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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.
SOCCER
Jun 9, 2013

Baggio impressed by Japan's progress

Italian soccer legend Roberto Baggio has paid tribute to the strides Japan has made under manager Alberto Zaccheroni, but the former FIFA World Player of the Year has warned his compatriot not to expect an easy ride at this month's Confederations Cup.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 8, 2013

How does science explain a bolt from the blue?

Divine attribution In ancient times, the drama of thunder and lightning so clearly went beyond human scale that the phenomenon was handed wholesale to the gods. The Greeks had Zeus, the Romans Jupiter. At the head of the Hindu pantheon was Indra, while Norse mythology gave us Thor — all wielders of...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 8, 2013

Encouraging, not comparing, accomplishments

Aging Japan. We hear this phrase all the time. The question is, what are they talking about — the infrastructure? The people? Four Roses whisky?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 7, 2013

AirAsia to up overseas flights to offset weaker yen

AirAsia Japan Co., one of the three Japanese low-cost carriers that started last year, is adding more overseas flights to increase foreign currency revenue to offset a rise in fuel and lease costs caused by a weaker yen.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 5, 2013

Jobs' role focus of Apple e-book trial

Apple's late founder, Steve Jobs, was a key figure Monday in the Justice Department's suit against the Silicon Valley giant for allegedly leading an illegal scheme to raise the prices of e-books.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2013

Tunisian leader touts investment opportunities

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki on Sunday invited Japan's businesses to invest and play a major role in his country's transition toward democracy and a free-market economy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 1, 2013

Yoko Ono: 'I feel that I am starting a new life at 80'

Sitting at her kitchen table, sipping green tea, Yoko Ono looks much the same as she did when I met her 20 years ago. Dressed in black and peering intently over tinted spectacles, her face bears little trace of the passing of time and her diminutive form exudes utter calmness. Having crossed the famous...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 1, 2013

Destroyer of domestic chaos charts way for others to lead organized lives

Jo Ebisujima describes herself as "a hybrid of MacGyver and Martha Stewart."
WORLD / Society
May 30, 2013

Nearly 40% of U.S. moms are family breadwinners

In a trend accelerated by the recent recession and an increase in births to single mothers, nearly 4 in 10 families with children under the age of 18 are now headed by women who are the sole or primary breadwinners for their families, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 30, 2013

K-ballet brings back 'Giselle' and introduces new leads

As summer approaches with the misty other-worldliness of Japan's rainy season, Tokyo's K-Ballet graces the stage in June with a revival of the hauntingly romantic masterpiece "Giselle." Six different ballerinas will perform the lead role as the production synthesizes K-Ballet's changing image from a...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 29, 2013

Sony lab offers a peek into the future

A miniature rotor craft controlled through a head-mounted display and Lego blocks manipulated with a PlayStation controller: These were just a couple of examples of new ideas and creativity on display last week at a two-day open house held by Sony Computer Science Laboratories Inc.
WORLD / FOCUS
May 28, 2013

Iraqi Shiites take up arms for Syrian government

The Iraqi fighters in the video shoulder assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades as they walk down a highway lined with cypress trees. Grinning, some hold up cellphones and camcorders to capture the moment — the aftermath of a victorious battle to secure Aleppo Airport from Syrian rebels who had...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 28, 2013

Tokyo's Koreatown emerged from the flow of bilateral ties

Diplomatic friction between Tokyo and Seoul over territorial and historical disputes is making headlines once again, and Tokyo's right-wing protesters know just where to go to get in the face of its Korean residents: Koreatown in Shinjuku Ward's Shin-Okubo district.
WORLD
May 28, 2013

Marathon winner to donate medal

The Ethiopian winner of this year's Boston Marathon said Sunday that he will donate his first-place medal to the people of Boston, telling visiting Secretary of State John Kerry that he wants to honor the dead and wounded from the bombing at the finish line.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
May 26, 2013

History shows one man's rape is another's wooing

"The evolution of political thought in this relatively isolated island nation during the period in question is unique to the point of being somewhat freakish."

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’