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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 19, 2015

A militaristic turn for the Japanese film industry

Why have Japanese filmmakers recently been turning out so many films about World War II and its aftermath? The obvious answer is that they're commemorating the 70th anniversary of that war's end, which was marked on Aug. 15. But there are far fewer new films about WWII in most of the countries that fought...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Aug 19, 2015

Tale of Tuscan beekeeping and family breakdown has a sting

Italian drama "The Wonders" opens on Aug. 22 and it's well worth a look (or two or three).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 18, 2015

Erik Satie: A 'gymnopedist' ahead of his time

Erik Satie (1866-1925) said and did a lot of memorable things, many remarkably outlandish. Brilliant and bonkers, he composed works that range from cabaret ditties to a "symphonic drama," from light music for educating children to complex parodies of the masters. And who can forget such composition titles...
EDITORIALS
Aug 18, 2015

New stage in postal privatization

Uncertainties remain regarding the full privatization of Japan Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Aug 17, 2015

How hot is it?: Let me count the ways to say it in Japanese

Today we introduce three different u3042u3064u3044 (atsui) adjectives.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 15, 2015

Memoir of Akira Kurosawa's right-hand man reveals a history of vexed scripts

The films of Akira Kurosawa used to be the gateway into Japanese cinema for many non-Japanese. (That role has since been assumed by the films of Hayao Miyazaki and other animators.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 12, 2015

Love blooms like incendiary bombs in 'Kono Kuni no Sora'

Veteran scriptwriter Haruhiko Arai spent three decades trying to adapt Yuichi Takai's 1983 novel "Kono Kuni no Sora" ("This Country's Sky") for the screen — and the wait was worth it.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 10, 2015

Texas killing of black teen by rookie cop raises questions

Texas police on Sunday were trying to figure out what prompted a black teenager to drive his car into a car dealership, and why a white police officer still in training fatally shot the unarmed 19-year-old four times.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 9, 2015

Beijing seeks hearts and minds with Tibetan resettlements

Nineteen-year-old Longsel Tsondre sees nothing romantic about the itinerant life his Tibetan herder family left behind when the government in his remote corner of southwestern China offered to resettle them a few years ago.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 7, 2015

Wagyu: Processing pampered cows at Tokyo's last major slaughterhouse

Wagyu literally translates as "Japanese beef," but that translation doesn't quite do it justice. It's a word that calls to mind images of rural Japanese cows being fed beer and massaged daily, and richly marbled ruby-red steaks, shot through with fine ribbons of glistening white fat.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Aug 5, 2015

MLK's fears of nuclear devastation should continue to resonate

In a letter to Japan, Martin Luther King expressed a desire to visit the country and spread his message about the need for nuclear disarmament.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 5, 2015

Why the world's largest record label wants to be a movie studio

Amy Winehouse's 9-year-old album "Back to Black" is outselling newer records from Beyonce, Adele and Pitbull, buoyed by critical praise for the documentary about the singer's sudden rise and fall.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 31, 2015

Changing the culture of long working hours key to increasing Japan's female workforce

The plight of Japan's working women has improved dramatically over the past two decades. Maternity leave has become the norm, slots at nurseries have increased by more than 340,000 and the percentage of female executives or women serving as department chiefs at companies has tripled.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 31, 2015

Earth believed protected by magnetic field starting much earlier than previously thought

Earth's magnetic field has been a life preserver, protecting against relentless solar winds, streams of charged particles rushing from the sun, that otherwise could strip away the planet's atmosphere and water.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 30, 2015

Despite long odds, independent media battle on in Putin's Russia

Alexei Venediktov, one of Russia's most prominent journalists, doesn't go out without a bodyguard and doesn't answer mobile phone calls for fear of being tracked.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 29, 2015

Obama: Africa's 'Big Men' should quit when time is up

Judging by the applause at the African Union headquarters, Barack Obama hit a chord when he took aim at the continent's "Big Men," telling them they should quit when their time was up — especially since most have the cash to retire comfortably.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 29, 2015

Struggling with images of the wretched and the Earth

Enough with the phoniness of so-called globalism — for something truly pro-Earth and pro-humanity, look at a photo by Sebastiao Salgado. He has been a towering giant on the terrain of modern photography during his 40-year career, producing astonishing black-and-white images of incomparable originality....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 29, 2015

'Love & Mercy' is a biopic worthy of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys

Real surfers don't listen to The Beach Boys. That's one of the first things I learned while hanging out at the ocean toting a surfboard, and it's also one of the lines from "Love and Mercy," a biopic about The Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson. Along with his brothers, Dennis and Carl, and their cousin...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jul 28, 2015

Boy Scouts of America lifts blanket ban on gay adult leaders and employees

The Boy Scouts of America on Monday lifted its outright ban on openly gay adult leaders and employees, rolling back a policy that has deeply divided the membership of the 105-year-old Texas-based organization.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 27, 2015

Senior British lord quits after paper posts alleged drugs video

A senior British lord quit his post Sunday and will face a police investigation after a tabloid newspaper released a video showing him semi-naked and snorting white powder through a banknote while partying with two women.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 26, 2015

La Sera's Katy Goodman extols the benefits of learning skills outside the music world

Katy Goodman loves math, problem-solving and memorization.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 25, 2015

Growing up to the idea of fighting back

Psychologist Toshio Kawai has an interesting hypothesis. We may, he says in an article written for the Asahi Shimbun's Globe, be entering an age when "becoming an adult will not be necessary."
JAPAN / Society
Jul 22, 2015

Ashley Madison cheating website hacking 'may affect Japanese users'

Hackers threatening to release details of people using a cheating website may possess the records of toward two million Japanese users, it has emerged.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 22, 2015

'Wild Tales' and black comedy from the dark heart of Argentina

Forget about all the brassy, effects-laden blockbusters crowding the multiplexes this summer: For sheer entertainment value, none are likely to top this Argentine-Spanish anthology of comic shorts. Rich in black humor and satirical invective, "Wild Tales" became the most successful Argentinian movie...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Jul 19, 2015

Women of color bound to Japan by love and family

Part 1 of a series looking at the black women who have taken vows binding their fates — and sometimes that of their children — to Japan, for better or for worse.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 19, 2015

Before Tennessee rampage, gunman texted friend link to Islamic verse

Hours before the Tennessee shooting that killed five U.S. servicemen, the suspected gunman texted a close friend a link to an Islamic verse that included the line: "Whosoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, then I have declared war against him."

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic