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Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 5, 2015

Vermont gas station attendant bequeaths millions to library, hospital

Perhaps the only clue that Ronald Read, a Vermont gas station attendant and janitor who died last year at age 92, had been quietly amassing an $8 million fortune was his habit of reading the Wall Street Journal, his friends and family say.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 5, 2015

Ebola cases on the rise for first time this year, WHO says

The number of new cases of Ebola rose in all three of West Africa's worst-hit countries last week, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, ending several weeks of encouraging declines across the region.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 4, 2015

Welcome to New York: 'Abel Ferrara ignores a rich vein of intrigue and rushes to judgement'

The career of Abel Ferrara is a bit of an enigma. As a director who started with gnarly exploitation flicks before moving into more philosophical tales of sin and redemption, Ferrara is barely a presence in the U.S. outside his native New York City, and he hasn't had a hit with either critics or the...
CULTURE / Film
Feb 4, 2015

Bannou Kanteishi Q: Mona Lisa no Hitomi (All-Round Appraiser Q: The Eyes of Mona Lisa)

Director: Shinsuke Sato Language: French, Japanese (subtitled in English)
CULTURE / Film
Feb 4, 2015

Escape from Tomorrow

Director: Randy Moore Language: English
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 4, 2015

Hacker who framed computer users with cyberthreats jailed for eight years

Yusuke Katayama, a former information technology professional, used his expertise to make online threats 'while dodging arrest himself,' the presiding judge said.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Feb 4, 2015

Readers' letters: bursting bubbles on gaijin life and the Hague child-abduction treaty

A couple of readers' mails in response to recent Just Be Cause columns by Debito Arudou.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 4, 2015

Ninagawa still exploring in eighth take on 'Hamlet'

Yukio Ninagawa's "cherry-blossom" staging of "Macbeth" at the Edinburgh Festival in 1985, with actors in that famously Scottish play sporting kimono rather than kilts, was a sensation due to its radical reimagining of so revered a work.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 4, 2015

Groundbreaking Bard double bill is set to surprise in more ways than one

Over the past decade, Shintaro Mori has made a name for himself in Japan's theater world as a director with a passion for plays in translation. So, true to form, next month at the ACM Theater in Art Tower Mito he is staging a double bill comprising Shakespeare's comedy "Twelfth Night" (or "What You Will"),...
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2015

The ethics of artificial intelligence

The growing penetration of artificial intellence into our daily lives is raising pressing ethical issues.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Feb 4, 2015

In shrinking villages, abandoned graves are a sign of generational flight

In the nation's declining provinces, it is not only the living who are neglected.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2015

Farming reforms set to test Abe's resolve

After December's landslide re-election, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's program to revive the nation's economy is set to meet perhaps its stiffest challenge, the nation's sclerotic farming industry.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 4, 2015

Grenades cheaper than Coca-Cola menace the Central African Republic

As Capt. Victor leads a team of Spanish special forces on a night patrol in the capital of the Central African Republic, Bangui, one thing worries him most: Chinese-made hand grenades that sell for less than a soft drink.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2015

Israel ramps up Asia trade ties as government urges shift from EU amid anti-Semitism

Israeli companies are increasingly turning to Asia to capture a boom in demand for their technology, as the government urges them to diversify export markets in response to Europe's rising anti-Semitism and potential trade sanctions.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 3, 2015

U.N.'s highest court absolves Croatia, Serbia of genocide

The United Nations' highest court ruled Tuesday that neither Croatia nor Serbia had committed genocide against each other's populations during the wars that accompanied the violent breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 3, 2015

Don Matsuo to take solo experiences into Zoobombs' new act

In September 2013, weeks away from celebrating their 20th anniversary, Tokyo rock act Zoobombs announced they were disbanding. The group's leader, guitarist and vocalist Don Matsuo, and his wife, Zoobombs' keyboardist Matta, went on to form a new group called The Randolf. However, that project was short-lived...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 3, 2015

Hostage crisis could influence Japan's Mideast priorities

As shock waves over the execution of two Japanese hostages by the Islamic State group continue to reverberate, questions emerge about the effect the crisis may have on Japan's Middle East policies.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2015

Goto's tweets document his courage, sadness for victims of war

Poignant messages sent by executed hostage Kenu00adji Gou00adto on Twitter before he was taken hostage bear silent witness to his courage as a journalist in a conflict zone.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS
Feb 3, 2015

Blue Bottle Coffee offers a fresher brew

Whether by accident of fate or surfeit of real estate, Tokyo's Kiyosumi-Shirakawa neighborhood is turning into one of the most caffeinated corners of the capital. Already home to artisan roasters, including The Cream of the Crop and Arise Coffee, this district of galleries, parks and low-rise housing...
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 3, 2015

Government did not beef up response team until video emerged

The government did not dispatch additional personnel to the embassy in Jordan until the first video showing two Japanese held at knife-point appeared two weeks ago, even though Tokyo knew the pair had been taken captive much earlier, Foreign Minister Fuu00admio Kiu00adshiu00adda says.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 3, 2015

Nomura said to shrink U.S. high-grade debt unit

Nomura Holdings Inc. is retreating from U.S. investment-grade corporate credit trading after last year's bout of volatility in fixed-income markets, two people with knowledge of the decision said.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 3, 2015

U.S.-India nuclear 'breakthrough' could be finalized within the year: officials

A "breakthrough understanding" to fling open India's nuclear power sector to U.S. firms reached during President Barack Obama's visit to New Delhi last month could be finalized this year, Indian officials have said.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 3, 2015

Indian's Modi stokes radical Hindus' anger over economic focus

In an ashram near the Ganges River in the Himalayan foothills, Indian priest-turned-politician Sakshi Maharaj mimes rowing a boat to illustrate what will happen if Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government ignores Hindu nationalist demands.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 3, 2015

Greece ruptures 30 years of political consensus in Europe

By catapulting to power an improbable alliance of the hard -left and nationalist far-right, Greece has shaken up Europe's political kaleidoscope and may have signaled the end of an era of centrist consensus.
WORLD
Feb 3, 2015

Al-Rishawi, female Iraqi militant held by Jordan, is heroine to jihadis

When her husband blew himself up in a luxury hotel during a wedding in Amman a decade ago, Sajida al-Rishawi was meant to die too, but her suicide bomb belt did not go off. Today, as a death-row prisoner in Jordan, she is a heroine to jihadis in the region, who may be willing to swap a Jordanian pilot...
WORLD
Feb 3, 2015

Russia, Ukraine in indirect talks to reopen key Black Sea air corridor: report

Russia and Ukraine are holding indirect talks to reopen a key international air corridor over the Black Sea to commercial flights as part of a plan that could give Ukraine much-needed overflight fees and ease congestion on other crowded air routes, according to five sources familiar with the matter....
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 3, 2015

Litvinenko believed Putin linked to organized crime, ex-KGB spy's widow says

Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian agent killed with polonium in London, believed Vladimir Putin lacked the mettle to stamp out corruption inside Russia's security agency and that he had links to organized crime, his widow said on Monday.

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