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Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 6, 2013

Lively analysis of tennis from writer's closeness to the stars

When a crestfallen Andy Murray gave a choked-up television interview immediately after losing last year's Wimbledon final to Roger Federer, few would have predicted that joy would quickly replace disappointment for the shy Scot from Dunblane. Four weeks later he was back defeating the Swiss ace on the...
Reader Mail
Jul 6, 2013

Luxury train a new beginning

The June 23 editorial "All aboard the luxury train" conjured up the allure of travel by train in Japan. It is true that Japan's train system is the envy of the world and has been symbolized by the Shinkansen with its safety, punctuality and speed. But I believe that the bullet train system lacks a certain...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 5, 2013

Kamei belts two home runs as Giants hammer BayStars

Yoshiyuki Kamei homered twice, Shuichi Murata hit a grand slam and the Yomiuri Giants used a prolific long-ball attack to wallop the Yokohama BayStars in a 12-7 rout on Friday night.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 5, 2013

Japan's national obsession with the color pink

If the cherry blossom is Japan's unofficial national flower, then it should be no surprise that pink is Japan's de facto favorite color. Yet I still have a hard time with this national obsession with the color pink.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2013

The petty source of Lincoln's majestic vision

It could be that Abraham Lincoln's triumphs of the intellect were made possible by his very proximity to the mundane events that are said to exhaust politicians today.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society / FOCUS
Jul 3, 2013

Portugal's baby bust feeding vicious cycle

For an enterprise in the business of welcoming life, the birthing ward inside Portugal's largest maternity hospital is eerily quiet. On a recent morning, not a single expectant father nervously paced the orange laminated floors. Unhurried nurses shuffled by rows of darkened rooms with empty beds, busying...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Jul 2, 2013

Wood, paper, leather and a brolly that branches out into a leafy bough

Hang on to a brolly this summer
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2013

Deepening, revising ties with Southeast Asia

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Japan mark the 40th anniversary of their cooperative relations this year. ASEAN and Japan's partnership, which began with the establishment of the ASEAN-Japan forum on synthetic rubber, has evolved over the 40 years. The two parties have formed close cooperation...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 27, 2013

What provoked Japan's contemporary photography?

In 1968, as the world reeled from The Prague Spring, the turbulent union and student strikes in France, and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Japan, like so many other nations, found itself in the midst of social unrest. Citizens questioned the West's involvement in the Vietnam...
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Jun 26, 2013

Snowden files stoke U.S. security concerns

The ability of contractor-turned-fugitive Edward Snowden to evade arrest is raising new concerns among U.S. officials about the security of top-secret documents he is believed to have in his possession — and about the possibility that he could willingly share them with those who assist his escape....
WORLD
Jun 25, 2013

U.S. probes if China played role in Snowden leaks; fugitive not on Cuba flight

U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating whether Edward Snowden's leaks may be a Chinese intelligence operation or whether China might have used his concerns about U.S. surveillance practices to exploit him, according to four American officials.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2013

UNESCO award spurs Fuji tourist guide frenzy

Now that Mount Fuji has been inscribed on UNESCO's list of World Cultural Heritage sites, some tourism agencies are rushing to capitalize on the historic opportunity in the hopes that the decision will spur the mountain's already robust popularity among foreign travelers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 23, 2013

Temples, dragon boats and fireworks in Chinese Nagasaki

There was a time when the journey from East China to Nagasaki was a long and treacherous one across an unpredictable sea. Once a ship entered the verdant hill-sheltered bay that led to the city, the passengers thanked the gods for their safe arrival. After anchoring in the harbor, a procession accompanied...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 22, 2013

To be or not to be? — they simply can't decide

Japan is often criticized for the time it takes to make decisions. The government drags on making decisions from natural disasters to nuclear power and whether to allow gambling casinos.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Jun 21, 2013

In search of a steamed morsel or two of Hong Kong fare

Bamboo baskets of steaming dumplings, fluffy buns stuffed with sweet-and-savory barbecued pork, crisp spring rolls and endless pots of jasmine tea ... Dim sum (or yum cha), that Hong Kong tradition, is a staple of Chinatowns the world over. Except, it seems, in Japan. However, if (like many people I...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2013

Surveillance controversy illuminated by history

The American public at large is more accepting of the government's involvement in their lives than a 29-year-old former NSA contractor appears to believe.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 16, 2013

Sand, sea and stars on idyllic Akajima

Back in 1972 when I first lived on Denman Island in the Georgia Strait of British Columbia between Vancouver and Vancouver Island, I was one of about 300 residents. By the time I left 25 years later for Japan, its population had just topped 1,000, and each year sees a few more drawn to live in that beautiful...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 15, 2013

Actor Ethan Hawke: still playing all the angles

Ethan Hawke is out and about in New York, the city he's lived in for 30 years, a place where famous faces slide past every day. He's wearing a baseball cap, a hoodie and a pair of cords. It's an outfit you might think he chose especially to look nondescript, but in reality it's because he likes corduroy...
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2013

San Francisco spurned Hashimoto amid sex slave outrage

A senior San Francisco official urged the city of Osaka to cancel Mayor Toru Hashimoto's visit after he angered residents by saying Japan's wartime 'comfort women' system was necessary.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jun 11, 2013

Japan by the numbers (06.11.13)

Who would read every book in a series of 70? One in four Japanese people in their 20s, according to one poll. There's more where that came from.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jun 9, 2013

Darvish impressing experts with his strikeout ability

If you watch the home broadcast for one of Yu Darvish's starts for the Texas Rangers, you will, at some point, hear play-by-play man Steve Busby exhorting, "got him swinging," after Darvish fans a batter.

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