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Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 16, 2014

Did climate — or man — kill off megafauna?

They were some of the strangest animals to walk the Earth: wombats as big as hippos, sloths larger than bears, four-tusked elephants and an armadillo that would have dwarfed a VW Beetle. They flourished for millions of years, then vanished from our planet just as humans emerged from their African homeland....
BUSINESS / Economy / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Mar 15, 2014

Economy can do without structural reform

While critics of "Abenomics" begrudgingly agree Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policy package has been a success so far, they are equally quick to highlight its looming headwinds.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 7, 2014

Dazzling Chinese fossils offer portal into Jurassic

A spectacular array of beautifully preserved fossils unearthed in northeastern China over the past two decades provides a unique portal on life 160 million years ago in the Jurassic Period, an international team of scientists said this week.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 6, 2014

East Asia should build resilience through disaster-relief cooperation

The president of Soka Gakkai International urges Japan, China and South Korea to take the initiative in building a model of cooperation that will serve to mutually strengthen regional resilience to extreme-weather events and other disasters.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 3, 2014

When it comes to public space, Atelier Bow Wow barks up the right tree

Atelier Bow Wow uses the framework of art exhibitions to encourage public social interaction in what it calls 'micro public spaces.'
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.
EDITORIALS
Mar 1, 2014

Fukushima's appalling death toll

As the third anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake approaches, new studies show that more people have died of stress and other mental illnesses than from causes directly linked to the triple '3/11' disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant meltdown.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2014

Golden rice should be embraced as a lifesaver

With regard to the use of genetically modified organisms, regulations to protect the environment and the health of consumers should be maintained. What needs to be rethought, though, is blanket opposition to GMOs, especially when a lifesaver grain is at stake.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Feb 18, 2014

You'll either love or hate those stinky, sticky beans

Soybeans have long been an important part of the Japanese diet. They are enjoyed in many forms — as edamame, tofu or yuba; boiled or roasted; ground up as flour; and so on. Soybeans also have religious significance, as we've seen this month during Setsubun, when roasted soybeans are thrown to signify...
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 18, 2014

U.N. investigators issue report on North Korea's systematic human rights abuses

North Korean security chiefs and possibly even Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un himself should face international justice for ordering systematic torture, starvation and mass killings bordering on genocide, U.N. investigators said on Monday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 16, 2014

Now Kaieda must deliver

The head of the Democratic Party of Japan says the party will fiercely confront the Abe administration, which he called a 'raging horse,' to push politics aimed at protecting people's lives and jobs.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 15, 2014

A tale of two Abes: PM's rosy view jars with life of toil seen in poison case

Did the frozen-food poisoner have some obscure notion of 'justice' in mind? Might it have been his way of saying to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, 'Japan is not back; Japan won't be back until working for a living does not entail the sacrifice of all human dignity
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Feb 15, 2014

The Pornographers

Akiyuki Nosaka's "Grave of the Fireflies," a harrowing, semi-autobiographical tale of two young siblings fending for survival in the aftermath of World War II, helped him win the prestigious Naoki Prize for literature in 1967.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 14, 2014

Time to nip this growing plastic tumor in the bud

I find myself swamped with cards. And not just the e-money variety. Member cards, discount cards, hospital registration cards — my wallet has so many damned cards, it's like a plastic tumor bulging from my back pocket.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 13, 2014

The trouble with books that change over time

A few weeks ago, I bought a copy of "The Second Machine Age" by two MIT researchers, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, who are among the most insightful commentators currently writing about the likely impact on employment of advanced robotics, machine learning and big-data analytics. Since I already...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 4, 2014

Eadonmm's beats prove black is back

"Black is the new black" always seems like a safe motto when it comes to picking clothes, but in an electronic-music world that is constantly churning out micro-genre ephemera, some would argue that black has gone out of fashion.
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Feb 3, 2014

Tokyo: What do you make of the Japan Sumo Association's decision to charge fans $120 to watch live tournaments online?

The Japan Sumo Association has just introduced a pay-per-view system for live streams of top tournaments. Costing $10 per day and $15 for the final day, or $120 for the entire tournament, the concept drew sharp criticism from overseas fans.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Feb 2, 2014

Hashimoto's costly comeback bid vexes voters

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's surprise resignation and second mayoral bid is greeted with criticism and concern in the city and prefecture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2014

Parents of mixed kids look abroad for high schools

College preparation for bicultural young adults may include seeking out international as well as domestic opportunities. Some youngsters, however, are heading abroad much sooner — for high school or junior high school.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 1, 2014

For Japan's foreign residents, the little things make such a big difference

American political ideals may be grander, European philosophy may be deeper, Islamic faith may be firmer than anything native to Japan — but Japan, perhaps uniquely, knows the value of small things.
EDITORIALS
Feb 1, 2014

Harassment for acting like a dad

According to a Japanese trade union survey, more than one in every 10 working men have either been barred from taking childcare leave or harassed for even applying.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 28, 2014

Slovak Trio hopes to foster ties with Japan through a pair of classical concerts

The armed forces isn't a typical place to form a band, but that's exactly where the latest combination of the Slovak Trio first met.
COMMENTARY
Jan 26, 2014

Build a Turkey-Israel pipeline to bring stability

Building an Israel-Turkey natural-gas pipeline connected to a Cyprus LNG terminal offers strategic opportunities that transcend economics, including a chance for Israel and Turkey to restore their strategic partnership.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2014

'American Hustle'

Being an American is an art form and the path is long and arduous, as we see all too plainly in "American Hustle," a huge, sloppy American Dream saga set in 1978. Based loosely on the famed "Abscam" scandal that put several congressmen behind bars ("Some of this actually happened," the movie informs...
CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2014

'Meanwhile'

If you were into American indie cinema in the 1990s, you were into Hal Hartley, the New York City auteur (Long Island, actually) whose deadpan cool rivaled Jim Jarmusch, but with a more quizzical style of dialogue and impeccable alt-rock soundtracks. Yet after 1997's "Henry Fool," Hartley seemed to drop...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 18, 2014

A True Novel

Like all artists, novelists find the impetus to begin in various places. Some inspire themselves with a formal challenge. Georges Perec, for example, asked himself what would happen if he tried to write a novel entirely bereft of the letter "e." Others, in their doodling and false starts, stumble upon...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 15, 2014

The extent of Puvis de Chavannes' stately influence

When you enter 'Arcadia by the Shore' it is not difficult to get a sense of why Puvis de Chavannes was so successful in his own day, and why his reputation later slipped far behind those of other painters then considered his inferiors.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2014

Abe should end Yasukuni visits

Ever since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Yasukuni Shrine last month, a former British ambassador to Japan has been trying to guess what Abe's motives for such an act could have been.

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