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JAPAN
Jan 1, 2014

The most viewed news stories of 2013

On first impression, the news stories most read online in 2013 paint a fairly gloomy picture, a mix of loneliness, darkness and tragedy. However, you can also see readers' penchant for science and fantasy, even if Atlantis was not actually discovered. May there be plenty of good news in 2014!
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 31, 2013

China's workers leave kids in country

Regulars of the Jianba barbershop in the southern Chinese city of Zhuzhou recently found it shuttered, with a curious note taped to the door.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Dec 30, 2013

In Fukushima, abandoned pets are multiplying

'Sterilization is the most practical and humane way to curb the growing population of feral animals, and research backs this up,' says Hiro Yamasaki of the Animal Rescue System in Shirakawa, Fukushima Prefecture. 'Unfortunately, our clinic is the only one providing this kind of service. The local vets and bureaucrats have not responded adequately to the situation. Something had to be done.'
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 30, 2013

Papa Obama laments time slipping by

When they vacationed in Hawaii just before President Barack Obama's first inauguration, Malia and Sasha were little girls doting on their dad — holding his hand on the beach, taking in a dolphin show and nuzzling up to him at the shave-ice shop.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 29, 2013

British fears of migrant influx mirrored in Sofia

There are no anti-immigrant militia forces roaming the streets of Britain, but Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev sees clear parallels with the U.K. — indeed, in states across Europe — and he is deeply worried.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 28, 2013

Names of 2013 we're unlikely to forget

Social media continues to undermine the influence of the more traditional kind exemplified by television and print publications, so my choices of most notable public phenomena of 2013 are qualified by the notion that maybe people aren't paying as much attention to them as I might think.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 28, 2013

Gamba wait for new site

Gamba Osaka, one of the original J. League members, will move into a brand-new stadium as early as 2016.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 27, 2013

McDonald's smells the coffee: Limited expectations are here to stay

Some think that McDonald's is finished in Japan
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2013

Kaori Shoji's 2013 Top 10: films that aren't backward about coming forward

It has been a year of documentaries made on big ideas and small resources. At the other end of the spectrum, some of the best fiction films had the look and feel of a documentary, attesting to the modern notion that the individual and his/her story are just about the most interesting things around.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2013

'Crossing' Beijing has lasting consequences

The sad irony is that, since the early 1990s, people like Liu Binyan, Su Xiaokang, Chen Yizi, Su Shaozhi and others who know the elite communist culture well, who have lived in the United States and remain willing to cross the dangerous line into complete truth-telling, have never had much of a hearing in Washington.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2013

Japanese couple's canvas alive with the art of love

Being an artist can be hard enough — but being part of an artist couple comes with a truckload of angst, as director Zachary Heinzerling demonstrates in his debut documentary feature "Cutie and the Boxer." This is about the life and times of artists Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko, who have been...
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2013

'Cutie and the Boxer'

When 59-year old Noriko Shinohara calls herself "Cutie," you'll want to take her word for it. She grabs the viewer at the opening scene of the documentary "Cutie and the Boxer," which plays out like something from an early Jean-Luc Godard movie: It's early morning, and she's brushing out her long, silvery...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 18, 2013

Parmer helping Shinshu emerge as force in third season

The Akita Northern Happinets (18-4) have presided atop the Eastern Conference standings for the entire season. The Toyama Grouses have catapulted to championship-caliber status with 16 victories in their first 20 games.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 2013

The best Japanese albums of 2013: Yosi Horikawa, 'Vapor'

Few albums this year rewarded repeat listens as generously as Yosi Horikawa's "Vapor." The Chiba-based producer makes fecund, wide-eyed electronica constructed from manipulated field recordings, percussion, ethnic chants and slightly new-age keyboards. If that sounds awful on paper, it's intoxicating...
BASKETBALL / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Dec 17, 2013

NCAA's hoop hype not such an easy sell in December

If Howard Cosell were still with us, he would probably say this about NCAA basketball (you supply the nasal tone and staccato pace): There now exists annually a veritable plethora of enthralling inter-conference hardwood encounters between traditionally proficient American institutions of higher academia....
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Dec 16, 2013

Kobe beef

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Dec 16, 2013

India gang rapes rise despite growing awareness

The chauffeur's boss was out of town, so the driver called a friend and said "Let's have some fun" — which police say meant finding a woman to rape.
Japan Times
SOCCER
Dec 16, 2013

Zaccheroni aiming for stars with World Cup ambitions

National team manager Alberto Zaccheroni on Monday refused to put a limit on Japan's ambitions at next summer's World Cup, but stopped short of claiming his team can win the trophy.
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Dec 14, 2013

New posting system puts Rakuten in unfavorable position

While the relevant parties have given their blessings to a new posting agreement between Nippon Professional Baseball and Major League Baseball, there is still no resolution to Masahiro Tanaka's situation.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 13, 2013

Bike-riding bureaucracy may threaten the classic 'obāchan dismount'

The new regulation decrees that bicycles must be ridden on the left side of the road, in the direction of the flow of traffic. Seems logical, doesn't it? But no one has said how this will prevent accidents or make anything safer; we're just presuming it will.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Dec 11, 2013

The year in labor: the Top 5 pains of 2013

For Japan's workers, the last 12 months have been a mixed bag. The Top 5 Labor Pains of 2013 will focus on what really shook things up in terms of labor relations and employment law.
LIFE / Digital
Dec 10, 2013

Startups now have it easy thanks to 'incubators.'

One of my favourite books is John Kenneth Galbraith's "The Great Crash, 1929," which, with John Maynard Keynes' "The Economic Consequences of the Peace," is a great example of how an expert can write elegantly about something that is intrinsically complex. Galbraith wrote the (short) book as a diversion...
CULTURE / Film
Dec 7, 2013

Re-examining Yasujiro Ozu on film

Yasujiro Ozu once had a reputation for making films only other Japanese could understand.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 4, 2013

Bunraku storyteller speaks out

During the early part of the Edo Period, when Japan was ruled by Tokugawa shoguns from 1603-1867, Osaka — the main city in the Kansai region of western Honshu — thrived as the country's cultural and economic center. It was during those heady days around 400 years ago that a kind of puppetry called...
MORE SPORTS
Dec 4, 2013

Kiryu reflects on special year

It feels like track phenom Yoshihide Kiryu has been in the spotlight longer than he has been. But his breakout year was 2013, which is, of course, this year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 3, 2013

Alive wants to give music fans a say in who comes to Japan

You watched the video for their comeback single on YouTube, devoured the reviews and retweeted the hype. When the album came out, you bought it immediately and had it on repeat for weeks afterwards. And then you waited, waited ... but they never came.
MORE SPORTS / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Dec 3, 2013

Looking at both sides of the Martin-Incognito issue

The sports locker room code goes like this: "What you see, hear and say here, stays here."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 1, 2013

Farrow courts controversy with paternity musings

For a while, Mia Farrow was a genuine housewife. In a life of bright lights and dark, dark shadows, this must surely count as one of the most unusual periods of them all: a moment of apparent stability and respectability in the late 70s and early 80s. During this time, she picked up her twin sons Matthew...

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