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CULTURE / Music / TOKYO JAZZ FESTIVAL
Sep 11, 2013

Eric Vloeimans

This is your first time at Tokyo Jazz Festival, but not your first visit to Japan. What's your overall impression?
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Sep 10, 2013

Anatomy app gives users a better understanding of the human body

Back in highschool, I was in the middle of basketball practice, when I suddenly felt an acute pain in my knee. I had no idea what had happened to me. After visits to several different clinics, none of which could identify the problem, I finally found an orthopedist who accurately guessed the cause of...
BUSINESS / Economy / 'SUMMER DAVOS' SPECIAL 2013
Sep 10, 2013

Advising visitors to truly see Japan with their own eyes

Last summer at age 66, Seiichi Kondo climbed Mount Fuji for the first time in his life. Friends warned it wouldn't be an easy expedition, and it wasn't. But conquering Japan's highest mountain was essential for what he was about to do next.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON: FASHION
Sep 9, 2013

Louis Vuitton celebrates its muses, while Control Bear heads its own store

Louis Vuitton is celebrating six of its designer's 'muses' in an interactive exhibition at the Tokyo Station Hotel. 'Timeless Muses' honors supermodel Kate Moss, film director Sofia Coppola, French actress Catherine Deneuve, novelist Franu00e7oise Sagan, architect Charlotte Perriand and, to bring the 'timeless' into context, 19th-century French Empress consort Eugu00e9nie de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 9, 2013

Filmmaker revisits the children of Fukushima's 'Grey Zone'

Ian Thomas Ash has won acclaim and awards at film festivals around the world for 'A2-B-C,' the second of a pair of documentaries about children living in towns a stone's throw from Fukushima No. 1.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 7, 2013

Atwood is often lyrical, but ultimately indulgent

This is the third in Margaret Atwood's science fiction trilogy, which started with "Oryx and Crake" and progressed to "The Year of the Flood." The title of the third, MaddAddam, you will notice, is a palindrome. There is plenty of wordplay to come.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 7, 2013

Miko Fogarty tells what it takes to be a teenage dance star

Unlike the stereotype of your average American teen, Miko Fogarty (16) is not talkative or exuberant. In this way she seems somewhat shy and reserved, almost as if she leans toward the Japanese part of her lineage despite being brought up in the United States. Or perhaps she's just sure of herself as...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 7, 2013

Saving the smiles of Nepal with good dental care

It was pouring rain in the Nepali village of Kaskikot, which was bad news for Laura Spero and the ceremony she had planned.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 6, 2013

Meet the journalist who calls Mexico's drug war 'a big lie'

During January 2011, Anabel Hernandez's extended family held a party at a favorite cafe in the north of Mexico City. The gathering was to celebrate the birthday of Anabel's niece. As one of the country's leading journalists who rarely allows herself time off, she was especially happy because "the entire...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 4, 2013

Rock group Zoobombs announce split, prepare for sudden farewell tour

This month marks the 20th anniversary of Tokyo rock 'n' roll act Zoobombs. It also marks their demise as the group has announced they will part ways at the end of September.
Japan Times
JAPAN / INTERPRETATION & TRANSLATION
Sep 2, 2013

Focusing on people, not just words

English interpreters in Japan may often be regarded as those who convert English into Japanese or vice versa. However, Mutsumi Katayama, who has worked for more than 20 years as a freelance professional interpreter, focuses more attention on interpersonal communication.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Sep 2, 2013

A lesson in line, last of the summer design needs, and Issey Miyake's bright ideas

'Line' is one of the most important elements of design. It defines, separates, decorates and gives life to a structure — and Shinn Asano's Sen furniture series couldn't utilize it any better.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2013

Animation master Miyazaki to retire; fans in disbelief

The abrupt announcement about film director Hayao Miyazaki's decision to retire triggers tributes and disbelief.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 2, 2013

