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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 4, 2013

Witnesses reluctant to talk about Tiananmen

From a young age, Qi Zhiyong's daughter asked him how he lost his leg.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 14, 2013

Star Troupe's top otokoyaku star speaks out

Ahead of their current Taiwan tour, Yuzuki Reon, the current top otokoyaku (male-role actress) with the Takarazuka Revue, took time out between rehearsals at the city-center Tokyo Takarazuka Theater to share with readers of The Japan Times something of her view from such a lofty show-biz height.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 14, 2013

An era of Tokyo art worth another look

Like Britain, Japan is subject to the polarizing forces of the orthodox and radical, the two balancing the flabby middle.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 3, 2013

'A person and a possession': Japanese women in history

SELLING WOMEN: Prostitution, Markets and the Household in Early Modern Japan, by Amy Stanley. University of California Press, 2012, 282 pp., $49.95 (hardcover)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 16, 2012

Disaster looms large for artist 'genius' Makoto Aida

What to make of Makoto Aida? One day, he's filling a giant blender with thousands of naked young girls and whirring them into a bloody concoction. The next he's piling up dead salarymen into a great mountain — nay, several great mountains, which recede majestically into the foggy distance.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2012

On sex slaves, Hashimoto on same page as Abe

By touching on the wartime sex slavery involving Korean females, Osaka Mayor and Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) leader Toru Hashimoto is apparently sounding out ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about joining hands for the next Lower House poll.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2012

Softbank bets on credit card tieup

In an attempt to change the deep-rooted cash culture in Japan, Softbank Corp. is hoping to create a business opportunity here by teaming up with U.S.-based PayPal Inc.
OLYMPICS
Aug 11, 2012

Bolt completes historic sweep with 200 victory

Jamaica had a run for the ages on Thursday.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Jun 30, 2012

Amateur sumo in crisis: Europe and Japan go head to head

For the past 20 years amateur sumo has been bidding for full and formal IOC recognition. Making its way through the IOC's various levels of acceptance, it was, according to many, doing rather well.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2012

LDP ups ante as Noda weighs Ozawa's fate

After more than 70 lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Japan rejected or abstained from voting on the contentious bill to hike the sales tax, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and other DPJ executives began internal discussions Wednesday on how to punish the dissenters, mainly kingpin Ichiro Ozawa and...
BUSINESS
Jun 25, 2012

Deeper political, financial unity seen as solution to eurozone crisis

Even after fears of a Greek exit from the euro were eased by the outcome of the country's June 17 elections, Europe remains in crisis as concern lingers that Spain's banks are a potentially bigger risk. Ending the crisis will require European leaders to come up with a longer-term vision for deeper economic...
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2012

Ideology's future after the left-right divide falls

The just-concluded French presidential election seemed to suggest that the old left-right divisions are as potent as they have ever been — and certainly in their birthplace. But are they?
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 26, 2012

Early pace-setters Vegalta determined to last distance

Skeptics may dismiss Vegalta Sendai's position at the top of the J. League as a fad waiting to blow over, but each passing weekend brings fresh evidence that the Tohoku side intends to stick around for good.
COMMENTARY
Mar 28, 2012

The inexorable march of creative destruction

In retreat, Sears set to unload stores
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / 2012 BASEBALL PREVIEW
Mar 26, 2012

Players still split about ball's effect on offense

It would be an understatement just to say there was a decline in offense in Japanese baseball last season.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 21, 2012

Expectations low as Hague signing approaches

Several months ago I made a bet with a friend about how the Hague Convention on international child abduction will be applied after Japan finishes implementing it through domestic legislation. My bet was this: If a Japanese court ever does order the return of a child wrongfully brought or retained here,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 31, 2012

Culture ensnares Czech Japanophile

Petr Holy, who over the past two decades has spent a considerable amount of his time learning the Japanese language and culture, is now in return trying to spread the culture of his home country, the Czech Republic, throughout Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 8, 2012

Nosing around Nada, the nation's sake-brewing mecca

Chewing and spitting out rice, unseemly as it sounds, is a key step in making kuchikami (literally, "mouth-chew") sake, an early form of the now world-famous drink. Fortunately, the brew has come a long way since then.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 27, 2011

Publishers' ties to distribution a barrier for e-books

On Nov. 13, publisher Takarajima took out newspaper advertisements for its magazine-like book "Denshi Shoseki no Shotai" ("The Real Shape of e-Books"), describing it as a polemic "against electronic books." It includes input from Naoki Award winning novelist Miyuki Miyabe, who explains why she isn't...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 18, 2011

How to avoid the trouble of paying double on return to Oz

Gina, an Australian citizen and permanent resident of Japan, is considering heading back to her homeland:
EDITORIALS
Aug 29, 2011

Mr. Kim goes to Russia

North Korea's reclusive supreme leader, Mr. Kim Jong Il, has ventured to Russia to meet President Dmitry Medvedev and discuss regional affairs. Mr. Kim repeated his readiness to return to the stalled Six-Party Talks "without preconditions" while Mr. Medvedev reportedly offered North Korea partnership...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 7, 2011

Tadanori Yokoo: An artist by design

In conversation, Tadanori Yokoo jumps nimbly between the past and the present. One moment he's watching the sky glow red as bombs rain down on Kobe during World War II. The next he's riding in a taxi with Yukio Mishima. And then he's back in the present, here at his studio in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, discussing...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 7, 2011

Step back in time down Chofu way

The map of Japan is full of intriguing holes and fissures, provincial areas that are not perhaps terrae incognitae in the strictest sense, but are nevertheless puzzlingly overlooked by visitors. Preserved by neglect, they are often proximate to better-known locales that sap the will of visitors to press...
SOCCER / J. League
Aug 6, 2011

Nakazawa hoping to return to national team

On Tuesday afternoon, Yuji Nakazawa could never have imagined the events that would unfold over the course of the week.
COMMENTARY
May 5, 2011

The world after bin Laden

Ding, dong, the witch is dead. Osama bin Laden, the author of the 9/11 atrocity in the United States and various lesser terrorist outrages elsewhere, has been killed by American troops in his hideout in northern Pakistan. At last, the world can breathe more easily, but not many people were holding their...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 23, 2011

Coming to proper terms

"You think you've got it rough?" says my wife. "How about me?"
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 16, 2011

The enemies of a digital universal library

Scholars have long dreamed of a universal library containing everything that has ever been written. Then, in 2004, Google announced that it would begin digitally scanning all the books held by five major research libraries. Suddenly, the library of utopia seemed within reach.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 12, 2011

Tigers ready to make run at title

The following is the second of a two-part preview for the upcoming NPB season. Team-by-team previews of the six Central League clubs are in order of predicted finish.

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