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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2014

The man who turned his modernist home into an art museum

It's not all roses being the director of an independent art museum, but for Toshio Hara, the human interaction of the art world is still a more attractive prospect than that of being a businessman. In 1979 he turned the family seat — a small cluster of white modernist buildings in a quiet residential...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 5, 2014

Japan's 'zombienomics'

The hard reality is that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's vaunted economic reforms will not work unless he shows more guts, much more imagination and a lot more humility in dealing with a modern economy that cannot be commanded by fiat.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 13, 2014

Atom Egoyan raises demons in 'Devil's Knot'

When three children were murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1993, the case quickly developed into a massive media spectacle.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 3, 2014

Jerusalem passport case poses foreign policy headache for Washington

The United States is facing an unconventional challenge as it seeks to project credibility as a neutral peacemaker between the Israelis and Palestinians: a case before the Supreme Court involving a 12-year-old boy.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 30, 2014

Assad's warnings start to ring true as Syrian strife arrives at Turkey's doorstep

When Sunni rebels rose up against Syria's Bashar Assad in 2011, Turkey reclassified its protege as a pariah, expecting him to lose power within months and join the autocrats of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen on the scrap heap of the Arab Spring.
EDITORIALS
Oct 12, 2014

Freedom of the press in South Korea

Criminal action taken by Seoul prosecutors against a Japanese journalist for questioning the whereabouts of President Park Geun-hye on the day in August when a South Korean passenger ferry sank raises serious questions about South Korea's commitment to freedom of the press.
JAPAN / History / IMPERIAL ANNALS
Oct 11, 2014

Selective history: Hirohito's chronicles

Between July 30 and Aug. 2, 1945, when most of Japan's cities, including Tokyo, lay in smoldering ruins from U.S. aerial bombing and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were days away from being incinerated by American nuclear weapons, Emperor Hirohito sent an envoy to several Shinto shrines to pray for the "crushing...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Sep 19, 2014

Blood types

Dear Alice,
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 25, 2014

The unsung heroes of Fukushima

What really went on among the workers inside the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami should be held up as an epic story with the theme of 'Man Saved in Japan.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 9, 2014

Ah, vaginas! In defense of taboos

Two words have been let loose on society by an artist who, for better or worse, may find the rest of her life and career inextricably bound up with them, "vagina" being one and "taboo" the other. The artist herself needs no introduction. She is (or briefly was) the most famous woman in Japan, thanks...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2014

In this Gaza war, the truth lies underground

One of the more astonishing facts of this Gaza war is that the tunnels that Hamas has dug under the border with Israel are not designed for commerce, but for kidnapping. The tunnels reportedly contain tranquilizers and handcuffs, seemingly meant to gain physical control over Israelis who have been seized.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Jul 28, 2014

The here and there of who's who and what's what

There are some Japanese words that act like little arrows. They are pointing devices that can be used to indicate a specific part of the wider context of what is being said. Some examples in English are "here" and "there," "this" and "that," "me" and "you." But Japanese does this in a more systematic...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 19, 2014

The murky call on a hardball interview with Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga

The tabloid press plays fast and loose with the truth, so anyone who gobbled up last week's NHK story in the weekly Friday should have added a dash of salt. An unnamed employee told Friday that the prime minister's office demanded the public broadcaster apologize for questions asked in its interview...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Jul 16, 2014

Unpacking koto: retain, discard and repeat as necessary

Unpacking koto — the intangible baggage — in Japan has proven to be the challenge of a lifetime, replete with enough drama and trauma to keep me knee deep in 'think pieces' till I keel over.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN WEB WATCH
Jul 12, 2014

The pros and cons of kids owning smartphones

Smartphones are everywhere now, and their diffusion has spread from adults to students in high school, then junior high and now even elementary school. The trend has led to the question: When and how should kids use smartphones?
EDITORIALS
Jul 8, 2014

Safety in off-label use of drugs

The revelation that a university hospital in Tokyo habitually has administered the powerful sedative propofol to children placed on ventilators raises safety questions about doctors' discretionary off-label use of drugs on patients.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Jun 18, 2014

Still dreaming of a Japan with juries — and without U.S. bases

At 84, Chihiro Isa hopes to see two things in his lifetime: the jury system reinstated in Japan and U.S. forces gone from Okinawa.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 4, 2014

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

A South Korean sales rep, two Dutch Embassy workers, a French consultant and a Spanish ventriloquist discuss their teams' chances in the World Cup.
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2014

A right-wing shock for Europe?

A new European Parliament will be elected this weekend on the heels of French poll that says fewer than 40 percent of France's citizens think the European Union is a good thing.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
May 22, 2014

North Korean nuclear missiles 'imminent,' some experts fear

North Korea, which this month threatened to carry out a fourth nuclear test, may be closer than previously thought to mounting a nuclear warhead on a missile, some experts say, making a mockery of years of U.N. sanctions aimed at curbing its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
May 19, 2014

Shocking baths of Japan

Dear Alice,
EDITORIALS
Apr 8, 2014

Avoid voting age disparity

The question of whether the minimum voting age for participating in Japan's referendums should be lower than the voting age for other elections remains unsettled.
EDITORIALS
Apr 3, 2014

STAP cell scandal still unsettled

An investigative committee of the government-backed Riken research institute puts Dr. Haruko Obokata on the defensive, accusing her of data fabrication and manipuation in writing two papers in which she claimed to have discovered a groundbreaking method to create pluripotent stem cells.
Reader Mail
Feb 8, 2014

What's eating the protesters?

My question is why not [kill whales off Antarctica]? I ask the question respectfully because I do not yet have an answer. In an otherwise nicely balanced article with quite interesting historical background and devoid of the emotional hysteria that usually accompanies articles on this subject, C.W. Nicol...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2014

Francois Hollande: What became of dull Mr. Normal?

However indignant French President Francois Hollande might have been about a glossy celebrity magazine revealing the details of his affair with a French actress, the idea of sitting down and drafting his resignation was almost certainly not among them.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Jan 9, 2014

Will Cool Japan finally heat up in 2014?

After years of talk, 2013 marked a watershed moment in the government's Cool Japan campaign. Which begs the question: Is Japan cool?
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Jan 5, 2014

Rebuilding hope, one stitch at a time

Most of the 19 women from the tsunami-hit city of Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, who work for Tamako Mitarai's knitwear company had no professional experience as knitters.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 4, 2014

Kenya Hara: the future of design

Sitting at a plain white table in a meeting room high up on the 12th floor of a narrow building in central Tokyo, product designer Kenya Hara asks me to picture a shallow plate in my mind. "Now imagine a slightly deeper plate," Hara says, "that gets deeper and deeper and eventually becomes a bowl."

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji