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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Dec 15, 2013

China manages soft landing on moon

China completed the first soft landing on the moon's surface in 37 years Saturday, becoming only the third country to pull off the feat.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 14, 2013

Waiter . . . there's a bug in my soup

The crickets chirp before they are thrown into a pan, sauteed in vegetable oil and turned into crispy, crunchy snacks. They are one of the three toppings offered on crackers as hors d'oeuvres; a jam made from ants and rice grasshoppers boiled in a sweet soy sauce complete the insect triumvirate.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 14, 2013

Haruna adds sparkle to a seasonal getaway

As the brilliant red, green and white explosions reflected off the surface of the lake, I turned to my partner with two simple words: "Merry Christmas."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Dec 13, 2013

For Canadian traveler, last-minute meeting led to change of heart and new start in Japan

Michelle Takahashi works as an English teacher at a school for families who hope to raise their children in bilingual and multi-cultural environments. Together with Toru, a systems engineer at an IT-related U.S. company, and their two sons, she now lives in Kodaira, western Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 12, 2013

HIV/AIDS cases rising in Mideast, North Africa

Although the Mideast and North Africa has just 2 percent of the world's HIV caseload, it is one of two regions with the fastest growing HIV/AIDS infection rate.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 12, 2013

Top pension fund urged to buy airport concessions

New Kansai International Airport Co. is seeking to attract the state-run retirement fund to a sale of two airport concessions that could raise as much as ¥1.2 trillion.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 10, 2013

Recalling nature's fury abstractly in oils

As someone who was born and brought up in Bosnia, educated in Germany and is now based in New York, why should artist Amer Kobaslija have reacted as passionately as he did on hearing about the earthquake and the tsunami that struck Japan's Tohoku region on March 11, 2011?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Dec 6, 2013

Writer inducted into intricacies of country life shares her story

Home for Rebecca Otowa is a 350-year-old farmhouse nestled on the edge of a tiny village in Shiga Prefecture, where generations of her husband's family have lived. It is a lifestyle she has grown to cherish since arriving in rural Kansai as a bride more than 30 years ago.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHARITY DRIVE 2013
Dec 5, 2013

NICCO driven to continue Afghan aid

Members of the Kyoto-based nonprofit organization Nippon International Cooperation for Community Development (NICCO) defied danger and entered Afghanistan as soon as the brutal Taliban government had fallen. They have since continued their difficult humanitarian support activities for more than 10 years....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 4, 2013

Bunraku storyteller speaks out

During the early part of the Edo Period, when Japan was ruled by Tokugawa shoguns from 1603-1867, Osaka — the main city in the Kansai region of western Honshu — thrived as the country's cultural and economic center. It was during those heady days around 400 years ago that a kind of puppetry called...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 2013

Trapped by human society

Osaka-born Tetsumi Kudo's oeuvre has been the subject of a number of major international retrospectives since his death in 1990, and these indicate the artist's increasing postwar historical significance. The current National Museum of Art, Osaka retrospective is magisterial. With more than 600 pages,...
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2013

Risk of losing public's 'tolerance'

Regarding the Dec. 2 article "Secrecy law protests 'act of terrorism': LDP secretary general": Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba's comments that street protesters voicing opposition to the new state secrets bill by shouting it in public demonstrations are doing something "not...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 4, 2013

Takeda breaks tradition with outsider at helm

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., the more than 230-year-old drugmaker, is starting to make a practice of breaking with tradition.
MORE SPORTS / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Dec 3, 2013

Looking at both sides of the Martin-Incognito issue

The sports locker room code goes like this: "What you see, hear and say here, stays here."
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2013

China dons provocateur suit

However powerful President Xi Jinping might have become, China's declaration of a vast air-defense identification zone does not add to its store of 'soft power.'
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2013

Serbian diplomatic officer expresses hope for better relations with Japan

Nenad Glisic, charge d'affaires at the Serbian Embassy since September, expressed hope of strengthening his nation's relations with Japan, whose ties started with diplomatic contacts more than 130 years ago.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Nov 30, 2013

Christmas in Japan is only lonely if you let it be

Fifty-one years have rushed by since I first spent a winter in Japan, and 33 years since I first spent a Christmas and New Year in Kurohime, northern Nagano Prefecture. We got our first snows in early November, but at the time of writing, although the mountain peaks are dusted with white, the snow around...
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...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 30, 2013

Religion in Japan: Unity and Diversity

This fifth edition of the classic textbook "Religion in Japan" has been completely rewritten by author H. Byron Earhart to give greater coverage to the modern period, such as changes in marriage and death rites, and to widen the field of research into belief systems to include mainstays of modern Japanese...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / OUR MAN IN TOKYO
Nov 29, 2013

Prolific Swedish ambassador indulges passion for haiku

Over the years, Swedish Ambassador Lars Vargo has published 15 books related to Japan, but for the past decade, his love affair with the country has largely been told in one literary form: haiku.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / FOOD MATTERS
Nov 28, 2013

Quality rises above the menu scandals

Since the first Tokyo Michelin guide was published in autumn of 2007, the unveiling of each new edition has become one of the major events of the gastronomic calendar. Despite the initial indignation that a foreign tire company could dare to judge Japanese restaurants, the local media have embraced the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Nov 28, 2013

Chopsticks exhibition, workshop; An Imperial Christmas; Xmas in Hakone

Chopsticks exhibition, workshop The Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo in Shinjuku will hold an exhibition featuring hashi (Japanese chopsticks) at its lobby on the third floor of the hotel, from Dec. 1 to 25.
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 28, 2013

Pilgrims, Indians probably related

There were no Americans at the first Thanksgiving. The newer set of immigrants, recently arrived from England, considered themselves thoroughly English.
EDITORIALS
Nov 27, 2013

JR Hokkaido in crisis

Drastic measures will be inevitable to resolve the deep crisis at JR Hokkaido, including the resignation of current executives and the introduction of completely new management.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 27, 2013

'Raku Tea Bowls and Celebrating the New Year with Pine Trees in the Snow'

Raku (comfort, ease) bowls were considered some of the most valued tea-ceremony vessels throughout Japan during the 16th and 17th century. Originally created by 16-century tea master Sen Rikyu and tile master Chojiro, the bowls, usually made from red or black clay and hand molded, were passed down through...
Reader Mail
Nov 27, 2013

Cut emissions with conservation

Regarding the Nov. 19 editorial "Cut emissions without nuclear power": Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision to renege on Japan's commitments to reduce greenhouse gases is a major mistake in terms of protecting the environment and in terms of creating a favorable international attitude toward Japan. ...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 26, 2013

Place university academics on an annual wage system

In academics as in other fields, traditional Japanese systems and practices are hampering the nation's globalization.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?