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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2013

'Une Estonienne a Paris'

Jeanne Moreau was a French superstar back in the day, but decades later, the now-octogenarian's on-screen presence continues to be defined by a haze of ennui and ambivalence that she wraps around herself like a delicate shawl. Moreau's appearance in "Une Estonienne a Paris" showcases her charms to full...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 17, 2013

'The destroyer' Ozawa slams opposition for failure to cooperate

With only four days before the nation goes to the polls, veteran lawmaker Ichiro Ozawa slammed the opposition camp Wednesday for failing to cooperate in the fight against the ruling bloc in the Upper House election.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 15, 2013

Trolls or media watchdogs?: Japan's foreign-born defenders

Have the foreign media got it in for Japan? Do they unduly focus on, and sensationalize, Fukushima radiation leaks, alleged racial intolerance and the self-aggrandizing policy pronouncements of the reborn Liberal Democratic Party?
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2013

The Internet can be a lifesaver for suicidal teens

An anti-bullying team has developed a revolutionary website that offers professional and informal support to 11- to 17-year-olds who are having suicidal thoughts.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jul 12, 2013

Okinawan musician, club owner keeps folk traditions going strong

The back streets of Naha were dark, making it more difficult to find Shima-Umui, a music club run by Okinawan folk singer Misako Oshiro. The torpid air and smell of papaya rinds from a nearby bin spoke of the subtropics. A small sign, barely visible from the street, directed customers to the basement...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 12, 2013

The science of talent: pinpointing what we will be best at

My interest in the science of talent has a personal backstory. By the age of three, I'd had 21 ear infections and after an operation to remove fluid from my ears, it took me an extra step to process speech. To help me catch up with my peers, I was diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder. I repeated...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2013

Black comedy gets under the skin of a murderer

Jack Black, whose career was built on getting deep inside the skin of his characters, arguably reaches the pinnacle of his performances as Bernie Tiede in "Bernie" — based on actual events that happened in small-town Texas 17 years ago.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2013

'Un Vie de Chat (Paris Neko Dino no Yoru)'

Speaking with "Monsters University" producer Kori Rae the other day, the conversation turned to the possibility that digital animation may have hit some sort of plateau. While I don't expect Pixar to stop pushing the boundaries, it was nevertheless surprising to hear Rae say the following: "We are getting...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2013

Cloud Atlas

Director: Tom Tykwer and Andy and Lana Wachowski
LIFE / Digital
Jul 9, 2013

We are the sum of our metadata

Over the past two weeks, I have lost count of the number of officials and government ministers who, when challenged about Internet surveillance by Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States, try to reassure their citizens by saying...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2013

Ellsberg: Leaker Snowden made the right call

Edward Snowden made the right call in fleeing the United States after leaking classified documents about NSA surveillance. So says the 1971 leaker of the 'Pentagon Papers.'
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 7, 2013

Giffords tries gentler touch on guns

It was day two of Gabrielle Giffords' whirlwind nationwide tour to revive the push for tougher gun laws. The former congresswoman's husband, Mark Kelly, woke up early, placed his black case of firearms into the car trunk and raced across a vast stretch of Alaskan highway to practice target shooting....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 6, 2013

Yoko Narahashi: From Hollywood to Hirohito

From "Empire of the Sun" to "The Last Samurai," and from "Memoirs of a Geisha" to "Babel" — when Hollywood film directors have turned their cameras to the Land of the Rising Sun, there is one person they have insisted on having by their side: Yoko Narahashi, a casting agent, producer, sometimes director...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 2013

Pixar producer reveals the secrets behind studio's monster hits

Sitting down for an interview with Kori Rae, producer of "Monsters University" — the new animated film from Pixar Animation Studios — I notice a bit of ink poking out from under a sleeve. Rae indulges my curiosity and reveals a pastel-colored "wa" (the chinese character for "harmony") but quickly...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 6, 2013

Koizumi Jr. lands a mystery; Yuji Oda is a happy "loser"; CM of the Week: Xylish

Kotaro Koizumi, the son of former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, plays against type in the new mystery series "Namonaki Doku" ("Unnamed Poison"; TBS, Mon., 8 p.m.), based on a story by Miyuki Miyabe.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 6, 2013

Loss of innocence in war for a youth looking for some meaning

Koji Obata, the protagonist of Hiroyuki Agawa's novel, tends not to feel strongly about things. He is, however, convinced that this detachment is an aspect of his character that he'd like to change. Early in the novel he decides that "he [is] looking for something he could confront openly, something...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jul 5, 2013

Children of the 1960s will pay a higher price

To some, it must have been a very long time coming but here it is at last. That smug, gold-plated, bloated slice of the population, whose main preoccupation appears to be, on the one hand, continually bragging about their unique birthright of rock 'n' roll, flower power, feminism and the sexual revolution...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society / FOCUS
Jul 3, 2013

Portugal's baby bust feeding vicious cycle

For an enterprise in the business of welcoming life, the birthing ward inside Portugal's largest maternity hospital is eerily quiet. On a recent morning, not a single expectant father nervously paced the orange laminated floors. Unhurried nurses shuffled by rows of darkened rooms with empty beds, busying...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 1, 2013

Clinton super PAC attracts donors — as well as worries

The campaign has a flashy website and official logo T-shirts and signs. Prominent Democrats have endorsed it and written $25,000 checks. Its paid operatives and volunteers have set up shop in a suburban strip mall office that last housed the regional campaign headquarters for Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 30, 2013

The media needs to open discussion on GMO issue

More than two years on from the disaster of March 11, 2011, debate continues in the mainstream and social media about the uses of fear to advance agendas. Much of the debate is centered on the environmental crisis surrounding the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactor. On one side are people who say that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2013

Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki adventure still inspires

In 1947, Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl was a 33-year-old anthropologist and marine biologist who had recently finished a stint fighting in World War II (he served in the Free Norwegian Forces).
Reader Mail
Jun 27, 2013

Hope to see blood test abolished

Last summer, Japan was getting ready to introduce a new type of prenatal examination that requires only a blood test. Recently I read the March 5 article "Down syndrome blood test draws interests and ire," which prompted some doubts about this test. The blood test is an easy way to know whether a baby...
LIFE / Digital
Jun 26, 2013

Beware: NSA knows the power of your metadata

"To be remembered after we are dead," wrote William Hazlitt, "is but poor recompense for being treated with contempt while we are living." Cue U.S. President "George W" Obama in the matter of telephone surveillance by his National Security Agency. The fact that for the past seven years the agency has,...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 25, 2013

Unpaid overtime excesses hit young

Some companies are compelling their younger employees to work more than 100 hours of uncompensated overtime a month to maximize their profits.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 25, 2013

Tokyo: Do you think conscription — in Japan or elsewhere — is a good thing or a bad idea?

I think conscription is a bad idea because we always say people are equal and can do what they want, and I myself am all for liberty and freedom of choice. To that end, people, whoever they are, must be able to do what they want, and if they don't want to [join the military], that is quite alright.

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