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COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2013

Return to South Korea thwarted by nationalism

A Korean-born U.S. citizen gets a rude awakening on nationalism when he returns to South Korea to launch a ministry at the president's invitation.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Apr 6, 2013

Irrepressible Irishman promotes Japan culture

Humor may be the hardest genre to translate, but laughter speaks any language. Poet and literary translator Peter MacMillan's recent foray into visual art, "Thirty-Six New Views of Mount Fuji," delights with wry whimsicality, employing mixed-media print-making to reveal a multicultural drollery.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2013

Graft: a cancer on society

Some British companies fear that adhering to the international convention against bribery and corruption puts them at a competitive disadvantage.
EDITORIALS
Apr 6, 2013

A new era in space observation

The main part of the world's most powerful radio observatory, ALMA — in which Japan has a 30 percent stake — is inaugurated in northern Chile.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 5, 2013

'Rust and Bone'

A boxer knows how to get back up when knocked down. So when life spins out for French bare-knuckle fighter Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts), he spends his last euros on a train out of town, his 5-year-old son in tow. It's a responsibility this sullen brute of a man barely knows how to deal with, but he does...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2013

Dispelling five myths about stress

Life coaches talk about working toward emotional fitness, as if we can judge our psyches. But some ideas about stress and its risks are simply wrong.
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 2, 2013

Gardening offers original ideas for repurposing goods

Ruthie Mundell opens a door within the warehouse of the nonprofit thrift store known as Community Forklift and eagerly displays the donations of countless gardeners.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 1, 2013

Historian seeks to have Jefferson speak for himself

Thomas Jefferson died 186 years ago. But J. Jefferson Looney still wants the nation's third president to speak for himself.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2013

A dying veteran's assessment of the Iraq War

A letter from a dying U.S. Army veteran to former President George W. Bush delivers a damning assessment of the consequences of the Iraq War.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Mar 31, 2013

Men with 'yellow fever' get a taste of their own medicine

There's no need for serious digging; just scrape the surface of history and there are plenty of examples of Caucasian men who showed the symptoms of a phenomenon known as 'yellow fever.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 30, 2013

Japanese-Brazilian beats the odds to win place at university

Rafael Yukio Kusuki, 20, a third-generation Japanese-Brazilian, has been accepted to Aichi Prefectural University, his first choice, after overcoming a host of difficulties — including homelessness — to continue his studies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 29, 2013

Anna Karenina

'Anna Karenina" won the Oscar for best costume design this year, and like many a period literary adaptation, you might assume the frocks and greatcoats are the main attraction, the "value added" to what is necessarily a leaner version of an epic novel. Certainly director Joe Wright, who filmed Jane Austen's...
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 28, 2013

New prenatal test in high demand but limited to risk cases

Testing will begin in Japan on a new, noninvasive prenatal test to check for chromosomal abnormalities, but it will be limited to pregnant women deemed at risk of having babies with Down syndrome or other disorders.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 28, 2013

Citing side effects, group criticizes Diet OK for HPV vaccine for girls

A bill to approve vaccines to help prevent cervical cancer in girls is expected to clear the Diet this week but reports of serious side effects have prompted mothers to form a nationwide victims' support group.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 28, 2013

'Shohachi Kimura'

Shohachi Kimura (1893-1958) developed an early interest in foreign novels and other facets of Western culture. He first aspired to become a writer, but changed his mind at age 18 to pursue art and painting. Still interested in literature, however, he often contributed illustrations to novels.
SPORTS / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Mar 27, 2013

Dodgers gone, but memories remain

The Dodgers MLB franchise sure has a way of breaking the hearts of towns that love them.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Mar 26, 2013

Consensus: Corporal punishment in sports misguided, demoralizing, backward

The following are some readers' responses to the March 12 Foreign Element column by Richard Parker headlined "Right or wrong, corporal punishment can produce winners." See many more in the comment section below the original article.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 25, 2013

Supreme Court reflects 'modern marriage'

There's a widow who was a pioneer of the "modern marriage," and one who never wed. Two who have been divorced.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 25, 2013

U.S. gun deaths — and tougher laws — shaped by race

Gun deaths are shaped by race in the United States: Whites are far more likely to shoot themselves, and blacks are far more likely to be shot by someone else.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Mar 25, 2013

Risks of using 'my number'

Japan's information technology industry could be the biggest beneficiary of the government plan to introduce a personal ID number system for citizens.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 25, 2013

Yoisho! A word to move mountains (and smaller things)

The man from next door says it. My mother-in-law says it. The guy in the grocery store says it. The nurse on TV says it. Seems like everyone says Yoisho! (よいしょ!) It's one of those expressions that appear to be a common part of everyday Japanese life but are not usually taught in Japanese language...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 24, 2013

Be inspired: One person can help foster sustainable lives for millions

Last month, this column introduced Bangkok-based Midori Paxton, who is currently a regional technical adviser for biodiversity and ecosystems with the United Nations Development Programme — and who, I'm delighted to say, was a model student of mine here in Japan more than 20 years ago.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 23, 2013

Are Russian assassins on the streets of Britain?

Shortly after 5:15 p.m. on Nov. 10, a jogger turned into Granville Road in Weybridge, southern England, running along the hedge-lined street of one of Britain's wealthiest enclaves. Then, 50 meters from his home, he staggered into the road and died.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 22, 2013

Tokyo art blossoms in spring

It seems that this year everything is coming together for the Tokyo art world, literally.
WORLD / Society
Mar 22, 2013

Marriages tested by sleepless nights with baby

As any parents of a young child who is a problem sleeper will confirm, permanent tiredness and constant irritability can put a huge strain on your relationship.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2013

Grading the developing world's rising powers

The United Nations warns of the possibility of a halt or reversal of human development progress if action is not taken to protect the environment.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2013

Stunned pope asks for prayers

Pope Francis understands that the Catholic Church is bleeding. In Latin America, it is losing members to evangelical Christianity and to secularism.

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