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WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 28, 2014

Animal studies bring hope for fixing traumatic memories

The frailty of memory might have an upside: When a memory is recalled, two research teams reported Wednesday, it can be erased or rewired so that a painful recollection is physically linked in the brain to joy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 28, 2014

She came, she stole and she conquered

In my family of many brothers, the "Lupin III" animated TV series was the only program we could agree to watch. Once the electric guitar riffs of the Yuji Ohno-penned theme song began, a blissful peace descended on our living room. The fighting stopped and all eyes were glued to the family's beat-up...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 27, 2014

Hiroshima volunteer cleanup effort open to city residents

Hiroshima residents can now join the cleanup effort in the wake of the deadly mudslides in the city.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Aug 20, 2014

A high price to pay for a little peace of mind

Sometimes it's hard to believe the American that emerged, naked and naive, from Narita International Airport back in 2004 and the person writing this column are one and the same. Life in Japan has made me, unmade me and remade me. I've unpacked and sorted through all sorts of koto (generally, things...
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Aug 20, 2014

Osaka mayor paints ambitious picture of prefecture in 2025 plan

If Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto has his way, by 2025, as it prepares to host that year's International Expo, Osaka will have become an international entertainment capital, home to a casino resort, the site of a major electronic car race and a bicycle race that rivals the Tour de France.
EDITORIALS
Aug 19, 2014

Higher standards for assemblies

Recent instances of strange or illegal behavior on the part of municipal and prefectural assembly members, including a bawling jag by a Hyogo assemblymen whose hand was caught in the cookie jar, have given many citizens cause to suspect that the overall quality of their local lawmakers is deteriorating.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2014

The Islamic extremist threat

The U.S. and Britain are understandably reluctant to get sucked into a Mideast war involving Sunnis against Shiites. But can we stand back and watch the Islamic State carry out genocide?
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 18, 2014

A rational conversation on whaling

On both sides of the Japanese whaling debate, there is a pressing need for critical reflection on the logic used and the realities presumed.
JAPAN / History
Aug 14, 2014

Surrender had lasting impact on many Japanese after war's end

Many Japanese people remember Aug. 15 as the day World War II ended. Sixty-nine years ago today, in a speech broadcast on the radio, Emperor Hirohito announced that Japan had notified the Allied powers of its acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 14, 2014

Build strong Japan-India ties without taking aim at China

In Tokyo and New Delhi, there are people seeking to elevate Indo-Japanese relations to the status of a de facto alliance and to pursue a strategy of encircling China.
BUSINESS / NOTEBOOK
Aug 12, 2014

International woodblock art; an airport space for kids; heating up the hoodie

exhibitions
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND
Aug 7, 2014

Foster parent shortage takes growing toll on children

Veteran foster parent Mika Hobbs was surprisingly frank when she confessed how nerve-racking her job can be.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 2, 2014

Aid workers with Ebola head to U.S.

Two American aid workers, both seriously ill after being infected with the deadly Ebola virus in Liberia, will be flown to the United States and treated in isolation at an Atlanta hospital, officials said on Friday.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Aug 1, 2014

Goods to spruce up the dining experience

This month's Kikof This month, we're focusing on perfecting the kitchen and dining room, kicking off with the aptly named Kikof, a covetable set of dishes and tableware.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Jul 27, 2014

Osaka bets big on TOEFL to boost English levels

The Osaka Prefecture Board of Education is pushing through a raft of initiatives to shake up English-language education, chief among them the introduction of TOEFL at top-performing high schools, which will be taught by an elite group of teachers earning approximately ¥8 million a year.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jul 27, 2014

Pope Francis renews attack on mafia in Italian region scarred by toxic waste

Pope Francis called for nature to be protected from criminal abuse on Saturday during a visit in the southern Italian town of Caserta, near Naples, in a region long blighted by illegal toxic waste dumps and the pervasive grip of the Camorra mafia.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 26, 2014

Art vs. morals debate plays out in the press

In her semiautobiographical feature film "Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf?," Anna Margarita Albelo plays a struggling film director who makes ends meet by screening her movies in art galleries where she shows up dressed as a vagina. Though the story is mainly about relationships, the prominence of the female...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 24, 2014

Arcade Fire returns to Japan for Fuji Rock as a bigger and happier band

Much has changed in Arcade Fire's world since the band was last in Japan. Back in February 2008, the Canadian six-piece, still propelled forward by the momentum created by its debut "Funeral," a record that attained perpetual cult status through nothing more than its sheer brilliance, was winding up...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Jul 23, 2014

A democratically elected rep is every worker's legal right

The lack of a freely and fairly elected workers' rep could cost employees dearly in the long run.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 23, 2014

Kunio plays 'Hamlet' fast and loose

How do you imagine the Prince of Denmark? Perhaps as one of the famed portrayals by Laurence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh, Mel Gibson or Ethan Hawke — or simply as a weak-willed bore forever agonizing over "To be or not to be" and all that. Well, however you visualize the hero of Shakespeare's longest...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
Jul 22, 2014

O-chūgen: Hand-picked gourmet gifts courtesy of the postman

Even though the Japanese didn't invent the idea of exchanging gifts, they seem to be doing everything they can to convince themselves that they did. This is a culture, after all, that celebrates Christmas without Jesus, piles White Day on top of Valentine's Day, and has developed a whole species of cloth...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2014

The real victims of U.S. sanctions on Myanmar

Myanmar's opening attracted much interest not only from Asian neighbors but also from those in the West that once considered the country a pariah.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 18, 2014

High cost to new neutrality

South Korea's elite appears to be splitting into pro-Chinese and pro-American factions that transcend party lines, while German leaders' obsession with growing exports appears to have gagged them on China's human rights abuses and its aggressive behavior toward Asian neighbors.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2014

Why euthanasia should become a legal option

As people live longer and better medical technology traps our parents and grandparents in the limbo of not-quite-gone, quality of life will start to outweigh the number of years lived. Euthanasia should not be taboo.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jul 17, 2014

Merger talks going slowly

Japan Basketball Association officials said that they would actively keep discussing how to overcome the differences between the nation's top two leagues in order to establish a new professional hoops circuit in two years.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Jul 16, 2014

Unpacking koto: retain, discard and repeat as necessary

Unpacking koto — the intangible baggage — in Japan has proven to be the challenge of a lifetime, replete with enough drama and trauma to keep me knee deep in 'think pieces' till I keel over.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jul 12, 2014

Ramones punk band co-founder Tommy Ramone dies at 65

Tommy Ramone, the drummer and last surviving original member of the American punk band the Ramones, whose aggressive and fast-driving songs spearheaded the punk-rock movement, has died at the age of 65, an associate said on Saturday.

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