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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 24, 2017

In Japan, 'sakura' treats are in full bloom

In recent years, more and more corporations have been adding some 'sakura' flair to their products. Here are some of the top items that are blooming this year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 23, 2017

Samurai drama to put unique spin on evolution of theater

Japanese audiences will soon join those in Holland as the only people in the world with access to a theater whose seating area rotates to face a ring of multiple stages.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 22, 2017

Views from Osaka: Would you agree that Japanese society is built upon politeness and hospitality?

Robert Kodama asked passers-by in Japan's mercantile capital about two traits often mentioned in the same breath as 'Japanese people.'
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 22, 2017

The self-contradictions of Japan's conservative forces

Abe advocates freedom and openness while abroad, but at home he does not hesitate to reverse the accomplishments of postwar democracy.
Japan Times
BASEBALL
Mar 21, 2017

Players encouraged by growing interest in WBC

Adam Jones on Saturday night in San Diego made the catch heard 'round the World Baseball Classic when he leapt against the wall to rob Manny Machado of a home run.
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Mar 19, 2017

Shareholders, former employees watch as Toshiba's fortunes fall

Shareholders, former workers brace for impact as ailing 142-year-old electronics conglomerate appears bound for crisis.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2017

Dutch should replace politics of fear with reason

As the Dutch confront the results of their most consequential election in decades, they should heed the lessons of their most famous philosopher and not allow themselves to be governed by fear.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 18, 2017

Why is Japan's public diplomacy so utterly inept?

Why does the Foreign Ministry insist on drawing attention to wartime Japan when the rest of the world is far more interested in 21st century Japan?
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Mar 18, 2017

Breaking the comic book glass ceiling

Four years ago, Chinese-American writer Marjorie Liu had a simple but persistent idea: create an epic fantasy comic book series about a classic Japanese kaijū (strange beast) movie monster that has a connection to a girl.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 18, 2017

'Where They Create: Japan': Glimpsing the minds of creatives through their workspaces

When asked how his design process works, Teruhiro Yanagihara, creative director of the ceramics collaboration project 1616/Arita, says, "My brain is initially 'where I create.'"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 18, 2017

'Kappa': Akutagawa's masterpiece blunted by time but still fascinating

Ryunosuke Akutagawa is probably best known outside Japan for "Rashomon" but "Kappa" is considered to be his masterpiece by fans and scholars. Narrated by a "mental patient" and introduced as a tale overheard directly by the author, "Kappa" is a fantastical satire in the "Gulliver's Travels" mold.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Mar 18, 2017

Playground legend 'Bone Collector' brings his talent back to Japan

Streetball fanatics revel with delight when rattling off names of legends who competed at New York's famed Rucker Park in the 20th century.
EDITORIALS
Mar 17, 2017

Step to trim overtime falls short

A new legal cap on overtime will hardly serve as a guarantee to stop the excessively long work hours from causing the deaths and suicides of overworked employees.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 17, 2017

Craft beer collaboration celebrates shared values of three very different businesses

A newspaper and a pub chain walk into a brewery...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 16, 2017

Radwimps were the perfect choice when it came to soundtracking 'Your Name.'

Yokohama Arena feels special on this chilly Tuesday night in early March. It's here that Radwimps — a rock outfit from Kanagawa Prefecture whose members could bike to this very venue when they were teens — are playing the first of two sold-out shows.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 16, 2017

U.S. group Sierra Club seeks probe of EPA's Pruitt over CO2 comments

U.S. environmental group the Sierra Club has asked the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general to investigate whether the agency's head, Scott Pruitt, violated internal policies when he said he did not believe carbon dioxide was a major contributor to climate change, according to a letter...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2017

Tokyo lost and found included ¥3.7 billion in cash last year

In addition to keys and eyeglasses and other commonly lost objects, millions of dollars worth of cash reaches the Tokyo police's lost and found department every year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 15, 2017

The unintentional causes of 'abandonment'

Six years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated the Tohoku region, leaving more than 18,000 people dead or missing, and triggering meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant that has left a deeply embedded mistrust of nuclear power in the Japanese consciousness....
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2017

Vienna again tops list of nicest cities as Baghdad comes in last

Vienna, Austria's grand capital on the Danube river, has topped consulting firm Mercer's list of cities offering the highest quality of life for the eighth year in a row, while Baghdad is again considered the worst place to live.
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2017

Huge number of articles on DeNA info websites found to have plagiarism, copyright issues

A three-month probe uncovers problems with around 20,000 articles uploaded on 10 health and lifestyle information websites run by DeNA Co.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2017

Seoul gets the impeachment process right

The removal from office of South Korean President Park Geun-hye is a remarkable outcome for a relatively new democracy.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 12, 2017

Populism versus prosperity

The battle that will define this century will pit long-term thinking against short-term thinking.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 12, 2017

Corruption cases in China jumped one-third in 2016

The number of corruption cases heard by Chinese courts jumped by about one-third last year, as the country's top prosecutor vowed on Sunday there would be no let up in China's campaign against deep-seated graft.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 11, 2017

'Japandemonium Illustrated: The Yokai Encyclopedias of Toriyama Sekien': Excavating Edo's ancient memes with the power of 'yokai'

Beginning with 2008's "Yokai Attack!," translators Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt have been on a quest to bring an aspect of Japanese culture that has lurked in the shadows to the world at large.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Mar 10, 2017

Hidehiko Ishizuka takes his love of sake on tour in streaming TV series

Gourmandizing television personality Hidehiko Ishizuka has a famously large appetite. Apparently, the portly comedian also has a taste for Japanese sake. On a clear February afternoon in the sake-producing region of Fushimi, just south of Kyoto, a camera crew forms a tight circle around Ishizuka as he...

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