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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2014

Hollande's split may scar the female electorate

French President Francois Hollande's glacial dismissal of the 'official' First Lady — 18 words long, including three uses of the personal pronoun 'I' — will do him no good with the French electorate.
OLYMPICS / ICE TIME
Feb 6, 2014

Hanyu to skate first for Japan in team event

Grand Prix Final champion Yuzuru Hanyu will represent Japan in the men's singles portion of the inaugural Olympic Games figure skating team competition it was revealed on Wednesday.
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Feb 5, 2014

Sendai's White recognizes importance of team chemistry, close-knit family

The Japan Times features periodic interviews with players in the bj-league. Wendell White of the Sendai 89ers is the subject of this week's profile.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 3, 2014

Uphold basic living standards

To attain a national minimum for social welfare, some urge introducing a basic income — provision of a fixed sum of money to each citizen — to replace social security, which covers only needy people.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2014

Parents of mixed kids look abroad for high schools

College preparation for bicultural young adults may include seeking out international as well as domestic opportunities. Some youngsters, however, are heading abroad much sooner — for high school or junior high school.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Feb 1, 2014

Steamer surveys new island; Forces land on Hainan Island; Kyu Sakamoto profiled; Leftists suspected in shrine bombing

The N.Y.K. Bonin liner Chefoo, which returned to Yokohama yesterday, gave an interesting account of her exploration of the newly formed island near Minami Iwojima.
EDITORIALS
Feb 1, 2014

Harassment for acting like a dad

According to a Japanese trade union survey, more than one in every 10 working men have either been barred from taking childcare leave or harassed for even applying.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2014

Indie designer Kanai carves out niche with analog board games

In an age when every toddler fiddles with electronic game consoles and smartphones, Seiji Kanai says his passion lies in creating analog board games.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 30, 2014

Film provides some food for thought

New documentary 'Drops of Heaven' focuses on Yoshiko Tasumi, the woman whose 'soup of life' made her culinary efforts famous.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 29, 2014

What's the worth of words?

By popular demand, Shizuoka Performing Arts Center is set to stage a revival of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," its sell-out 2011 production adapted by contemporary theater paragon Hideki Noda and directed by its own artistic diector, Satoshi Miyagi.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NATURE'S PANTRY
Jan 28, 2014

Local pioneers of natural farming strong after 60 years

"Soil is a living thing" is almost a mantra for Sakae Suka, wife of Kazuo Suka, who has practiced shizen nōhō (natural farming) in Kamisato-machi, Saitama Prefecture, for more than 60 years. Truly the father of natural farming in our Kanto area, Kazuo has quietly and gently mentored most of the organic...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2014

Why the world must remember the Holocaust

This year's observance of the International Remembrance Day — the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp — fell at a time when there are reminders all around us of the dangers of forgetting.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 27, 2014

A death in detention in Tokyo and a bitter belated farewell

What was the back story to this Ghanaian's death from pneumonia? A pre-existing condition? Or something the immigration authorities wanted hidden? Without an autopsy, there would be no answers to these gnawing questions. We already knew all we would ever know.
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Jan 26, 2014

Tenkin-de kite, sonomama sumitsuite-shimau hito-mo ooi-sō-desu

Tenkin-de kite, sonomama sumitsuite-shimau hito-mo ooi-sō-desu. (There are many people who settled there after getting transferred, I heard.)
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 25, 2014

Age brings no respite from hard times for the 'lost generation'

Poverty is a relative term. As with age, you're as poor as you feel. Affluence brings with it rising expectations. Failure to meet them feeds the psychology, if not the dire physical deprivation, of poverty.
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jan 25, 2014

The Tale of Genji

Recognized as the world's first novel, Murasaki Shikibu's "The Tale of Genji" is a spiraling epic that encompasses a beautifully complex portrayal of 11th-century Japanese Imperial Court life.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 25, 2014

A double dose of Fumiyo Kohinata; arson attack survivor featured on "NHK Special"; CM of the week: Ajinomoto

Well-known character actor Fumiyo Kohinata not only gets a rare opportunity to star in a two-hour drama, but stars twice — playing twin brothers in the mystery "Twins: Saotome Kyodai no Suiri Nisshi" ("Twins: The Saotome Brothers' Deductive Diary"; TBS, Mon., 9 p.m.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2014

'Chiisai Ouchi (The Little House)'

Several veterans of Japan's old studio system are still working, but Yoji Yamada is the only one still directing for the studio he started out with, back in 1954. He has directed 81 films for Shochiku; his extraordinary box-office success with the "Tora-san" series, 48 films from 1969 to 1995 about the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2014
Jan 23, 2014

YGL program inspires, educates

Oisix Inc. President Kohey Takashima's ambition has transformed his online food retail startup into the leading player in the industry in just over a decade, but his nomination as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum has awoken in him another mission: to contribute to society.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 22, 2014

The Onodera enigma

The name of the late great Pina Bausch's acclaimed Tanztheater in the German city of Wuppertal may translate as "Dancetheater," but its works often owe more to abstract emotional action and snatched dialogue than to dance. Over in London, meanwhile, Simon McBurney's Complicite company has long been at...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jan 20, 2014

Expiry dates

It's hard when our children decide we're past our prime. Let's prove we've still got a little shelf life sorting out an admittedly tricky subject.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 18, 2014

Cooperation vs. competition in space

Shadows of winter clouds
EDITORIALS
Jan 18, 2014

More workers taking vacation

A group of companies in Japan are starting to buck the trend of making workers feel guilty for taking the full amount of vacation days to which they are entitled — and for good reason.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 17, 2014

Cultist testifies Hirata knew of kidnap plan

Aum Shinrikyo killer Noboru Nakamura testifies against ex-fugitive cultist Makoto Hirata, saying the defendant, despite his denial, had prior knowledge that he would be involved in the 1995 abduction of a Tokyo notary.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2014

'Bilocation'

"There will never be another you" goes the jazz standard, but is it true? Have you ever thought that your spitting image might be wandering the world somewhere? What if you encountered you on the street? I would make fast tracks in the opposite direction.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2014

'Mud'

Indie director Jeff Nichols grew up in Arkansas, and he has milked that state's ambience in his films: feuding brothers in "Shotgun Stories," survivalist paranoia in "Take Shelter" and now life on a Mississippi delta houseboat in "Mud." Nichols aims for that "Stand by Me" vibe of boyhood friends getting...
EDITORIALS
Jan 15, 2014

The 'Internet of everything'

The advent of the 'Internet of things,' the ever-expanding array of connectedness between computer sensors and consumer devices, promises convenience as well as privacy and security concerns.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo