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ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 24, 2013

Australian coalition ahead of Labor: poll

Australia's opposition Liberal-National coalition has widened its lead over the Labor government in an opinion poll, signaling leader Tony Abbott may replace Kevin Rudd as prime minister after the Sept. 7 election.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 23, 2013

Californian eyes making English studies easier

Visitors to Katie Adler's interactive website, English with Katie, are greeted with Adler's sunny smile, her mellow California accent and a wealth of hints to make using the language both easier and more enjoyable. She aims to help language learners in Japan take charge of their English, building confidence...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 23, 2013

After 18.7 billion km, Voyager 1 boldly goes on ... but just where in space is it?

It's 36 years since Voyager 1 was dispatched in 1977 on a mission to send back images of Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere and volcanic eruptions on one of its moons, Io. Then it was due to travel on to Saturn to examine that planet's intricate system of rings and moons. But after traveling more than 18...
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 23, 2013

Hormone therapy adjusts body's balance over years

The hormone replacement therapy that U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning has requested alters the body's balance of sex hormones: estrogen for male-to-female and testosterone for female-to-male transitions. Sometimes, male-to-female patients will also be given progesterone, another steroid typically produced...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 23, 2013

The sky becomes less of a limit for cabin attendants (unless you're a man)

All Nippon Airways just announced a new hiring policy for cabin attendants (CA). Starting next year, new CAs will be full-time regular employees of the company. Since 1995, CAs at the company were hired as contract workers who could opt to become regular employees after three years. The reason for the...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2013

Capitalism is destroying southern European life

The popular civilizations of Greece, France, Spain and Portugal appear endangered, because of a pincer movement by tourism and the north's economic doctrines.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 20, 2013

Texas Sen. Cruz vows to renounce Canadian citizenship

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz announced Monday evening that he will renounce his Canadian citizenship, less than 24 hours after a newspaper pointed out that the Canadian-born senator likely maintains dual citizenship.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2013

Newspaper rescue defines today's good citizen

It would appear that Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos wants less to own The Washington Post than to set its values free financially, for at least a generation or two.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 17, 2013

Cyber-kids get a break during Bon holidays

You didn't need prophetic powers, back in the 1980s when the personal computer was starting to show its potential, to foresee something like Internet addiction. It should have been obvious. It was, to science-fiction writer William Gibson. Reminiscing to Time magazine in 1995, he recalled his shock,...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 17, 2013

American fiction's drunken masters

Rivers run through Olivia Laing's writing — sometimes the real thing, either narrow and innocuous like a backwoods creek or mile-wide like the Mississippi; occasionally streams of memory that flow backwards, and sometimes gushers of tears; always a steady current of liquidly eloquent words.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 17, 2013

Burying the truth to survive in postwar, modern Japan

It is hardly necessary to note that comics and manga are capable of conveying just about anything. Philosophy? See Ryan Dunlavey and Fred Van Lente's Action Philosophers series. Travel? Try Guy Delisle's accounts of his sojourns in tourist hot spots such as Pyongyang and Shenzhen. Memoir? Yoshihiro Tatsumi's...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 16, 2013

Akiko Kuraoka's documentaries find fresh relevancy amid Fukushima crisis

For Akiko Kuraoka, filmmaker, lecturer and freelance French translator, films have always been her passion. Over a span of nearly four decades, Kuraoka has made three documentaries and is now deep into her fourth. Her films have dealt with chromium pollution, nuclear radiation, war, and the displacement...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 15, 2013

Light bites of every flavor in Tokyo

Tokyo has seen more and more restaurants recently open with the express purpose of offering casual, light bites, rather than elaborate full-course meals. Close to home is fine, as long as we can nibble and graze, ordering a dish or two at a time, and interspersing food with drink and conversation till...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Aug 15, 2013

Barbecue like they do it in the South

"Hamburger shops are a dime a dozen in Tokyo these days, but there are very few places doing barbecue," said Lauren Shannon, owner of Bulldog Barbeque (www.bulldogbbq.jp).
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Aug 13, 2013

Al-Qaida's Yemen branch eyes a new haven

Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen is focusing on expanding its presence in a remote eastern province that is the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, even as it remains the target of U.S. drone strikes and Yemeni military assaults, according to Yemeni officials.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 10, 2013

Evocative novel bridges Japan and China, past and present

That the Western world has lost interest in Japan, and particularly in Japanese literature, and is turning its attention more and more to the colossus across the sea (China, not America) is a constant plaint on the part of Japan specialists and translators.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 9, 2013

Film helps heal A-bombing, and family, wounds

In a poignant scene in the award-winning 2010 documentary "Atomic Mom," filmmaker M.T. Silvia tells the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Hiroshima atomic bombing victim, as she presents 1,000 paper cranes to Silvia's mother, Pauline, a former U.S. Navy biologist involved in radiation testing on animals in the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 9, 2013

Nagoya landlord-envoy keeps Pacific island state in public eye

Passengers on the Tokaido Shinkansen can see the office sign for the state of Ngeremlengui in the Republic of Palau as the train rolls through Nagoya.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 9, 2013

Robots' abilities still far from human, but getting ever closer

It may seem uncomfortably close to science fiction, but robots are moving ever nearer to acquiring humanlike abilities to see, smell and sense their surroundings, allowing them to operate more independently and perform some of the dangerous, dirty and dull jobs people don't want to do.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 2013

Open sky, flying high

In her book "North to the Orient," published in 1935, aviator Anne Morrow Lindbergh, one of America's first female pilots, and wife of fellow aviator Charles Lindbergh, wrote of the cultural differences she experienced traveling across Asia, and on the simple act of saying farewell. She remarked of her...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Aug 5, 2013

The aging issue of Chiba New Town

The Chiba New Town development project was begun in the late 1960s by the Chiba prefectural government, and a decade later, joined by the Land Development Corporation, the government housing organ that would morph into the Urban Renaissance (UR) Agency in 2004. It is located in the northern part of the...
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Aug 3, 2013

Is new yakuza journal good news for Japan?

If you're a well-connected Japanese gangster, you now have your own newspaper to keep you abreast of underworld life. Another perk of the job.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 2, 2013

Could the PTA and bowling leagues breed extremists?

What if exposure to civic organizations — and not social isolation, per se — is more likely to contribute to the rise of extreme movements, including fascism?
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 2, 2013

Curiosity rover's descent to Mars — the story so far

Nestled below the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory outside Pasadena has a surprisingly low-tech feel. For more than 40 years, space missions to the planets have been controlled from its operations rooms, yet the place is still striking for its bucolic charm. Mule...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUJI ROCK 2013
Jul 31, 2013

Toro y Moi

You've played Japan before, were they festivals?
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 31, 2013

New rocket hopes to take off with launch from the skies

Start with the largest aircraft ever built, with a wingspan longer than a football field and a split fuselage fitted with six Boeing 747 jet engines — enough thrust to get 585,000 kg off the ground, about 190,000 kg more than a fully loaded 747. Sling a 36-meter, three-stage rocket below the aircraft,...

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