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Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Feb 13, 2013

Three gadgets from CES that you can take on the road.

Among the many products released at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas each year there are often some that stand out for being particularly innovative, and this year's CES was no disappointment.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 10, 2013

Fugu reveals its simple gender switch

It's the most celebrated and notorious fish in the world, certainly in culinary circles. Now the puffer fish — one of Japan's most enigmatic creatures — meets some of biology's deepest questions: Why did sex evolve? Why are there two sexes? Why is the male sex chromosome such a puny little thing?...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 10, 2013

Military is key to emerging democracy

After five decades under military rule, Myanmar faces many challenges in building a robust democracy. The election of Aung San Suu Kyi and 41 other members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in parliamentary by-elections last April has stoked a degree of euphoria tempered by grim realities still...
Reader Mail
Feb 10, 2013

Town spoiling for dressing-down

Regarding the Feb. 7 AFP article "Put pants on 'David' replica, locals urge": Who would have thought that there was such a level of modesty in a culture that created such graphic works of erotica as the Shunga illustrated texts for newlywed couples or the modern "adult" manga? What gives?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2013

'Kiiroi Zo'

Ryuichi Hiroki has become the go-to director for romantic dramas that quality-wise are a cut above the local formula weepers whose starred-crossed lovers are parted by a slow, beautiful death (though Hiroki's couples are hardly immune to life's vicissitudes). At the same time, his films in this genre...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 8, 2013

Android 'fragmentation' leaves smartphones vulnerable

In late October, researchers at North Carolina State University alerted Google to a security flaw that could let scam artists send phony text messages to Android phones — a practice called "smishing" that can ensnare consumers in fraud.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 7, 2013

Is this the art of noise?

If art is something that you want to feel comfortable with in your home, then Haroon Mirza is probably not your man. As the winner of the 2012 Daiwa Foundation Art Prize, British-born, ethnic-Pakistani artist Mirza is being introduced to Tokyo's art connoisseurs with a show at SCAI THE BATHHOUSE.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 7, 2013

Dirty Beaches draws from Serbian film on new album

Alex Zhang Hungtai is constantly in motion. The Taiwanese-born artist, who performs under the name Dirty Beaches, has said in interviews the idea of "home" doesn't mean much to him. He's lived in Taipei, Honolulu, Shanghai and Montreal, and is an avid traveler on top of that. This feeling of always being...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 4, 2013

The illness of depression and how psychotherapy may help

One of the most common issues that comes up in sessions with patients at our clinic in Tokyo is depression, and one of the most frequently asked questions is "How can psychotherapy help people with depression?"
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 4, 2013

Teach your teens basic life skills

Everyone graduates from high school knowing how to read, write and do basic math (you would hope). But to be a self-sufficient adult, those skills are not enough. In fact, they're nowhere close to enough.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 4, 2013

'Abenomics' will either make or break Japan's economy

This story is concerned with money, vast sums of it, amounts quite beyond most people's imagination. The operative word is chu014d (u5146, trillion).
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2013

Soul of GOP depends on immigration reform

U.S. Republicans have an existential reason to support immigration reform. The last thing Barack Obama should do now is give them cause to oppose it.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 4, 2013

Mass-shooting survivors aim for stricter gun control

The mass shootings that have rocked communities across the country in recent years — from Blacksburg, Virginia, to Tuscon, Arizona, to Aurora, Colorado, to Oak Creek, Wisconsin, to Newtown, Connecticut — have left a well-documented trail of carnage and grief.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 4, 2013

Russians cast wary eye on volunteerism

A country doctor, a tiny, dilapidated village hospital, an indifferent health bureaucracy — and now, coming to the rescue, volunteers from distant Moscow, bringing furniture, equipment, money and, maybe most important, good cheer.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 3, 2013

Japan's competitiveness

Japan's world ranking in 'economic competitiveness' is slipping. The nation came in 10th in 2012, continuing its slide from the sixth spot in 2010.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Feb 2, 2013

Hugo, Manet unveiled Paris' poor and privileged

The iron gates of the short passageway, a stone's throw from the increasingly trendy Montorgueil district of Paris and a brief walk from the prostitutes of Saint Denis, are closed to the public these days. It was here, in what was Passage Saumon off the Rue du Bout du Monde — the end of the world road...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 1, 2013

Your body — not just a temple, but a laboratory too

1. Appendix to life The appendix gets a bad press. It is usually treated as a body part that lost its function millions of years ago. All it seems to do is occasionally get infected and cause appendicitis. Yet recently it has been discovered that the appendix is very useful to the bacteria that help...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Feb 1, 2013

AKB48 member's 'penance' shows flaws in idol culture

The image of a young girl in front of a camera, her head recently shaved, sobbing into the lens is one that's guaranteed to shock. But when that girl is a key member of idol group AKB48, the reaction is bound to be stronger.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2013

Bidding farewell to Hillary Clinton, for now ...

As Hillary Clinton prepares to step down as U.S. Secretary of State, millions of Americans would like to see her write another political act — as president.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2013

Dedication on a plate in 'Jiro Dreams of Sushi'

To be a shokunin (artisan) in Japan means, among other things, rising in the morning to do the exact same thing as yesterday and the day before and the day before.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Feb 1, 2013

An experimental approach to afters

Japan's prodigious ability to assimilate, reproduce and then develop homegrown adaptations of products from other cultures is legendary. Why should it be any different when it comes to patisseries?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 31, 2013

Seeing the wood for Enku's Buddhas

While a golden age for secular arts, Japan's Edo Period (1603-1867) is broadly dismissed by art historians as a period of stagnation for Buddhist sculpture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 31, 2013

'Motoju Miyosawa: Katazome Stencil Dyeing'

After meeting Muneyoshi Yanagi, a pioneer of the famous Mingei (folk arts) movement, artist Motoju Miyosawa (1909-2002) became a major advocate of the beauty of frugality, a quality that Mingei followers believed everyday objects possessed. During the 1960s, however, he chose to travel internationally...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 31, 2013

'A Masterpiece of Ancient Greece: A World of Men, Gods and Heroes'

Greek mythology is full of exciting stories of immense bravery and heroic characters, making it an ideal source of subject matter for artists. The ancient Greek vase painter Euphronios, for example, tended to depict mythological scenes, one of which — "Krater of Antaeus" a vase portraying the battle...

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb