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Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Oct 16, 2014

Naturalize or get out, party tells jobless foreigners

Foreigners could lose long-term access to social support if the conservative Jisedai no To (Party for Future Generations) has its way.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Sep 6, 2014

A tale of two parks, and their preservation

As I sit in my study here in Kurohime in the hills of northern Nagano Prefecture, through the window I can see 2,053-meter Mount Kurohime, a dormant volcano that's forested to the top.
EDITORIALS
Aug 26, 2014

Opposition strength through unity

The current Japanese political landscape shows the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito alliance dwarfing all opposition forces in both chambers of the Diet. Could the merger of two opposition parties now in negotiations make a difference?
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 23, 2014

Shiite militiamen kill dozens of Iraqi Sunnis in mosque shooting

Iraqi Shiite militiamen machine-gunned minority Sunni Muslims in a village mosque on Friday, killing dozens just as Baghdad is trying to build a cross-community government to fight Sunni militants whose rise has alarmed Western powers.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 15, 2014

Egyptian mummification is older than previously thought, researchers find

It has long been known that the practice of mummification of the dead in ancient Egypt — fundamental to that civilization's belief in eternal life — was old, but only now are researchers unwrapping the mystery of just how long ago it began.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 12, 2014

Islamic State using Mosul Dam to help fund caliphate

Islamic State militants who last week captured the Mosul Dam, Iraq's largest, had one demand for workers: Keep it going.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 28, 2014

Talking Pinter with Leveaux; an 'authorized' interaction

When we met last weekend, the world-renowned English theater director David Leveaux was relaxing with a cigarette "in the lovely sunshine" outside a rehearsal studio by Tokyo Bay. He was there for an intensive afternoon's work with the three Japanese actors who form the cast of his upcoming production...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 26, 2014

Roll with it: Tama-chan on the art of making maki zushi

With often hilarious and shocking results, Takako Kiyota, aka Tama-chan, embeds illustrations into rice, wraps them in seaweed and presents them as both dishes and artworks.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 3, 2014

Japan inked: Should the country reclaim its tattoo culture?

Tattooing is the most misunderstood form of art in contemporary Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 28, 2014

Kyoto photography show pushes the frame

Mars has landed in Japan and is best viewed from a beanbag in the annex of The Museum of Kyoto. "Mars, a Photographic exploration" is the worthy headline event at this year's Kyotographie International Photography Festival, which brings together remarkable photos of the red planet, with imagery captured...
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Apr 22, 2014

Anti-Abe forces emerging

Little was heard from Yasuo Fukuda, nor was much said about him, after he stepped down as prime minister in 2008. In recent months, though, he has been sought out by some LDP leaders to help repair the damage to relations with South Korea and China, which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's style of diplomacy is said to have caused.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 12, 2014

'Big Pharma' manipulating the market? Now that's depressing

You're the entrepreneurial type, let's say, ambitious but a little unsure of yourself. What field is ripe for your energy and enthusiasm?
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Apr 9, 2014

Foreign workers fear exploitation as Olympic projects gather steam

My first Labor Pains column of the new fiscal year will look at the government's recent proposal for bringing in foreign workers.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2014

The New Yorker is bad for cartooning

Writer-cartoonist says The New Yorker magazine prints a lot of awful cartoons, yet uses its reputation in order to elevate terrible work as the profession's platinum standard.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 23, 2014

Gravitational waves carry clues on big bang

The sighting came from a small telescope on the roof of a laboratory sitting on the ice sheet three-quarters of a mile (1.3 kilometers) from the geographic South Pole.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 7, 2014

Hodgson facing tough decisions ahead of naming World Cup squad

Over the next two months each display by England's World Cup hopefuls will be scrutinized by the media. Marks out of 10 will be given along with updated World Cup chances (on the plane, in contention, etc).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 19, 2014

NNTT debut peers behind the masks of 'Condemned' Sartre family

Until Japan was opened to the West in the mid-19th century, its theater culture mainly comprised traditional forms such as kabuki, comic kyōgen, bunraku (puppet theater) and noh.
Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2014
Jan 23, 2014

Japan's traditional washoku cuisine feeds body and soul

Whenever I am away from my homeland for too long, there is one meal that fills my dreams. At the center is a bowl of plain steamed rice, white and glistening. On the side, a steaming bowl of fragrant miso soup. There's fish, perhaps sanma (Pacific saury), so hot from the grill that its skin sizzles when...
LIFE
Jan 11, 2014

The return of Godzilla, the king of kaiju

'Godzilla' first appeared in cinemas across the country in November 1954 but its story line was heavily influenced by an incident eight months earlier at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 15, 2013

Mandela saw massive change in Africa

Nelson Mandela was born into a continent colonized and in servitude to European powers in July 1918. Only Ethiopia and Liberia were independent. But Germany's defeat in the first world war brought about a reworking of the colonial order with its possessions in what are now Tanzania, Cameroon, Togo, Burundi...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON: DESIGN
Dec 2, 2013

Get ready for the wintry, cold and wet season

A coffee table with a twist
BASEBALL
Nov 26, 2013

Kawakami was Japanese baseball's first Zen master

Most foreign fans of baseball in Japan may not know the name Tetsuharu Kawakami, who passed away recently at the age of 93, but perhaps it's time they did.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 5, 2013

Outsider drawn to the circle of life

The discovery and promotion of works by self-taught or outsider artists — those who are not academically trained and create their works primarily for themselves, mostly beyond the cultural-commercial mainstream — are still relatively new activities in Japan.
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2013

No. 1 water woes laid to Tepco's ineptitude

Two and a half years after the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant experienced its three reactor-core meltdowns, the effort to clean up what remains of the complex is turning into another kind of disaster.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 4, 2013

Hart a major concern for England

He is out of form to the extent of becoming a liability, his mistakes are too frequent and costly, while his goal probably seems like the Grand Canyon, but Joe Hart will play for England in the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against Montenegro and Poland that will decide its 2014 fate.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 3, 2013

Ebizo rethinks kabuki's strategy

In the glitzy and gossipy world of Japanese celebrity, hardly a week goes by without revelations being made about — or made by — Ichikawa Ebizo XI.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 6, 2013

U.K.'s response to Syrian crisis

Prime Minister David Cameron badly mishandled the issue of whether Britain should take part in a punitive attack on the Assad government for its alleged use of chemical weapons.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jun 29, 2013

Global protest grows as citizens lose faith in politics

The demonstrations in Brazil began after a small rise in bus fares triggered mass protests. Within days this had become a nationwide movement whose concerns had spread far beyond fares: more than a million people were on the streets shouting about everything from corruption to the cost of living to the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 11, 2013

Hague Convention on child abduction may shape Japan's family law — or vice versa

Giant Hello Kitty-emblazoned kudos to Japan for finally signing the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction. Now comes the hard part: actually making it work.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 9, 2013

A world of flowers and willows in Kyoto's geisha districts

'No matter what happens / I am in love with Gion. / Even when I sleep, / Beneath my pillow / The waters ripple.'

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