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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 1, 2015

Horror of 'Child 44' is bogged down by Soviet era bureaucracy

The recurring line in "Child 44" is, "there is no murder in paradise." It's a reflection of the political image projected in the Soviet Union during the Stalin era — these were a paradisal states, free from Western ills like poverty and crime, and there was nothing more to say about it. But the backdrop...
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2015

57 countries set to sign on to China-backed investment bank AIIB

One of China's biggest foreign policy successes ever will take shape Monday when delegates from 57 countries sign an agreement on the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2015

Hard questions for candidate Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton's reticence is drowning out her message, which is that she is the cure for the many ailments that afflict America during a second Democratic presidential term.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 24, 2015

Turkey's master of slow-boil cinema keeps his characters simmering with tension in 'Winter Sleep'

This may seem an odd form of praise, but Nuri Bilge Ceylan does boredom awfully well. The Turkish director's last film, "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" (2011), was a police procedural that had been denuded of the drama you'd normally expect from the genre. Yet as its protagonists trudged fruitlessly from...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 23, 2015

Young British directors take Tokyo by storm — but why?

This year it's quite noticeable how many non-Japanese are directing plays in Tokyo — not frequent and famed visitors such as David Leveaux, Robert Lepage and Simon McBurney, but relative unknowns here making their debuts at two leading large commercial theaters that almost always feature Japanese dramatists....
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 23, 2015

U.S. and China to seek patch of common ground as key talks begin

The U.S. and China will have no trouble filling the agenda as they meet this week for their seventh Strategic and Economic Dialogue. The challenge will be finding topics on which they can agree.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 22, 2015

What attracts people to white supremacy?

Supremacists offer disaffected whites someone to love and someone to hate, along with an assurance that the problem isn't in you, but in 'them.'
SOCCER
Jun 22, 2015

Report: Maradona to run for FIFA president

Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona has decided to stand as a candidate for the FIFA presidency to replace Sepp Blatter, Uruguayan journalist and author Victor Hugo Morales has said.
EDITORIALS
Jun 12, 2015

Erdogan rebuked — for now

Last weekend's elections in Turkey dealt President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a stunning setback and herald a period of instability in Turkish politics.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 9, 2015

Irritated with Myanmar, China to woo opposition leader Suu Kyi

Chinese leaders will woo Myanmar's opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on her first visit to the country, a snub for the quasi-military government whose fighting with rebels along China's border has angered Beijing.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 1, 2015

Abe and history: What's next?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe needs to dramatically and definitively address the 'comfort women' issue head on.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 29, 2015

Expressive emoji win over Merriam-Webster's wordsmiths

From tsunami to head honcho, English boasts no end to Japanese loan words. Artsy chefs now talk of umami and revelers belt out karaoke, so it is no surprise to see the Merriam-Webster dictionary honoring another new arrival: emoji, familiar to mobile users worldwide.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 20, 2015

Danish filmmaker's emotional, queasy 'Second Chance'

Scandinavian countries consistently come out tops on the happiness index but Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier ("Love is All You Need") continues in her apparent quest to dig up the darkest muck in the river bed of the human soul. If you're familiar with Bier's world, you'll know how her characters always...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 18, 2015

Chief Cabinet secretary is much more than top government spokesman

Which politician is most often quoted by Japanese media outlets? The answer undoubtedly is the chief Cabinet secretary, who holds two news conferences each weekday.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 15, 2015

Dangerous deja vu all over

David Cameron's Conservatives are treading a dangerous path in renegotiating the U.K.'s membership and obligations in the EU.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 14, 2015

Maya Inoue makes a play to refine her father's theatrical legacy

Hisashi Inoue's death at the age of 75 on April 9, 2010, at his home in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, was a major event in the postwar Japanese theater world. It moved many dramatists to stage works by the great author and playwright who combined comedy and searing social and political commentary into...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 13, 2015

Filmmakers Ash and Kamanaka discuss radiation, secrets and lives

Two filmmakers who have tackled the Fukushima issue — American and Japanese, storyteller and activist — discuss their work and their films, and consider the notion of 'being a 'foreign' filmmaker.'
Japan Times
WORLD / EU SPECIAL 2015
May 12, 2015

EU Film Days offers new insights into Europe

MORE SPORTS
May 6, 2015

Uchiyama defends title with patented KO

Watanabe Gym chairman Hitoshi Watanabe confessed that he hadn't been sure if it was right to select undefeated fighter Jomthong Chuwattana as the opponent for his own Takashi Uchiyama, because he knew the Thai could pose a legitimate threat.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 5, 2015

China's military says army has yet to fully embrace the rule of law

China's armed forces, the largest in the world, have yet to become a military that follows the law in full, its official newspaper said on Tuesday, underscoring the problem of rooting out deeply-rooted corruption.
JAPAN
May 3, 2015

Mori Trust heir shows how women can shine

The daughter of real estate magnate Akira Mori fits the mold for the government's female empowerment campaign and is preparing to take over.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 20, 2015

China paper blames poor upbringing for top-level graft

Poor family upbringing is to blame for some of the most serious corruption facing China and officials should learn from the examples of heroic figures from the earliest days of Communist rule, a top paper said on Monday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 18, 2015

N. Korea warns U.S. envoy in Seoul of 'bigger mishap' than knife attack

A North Korean propaganda unit said the U.S. ambassador to South Korea could face a "bigger mishap" than the knife attack to his face last month if he does not stop insulting North Korea with "laughable" accusations.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2015

Feckless Europe kowtows to China on AIIB

Europe's decision to support the AIIB over U.S. objections reflects its own weakness more than America's.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2015

When everything is a crime in the United States

The U.S. has a criminal justice system with too many opportunities for generating defendants, too few inhibitions on prosecutors, and ongoing corrosion of the rule and morality of law.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2015

The BBC's worldwide coverage is losing its way

BBC worldwide coverage is increasingly losing its way, suffering from budget cuts, dumbing down of content, loss of news priorities and a sacrifice of a true world view.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 8, 2015

Inward-looking election campaign reflects Britain's global retreat

Britain's membership in the European Union hangs on the outcome of a knife-edge election in four weeks' time, but the issue and that of the country's wider global role have been largely absent from a campaign narrowly focused on domestic worries.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2015

On the right path, China must cut coal reliance

China's recent progress in reducing emissions shows that, with the right combination of government policies, corporate initiatives, and public pressure, even the largest and most polluted countries can clean up their act.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 1, 2015

Robert Altman has his fingerprints all over 'Birdman'

In 1992 Robert Altman made "The Player," a scathing satire on how shallow Hollywood filmmaking had become, and it came damn close to winning him an Oscar for best director. The next year, he made "Short Cuts," based on the stories of Raymond Carver, and again came up short at the Oscars.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Japan Pulse
Apr 1, 2015

Flushed with success: Innovative new toilet accessory to offer full body wash

Bidet-type commodes equipped with built-in washers and pre-warmed seats made news after Japan's media reported that they were enjoying heady demand.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami