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COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2014

Big Pharma, world leaders not cut out for Ebola battle

Scientists at leading universities, rather than Big Pharma, are fighting the battle against Ebola and other tricky diseases, while the response of Western leaders has been to try to keep Ebola out of their backyards.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
Oct 20, 2014

Bicultural Japanese baby names can be double the trouble

What do the following names have in common: Ayeisha, December, Eli, Gabrielle, Haruki, Julie, Kaede, Koh, Leon, Louis, Lucia, Luke, Margaret, Olivia, Ryuken, Tobin and Tennis? They are all children's names — all but one the sons and daughters of bicultural couples.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 20, 2014

Subtle humor of haiku's cousin senryū is on a roll

"Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit," philosophizes the long-winded Polonius in Shakespeare's "Hamlet." That's also a fitting description of senryū — a form of short poetry defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as "a three-line unrhymed Japanese poem structurally similar to haiku, but...
Japan Times
JAPAN / FUKUSHIMA FILE
Oct 19, 2014

Former Fukushima teacher blogs to inspire students while fighting off cancer

The former vice principal of a junior high school in Fukushima Prefecture has been encouraging his former students by blogging while undergoing 11 years of treatment for cancer.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 18, 2014

Grave hunting in Tokyo's realms of the dead

The moon wasn't out, but a low bank of clouds refracted the city lights and recast them around me as a dingy glow. Only chirping crickets and the occasional hum of a passing car in the distance broke the silence.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 18, 2014

Suicidal cells and the immortal cells of Henrietta Lacks

You may not have heard of Henrietta Lacks — an African-American woman from Baltimore who died of cervical cancer in 1951 — but you have benefited from her.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Oct 17, 2014

BIFF 2014 plays down unavoidable controversies

The biggest event of the year for South Korea's film industry is the opening night of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), which marked its 19th year Oct. 2 to 11. Whether or not they have films screening at the festival, almost all the major Korean movie stars show up and strut the red carpet...
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 17, 2014

Abe's jobs push beyond Tokyo spurs regional lending

Lending in September by regional banks grew at triple the pace of the nation's megabanks as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acted to rejuvenate areas outside of Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 16, 2014

Tokyo International Film Festival contender 'Pale Moon' gets to the root of all evil

The bad news? Japan has only one entry in the Competition section at this year's Tokyo International Film Festival. The good news? The submission, Daihachi Yoshida's "Pale Moon," is a major contender for the $50,000 Tokyo Grand Prix.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 15, 2014

Tale of panic and pain strikes an operatic chord

At a time when Japan is being rapped over the knuckles by the U.N. for hate-speech rallies against ethnic Koreans, a movie like "The Tenor: Lirico Spinto" takes on special significance. Directed by Kim Sang-man, "The Tenor" (released here as "The Tenor: Shinjitsuno Monogatari") is a collaborative project...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2014

North Korea's elites are a threat to Kim Jong Un

North Korea is frequently described as 'the world's last Stalinist state,' but this is no longer the case. The North is now home to a large and growing private economy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Oct 15, 2014

Is it time to bid bye-bye to 'haro'?

When was the last time someone Japanese used your presence as an excuse to say 'haro' whilst furtively glancing sideways at their companions to confirm they just made the funniest joke ever?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 14, 2014

Principles of feminism are an all-in proposition

An American female public policy columnist says she is disturbed by the number of feminists defending affirmative sexual consent laws on the grounds that they will rarely be enforced.
OLYMPICS / ROBERT WHITING'S 1964 OLYMPICS RETROSPECTIVE
Oct 14, 2014

Opening Ceremony ushered in new era for Japan

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics had a profound impact on the capital city and the nation. In the second installment of a five-part series that will run during the next two weeks, best-selling author Robert Whiting, who lived in Japan at the time, examines the excitement surrounding the Opening Ceremony.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 14, 2014

Teen, inspired by SoftBank's Son, builds a startup

Yoichiro Mikami wanted to be the next Masayoshi Son, Japan's second-richest man, so he dropped out of high school at 16 this year.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2014

Sectarian tension threatening to tip Lebanon

With all eyes focused on sectarian violence in Iraq and Syria, little attention has been paid to Sunni-Shiite relations in Lebanon, where the potential for a perfect storm is brewing.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 10, 2014

Diplomats win kudos in annual photo contest

An arresting image of a man dressed as a superhero parking his bicycle was on Thursday named winner of the Prince Takamado Memorial Prize for the Japan Through Diplomats' Eyes 2014 photography contest.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2014

Should adult sibling incest be against the law?

The German Ethics Council's recommendation that consensual sexual intercourse between adult siblings should cease to be a crime leads a university ethics professor to wonder whether a rational debate on the subject is even possible.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Oct 10, 2014

New center in Nagoya helps young patients deal with head injuries

A new facility for people with traumatic brain injuries has opened in Nakagawa Ward, Nagoya, to offer the kind of care that, say, traffic accident victims often need.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 8, 2014

Harmonic slips in time, identity and language

World War II-themed films by elderly Japanese directors with direct experience of the war are not only becoming scarcer, but are also distinctly different from those of younger filmmakers trying to appeal to a mass audience. Kazuo Kuroki's 2006 film "Kamiya Etsuko no Seishun (The Blossoming of Kamiya...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Oct 8, 2014

Bonding boozily over the pleasure and pain of Bukowski

The embrace of individuality combined with the pain of loneliness could explain why Bukowski's works have been embraced by many of the Japanese men I've met in Tokyo.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 7, 2014

Bianchi crash caused by ‘bad luck,’ claims Suzuka Circuit spokesman

The crash that left French Formula One driver Jules Bianchi in a critical condition with severe head injures was down to bad luck rather than poor judgement by Japanese Grand Prix race officials, a track spokesman said on Tuesday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society / FOCUS
Oct 7, 2014

China parents put all eggs in one basket due to family planning rules

Communist Party leaders have praised their one-child policy for preventing the population from spiraling out of control, but critics say it has spawned decades of forced abortions, infanticide and child trafficking.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Oct 6, 2014

Range of services rush to fill gaps in Japan's after-school care market

As the government moves to widen access for older children, the private sector offers flexibility and a focus on areas such as English and sports.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 6, 2014

Dallas Ebola patient struggling to survive, not getting experimental drugs: CDC head

The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States was fighting for his life at a Dallas hospital on Sunday and appeared not to be receiving any of the experimental medicines for the virus, a top U.S. medical official said.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Oct 5, 2014

Educator reverses school's fortunes by reviving progressive principles

When Evernote Corp. CEO Phil Libin visited Tokyo's Shinagawa Joshi Gakuin in May, the combined junior and senior high school for girls came under the media spotlight — not only because it was unusual for a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur to visit a girls' school, but also because of the progressive...

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