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LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 22, 2014

Hay fever: nothing to sneeze at

Pharmaceutical companies are deploying a whole new generation of high-tech products in the fight against the seasonal irritant
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 22, 2014

Okinawa redux: Democracy and an alliance at risk

U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy made a meet-and-greet trip to Okinawa last month, an opportunity to gauge the lay of the land and listen to some of the stakeholders in the longstanding controversies over plans to reduce America's military footprint in the prefecture.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 21, 2014

World's oldest-known stick insect, from Cretaceous, unearthed in China

Sometimes it is better not to be noticed.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2014

ASIJ admits honored teacher sexually abused students

The American School in Japan reveals that teacher Jack Moyer, a renowned marine biologist, sexually abused students while employed by the institution between 1963 and 2000.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2014

Abe funds matchmaking to ease welfare bill

Over coffee and cake in a rural cafe in Kochi Prefecture, Hideyuki Tanaka, 40, plucked up the courage to speak with Eri, 14 years his junior.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2014

Tokyo to put up more multi-language signs for Olympics

Tokyo and the central government launched on Wednesday a public-private council to come up with ways to put up more multiple-language signs for the 2020 Olympics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 18, 2014

Japan acts rock on at this year's SXSW

After somersaulting through a shallow puddle, the lead singer of Osaka's Vampillia stared intently at a nearby taco truck. As his band plowed through a noisy, violin-assisted song on the third afternoon of the South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference And Festival, he scaled the vehicle and screamed...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 17, 2014

U.S. military report suggests cover-up over toxic pollution in Okinawa

Perhaps the most serious concern raised in the internal U.S. military report is the fear that PCB contamination at Kadena — if made public — would prompt demands for widespread tests on other U.S. bases.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2014

Asia's tourism campaigns could benefit from a little cleaning up

As Asia welcomes more and more visitors, its leaders and policymakers must take steps toward a more sustainable tourism industry and supporting infrastructure. That includes cleaning up the beaches.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 17, 2014

Conservatives' insular mindset doesn't fit today's global reality

Japan has moved well beyond its islands, but in many respects, it has retained elements of an island mentality that is no longer compatible with its modern reality.
JAPAN / FUKUSHIMA FILE
Mar 16, 2014

New and improved radiation detectors headed for Fukushima

Starting in April, Fukushima Prefecture will introduce easy to use radiation detectors for food produce at municipalities so that residents will no longer have to cut up items into small pieces to check cesium levels.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 14, 2014

Fossil of ancient whale sheds light on how cetacean sonar developed

The deadly threat posed by German submarines during World War I helped spur scientists to develop sonar, using underwater sound signals to locate objects like subs.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 14, 2014

Culture of safety can make or break nuclear power plants

On the third anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and its devastating impact on Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima nuclear power plants, we need to understand why Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s Onagawa Nuclear Power Station — which was even closer to the quake epicenter — had a drastically different fate.
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Mar 12, 2014

Osaka's Bell takes pride in winning mindset, work ethic

The Japan Times features periodic interviews with players in the bj-league. D'Andre Bell of the Osaka Evessa is the subject of this week's profile.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2014

Jaczko recalls chaos of Fukushima early days

The central government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. fell into chaos when the triple meltdown crisis started at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission also faced a tough crisis-management situation characterized by limited information and mounting pressure to act,...
EDITORIALS
Mar 12, 2014

Was breakthrough premature?

Questions and suspicions have challenged the validity of a Japanese scientific paper that reported in January on a method for reprogramming body tissue cells into stem cells by simply exposing them to acidic liquids.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 12, 2014

Taihen actors put bodies on the line

Observing rehearsals by the physical-theater company Taihen for their upcoming "Over the Rainbow" show at ABC Hall in Osaka was in many ways a free-jazz experience.
CULTURE / Music / JAZZ NOTES
Mar 11, 2014

New acts see good results off the beaten path

Jazz is a form of music that was born out of live performance, and fans in Japan are certainly spoiled for choice when it comes to places to see jazz gigs.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2014

Reactors still feared despite new rules

The cost of restarting Japan's nuclear power plants: ¥1.3 trillion and counting.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 10, 2014

There is a giant serving of culture in one bowl of rice

Rice. A bland, white carbohydrate? Staple food that forms the nourishing core of every meal? A crop that has molded culture and society? Or primal sustenance imbued with mystic life force of the gods?
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 10, 2014

'Ethical' gold mines tried in South America

Tucked between two desert ridges in southern Peru, Relave looks like any of the hundreds of ramshackle mining towns that blight the landscape in the world's sixth-largest gold exporter.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 9, 2014

Are nation's oligarchs a necessary evil in the quest for stability?

After losing control of Crimea, the embattled new Ukrainian government in Kiev has turned to the nation's oligarchs in a bid to calm secessionist sentiment in the pro-Russian east. But the appointment of oligarchs to positions of political power has not been welcomed in all quarters, and certainly not...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 8, 2014

Noisy bulbuls change with the seasons

On cold winter mornings the bulbuls come squawking their full-throated calls as they swoop onto bird-feeders, their white-tipped gray breast feathers appearing frosted by the chill.

Longform

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