TV figure David Frost, of Nixon apology fame, dies at 74

Sir David Frost, the veteran broadcaster who famously drew a grudging post-Watergate apology out of former President Richard Nixon, died Saturday aboard a cruise ship sailing from England to the Mediterranean. He was 74.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 1, 2013

Smoking, now too uncool for school

Kitsuen (喫煙, smoking) could become an obsolete habit in Japan in the near future, as youngsters apparently now consider smoking dasai (ダサい, uncool).
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 31, 2013

Hope blooms eternal for the Simien National Park

In 1967, Ethiopia was the last African country south of the Sahara still without any national parks — an embarrassment for a nation then entertaining ambitions to assume leadership of the continent.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 31, 2013

Remarkable story of the independence, dedication of Isamu Noguchi's mother

Like many people, I like soft light and use lampshades of Japanese paper from the successful Akari series designed by the American sculptor Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), certainly the artist's greatest influence on individual lives, especially at home. Some of his own upbringing is described in this book,...
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 31, 2013

Irish poet, 'Beowulf' translator Seamus Heaney dies

Seamus Heaney, the Irish poet whose verse captured the transcendent power, darkness and humanity of his conflicted homeland, died Friday at a hospital in Dublin. He was 74.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 30, 2013

Organizer of annual writers' workshop helps others find artistic way

John Gribble gives a part of every day to creating. Whether it's pinpointing the perfect word for a poem or plucking out a ditty on a guitar, his life and livelihood in some way proves creative. As a poet and teacher, Gribble has spent the last 20 years in Japan organizing others to find their artistic...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 30, 2013

Investing in global group home — while telling kids to 'smile'

As part of the Liberal Democratic Party's "national resilience plan" to protect against natural and made-made disasters, I noticed one obvious natural disaster missing from the list: aging.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 30, 2013

How the West was lost — almost

"How was your trip to Las Vegas?" grins this friend who knows I never gamble. "Did you win a million bucks?"
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2013

'Soul Flower Train'

Dads, in Japan and elsewhere, never quite believe that their daughters are grown up and gone, do they? On a corner of their desk or in a corner of their mind is a picture of their princess at the school play or the piano recital or just making a goofy 8-year-old face. Yes, there are sternly realistic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 2013

'Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Relocation of the Mitsuo Aida Museum: Even One Simple Thing'

Poet and calligrapher Mitsuo Aida (1924-1991) is well-known in Japan for his tanka poetry and original style of handwriting. He spent his life developing and honing his craft, focusing on the preciousness of the life as a subject.
Reader Mail
Aug 28, 2013

Minority experience understood

Regarding Amy Chavez's Aug. 16 column titled "What being a minority allows us to see": Actually the fear and hurt I felt while dealing with certain bureaucratic nonsense in Japan allowed me to understand a small piece of the American minority experience.
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Aug 28, 2013

Air gun noise sparks alarm in war over offshore drilling

The use of "seismic air guns" to determine how much oil and gas lies beneath a vast swath of the ocean floor off the southeast coast of the United States is provoking an early skirmish in a battle over oil drilling that is still years away.
COMMENTARY / World / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Aug 25, 2013

Still dreaming of a level field after all these years

Wednesday will mark the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington that soon came to be equated with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech, "I Have a Dream."
EDITORIALS
Aug 25, 2013

Egypt explodes

The situation in Egypt has lurched from bad to worse, with Islamist leaders being arrested and former despot Hosni Mubarak being released from prison to house arrest.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2013

Cancer metaphor unmasks Egypt's liberalism

A Lebanese scholar admits being taken by surprise at the tide of Egyptian 'liberalism' now calling for the excision of the Muslim Brotherhood as if it were a cancer.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 24, 2013

Reflecting at leisure on who we are and where we live

My day job as a professor in Japan offers precious few chances to take a step back from work and give the old brain a bit of free rein. But August is one such golden opportunity.

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