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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Mar 24, 2018

Eiichi Sato: Fate written in the star rubies

Eiichi Sato peers through a gemologist's loupe and shines a lamp down onto the small pink-red stone that glistens against the black felt cloth below. "Take a look," he urges. "It's pretty cool."
CULTURE / Books
Mar 24, 2018

'Portrait of Ohno Yoshito': A deeper look at butoh's mythical figure

Here, Inuhiko Yomota takes on Yoshito Ohno (born 1938), the "mythical figure" of butoh — a genre so undefinable that poet Miyoshi Toyoichiro once called it "a dance, performance, acting, or whatever you like." Donald Richie (1924-2013) wrote of his friend, and founder of butoh, Tatsumi Hijikata (1928-86),...
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 23, 2018

New post-Brexit British passport to be made by Franco-Dutch firm De La Rue

The new blue British passports that Prime Minister Theresa May called "an expression of our independence and sovereignty" after Brexit will be made by a Franco-Dutch firm, the boss of the British company which lost the contract said Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / Taking the Lead
Mar 22, 2018

Lawson chief bets on health, tech as future of convenience

Back in 2014, Sadanobu Takemasu was asked by his boss to go to Lawson, the convenience store chain known for its white milk can logo on a blue signboard.
EDITORIALS
Mar 22, 2018

Data mining for profit and manipulation

Every day brings new revelations about the protection of personal data and the nefarious uses to which it can be put.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Mar 22, 2018

It takes one to know one: How YouTuber Chris Okano built an agency to help his fellow J-vloggers

This past week, Japanese YouTube heavyweight Hikakin appeared on NHK's long-running business show "The Professionals" ("Professional: Shigoto no Ryugi") where he discussed the "new job" of being a YouTube content creator.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 21, 2018

Chinese rights activists fearful as former police official takes charge of legal affairs

Chinese rights lawyers and activists say the Monday promotion of former police official Fu Zhenghua to head China's justice ministry signals an even deeper freeze on attempts to use the country's legal system to defend against rights abuses.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 20, 2018

U.K. investigates Facebook over data breach as it plans raid of Cambridge Analytica

Britain is investigating whether Facebook did enough to protect data after a whistleblower said a London-based political consultancy hired by Donald Trump improperly accessed information on 50 million Facebook users to sway public opinion.
EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2018

Expect a more assertive Russia after Putin win

Putin needed a large majority of voters to go to the polls. In this — as in so many other things — he got his wish.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Mar 20, 2018

Abolition of Main Crop Seeds Law puts nation at risk

Japan's food security may be put at risk with the abolition — effective April 1 — of the Main Crop Seeds Law.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 20, 2018

Syrian asylum-seekers' bid for refugee status rejected by Tokyo court

The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit filed by two Syrian asylum-seekers — echoing the Immigration Bureau's decision not to grant them refugee status — in the first such court challenge in Japan since civil war broke out in the Middle Eastern nation in 2011.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2018

Stephen Hawking and the unconstrained mind

The British physicist's work may have been esoteric, but his life helped shape how we see the world.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 19, 2018

U.S. regulators probe South Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia over crash fatalities and injuries

Safety regulators in the U.S. are investigating air bags in certain Hyundai and Kia vehicles that failed to deploy in frontal collisions linked to four deaths and six injuries.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 19, 2018

China's 'silver fox' foreign minister and former ambassador to Japan promoted

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi retained his job and was also promoted to a state councillor on Monday, meaning he now has the country's two top diplomat roles, in a vote of confidence for his strong defense of China's interests.
Japan Times
Mar 19, 2018

Tokai-Denshi Developed A.I.-Equipped Portable Odor Detector/Identifier "Aino-Pro"

Tokai-Denshi Inc. and The Shizuoka Cancer Center Research Institute jointly developed an A.I.-based Portable Odor detector/Identifier which analyzes malodorous components emitted from cancer patients.
EDITORIALS
Mar 18, 2018

Time to rethink the nation's post-3/11 energy policy

even years on, the government should revisit the lessons of the Tepco plant accident and reconsider whether it should continue to promote nuclear power despite the increased social and economic costs,
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 17, 2018

The Irish influence on Soseki, a pioneer of Japanese literature

St. Patrick's Day is the time of year when many raise a glass in their local "authentic Irish" pub to Ireland's literary greats, from master satirist Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) to poet Seamus Heaney (1939-2013). In Japan too, the dynamic interaction of Ireland and Japan's literary traditions is a rich...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 17, 2018

Abe less popular than Kim Jong Un, Trump, Xi and Putin in South Korea: Gallup survey

Japan's hawkish prime minister is at the bottom of the list.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 16, 2018

China hacking U.S. firms linked to dispute in South China Sea: FireEye

Chinese hackers have launched a wave of attacks on mainly U.S. engineering and defense companies linked to the disputed South China Sea, the cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc. said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets / CURRENCY MARKET
Mar 16, 2018

Bitcoin's 'death cross' looms as strategist eyes 76% plunge to $2,800

The tea leaves don't bode well for Bitcoin.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Mar 14, 2018

Turkish Kurd seeking refugee status in Japan losing hope amid what critics call a flawed system

On a chilly afternoon in mid-January, more than 30 Kurdish asylum-seekers gathered in front of United Nations University in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward to call for U.N. action on Turkey's continued all-out attacks on Kurds in the northern Syrian town of Afrin.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 14, 2018

U.K. counterterrorism police probe death of Russian associate of late tycoon foe of Putin

British counterterrorism police were on Tuesday investigating the unexplained death of a Russian associate of late tycoon Boris Berezovsky but said the death was not thought to be linked to a nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 14, 2018

Gina Haspel, linked to 'black site' torture and coverup, tapped by Trump to head CIA

Gina Haspel, a veteran CIA clandestine officer picked by President Donald Trump on Tuesday to head the CIA, is a controversial figure, backed by many in the U.S. intelligence community but regarded warily by some in Congress for her involvement in the agency's "black site" detention facilities.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 13, 2018

The films and the fury of punk moviemaker Gakuryu Ishii

Last year's release of "Blade Runner 2049" and this year's Netflix series "Altered Carbon" have rekindled interest in the futuristic cyberpunk aesthetic, though those works were decidedly more "cyber" and less "punk."

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami