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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2013

Putin's display of a Peronist persona

After nearly 14 years in power, perhaps the best comparative description of Russian President Vladimir Putin may be a transgender cross between the former Argentine leader Juan Peron and his legendary wife, Evita
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 15, 2013

December: A last tango with soba

Some men go out to buy that flaming red sportscar. Others embark on a messy but absorbing divorce process. Then there is of course, nirvana: the gorufujō (ゴルフ場, golf course). But in Japan, when men hit a certain age they have another option to turn to. The authentic mark of a honmono (本物,...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2013

Dilemma deepens as drones kill more civilians

The Obama administration's refusal to apologize in some cases to family members of the innocent victims of drone attacks, or even to explain what went wrong, indicates that his promise of greater transparency on drone policy has yet to be fulfilled.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 13, 2013

Hubble spots geysers spurting from Jupiter moon Europa

The search for life in the solar system took a twist Thursday with the announcement that Europa, a moon of Jupiter first discovered by Galileo, shows signs of water geysers erupting from its south pole.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 13, 2013

Nagakute turns on rogue pond turtles

The rampant rise of red-eared terrapins is posing an ecological threat in a park in Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 11, 2013

'Don Quixote' as never before

Paris comes to Tokyo this week with a production from the Théâtre National de Chaillot of a "choreographic essay" by José Montalvo, one of its artistic directors. Featuring 13 dancers and Patrice Thibaud, an actor routinely dubbed a genius, the premiere of "Don Quichotte du Trocadéro" in January...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2013

Mandela's final step to freedom

Nelson Mandela's life had many parallels with that of Mahatma Gandhi. Above all, Mandela was an eternal optimist who believed in the possibility of improvement and progress by appealing to the better angels of our nature.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Dec 9, 2013

Korean volunteers put the K into kizuna

One volunteer group, based at Tokyo's Meiji University, is called Kizuna International; the other, at Kyoto University, is Kizuna From Kyoto. The coincidences do not end there: Both groups' leaders share the same surname and both are ethnic Koreans.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 7, 2013

Wabori: Traditional Japanese Tattoo

It may not have been their sole purposes for visiting Japan during their respective reigns, but Queen Victoria's grandson George V and the last emperor of Russia, Nicholas II, both received tattoos on visits to Japan, despite the government's ban on a craft reserved primarily for the branding of criminals....
WORLD
Dec 6, 2013

Nelson Mandela, ex-president of South Africa, dead at 95

Nelson Mandela, the former political prisoner who became the first president of a post-apartheid South Africa and whose heroic life and towering moral stature made him one of history's most influential statesmen, died Dec. 5, the government announced. He was 95.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2013

Economics that aids people

Confronted with a worldwide, systemic economic crisis, isn't it time we rethink the foundation of mainstream economic theory and move to change the way we measure the quality of life for mankind?
Japan Times
CULTURE
Dec 3, 2013

Well, she was just 17: How one girl got her dream job with The Beatles

Few people can claim to have spent the whole of their youth with The Beatles, and fewer still would have come out of the experience unscathed. Freda Kelly — who was 17 when she first laid eyes on the Fab Four at the now-legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool, is one of those people, perhaps the only one....
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 1, 2013

Who is Xi? Chinese leader enigma to world

In early November, China's most powerful man, Xi Jinping, stepped into a rustic farmhouse while on an inspection tour in far-flung Hunan province. The occupants' sole electrical appliance, a fluorescent light bulb, burned overhead. Shi Pazhuan, the family matriarch, was confused. "What should I call...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 30, 2013

The Aesthetics of Strangeness: Eccentricity and Madness in Early Modern Japan

Misfits. Oddballs. Bohemians. In Tokugawa Japan? Yes indeed, a veritable plethora of them. The Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867) was hardly the first repressive regime, or the last, to throw nonconformity out the front door only to find it creeping in through the back door, through the window, through cracks...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Nov 30, 2013

Fujitsu import adjusts

Once, or twice at most. That's the number of times that a quarterback usually throws a pass to the side of the field occupied by a great cornerback.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Nov 30, 2013

The secret of keeping official secrets secret

"He that would keep a secret must keep it secret that he hath a secret to keep," says Sir Humphrey Appleby, permanent secretary to the Department of Administrative Affairs, a fictitious branch of the British government. He is one of the main characters in the highly acclaimed 1980s BBC television series...
BASEBALL
Nov 29, 2013

Kawakami's players impressed MLB counterparts

The V-9 Yomiuri Giants were arguably the best team in the history of the game. Giants stars Sadaharu Oh and Shigeo Nagashima had been openly coveted by MLB general managers back in the United States. So had pitcher Tsuneo Horiuchi at his peak.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2013

'The Sessions'

It's become kind of a cliche, famous actors playing the physically or mentally handicapped as a kind of sure-fire Oscar bait. Yet you've got to give it up for John Hawkes in "The Sessions": He plays Mark O'Brien, a man paralyzed from the neck down who's forced to spend most of his time in an iron lung,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 27, 2013

Takarazuka dances to a different tune

What happens when Takarazuka, Japan's longest-running all-female theater troupe, takes on Masayuki Suo's hit movie "Shall We Dance?," which won 14 Japanese Academy Awards in 1996 and aired internationally in 16 countries?
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 27, 2013

Kawakami's philosophy as manager never wavered

A famous Tetsuharu Kawakami watchword was wa (harmony).
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2013

American Robert Levinson, still a hostage in Iran

On Nov. 26, Robert Levinson became the longest-held hostage in U.S. history. He was last seen in Iran.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2013

The unraveling of Barack Obama's presidency

When it comes to Obamacare, U.S. President Barack Obama is like someone who burns down your house. Then shows up with an empty water bucket. Then lectures you about how defective the house was.
BASEBALL
Nov 26, 2013

Kawakami was Japanese baseball's first Zen master

Most foreign fans of baseball in Japan may not know the name Tetsuharu Kawakami, who passed away recently at the age of 93, but perhaps it's time they did.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2013

Don't blame Dallas for Kennedy assassination

John F. Kennedy was an extraordinary president at an extraordinary moment in history.
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 2013

A helping hand for Philippines

The Philippines was one of the most important contributors to the relief effort after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, and now Japan has the chance to return the favor.
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 2013

Tohoku's Great Forest Wall Project

A project to plant nearly 300 km of trees along the northeast coast from Iwate to Miyagi to Fukushima will help to protect people and their way of life.
WORLD
Nov 23, 2013

Japan's yakuza woes return to the silver screen

Hollywood has long fetishized Japanese gangsters, with their full-body tattoos, missing pinkies and harems of buxom groupies. Ever since Sydney Pollack's "The Yakuza" in 1974, the colorful mafiosi have provided regular fodder for directors including Ridley Scott and Quentin Tarantino.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EMBASSY AVENUE
Nov 22, 2013

Kazakhstan-Japan antinuclear exhibition

A joint exhibition by Japanese designer Hiromi Inayoshi and artist Karipbek Kuyukov from Kazakhstan was held Nov. 19 at the Nippon Press Center Building in Tokyo.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 22, 2013

Serial 911 caller may land in guardian's care

Martha Rigsby collapsed to the ground for the first time in 1977. The spells continued, and she began calling the emergency number 911 for help.

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