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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 7, 2015

Trip from hell goes to heaven in 'What We Did on Our Holiday'

We've all heard the adage that it takes a village to raise a child, but considering the state of villages these days, it could be the other way around. A case in point is "What We Did on Our Holiday," in which three kids unwittingly cure the ill will, pretensions and animosity among the adults in their...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 7, 2015

Rare Chinese street artist plasters abandoned buildings with photos of ordinary people

A 25-year-old artist in Beijing who calls himself ROBBBB has found a unique canvas for his work, one he hopes helps capture the fast-paced changes in China's capital: the walls of abandoned and half-demolished buildings.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2015

U.S., Russia prep for Arctic warfare

Russia and the U.S. are training thousands of ground troops for Arctic ops — just in case the Cold War turns hot in the thawing polar region.
EDITORIALS
Oct 6, 2015

Legislation Bureau misconduct

The Cabinet Legislation Bureau's failure to keep records of its internal discussions leading up to the Abe administration's reinterpretation of Article 9 only deepens suspicions about the legal legitimacy of the Cabinet decision and the subsequent security legislation.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Oct 6, 2015

Baseball legend Berra made unforgettable impression

One of the cool things about being an elder statesman (i.e. old coot) in the sports columnist/ TV announcer biz is that, over time, you get to conduct a ton of interviews with prominent figures in the toy department of life.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 6, 2015

Hiroshi Hamaya: images of an inner war

Most active in the mid-20th century, the photographer Hiroshi Hamaya (1915-99) is best known for his folkloric images of rural life in Niigata Prefecture — images that some consider to be symbolic of his passive resistance to militarism, but for more critical voices are advocacy of a retrograde cultural...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Oct 6, 2015

Experts hail strength Japan has gained from TPP agreement

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, tentatively brokered late Monday, will become a cornerstone of Tokyo's trade strategy as it tries to expand the scope of free trade zones globally.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 6, 2015

Omura stunned by unexpected Nobel win

News that scientist Satoshi Omura had won the Nobel Prize came so unexpectedly that many people in Japan, including the winner himself, were stunned by the honor — but delighted as well.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 5, 2015

Japanese microbiologist Satoshi Omura shares Nobel Prize for medicine

Japanese microbiologist Satoshi Omura on Monday shared this year's Nobel Prize in medicine for his work on a therapy for debilitating diseases caused by parasitic worms.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2015

Survey ranks Hakodate as Japan's top tourist site for second year in a row

Hokkaido's Hakodate stands out as the nation's most attractive tourist destination for the second year in a row, according to a recent survey by a private think tank.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2015

U.S. should charge the world for defending it

if U.S. policymakers can't get over the idea of attempting to manage the affairs of every other nation, at least they should insist on charging for services provided at American citizens' expense.
WORLD
Oct 5, 2015

Merkel allies call for Germany to limit refugee influx, close borders

Germany needs to limit the number of refugees it takes in or even close its borders, conservative allies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel said over the weekend, as the country deals with record inflows of people fleeing war and poverty.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Oct 5, 2015

Yamada deserving of MVP award

Last Friday, after the Tokyo Yakult Swallows were crowned as the best team in the Central League for 2015, Tetsuto Yamada wasn't quite ready to weigh in on the topic of the CL's best player.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 5, 2015

Hitachi's $19 million settlement over improper payments offers insights into South African deals

Hitachi Ltd.'s $19 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission provides insight into how the company became a crucial supplier to South Africa's behind-schedule power plants that have yet to solve the country's electricity shortage.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 5, 2015

Nintendo dropped from list of top 100 brands for first time

Nintendo has for the first time failed to be listed as one of the world's top 100 brands, Interbrand announced Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Oct 5, 2015

Nagoya University leads way in developing next-generation products

To cope with the accelerated aging of the nation's population, Nagoya University is working to develop futuristic vehicles.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 5, 2015

Rising anger in Thailand's boom-to-bust northeast

The rural heartland of Thailand's deposed leader Yingluck Shinawatra and her exiled billionaire brother Thaksin is hurting as a result of the military government's economic policies, stirring discontent and the threat of protests.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 5, 2015

In India, meat and murder threaten Modi's inclusive agenda

The murder by a Hindu mob of a Muslim man rumored to have slaughtered a cow has thrown a spotlight on the hard-line, polarizing agenda of some followers of Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi, undermining his promise of development for all.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 5, 2015

Canada election may be so close that it leads to political instability

With Canada's three main political parties all getting around 30 percent support in polls, the odds of a period of political instability after the Oct. 19 election are rising.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 5, 2015

TPP talks in home stretch after reported pharma breakthrough

A dozen Pacific nations closed in on a sweeping free trade pact on Sunday in Atlanta after a breakthrough over how long a monopoly pharmaceutical companies should be given on new biotech drugs.
BUSINESS
Oct 4, 2015

Japan prods U.S. on biologic drugs as TPP deal awaits

Tokyo pressures Washington to break the deadlock over biologic drugs as negotiators from 12 nations race to wrap up a sweeping Trans-Pacific trade deal.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2015

Putin has taken a crooked road to Damascus

Vladimir Putin's Syrian adventure is yet another appeal to Russian nostalgia for the Soviet past as a way to maintain his support and distract the public from problems closer to home.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 4, 2015

Feeding strategy of blue whales revealed

The blue whale is the largest creature on Earth and perhaps the biggest that ever lived, so it is no surprise it has a huge appetite. But the strategies this behemoth uses to get enough food has not been well understood — until now.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 3, 2015

Stop the presses, Yahoo News is on a roll

The Yomiuri Shimbun boasts that it is the most-read newspaper in the world owing to a "certified" daily circulation that tops 9.2 million. The Wall Street Journal, a truly international newspaper, reports daily circulation of about 1.5 million.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Oct 3, 2015

Don't be green about the charm of tatami

When we were thinking of buying a condominium, we visited several old danchi — apartments built by Japan's former public housing corporation — because they were cheap and, we thought, easy to renovate. One of the units we inspected had bedroom floors made of tatami mats, and we wondered if we could...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 3, 2015

The long and short of male circumcision in Japan

For most of its history the Japanese archipelago knew nothing of circumcision. Contact with missionaries and merchants from Europe did little to raise awareness of the custom, and the procedure does not seem to have been a high priority for the promoters of Western ideas and technology during the Meiji...

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers