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LIFE / Language
Jun 22, 2014

Today's weird words are tomorrow's standard speech

Last month, a most peculiar word, dotakyan, popped up repeatedly in the media in reference to former Beatle Paul McCartney, who was forced to cancel his entire schedule of concerts due to health concerns.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / ADOPT ME!
Jun 22, 2014

A cat named Mackerel: undercover

With Mackerel, the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover" comes to mind.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 22, 2014

Pope blasts mobsters for their 'adoration of evil'

Pope Francis on Saturday issued the strongest attack on organized crime groups by a pontiff in two decades, accusing them of practicing "the adoration of evil" and saying mafiosi are excommunicated.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2014

Japan urged to do more to promote its language overseas

Japan needs to make bigger efforts to promote its culture and gain public support for the promotion of Japanese-language education overseas, according to a linguistics scholar who has taught the language for more than 40 years in the United States.
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2014

China insists on direct negotiations to resolve maritime disputes

China believes territorial disputes in the region should be settled through direct talks with the countries concerned, the nation's top foreign policy official said.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 21, 2014

The Case of the Sharaku Murders

Before winning the Edogawa Rampo Prize for "The Case of the Sharaku Murders" in 1983, Katsuhiko Takahashi was an ukiyo-e researcher and university lecturer, which perhaps explains why he chose to set his debut novel in the bitchy academic world of ukiyo-e scholarship — where art professors attain shogunlike...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 21, 2014

Deep Kyoto Walks

"Deep Kyoto Walks" edited by Michael Lambe and Ted Taylor is the perfect guide for anyone who wants to get off Kyoto's beaten tourist track. With personalized views of what to see and do in Kyoto — by people who have lived there for extended periods of time — it essentially offers a curated guide...
COMMUNITY / Voices / Fiction
Jun 21, 2014

Rice: Connecting two nations that are natural friends

Haruko Harrison tells her story
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 21, 2014

Ending Japan's sexism requires men to lean in, too

Ayaka Shiomura's tears show why Shinzo Abe's talk of empowering Japan's women is still more hot air than policy.
BUSINESS
Jun 21, 2014

Nintendo loses Wii patents suit in U.K.

Royal Philips NV has won a U.K. court ruling in a global battle over patents for recognizing hand gestures and motion on Nintendo Co.'s Wii gaming devices.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 20, 2014

Volcanic beast begins to stir anew in Hawaii

Mauna Loa, the world's largest active volcano, has rumbled back to life in Hawaii over the past 13 months with more seismic activity than at any time since its last eruption, scientists say, while calling it too soon to predict another blast.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2014

Tag pushed as an Olympic demo sport

If there is one thing Yasuo and Takao Hazaki feel confident about outdoing any other father-son duo in, it is their intense commitment to the ancient playground game of "onigokko," or team tag.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 20, 2014

'Patriotic wives' few in number — but loud

One by one, women take the microphone near the crowded Hachiko crossing in Tokyo's Shibuya shopping district on a hot and humid weekday, denouncing the pacifist Constitution, blasting China's "recklessness" and mocking the South Korean flag.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN WEB WATCH
Jun 20, 2014

Well-bitten consumers shy of Japan's disappearing e-books

Although it has now been surpassed by the United States, Japan was once the world's largest market for e-books, thanks to the early success of the cellphone-content business. But in today's competitive market, e-book sellers disappear every few months, leaving consumers to wonder whether the digital...
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2014

Meeting the 100 million goal

The Abe administration is poised to set a target of keeping the nation's population from falling below 100 million by 2060 in order to sustain economic growth and the social security system.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 20, 2014

U.S. says government lab workers possibly exposed to anthrax

As many as 75 scientists and staff in U.S. government laboratories in Atlanta may have been exposed to live anthrax bacteria after researchers failed to follow safety procedures, prompting an investigation by federal authorities.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 20, 2014

Gun battle flares as Israeli soldiers seek missing teens

Israeli forces traded gunfire with Palestinians on Thursday, the military said, in the fiercest street battles in the occupied West Bank since the search began for three Israeli teenagers missing for a week.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Jun 19, 2014

Abe's 'third arrow' misses the mark

Economists pan the revamped 'third arrow' of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's growth plan for lacking critical details on how he will achieve the jumble of bold reforms proposed.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 19, 2014

Spiders across the world have a taste for fish, scientists say

English poet Mary Howitt's "The Spider and the Fly" doesn't tell the half of it: Spiders of course are happy to devour flies, but their appetites go beyond mere insects.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 19, 2014

Mitsubishi Materials bets on U.S. to up cement profit

Mitsubishi Materials Corp., the nation's second-biggest cement maker, plans to reopen its U.S. import terminal for the first time in seven years and seek acquisitions to expand in the world's biggest economy.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 19, 2014

Your ad in this space: Private companies fund cleanup of orbiting junk

Nobu Okada wants to save the planet from orbiting junk, which he says threatens to cut us off from the satellites we depend on and prevent us from traveling into space. But to help fund that, he needs to land a can of powdered sports drink on the moon.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 19, 2014

Sony CEO apologizes for another steep loss

Sony Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai apologized to investors Thursday after the maker of PlayStation consoles and Xperia smartphones projected a sixth loss in seven years.
OLYMPICS
Jun 19, 2014

Holding 2020 Games in August dangerous

I was reading the official document submitted last fall by the Tokyo Governor's office which represented Tokyo's winning bid for the 2020 Olympics, the other day, and wondered what the penalty, if any, was for false advertising.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Jun 18, 2014

World cup header

Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Jun 18, 2014

World cup header

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person