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Japan Times
SUMO
Sep 25, 2017

JSA offering foreign fans rare glimpse of special sumo rituals

The Japan Sumo Association will hold an Ozumo Beyond 2020 Basho at Ryogoku Kokugikan on Oct. 4 for the second straight year.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2017

Our dangerous, idiotic national conversation

Cheap speech is reducing the relevance of political parties and newspapers as intermediaries between candidates and voters, which empowers demagogues.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 18, 2017

Sumo helps with heavy lifting in language

Consider today's column my personal testimony that the sport of sumo can be a very useful aid for learning the Japanese language.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Sep 18, 2017

Japanese citizen group stages rally to battle hate speech on Twitter

A citizen group is standing up to discriminatory speech on Twitter, demanding that the social networking service take urgent measures to block hate speech and other abusive communication.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 16, 2017

'Bullseye! Twenty Short Stories': More of Tsutsui's metafiction mayhem

Touted as 'Japan's preeminent writer of metafiction,' Tsutsui is an expert at deftly employing this narrative device to underscore his dark social commentary.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Sep 12, 2017

Sumoto wins Riga JGP as coach gets emotional

This was more like it.
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Sep 9, 2017

'All She Was Worth': Step into a world of loan sharks and debt in modern Japan

Give the lingering late-summer heat the slip and duck into the shadows with 'All She Was Worth,' a classic Japanese crime mystery.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 9, 2017

South Korea braces for possible new missile test to mark North's foundation day

South Korea braced for a possible further missile test by North Korea when it marks its founding anniversary Saturday, just days after its sixth and largest nuclear test, which it marks each year with a big display of pageantry and military hardware.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 2, 2017

Happy history in China, the land of the politically repressed

Talk about negative nation branding! With the Cambridge University Press affair, Chinese authorities have really outdone themselves in drawing attention to their fear of history.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 31, 2017

India and China provide rare glimmer of hope

India took a mature route in defusing the border confrontation with China in the Himalayas.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 14, 2017

Anthony Scaramucci slams 'Bannon-bart' drag on White House agenda

Short-lived White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said that Steve Bannon is hurting President Donald Trump's ability to move his agenda forward, and suggested the administration move toward the political "mainstream."
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Aug 9, 2017

Thailand sentences man to 18 years in prison for insulting monarchy

A Thai man was jailed for 18 years on Wednesday for posting six video clips deemed insulting to the monarchy, his lawyer said, the latest conviction in junta-ruled Thailand where authorities have cracked down on critics of the monarchy and military.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 8, 2017

Diplomacy to defuse India, China border crisis slams into a wall, sources say

India's diplomatic efforts to end a seven-week military standoff with China have hit a roadblock, people briefed on the talks said, prompting Chinese state-run media to trumpet rhetoric of "unavoidable countermeasures" on the unmarked border.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2017

Today's nuclear North Korea is yesterday's China

As U.S. policymakers ponder how to deal with North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, it is important for them to remember that they are not in uncharted territory.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 7, 2017

Chinese state-run media stress limits to North Korea sanctions, slam U.S. 'arrogance'

Chinese state media on Monday stressed the limits of new United Nations sanctions on North Korea, and also slammed the United States for its "arrogance," saying Washington needed to understand it also has a role in lessening tensions.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 1, 2017

Envoy throws ball back to Trump, says U.S. and North Korea are key to peace on peninsula, not China

China hit back on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted he was "very disappointed" in China following North Korea's latest missile test, saying the problem did not arise in China and that all sides need to work for a solution.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jul 29, 2017

Documentary on former hoop star Neumann's life provides a cautionary tale

Hoop aficionados from Harlem to Hokkaido can appreciate the details of a good global basketball odyssey.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2017

Putin's no good, but where's the alternative?

No Russian political leader is offering a vision ambitious and inspiring enough to compete with Putin. Perhaps that's why he finds it so easy to suppress dissent and hold on to power.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2017

What a London cabbie learned from Uber

Uber has delivered a much-needed wake-up call to London's taxi industry.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 12, 2017

China sends military personnel to Djibouti to man its first overseas base

Ships carrying Chinese military personnel for Beijing's first overseas military base, in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, have left China to begin setting up the facility as China's rapidly modernizing military hones its global reach.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2017

China's anti-addiction drive may ruin video games

Will Beijing's crackdown help half a billion Chinese gamers kick the habit?
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 20, 2017

Warmbier death is latest twist in fraught U.S.-North Korea ties

Otto Warmbier, an American college student who fell into a coma while detained by North Korea and was returned to the U.S. last week in a stunning display of diplomatic prowess, has died, his family said Monday — the latest twist in increasingly fraught ties between Washington and Pyongyang.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2017

Macron and the post-revolutionary idea

The key to political novice Emmanuel Macron's success is found far from France — and four decades removed from the present.
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Jun 17, 2017

Kansai takes measured view on missile drills

Over the past two months, hardly a week has passed without news of another North Korean missile launch. It's become routine: An early morning South Korean media report, based on government sources, says that "an object has been launched," forcing politicians, bureaucrats, and journalists in Tokyo out...
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 14, 2017

Study on frequent Aspirin use flags heightened risk of serious, fatal bleeding for over-75s

People aged 75 or older who take aspirin daily to ward off heart attacks face a significantly elevated risk of serious or even fatal bleeding, and should be given heartburn drugs to minimize the danger, a 10-year study has found.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 8, 2017

Ginza's new noh theater seeks to break down cultural barriers

The Kanze Noh Theater reopened in April in Ginza Six, a new upscale shopping complex in central Tokyo that seeks to attract domestic and foreign audiences to a wide range of the country's traditional performing arts.
EDITORIALS
May 29, 2017

A troubling trip abroad for Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump's comments on his first tour abroad raise questions anew about his administration's commitment to core elements of the Western foreign policy consensus.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 27, 2017

Magazine snares rival 'scoop thief' red-handed

In its May 25 issue, Shukan Shincho set pens a-pushing and tongues a-wagging throughout the nation by accusing rival weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun of engaging in sneaky schemes to steal its thunder.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2017

Trump's words returning to haunt him

What goes around, comes around, especially with a man who flip-flops his position on an almost daily basis.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building