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Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 23, 2013

After 18.7 billion km, Voyager 1 boldly goes on ... but just where in space is it?

It's 36 years since Voyager 1 was dispatched in 1977 on a mission to send back images of Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere and volcanic eruptions on one of its moons, Io. Then it was due to travel on to Saturn to examine that planet's intricate system of rings and moons. But after traveling more than 18...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 21, 2013

Britain's 'YBA' have moved on, but they still inspire

In Ben Wheatley's recent film "A Field in England," a group of deserting soldiers fleeing the 17th-century English Civil War escape through a field of mushrooms, only to be captured by an alchemist and descend into a nightmare of both body and mind — all against the backdrop of the English countryside....
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Aug 20, 2013

Constant change, lack of plan hurt bj-league's viability

Entering its ninth season, which tips off in October, the bj-league has never been in worse shape.
BUSINESS / Companies / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Aug 18, 2013

Japan must open up to foreign investment — especially from China

Earlier this year, NHK aired the three-part TV program "Made in Japan," which dramatized an electronics company's struggle to survive tough economic times. While fictional, the story detailed the harsh reality Japan Inc. faces from Chinese competition.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 17, 2013

American fiction's drunken masters

Rivers run through Olivia Laing's writing — sometimes the real thing, either narrow and innocuous like a backwoods creek or mile-wide like the Mississippi; occasionally streams of memory that flow backwards, and sometimes gushers of tears; always a steady current of liquidly eloquent words.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 17, 2013

Unmissable response to George Orwell's 1946 essay 'Why I Write'

A slender, beautifully bound blue hardback showed up on my desk. Its pages were creamy, its typeface clear in a formal, old-fashioned way. Each page number was picked out in scarlet. It was a book to put Kindle out of business, so covetable that, I almost thought, it scarcely mattered what it contained....
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Aug 16, 2013

Violence in Egypt bolsters jihadist message about democracy's dangers

Jihadists in the Middle East and beyond are moving to capitalize on the political crisis in Egypt, arguing that the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood vindicates their long-espoused view that democracy is a dangerous proposition.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 14, 2013

Namie Amuro "Feel"

The age of the J-pop diva has long passed, those halcyon days of Whitney Houston-inspired vocals and million-unit-moving singles. The female entertainers from this period have recently coped by embracing American trends. Kumi Koda struck Oricon Single Chart gold last year with "Go To the Top," which...
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Aug 13, 2013

Al-Qaida's Yemen branch eyes a new haven

Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen is focusing on expanding its presence in a remote eastern province that is the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, even as it remains the target of U.S. drone strikes and Yemeni military assaults, according to Yemeni officials.
EDITORIALS
Aug 10, 2013

Why Mr. Silver is golden

American guru of statistical analytics Nate Silver, a winner in predicting political race outcomes, has removed his star from The New York Times to move to ESPN.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 9, 2013

Enough of America's hypocritical foreign policy

Every new White House administration, irrespective of party, ignores the reality that the U.S., although wealthy and powerful, still cannot micro-manage the globe.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2013

Okinawa dump site may be proof of Agent Orange: experts

The recent discovery of 22 barrels buried on former U.S. military land in the city of Okinawa could be posing the same level of risks to local residents as dioxin hot spots in Vietnam where the American military stored toxic defoliants during the 1960s and 1970s, according to two leading Agent Orange...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON: DESIGN
Aug 5, 2013

Easy furniture and all things green

Rearranging furniture with the flip of a coin
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 3, 2013

Revealing the landscaped gems of North America

North America is not a land mass one immediately associates with gardens. China, Japan, Britain and France, perhaps, lay claim to the mind's strongest landscape associations.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2013

Obsessing over inequality threatens capitalism

It's wrong to see income gains at the top as proof of U.S. capitalism's ingrained wickedness, or to forget that clumsy intervention might affect everybody else's income.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2013

Japan bucks trend: Captive dolphin biz big

Despite an international trend taking the opposite tack, the number of aquariums in Japan is growing and sales of dolphins continue to flourish, results of an independent study have revealed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2013

Spirits linger in the trinkets of Hiroshima's dead

They say most people have one or more defining childhood incidents — something that sets the course of their adult life and molds their personality. Filmmaker Linda Hoaglund had one, and it was so striking that to this day she can still remember the flush on her face, the tingling of her skin and the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 24, 2013

Supergroup Muddy Apes get album out just in time to rock Fuji

From the beginning, rock act Muddy Apes set a lofty goal for themselves.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2013

Don't let Wal-Mart bring Southern wages north

Wal-Mart operates as if its goal is to erase the differences in U.S. wage levels between the South and North by making every store it opens 'the South.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2013

Greenpeace's Shard stunt may not help its cause

Greenpeace's staged scaling of central London's Shard skyscraper makes one wonder if the environmental organization might be even more effective if it grew up.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 20, 2013

Teams jockeying for playoff position to battle Giants, Tigers

At the All-Star break for the 2013 NPB season, the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers appear to have a lock on finishing in first and second place in the Central League pennant race. Unless there is total meltdown by one of them, we will be seeing them in the postseason Climax Series come October.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WEEK 3
Jul 20, 2013

Fuji meet wrestles with issues common to commons worldwide

Last month, just before the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization announced Mount Fuji's designation as a World Cultural Heritage Site for its religious and artistic significance, 430 learned visitors descended on its lower northern slopes.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jul 19, 2013

That's me in the picture: how 'selfies' became a global craze

It starts with a certain angle: A smartphone tilted at 45 degrees just above your eyeline is generally deemed the most forgiving. Then a light source: the flattering beam of a backlit window or a bursting supernova of flash reflected in a bathroom mirror, as preparations are under way for a night out....
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2013

High tech and the road to 'full employment'

The U.S. may not regain 'full employment' anytime soon. Companies didn't just fire workers during the Great Recession; they went on a hiring strike.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2013

The rush toward Asia-Pacific FTAs

Whichever of three mega-trade-and-investment liberalization blocs is first to conclude a credible agreement will have a signficant impact on world trade and geopolitics.
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN WEB WATCH
Jul 16, 2013

Japanese adults spend crazy money on cellphone games

Over the last decade, people's behavior during their daily train ride has completely changed. In the past, Japanese were known to be avid readers of paperbacks (bunko) and manga magazines, and would do so even on Tokyo's notoriously crowded trains. Now, however, it is rare to spot someone on the train...
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2013

Beach-storming drill in U.S. hones SDF amphibious edge

One thousand members of the Self-Defense Forces have been learning how to recapture territory in the face of enemy fire, and while the shoreline may be California's, the skills they are building could one day be used closer to home.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 16, 2013

Declassify Yahoo data decision: FISA court

The secret surveillance court that approved the U.S. government's broad collection of millions of Americans' telephone and email records called Monday for the White House to declassify and release as much as it can of one of the court's early legal decisions sanctioning that collection.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 13, 2013

'Black' business tales cast shadow on candidate

Elections for the House of Councillors will be held a week from today. The election is being billed as historic in that candidates are permitted to appeal to voters via the Internet.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 11, 2013

What not to do at a nomihodai

One of the first phrases you should learn when you set foot in Japan, before all the trivial stuff like "excuse me" and "where's the hospital?," is "nomihōdai." The holy grail of budget boozing, it's an all-you-can-drink offer, provided in many Japanese clubs and bars, for a fixed price and period of...

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