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Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 7, 2014

'Battle Royale' wins the game for hungry fans

I should probably start this review with somewhat of a disclaimer. About 10 years ago — not long after Kinji Fukasaku's film adaptation of Koushun Takami's controversial novel "Battle Royale" became a cult hit overseas — I bought a screen-printed poster from a London-based design studio called Airside....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jun 7, 2014

Battle Royale: Remastered

Set in May 1997, in a fascist version of Japan known as the Republic of Greater East Asia, "Battle Royale" follows the fate of 42 junior high-school kids who have been forced the take part in The Program — a sadistic game created by the government that randomly picks a ninth-grade class, arms them...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 7, 2014

China's forces grow more sophisticated

China is improving its military doctrine, training, weapons and surveillance to be able to conduct more sophisticated attacks against the United States and other adversaries, including Japan, according to the Pentagon.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 7, 2014

U.S. nonintervention casts a vote for Assad

The question is not whether Bashar Assad's Syrian regime is better than Islamist extremism, but how the world can forsake Syrians to suffer oppression by both.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 7, 2014

Accused Seattle gunman suffering severe mental illness: lawyer

The man accused of killing one person and wounding two others in a shooting spree at a small Christian college in Seattle suffers from "significant and long-standing mental health issues" that were a factor in the tragedy, his lawyer said Friday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 6, 2014

China's 2013 defense spending 21% higher than declared: Pentagon

China's military spending exceeded $145 billion last year as it advanced a program modernizing an arsenal of drones, warships, jets, missiles and cyberattacks, the Pentagon said Thursday, presenting a far higher figure than Beijing's official tally.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2014

Olympics advisory panel mixed bag

The organizing committee for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics has set up an advisory council consisting of 170 people from various parts of society to make sure the games are an "all-Japan" effort.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 6, 2014

Let Japan help defend America — and itself

The growing risk that Washington will be drawn into a confrontation with Beijing over parochial issues in East Asia will go down as soon as Japan takes greater responsibility for its own defense and that of its allies, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposes.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 6, 2014

As Ukraine moves on rebel stronghold, residents live with sound of shelling

Only one of the Ukrainian Army checkpoints encircling the separatist stronghold of Slovyansk, where a military operation was in its third day on Thursday, was letting traffic through — most on its way out.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 6, 2014

Top General Motors executives spared in internal report on safety failure

General Motors Co. on Thursday issued a report detailing how for 11 years it turned a blind eye to an ignition-switch problem that has been linked to at least 13 deaths but it largely pinned the blame on incompetent lower-level employees, leaving top brass untouched.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2014

Renowned chef Roy Yamaguchi to spotlight rise of Hawaiian cuisine

Award-winning chef Roy Yamaguchi wants to showcase the modern Hawaiian cuisine he helped pioneer more than 20 years ago and to share the spotlight with the next generation of chefs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 5, 2014

The pleasures of driving like an absolute maniac

"Need for Speed" is an ode to the automobile and not the green, hybrid kind either. The vehicles in this movie are sleek, sexy, gas-guzzling, carbon-spewing planet-destroyers, and director Scott Waugh revels in shooting them from every conceivable angle (plus a few you never even thought possible). In...
EDITORIALS
Jun 5, 2014

Political reform overdue in China

Twenty-five years after the protests at Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Communist Party continues to try to erase the memory of a movement that called for elimination of corruption, government accountability, freedom of speech and expansion of workers' rights.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 5, 2014

Light up the night with a firefly festival

Fireflies, known as hotaru in Japan, have inspired numerous artists and writers, including Haruki Murakami, whose short story "Firefly" was later adapted into the first part of his best-seller "Norwegian Wood." In the real world, however, fireflies are sadly in decline, as their natural habitats —...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Jun 5, 2014

[VIDEO] World Cup 2014 views from Tokyo: South Korea, France, the Netherlands and Spain

BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 4, 2014

Osaka Exchange looks to expand into commodity, forex markets

Japan Exchange Group Inc., the country's main exchange operator, is considering expansion into commodities and foreign exchange as Asian economies continue to grow.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 4, 2014

How Japan crafted its modernization

When Japan ended its isolation in the mid-to-late-19th-century, it had lots of disadvantages compared to the other major powers. But one distinct advantage that its isolation had preserved was its craft industries and the skills of its craftsmen.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 4, 2014

'Hirayama Ikuo: Message to the Next Generations'

Ikuo Hirayama (1930-2009), who experienced the World War II atomic bombing of Japan, based his artistic values on his strong Buddhist faith and his search for peace. He traveled along the Silk Road to research the history of Japanese art and worked on many bold and grand paintings with Buddhist themes,...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 3, 2014

Ladykillers: Hurricanes with feminine names 'most deadly'

Would more residents of New Orleans have evacuated ahead of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 if it had been named Kurt?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 3, 2014

Firms woo female investors with goodies

When Chiho Higo started teaching stock trading at a Tokyo night school in 2008, there were often no female attendees. Now there are 50. One mother said she bought shares in a toymaker instead of toys for her child.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 3, 2014

Website targets women for management jobs

BizReach Inc., a Tokyo-based job search company, has introduced a career-change website for women, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe encourages companies to boost female leadership.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Jun 3, 2014

Tokyoites needn't be sheepish about New Zealand cuisine

New Zealand is famous for its lamb, pasture-fed on the country's rolling green hills. Lamb being hard to come by in Japan, a New Zealand restaurant is a good bet if you're craving lamb chops. There are two big ones in Tokyo: Wakanui (B1F, 2-23-14 Higashi-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo; 03-3568-3466; www.wakanui.jp)...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2014

What really happened at Tiananmen?

In recent years the Tiananmen Square 'massacre' story has taken something of a beating as people in the square that night, including a Spanish TV unit, have emerged to tell us that there was no massacre in the square.

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