few reservations about the first Japanese production of "In the Heights," the Broadway sensation nominated for 13 Tony awards in 2008.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2014

Want to be happy when you're old? Get a job

A Brookings Institution researchers has found 'well-being' benefits to voluntary part-time employment as well as to remaining in the workforce beyond retirement age.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Apr 6, 2014

Human rights champ Doi battles social injustice in Japan

Many Japanese view human rights violations as the problems of people in a distant world, but Kanae Doi is battling to change that perception.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Apr 6, 2014

California gurus find success via celebrities

Even in California, where people come to convince themselves of just about anything, it is not common for a celebrity couple on the verge of divorce to declare undying love and say they are closer now than ever.
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2014

Scotland: a nation, not a region

For Scotland, independence — the question in September's referendum — is about democracy not nationalism. It's about righting the wrongs of a country living its life as a region.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 3, 2014

Polish history captured by a man who was there

He may be 88 years old and the director of 54 films, but Polish film giant Andrzej Wajda is still evolving as a storyteller. His latest, "Wałesa: Man of Hope," opens in Tokyo on April 5 (as "Wałesa: Rentai no Otoko") and marks his further foray into the realm of history as entertainment, following...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2014

A Korean who cherished her Japanese teachers

An 89-year-old Korean in Pennsylvania calls the latest spats between Japan and South Korea 'infantile and lamentable.' She remembers her Japanese teachers as loving people who 'poured their heart and soul into making good human beings out of us.'
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 29, 2014

Unpersuasive logic for death penalty in Japan

The death penalty in Japan is imposed in cases of murder, and robbery and/or rape leading to death. In such cases, capital punishment is not mandatory and is usually only imposed in cases of multiple killings, though since 2006 this criteria has not been strictly observed.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2014

Government plans to cut number of elderly kept alive on feeding tubes

For the first time, Japan is trying to hold down the number of bedridden elderly people kept alive by feeding tubes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 20, 2014

'The Broken Circle Breakdown'

Love is supposed to crush you and marriage is the fast track to long-time despair. Such dark truisms are flung about in "The Broken Circle Breakdown," a Belgian film whose spirit is so 20th-century Americana it may as well be draped in the Stars and Stripes. And those truisms seem so glamorous, recalling...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 19, 2014

Deep feelings at high altitudes

The photographs, taken by artist Naoya Hatakeyama, hint at both the beauty and dangers of a mountain, as reflected in the shades of light and darkness alongside textures of soft-edged snow and sharply lined rocks.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Mar 13, 2014

Top court case highlights U.S. rift over sex science

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear a religious dispute over the "Obamacare" contraception mandate, advocates on both sides are trying to set the court straight on the science.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Mar 12, 2014

With love and Japan, what you get out depends on what you put in

Moving to Japan makes an infant of us all, regardless of race, sex or creed. A major conflict in Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' comes from the fact that Prospero knew the language and Caliban the land, but when you first get to Japan, you know neither.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 10, 2014

There is a giant serving of culture in one bowl of rice

Rice. A bland, white carbohydrate? Staple food that forms the nourishing core of every meal? A crop that has molded culture and society? Or primal sustenance imbued with mystic life force of the gods?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 6, 2014

'Gloria'

All the lonely people, where do they all come from?" Lennon and McCartney posed the question, and "Gloria" provides an answer. Gloria, played by Paulina Garcia, is a 50-something divorcee whose children have grown up and moved out; she lives by herself in Santiago, Chile, with the occasional company...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 6, 2014

Osaka challenges Tokyo with tallest skyscraper

Japan's tallest building will open Friday in Osaka, as Asia's third-biggest metropolitan economy aims to lure tourists and stem businesses from moving to Tokyo.
Reader Mail
Mar 5, 2014

Dog- and cat-lovers get the picture

Judit Kawaguchi's Feb. 28 article, "What we can learn from cats and dogs" (about her visit with Tokyo veterinarian Chikao Muratani), made me think of our great responsibility to co-exist with all life. The last paragraph — "Many dying cats and dogs wait for the people they love to return before they...
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 2014

Uganda's shameful act

Japan should consider cutting financial aid to Uganda following the African nation's shameful enactment of an anti-homosexuality bill that calls for life imprisonment in 'aggravated' cases.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 3, 2014

Loved abroad, hated at home: The art of Japanese tattooing

The perception gap between international views of irezumi and those of Japanese people dates back more than 150 years, to when foreigners first laid eyes on Japanese tattoos. Since that time, however, Japanese tattooists have influenced their foreign counterparts in remarkable ways — and sometimes vice-versa.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Mar 2, 2014

Composer Shibuya tests limits of music

One November evening in Paris, Theatre du Chatelet was packed with people who came to see the French premiere of a new opera by a Japanese composer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2014

'Dallas Buyers Club'

Who would have thought Matthew McConaughey was capable of being despicable? The actor formerly mostly noted for turning in performances of unreliable but easy-on-the-eyes boyfriend material ("Contact," "Wedding Planner," "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," etc) could be about to bag his first Oscar with his...

Longform

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