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JAPAN
Feb 20, 2013

Writer Donald Richie dies at 88

Long-term Japan resident, writer and critic Donald Richie, who through dozens of books and articles published from the late 1940s until the last decade helped introduce Japanese film and culture to the world, passed away in Tokyo on Tuesday, according to his long-term editor, Leza Lowitz. He was 88....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Feb 19, 2013

Journey to Kenya turns writer's life on its head, spurs Africa fascination

It was a single visit to Kenya in 1972 that completely changed Michio Hiraiwa's philosophy on life. He fell in love with the country, and visited there 150 times over the past 40 years. Once a workaholic, Hiraiwa says he now leads a stress-free and relaxed life, visiting Kenya and Tanzania four times...
Reader Mail
Feb 17, 2013

Shortsighted plan for languages

The Jan. 30 Kyodo article "U.K. plan to limit Japanese worries language teachers" reports on a plan to minimize the teaching of Japanese in U.K. schools. As a result, Japanese may disappear from GCSE exams (for 16-year-olds) by September 2014.
JAPAN / Media / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 17, 2013

Beat Takeshi and disappearing Japan; Taking apart the Boeing 707; CM of the week: Takada Moving Center

An endangered plant or animal species symbolizes a world that changes irrevocably every moment, but there are also man-made things that vanish. This week, on the variety show "Takeshi no Nippon no Mikata" ("Takeshi's Way of Viewing Japan"; TV Tokyo, Fri., 10 p.m.), comedian-filmmaker Takeshi Kitano looks...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 16, 2013

SAS bullish on Japan after logging best year ever in 2012, exec says

Scandinavian Airlines System has seen its business in Japan recover dramatically since the Great East Japan Earthquake and the upturn is continuing, according to an SAS executive.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 15, 2013

Tips for springtime on the Shikoku pilgrimage route

Setsubun is over and it is officially springtime in Japan. So what if it's still cold — happy spring! And spring means cherry blossoms, a new school year and, of course, pilgrimaging! This spring, many people will set out on the pilgrimage of a lifetime as they walk, bicycle, bus or drive the Shikoku...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Feb 15, 2013

British photographer documents lives outside the lines

Uchujin, aka Adrian Storey, a British photographer and filmmaker based in Tokyo, drolly explains his rather unusual business moniker: 'I'd rather be an alien than an outsider.'
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Feb 15, 2013

Tokyo has California-style burritos all wrapped up

Nothing gives me greater pleasure, as a California native, than to discover a new burrito shop. I'm not talking about the kind of burritos served on a plate in a restaurant.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 15, 2013

Rampant airport insecurity

Under the U.S. notion of airport security, authorities would do better dressing passengers in hospital gowns and putting them to sleep for the flight.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 15, 2013

'A Good Day to Die Hard'

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that if you had to see yet another 20th-century action star, alive and well and kicking ass for the benefit of the over-40s crowd — and that star is Bruce Willis, whom you can remember as having a full head of hair (brunette) and a terrible taste in suits...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 8, 2013

The Hitler home movies: how Eva Braun documented the Nazi dictator's private life

Lutz Becker was born in Berlin, he says, "during the anno diabolo, 1941. Mine was the generation that was sent into a dark pit." Meeting this survivor of the Third Reich, now in his 70s and living in Bayswater, London, it's hard to suppress the thought that Becker, a distinguished artist and film historian,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2013

The movie exposing the lies at the heart of U.S. capitalism

In one sense, "Inequality for All" is absolutely the film of the moment. We are living through tumultuous times. The economy has tanked. Austerity has cut a swath through our lives.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 8, 2013

Nagano city takes roundabout tack

In what is being touted as a local first, a new roundabout is in operation in the Towa district of Iida, Nagano Prefecture, in a bid to ease congestion and eliminate the need for traffic lights.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 8, 2013

Japanese attorneys throw their nets farther out

Big city lawyers are moving to the sticks to drum up business.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Feb 8, 2013

New lobby at Ritz-Carlton, Osaka; grill your own pancakes; Valentine's Day dinner with roses

Ritz-Carlton, Osaka renews lobby
LIFE / Travel
Feb 6, 2013

American Airlines gets new look; KLM helps Iwate students; Korean Air campaigns

American's new design
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 4, 2013

Proposed free U.S. Wi-Fi divides techs, telecoms

The federal government wants to create Wi-Fi networks across America, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to make calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 1, 2013

Andaman tribe freed at last from 'human safaris'

Human safaris to see the Jarawa tribe of the Andaman Islands have finally come to an end as the authorities there bow to domestic and international pressure.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Feb 1, 2013

Canadian uses sports as bridge to teaching, writing, understanding

Writer, teacher and sports fan Trevor Kew, 32, pedals and kicks his way through culture shock. He uses sports to help him adapt to unfamiliar cultures or new places when traveling, trusting his bike or a soccer ball to bridge the gap with locals.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 31, 2013

Firm seeking to conquer world with translation app

For non-Japanese speakers, services like Google Translate and NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s phones that provide automated translation by speaking into the devices may have made it easier to communicate while in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 31, 2013

'Motoju Miyosawa: Katazome Stencil Dyeing'

After meeting Muneyoshi Yanagi, a pioneer of the famous Mingei (folk arts) movement, artist Motoju Miyosawa (1909-2002) became a major advocate of the beauty of frugality, a quality that Mingei followers believed everyday objects possessed. During the 1960s, however, he chose to travel internationally...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 31, 2013

February: My Bloody Valentine returns

January featured a ton of great concerts across Japan, but February might be even better — hope your wallet isn't too thin this month.
BASKETBALL
Jan 28, 2013

Cartwright makes immediate impact as Evessa beat Shining Suns

It's only been two games, but new coach Bill Cartwright's no-nonsense challenge to the Osaka Evessa — to play a smart, aggressive brand of basketball, as revealed by several players — is paying off.

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