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COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2013

Kennedy showed how U.S. can contain Iran threat

The Cold War crises that U.S. President John F. Kennedy faced hold important lessons for the nuclear impasse with Iran.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Nov 21, 2013

Demand booming for artisanal rice

Rice farmers in Japan are under siege. Heavily protected on various levels by the central government for decades, they've seen the market for their precious crop eroded by cheaper imported rice, and the administration of Shinzo Abe is proposing ending production-rationing and subsidies. It will be interesting...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2013

Who says you're lonely just because you're alone?

When "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" was published in 1999, some schools in the United States banned it from their libraries and reading lists for its depictions of graphic sexual scenes, drugs, homosexuality and teen pregnancy — the usual suspects. Of course, this only increased its street cred....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2013

'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'

It's not often you run into a film that makes you feel 16 years old again — and kinda good about it. An ode to the awkward years (or to the people who went through them) when each day was a nerve-racking ordeal involving high school hierarchies, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" softly takes your hand...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 20, 2013

Director Ogawa sublimely cracks Mamet's code

First impressions can, of course, be deceiving, but mine of 65-year-old David Mamet's play "The Cryptogram," whose world premiere was at the Ambassadors Theatre in London in 1994, was simply how unhelpful and knotty a work it was.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2013

Reform key to reversing Riyadh's fading fortunes

None of Saudia Arabia's policies address the kingdom's most fundamental challenge: the gradual erosion of its wealth.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2013

India, U.S. sup with the devil

Lost in India and the U.S.' diplomatic maneuvers with the Taliban is the age-old wisdom: He who sups with the devil should have a long spoon.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 18, 2013

Doris Lessing, Nobel-winning writer, dies at 94

Doris Lessing, a Nobel Prize-winning novelist and essayist whose deeply autobiographical books and piercing social commentary made her one of the most significant and wide-ranging writers since World War II, died Sunday at her home in London. She was 94.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2013

China may long regret miserly typhoon aid offer

China's stingy donation to the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan dramatically undercut its recent regional charm offensive.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 16, 2013

Tales of wonder from Tohoku's deep past

The first time most people outside Japan heard about the country's northern Tohoku region was when it was struck by a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, leaving more than 15,000 dead and a million buildings damaged or destroyed. But to those familiar with Japan, Tohoku has long been...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 16, 2013

Nationalism, Tibetans and Uighurs in today's China

Nationalism arouses solidarity and generates identity politics that threaten ethnic and religious minorities. Defining the "we" also defines the "they" — and the latter is inexorably marginalized.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Nov 16, 2013

New rules needed for posting system

Masahiro Tanaka will probably end up in the majors next year, thanks in no small part to the terms NPB players seem to be willing to accept in regards to the posting system.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 15, 2013

A war of words over butchered English

The student wanted to make a brochure in English, aimed at attracting foreign tourists to Shiraishi. The English title of her presentation was “Come on my Island!”
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2013

Kennedy arrives in Tokyo ready to take up U.S. ambassadorship

The media and public waited with high expectations as Caroline Kennedy, the new U.S. ambassador, arrived Friday in Japan, becoming the first female to assume the post.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 14, 2013

Turkey explores options for friends beyond U.S.

Turkey began feeling alone when the U.S. did not deliver the firepower to oust the Assad regime in Syria. So, it is out to gather as many friends as it can line up in the Middle East.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 14, 2013

'Filth'

In "Filth", we meet Bruce "Robbo" Robertson, a bipolar plainclothes detective in Edinburgh who's racist, sexist, homophobic, addicted to cocaine, addled on various prescription drugs, consorting with whores, scheming against all his colleagues at work, making obscene phone calls, loveless, friendless,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 14, 2013

'The Counselor'

Alfred Hitchcock once noted that if you show a gun in the first act, it will have to be fired in the third. Thus when "The Counselor" has Javier Bardem's sleazy, mob-connected nightclub owner explain to his lawyer what a bolito is — a small battery-powered garrotte that locks around a victim's neck...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 14, 2013

Oldest complete fossil discovered

What may be the oldest complete fossil on Earth paints a smelly but colorful picture of our microbial ancestors from nearly 3.5 billion years ago.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 13, 2013

The politics behind Japan's modern era of proletarian art

"Art and Literature in Japan 1926-1936" follows the close of the Taisho Era (1912-1926), which was characterized by democracy, artistic experimentation and widespread social self-absorptions by the citizenry in new fashions such as the "beach pajama" outfits of "modern" girls. The successive Showa Era...
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Nov 12, 2013

Has anime lost its cachet in America?

I had been invited to host a Q&A with renowned "Gundam" creator and sci-fi novelist Yoshiyuki Tomino at The New York Anime Festival. But when my handler and I arrived at the designated room, we found it empty and dark. "Over here," a staffer called from across the hall. "Too many people."
BASKETBALL / NBA REPORT
Nov 12, 2013

Bird has Pacers on track to win now

Larry Bird knew it was going to be a tough sell.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 9, 2013

Kokeshi: From Tohoku With Love

Kokeshi dolls are a mainstay of tourists shop across Japan, yet many visitors to the country may not know that these simple handmade wooden dolls are, by and large, associated with Tohoku, the region in the northeast that was so devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 8, 2013

Tehran's nuclear quandary

There are many obstacles to an agreement on Iran's nuclear program. Particularly troubling for the U.S. and its allies, though, is how much Iran has mimicked the regime in Pyongyang.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 5, 2013

Outsider drawn to the circle of life

The discovery and promotion of works by self-taught or outsider artists — those who are not academically trained and create their works primarily for themselves, mostly beyond the cultural-commercial mainstream — are still relatively new activities in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2013

Washington isn't working, so why not move it?

Dispersing the headquarters of Washington's bureaucratic agencies throughout America's hinterland might well reduce people's feelings of alienation and hence lead to better government.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2013

New maritime challenges

The recrudescence of territorial and maritime disputes, largely tied to the competition over natural resources, will increasingly have a bearing on maritime peace and security.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2013

Kurdish phoenix rises from ruins of Syria's war

The Kurds can't erase all the hurts of their modern history and those who choose to stay in Syria remain embattled, yet the isolation that had been their lot is now fading fast.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices
Nov 4, 2013

No safe country for foreign women: the debate

Holly Lanasolyluna's article published Oct. 23 attracted an unprecedented number of online comments. More than 5,000 people also answered the accompanying poll about safety in Japan. Here are just some of the mails and comments.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2013

Five myths about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

An avalanche of books written about Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis — without her cooperation — have left us with myths about her that are widely believed to this day.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight