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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2013

Black comedy gets under the skin of a murderer

Jack Black, whose career was built on getting deep inside the skin of his characters, arguably reaches the pinnacle of his performances as Bernie Tiede in "Bernie" — based on actual events that happened in small-town Texas 17 years ago.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2013

'Bernie'

Based on real-life events in Carthage, Texas, "Bernie" showcases Jack Black's uncanny powers of observation, and director Richard Linklater's ability to lay on the cynicism so thick you hardly notice it. Black visited with the title character, Bernie Tiede, in prison to study his mannerisms, speech...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2013

China's pivot toward North Korea

It's time for China to rebalance its traditional geostrategic interests with its role as a global leader. That calls for a policy of disciplined engagement toward North Korea.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jul 9, 2013

Can METI's ¥50 billion fund unfreeze 'Cool Japan'?

Naysaying is almost always risk-free, especially if you do it online. If you're a cynic, you're usually right, and if you're wrong, you can just delete those errant tweets and posts and join the party.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 8, 2013

Driven by regret over neighbor's death, first-time filmmaker declares war on suicide

Rene Duignan is passionate about life — so much so that he made an award-winning film about it. Yet Duignan, 42, is not a professional filmmaker; he's an Irish economist working for the European Union delegation to Japan. The documentary, titled "Saving 10,000 — Winning a War on Suicide in Japan,"...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2013

Egyptian military coup sets back democracy and constitutionalism

You might think that replacing an unpopular Islamist leader with a secular judge is a victory for democracy in Egypt. It isn't. And don't expect elections soon.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 7, 2013

The aidoru industry seeks big bucks in numbers

They say that Japan is suffering from a major shōshika (少子化, plummeting birth rate) syndrome, but a cursory glance at the entertainment industry reveals a singular fact: The young people of this country are well and thriving, and huddled together in mass aidoru gurūpu (アイドルグループ,...
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 7, 2013

South Korea's spy agency takes lead role in political scandals

During last year's presidential election, a team of South Korean intelligence agents allegedly flooded the Internet with several thousand political comments, including some describing left-leaning candidates as North Korea sympathizers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 6, 2013

Hats off to Chiyoda's rice-field rites

I can't quite believe we're getting up just after dawn on a Sunday morning for an event that doesn't start till lunchtime. But our Japanese friends all assured us we'd regret it if we didn't arrive early.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 6, 2013

Letting opportunity slip away

So why hasn't March 11, 2011, been the game-changer that many anticipated? Richard Samuels' masterful account of Japan's policy responses to its greatest crisis since World War II explains why continuity has trumped change. But maybe, just maybe, it hasn't, as he also reminds us that the consequences are still unfolding.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2013

America's revolutionary declaration of dissent

One cause of the growing American fury in this political age is that a large, distant federal establishment is not terribly well-suited to give ear to ordinary dissent.
EDITORIALS
Jul 5, 2013

Views of history vex the future

South Korea has been critical of Japanese views of modern Asian history. Shinzo Abe must do more than parrot the importance future ties between the two nations.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jul 5, 2013

Tweet Beat: #音楽の日, #ときレス, #シュール

A live-TV music festival, a bishi videogame boy and some surreal tweets made the top Twitter hashtags in Japan last week.
JAPAN / BULLETIN BOARD
Jul 4, 2013

Tokyo American Club offering reduced fees to sign up

The Tokyo American Club, a membership organization made up of foreign residents in Japan, has lowered its new-member fees to ¥1.2 million from ¥3 million to bring in fresh recruits from the American and international communities.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 3, 2013

Antidote for Abe's nationalism

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should think carefully before taking bold strides toward changing the U.S.-imposed Constitution and restoring Japan's 'greatness.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2013

U.S. makes key climate moves, but more needed

President Barack Obama's executive actions to cut carbon pollution in the U.S. have injected a new sense of hope in the global fight against climate change.
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Jul 2, 2013

Former Dodgers owner reflects on Nomo, friendships

The paths of former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo and former owner and team president Peter O'Malley didn't cross during the latter's recent trip to Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2013

Can Rudd resurrect Labor?

Even by the standards of a sports-mad country in which politics is a blood-sport, the events leading to the comeback of Kevin Rudd have been extraordinary.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2013

At the Battle of Gettysburg, choices mattered

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought 150 years ago this week, was not the first example of 'total war.' But it did show why choices matter in U.S. history.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 29, 2013

America and Britain team up on mass surveillance

Twelve years ago, in an almost forgotten report, the European Parliament completed its investigations into a long-suspected Western intelligence partnership dedicated to global signals interception on a vast scale. Evidence had been taken from spies and politicians, telecommunications experts and journalists....
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jun 29, 2013

Global protest grows as citizens lose faith in politics

The demonstrations in Brazil began after a small rise in bus fares triggered mass protests. Within days this had become a nationwide movement whose concerns had spread far beyond fares: more than a million people were on the streets shouting about everything from corruption to the cost of living to the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2013

'Senkyo 2 (Campaign 2)'

In the more than three decades I've lived here, I have progressed (if that is the right word) from irritation at the oddness of Japanese election campaigns to something like curiosity. How, I once wondered, could anyone choose intelligently among candidates whose "dialogue" with the voters was mostly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2013

'Compliance'

Of all the films you'll see this year, "Compliance" has, for sure, the most unbelievable plot of them all. The little tagline at the beginning saying "inspired by true events" hasn't stopped people from taking outrage at director Craig Zobel's supposed exaggerations, with "Nobody could possibly be that...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 28, 2013

Reptiles take center stage at scaly sale

Going to the zoo is a great way to spend time with the family, but in this season the idea of trudging through the heat to stare at exhausted animals may be taxing. The annual Reptiles Fever, however, will be like going to a zoo indoors — and you could bring home one of the animals.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 27, 2013

What provoked Japan's contemporary photography?

In 1968, as the world reeled from The Prague Spring, the turbulent union and student strikes in France, and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Japan, like so many other nations, found itself in the midst of social unrest. Citizens questioned the West's involvement in the Vietnam...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 26, 2013

Hands on with the 'maker movement'

The so-called maker movement of do-it-yourselfers is set to continue its momentum at a global level, and as such the world will see an explosion of innovative creation from individuals, according to Mark Frauenfelder, editor-in-chief of the U.S.-based Make magazine.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2013

Turkey's turn to fight over future

The protests in Turkey now involve an extraordinary diverse group. They are said to pit secularists against Islamists and authoritarians against democrats.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 24, 2013

State photo-ID databases become troves for police

The faces of more than 120 million people are in searchable photo databases that state officials assembled to prevent driver's license fraud but that increasingly are used by police to identify suspects, accomplices and even innocent bystanders in a wide range of criminal investigations.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan