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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 20, 2015

Keiichi Hara's new animation honors Hokusai's daughter

Ukiyo-e master Katsushika Hokusai is one of Japan's best-known artists. His print "The Great Wave off Kanagawa," with its giant blue wave curling over a tiny Mount Fuji, is seen on T-shirts and coffee mugs around the world. Given his multifarious talent, vast energy and long life — Hokusai died in...
BUSINESS / Economy
May 20, 2015

BOJ bond-buying faces challenge as Japan Post slows debt sales

The day when the Bank of Japan can't find enough bonds to buy is drawing closer.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 20, 2015

Man's portrait identified as that of young Shakespeare

A British magazine has published an image of a figure that it says is the first and only known demonstrably authentic portrait of William Shakespeare made in his lifetime.
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2015

Democracy's missing meaning fuels radicalism

Defenders of democracy must determine not only how to create jobs and ensure material prosperity for today's young people, but also how to feed their souls on the way.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 19, 2015

Experience was not the mother of wisdom

It's something of a truism that the life of an artist heavily influences his or her work. No exhibition makes this clearer than "Utrillo & Valadon" at the Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Museum of Art, which pairs the art of Maurice Utrillo, the famous painter of Parisian cityscapes, and his...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 13, 2015

All about AV, but no sex in 'Makeup Room'

Films that take the audience inside Japan's huge and diverse porn industry have been appearing for decades. In the 1991 "Skinless Night," Rokuro Mochizuki told a semi-autobiographical story about a porn director's desperation to escape the business (an aim that the widely praised film helped Mochizuki...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 12, 2015

American woman ready to row solo from Japan to U.S.

Sonya Baumstein lay in bed one sleepless night and wept softly as she pondered her upcoming attempt to cross the Pacific Ocean alone in a rowboat.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 9, 2015

Micaela Braithwaite: 'Follow your intuition and it will lead you to the things you love'

YouTuber on sticky rice, the Japanese work ethic and being the 'mayor' of a ward in Fukuoka.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 6, 2015

Texas gunman had happy childhood in Pakistan but struggled in the U.S.

Nadir Soofi, a gunman shot dead after opening fire at a Texas exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, was a popular schoolboy in Pakistan but struggled to adjust to the United States after moving there as a teen, friends said on Tuesday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 5, 2015

North Korea parades detainees for TV cameras; South pleads for their freedom

South Korea on Monday urged Pyongyang to release four of its citizens being held by the North, including two men who told CNN they spied for the South, and a 21-year-old New York University student.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 5, 2015

NYPD plainclothes officer dies from gunshot wound to head while in car; murder charge sought

A New York City plainclothes police officer who was shot in the head died on Monday and a first-degree murder charge will be sought against his accused killer, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said.
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2015

Australia's moral posturing at Indonesia is misguided

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was wrong to allow the execution of two convicted Australian drug traffickers to damage relations with Indonesia.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPO MILANO 2015
May 3, 2015

Showcasing innovation, food culture

Sushi, tempura and teriyaki are probably some of the first things that come to mind when Japanese food comes up among foreigners.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / EXPO MILANO 2015
May 3, 2015

Take advantage of the opportunity to step out of Milan and enjoy all that Italy has to offer

Ancient caves housed people 9,000 years ago
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 28, 2015

TACT serves up some fantastical holiday fare

If you're so busy wondering how to spend the upcoming Golden Week holiday that you can hardly sleep, why not simply go and enjoy the TACT/Festival at TMET (Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre) in Ikebukuro — where you can count sheep, too, if you want.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 27, 2015

These tips for Japanese mastery go out to the muddlers

When it comes to learning Japanese, most of us muddle through. This article is for the muddlers.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Apr 27, 2015

Manga artist draws on his troubles with truancy for inspiration

A manga artist named Shoichi Tanazono has published a book about his experiences skipping most of elementary and junior high school.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 26, 2015

Nepal struggles after devastating quake

Nepal has urged countries to send aid to help it cope with the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that killed nearly 1,400 people — a toll that was predicted to rise as rescuers used their hands to dig for survivors among the rubble on Sunday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 25, 2015

College campuses studying on borrowed time

University students are taking out massive loans to pay for their tertiary education and generally end up facing a crippling repayment timetable that is impossible to service. We examine the alarming state of student debt and what is being done to improve conditions for those who are struggling to pay it back.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 25, 2015

Sexual obsession stimulated Junichiro Tanizaki's writing

A 55-year-old science lecturer is found naked on a university campus. His student lover has made him strip as a show of devotion — "Get naked to show me your love," she reportedly demanded — and then scampered off with his clothes. The lecturer resigns, apologizes for "causing considerable trouble,"...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2015

Loyalty to 1960s machine shows risk from Japan's aging factories

The oldest piece of equipment at Osaka Machine Tool Co. has been there so long that only the company's 70-year-old chairman, Katumi Takata, still knows how to use it. He isn't planning to replace it anytime soon.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2015

How altruism makes the world a better place

Studies show that people who are generous are typically happier and more satisfied with their lives than those who do not give.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 18, 2015

On the pleasing violence of fairy tales

Traditional fairy tales are so steeped in blood it's astonishing that children didn't all grow up to become deranged in days gone by. Take, for example, the popular Japanese fable "Shita-kiri Suzume" (literally, "Tongue-Cut Sparrow"), which tells the tale of a kind old man, his avaricious wife and an...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2015

A tribute to Australian leader Malcolm Fraser

Malcom Fraser was Australia's moral compass: a forthright liberal voice for human rights on refugee policy, a compassionate voice on international aid and relief issues, and a powerful voice for an independent foreign policy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 16, 2015

Shizuoka blooms with culture at theater event

With sunlight dappling fresh green leaves, flowers in bloom and birds singing, spring and early summer is when Europeans leave their homes to enjoy the arts at great annual events such as Germany's Theatertreffen and France's Avignon Festival.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Apr 15, 2015

Family overcomes learning and health challenges to make cafe dream a reality

Originally a nurse by profession, Rhonda Tezuka is overcoming cultural barriers and helping others to take charge of their own health and welfare.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 15, 2015

The trauma of becoming exceptional

Long before it won three Oscars and was nominated for best picture, "Whiplash" — about the mesmerizing and often inexplicable relationship between a music student and his demonically obsessive teacher— had created a big stir in Japan. Media darling and California-based film critic Tomohiro Machiyama...

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