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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2013

Exiting a wounded church

Roman Catholics pray that the Holy Spirit will cut through all the politicking by cardinals and light upon a pope who can rescue a wounded church.
JAPAN / Media / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 3, 2013

Re-creating Reiko Ohara; Tragic tsunami elementary school; CM of the week: Elleair

Reiko Ohara died in 2009 after a long illness and an even longer time out of the public eye. In the 1970s and '80s, she was one of the busiest and most respected actresses in Japan. On Wednesday, TV Tokyo is presenting a two-hour drama about her life, "Joyu Reiko: Hono no yo ni" ("Actress Reiko: Like...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 3, 2013

Japanese women strive to empower themselves

When it comes to gender equality, Japan has never failed to disappoint.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 3, 2013

Maco Yoshioka: Battling the postpartum blues

Maco Yoshioka is the founder of Madre Bonita, a nonprofit group that offers postpartum fitness programs for women using elastic exercise balls. Yoshioka, 40, who studied sports physiology at the University of Tokyo, says she became aware of physical and mental difficulties for new mothers when, in the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 3, 2013

A native son's grim account of hard-luck lives

DETROIT: An American Autopsy, by Charlie LeDuff. Penguin Press, 2013, 286 pp., $27.95 (hardcover)
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 28, 2013

The long arm of the antipiracy law

Captured half a world away, off the coast of Oman in the Indian Ocean, four Somalis are sent to Tokyo to stand trial for piracy after a failed attempt to hijack an oil tanker. Three have already been convicted by the Tokyo District Court.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 26, 2013

Who'll repair Japan's roads?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's grandiose plan to reinforce the nation's infrastructure could end up being a pie in the sky unless more attention is paid to details.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 24, 2013

One former student's inspiring path to success

Seeing fewer years ahead and more behind me as a teacher, I often think back over the students who have passed through my classrooms and wonder how many will truly make a difference in the world.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 23, 2013

Driving me crazy

Next to my house lies a carpet of land not flat enough to resist puddles and not sandy enough to attract cats.
Japan Times
LIFE / LABOR PAINS
Feb 19, 2013

Teachers are workers, not martyrs: the severance scandal that isn't

'Teachers quitting before graduation?!' the headlines screamed as we headed into the new year.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Feb 18, 2013

'Interruptions' gives form to invisible immigrants

As senators opened the immigration reform debate with a hearing Wednesday morning, spectral sentinels last seen in the Hollywood Hills and on Rodeo Drive began appearing on Capitol Hill.
Japan Times
JAPAN / INTERPRETATION & TRANSLATION
Feb 18, 2013

Making a living using foreign language skills

What would it be like to make a living using foreign language skills as a freelance professional? Missa Takahashi, an interpreter and translator of English, French and Italian, shares how she established her career, expanded her work and deepened her understanding of language and culture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 17, 2013

Vibrant novel offers rich pleasures

UNEXPECTED LESSONS IN LOVE, by Bernardine Bishop. John Murray, 2013, 378 pp., £16.99 (hardcover)
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 17, 2013

Warm memories of an Aizu winterlude

It starts to snow soon after the train leaves Koriyama, and further inland at Aizu Wakamatsu the snow is knee deep. My hosts, Nobuyuki and Mikiko, are waiting at the station. I'm relieved to see they've brought boots for me.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 16, 2013

War on the seabed: the Hebridean shellfishing battle

The problem with bottom-trawling is that it lacks discrimination. The gear plows through the seabed, taking or breaking nearly everything in its path.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Feb 8, 2013

Founder of TIS makes creativity cornerstone of school's curriculum

Patrick Newell, 47, founder of Tokyo International School, calls himself a “learning activist,” a zealot on the frontlines of learning.
JAPAN / Media
Feb 3, 2013

A big eating marathon; The worst father; CM of the week: Choya

Though there are professional competitive eaters, one doesn't have to be certified to participate in such contests. The TV personalities on this week's two-hour special edition of the variety show "Ikinari! Ogon Densetsu" ("Out of the Blue! Gold Legend"; TV Asahi, Thurs., 6:53 p.m.) are all comedians...
Reader Mail
Jan 31, 2013

Aso broaches a difficult issue

Recent comments by Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso about the elderly in Japan, while controversial, make a great deal of sense to me because of my personal experience.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 30, 2013

With Medicaid rolls set to grow, Oregon bets it can slow costs

In 2011, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber faced a vexing problem: The state had a $2 billion hole in its Medicaid budget and no good way to fill it.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 24, 2013

Smokers who quit by about age 40 can stave off early death, study finds

Smokers who quit by around age 40 can stave off an early death, according to a landmark study that fills key gaps in our knowledge of smoking-related health ills.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jan 20, 2013

Veteran athletes, coaches adamant that corporal punishment has no place in sports

The tragic death of a 17-year-old Osaka high school student and basketball captain in December sheds light on a disturbing aspect of Japanese culture that has existed for decades: corporal punishment.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jan 19, 2013

Lance Armstrong and the art of public confession

There are no free rides out of paradise. As a disgraced sporting legend, Lance Armstrong, who for the most part came clean to Oprah Winfrey on American television this week, could be forgiven for thinking he has trespassed in the Garden of Eden, or perhaps gone sunbathing on the rock usually occupied...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 17, 2013

'Furasshubakku Memorizu 3D (Flashback Memories 3D)'

Music documentaries nearly all feature nonmusical moments, such as Bob Dylan sardonically jousting with journalists in 'Dont Look Back.' 'Furasshubakku Memorizu 3D (Flashback Memories 3D),' a documentary of didgeridoo player Goma offers no such moments.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 17, 2013

When the connections are as crucial as the art

Amid the hurry of daily life it is easy to forget what lies below our feet. To most of us, it may appear to be just cement or dirt, but to artist Kenji Yamada there are profound mysteries contained on the ground, in things as simple as our own footprints in the snow. His installation artworks are born...
CULTURE / Film
Jan 17, 2013

Donald Richie on 'Koshikei (Death by Hanging)'

This review as originally published on Sunday, Jan. 28, 1968.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jan 14, 2013

Our menacing infrastructure

"Expressway tunnels as well as other infrastructure throughout Japan are nearing the crisis stage," warns a university professor who is a member of an advisory body for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jan 8, 2013

From Taiji to Okinawa, readers dissect some issues of 2012

In the first of our new Community Chest letters columns, we bring together a selection of mails received in response to some of the final Community stories of 2012.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years