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Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 10, 2014

Real-life Japan caricature cuts to the quick

Tomohiro Maekawa, the 40-year-old playwright, director and founder of Tokyo's Ikiume (Buried Alive) theater company, is acclaimed in Japan's theater world for his groundbreaking sci-fi works sometimes bordering on the surreal.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / DECISION 2014
Dec 10, 2014

Japan's persisting gender gap leaves many single moms in poverty

Yuka Suzuki, 47, has virtually no savings, earns about half the average national wage and cannot see where the money will come from to retire one day.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 10, 2014

CIA eased Poland's qualms over secret prisons with boxes of bank notes: Senate report

Poland threatened to halt the transfer of al-Qaida suspects to a secret CIA jail on its soil 11 years ago, but became more "flexible" after the Central Intelligence Agency handed over a large sum of money, according to a U.S. Senate report.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Dec 9, 2014

Sake specialists give a lesson in culture

In Saijo, Hiroshima Prefecture, the largest room in the home of Hisao Maegaki, president of the sake brewery Kamoizumi Shuzo, is set for a feast.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2014

Xi's cultural revolution looks doomed to fail

China's government has just reserved the right to send film and television actors, directors, writers and producers on all-expenses-paid, involuntary, 30-day sabbaticals to rural mining sites, border areas, and other remote locations.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 8, 2014

Going backward to get ahead with studying Japanese

In his book "Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You," translator and Japanese literature scholar Jay Rubin notes that the Japanese language "works backward."
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 7, 2014

Evidence suggests Keynesianism boosts GDP in recessions, but good luck explaining why

Casual evidence indicates that government spending during recessions (a pillar of Keynesianism) boosts GDP. But we don't have a satisfying macroeconomic model that explains why.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Dec 6, 2014

Obscenity arrest may be hiding dirty politics

What constitutes obscenity in Japan? The term, both legally and morally, has different meanings in Japanese, just as it does in English. In a strictly legal sense, the Japanese word for obscenity, waisetsu, refers to something that maliciously stimulates sexual desire in an inappropriate and immoral...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 6, 2014

Poverty takes on a new look in today's Japan

In the early years of the 21st century, such neologisms as nyū puā (new poor) and wākingu puā (working poor) began appearing in the Japanese media. Like their equivalents overseas, the terms were typically applied to people unable to realize a decent livelihood while holding down a job, or even more...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 6, 2014

On the hunt for Tono's mythical water trolls

Sushi fans will probably know that cucumber rolls are known as kappamaki in Japanese. This is in honor of what is surely one of Japan's strangest mythical creatures — the kappa.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Dec 5, 2014

From umbrellas with feet to miniature ice-fishing polar bears, On: Design goes clever-quirky

Fishing for a good cuppa
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 5, 2014

North Korea's hackers are a hand-picked elite

Despite its poverty and isolation, North Korea has poured resources into a sophisticated cyber warfare cell called Bureau 121, defectors from the secretive state said as Pyongyang came under the microscope for a crippling hack into computers at Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 2014

'Whistler Retrospective'

The Yokohama Museum of Art commemorates its 25th anniversary with this retrospective of James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). Whistler was one of the pioneers of Japonism, taking inspiration from ukiyo-e prints and paintings, as well as from the traditional crafts of Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2014

Bitcoin policymaker tries to gain converts before election

The man who single-handedly made Japan an oasis for bitcoin entrepreneurs was holding court with political supporters. The price of admission: ¥10,000.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2014

Dentsu says it's creating robot entertainers

Dentsu Inc. will launch a new business focusing on developing "humanoid robot entertainers," the major ad agency said.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 3, 2014

Abe shouldn't make his mentor's mistakes

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should keep in mind why voters backed him to begin with: his apparent decisiveness and determination to challenge old ways of doing things.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 3, 2014

Screen icon's son brings women's rights to the stage

"Since I was a child, I always wanted to devote my life to film as my father did," Kenta Fukasaku said during a recent chat in which his late, great role model, the charismatic movie director Kinji Fukasaku, often figured.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2014

NPO lends support to Filipino dropouts

A charity in the Philippines is helping an important but often overlooked segment of the population: school dropouts.
EDITORIALS
Dec 2, 2014

Weighing the impact of 'Abenomics'

To present voters with a genuine choice at the polls, the opposition parties need to flesh out their own economic policy proposals.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2014

The next phase of China's financial deepening

China's financial deepening is a market process. But it must be underpinned by a regulatory and policy framework that encourages risk-taking and innovation.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 2, 2014

Ishin no To is fighting for its political life

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), co-headed by populist Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, captured 54 seats in the December 2012 Lower House election, making it, and him, national political forces.
JAPAN / Politics / DECISION 2014
Dec 2, 2014

Another low for Japan's gender gap, as only 15% of election candidates are female

So much for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's call to empower women.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2014

In rural Akita, skeptics doubt 'Abenomics' will cure ills

Mihoko Asaka wants to know how candidates in this month's election will create jobs and halt the drastic population decline that is bleeding her home region of youth and vitality, but she has little hope they will offer real solutions.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 2, 2014

U.S. base move casts big shadow over election in Okinawa

Just two weeks after voters elected a governor opposed to moving U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Henoko, in the northern part of Okinawa Island, the saga is once again the central political issue in the prefecture.
JAPAN / Politics / DECISION 2014
Dec 2, 2014

With all parties opposed to tax hike, policy debates ring vague

Official campaigning for the Dec. 14 Lower House election started Tuesday, but voter enthusiasm remains low.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 2, 2014

Cyber ring stole secrets for gaming U.S. stock market, FireEye says

Security researchers say they have uncovered a cyberespionage ring focused on stealing corporate secrets for the purpose of gaming the stock market, in an operation that has compromised sensitive data about dozens of publicly held companies.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2014

OPEC's other problem: weak demand for oil

Sluggish demand growth in response to the quadrupling of oil prices between 2002 and 2012 is at least as a big a challenge for OPEC as rising shale output.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear