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Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 1, 2015

NSA surveillance powers lapse after no deal in Senate

Three U.S. spy programs aimed at stopping terrorists expired early Monday amid a standoff among Senate Republicans over legislation to renew them.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 13, 2015

Cartier ruby nets record $30.42 million

A Burmese ruby weighing 25.59 carats sold for a world record 28.25 million Swiss francs ($30.42 million) at a Tuesday auction that saw strong demand for colored stones and exceptional natural pearls, auction house Sotheby's said.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / EXPO MILANO 2015
May 3, 2015

Milan's diverse tourist allure

Milan, the capital of Lombardy, has captured the interest of the world with its dynamism, creativity and innovation. The world exposition has only been held in Italy once before, back in 1906, and even then the city chosen was Milan. At that time, the theme was transport, which was celebrated by the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 25, 2015

College campuses studying on borrowed time

University students are taking out massive loans to pay for their tertiary education and generally end up facing a crippling repayment timetable that is impossible to service. We examine the alarming state of student debt and what is being done to improve conditions for those who are struggling to pay it back.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 25, 2015

Sexual obsession stimulated Junichiro Tanizaki's writing

A 55-year-old science lecturer is found naked on a university campus. His student lover has made him strip as a show of devotion — "Get naked to show me your love," she reportedly demanded — and then scampered off with his clothes. The lecturer resigns, apologizes for "causing considerable trouble,"...
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Apr 23, 2015

Philippine customs head quits in blow to Aquino anti-graft drive

Philippine Customs Commissioner Sunny Sevilla said he submitted his resignation Wednesday, citing pressure to promote people without considering their merit for the jobs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 11, 2015

'The SAGE Handbook of Modern Japanese Studies' examines when modern Japan began

The first chapter in this dense collection of Anglophone academia asks, "How and when did modern Japan begin?" Editor James D. Babb, a lecturer in politics at the University of Newcastle, has collated a selection of texts that address this question, many of which grapple with the ostensibly inscrutable...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 28, 2015

Tokyo fashion week: Womenswear celebrates an eclectic lineup; menswear draws inspiration from the street

Womenswear collections showcased in mid-March for the fall/winter 2015-16 season were decidedly eclectic in composition, including designs that were as street-savvy as they were cute.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Mar 16, 2015

Shochiku Kabuki x Uniqlo

Uniqlo's UT curators go deep into Japanese traditions for its latest collaboration.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 13, 2015

Is virtual art as nourishing as a set meal?

You have to admit, it's all awfully clever. At "L'art de Rosanjin," which runs at Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall until March 24, visitors can sit in a virtual tempura restaurant, and gawp as images of the chef's hands at work are projected on the counter in front of them, accompanied by the sounds of sizzling...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2015

FBI's attack on encryption

When the FBI tries to sabotage the efforts of consumers and businesses to secure their data through encryption, the agency is essentially attacking the security foundations of the online world created over the past 20 years.
LIFE / Japan Showcase / SAGA PREFECTURE
Feb 23, 2015

Explore beautiful vistas, enduring history of Saga

Saga prefecture sits in the northern half of Kyushu, sandwiched between bustling Fukuoka and historic Nagasaki. From the wild north coast to the porcelain towns of western Saga to the sake brewing districts of the southern Kashima region, this compact prefecture offers a host of hidden delights.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 20, 2015

A stitch in time does much more than save nine

One of Tokyo Dome's most attended annual attractions might come as a surprise to some. Aside from being home to baseball games and big-name concerts, the huge stadium also hosts a number of fairs, including the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival — which is the largest of its kind.
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 15, 2015

Chinese patients turn to black market for blood

China's rising demand for health care is exposing a chronic shortage of an essential commodity: blood.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Feb 13, 2015

Valentines specials and ways to treat yourself

Valentine's is all about the man
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 6, 2015

Amputee women in Japan proudly step forward

Japan isn't the easiest place to live for people with disabilities. Buildings and transportation aren't always accessible; people are apt to regard disabilities as shameful; and a societal tendency to turn away from anything unpleasant makes it difficult to effect change. Nevertheless change is possible,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2015

'Best of The Best'

From its collection of around 2,500 pieces, the Bridgestone Museum's "Best of The Best" includes works by major names such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne and Jackson Pollock.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 17, 2015

Cat Town

Modernist 20th-century writer Sakutaro Hagiwara redefined Japanese poetry with his free-style verse and daringly common subject matter; he reached sublime heights by examining the mundane.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 8, 2015

Keeping up with the shifting world

Designers can be an ambitious bunch, hoping to lead us all into a better, color-coordinated, minimalist future. "The Fab Mind" aims to show off attempts "to understand and to resolve social issues through design'," based upon the earth-shattering notions that the world is in the midst of change, and...
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 17, 2014

Vintage ET Atari videogame found in New Mexico landfill sent to Smithsonian

A copy of a vintage ET Atari videogame extracted from a New Mexico landfill where hundreds of the cartridges were dumped after the game flopped in the 1980s has made its way to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 16, 2014

Rock, J-pop and dance: Albums we liked in 2014

The year-end album charts in Japan have a tendency to prop up the same acts year after year: Exile, anything that ends in a "48," and almost every group from the Johnny & Associates stable of boy bands. Writers at The Japan Times, however, spent the year looking past the charts to find a few gems lurking...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2014

U.S. soft power takes a hit in wake of report

It's a testimony to U.S. soft power that Washington persuaded so many allies to take part in a policy of torture that they must have known would one day blow up in their faces.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 13, 2014

From a hostess club to a mountain village: Five notable Japanese photo books of 2014

While selecting some of the best photography books released in 2014, I was struck by the range of specific places that Japanese photographers captured — from a pleasure district to a mountain village and an old rooftop. Photo books with such a geographic focus might be a good way to store up energies...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Dec 5, 2014

From umbrellas with feet to miniature ice-fishing polar bears, On: Design goes clever-quirky

Fishing for a good cuppa
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 22, 2014

Hihōkan: Japan's vanishing sex museums

The real world ends beyond a thick, black curtain. On the other side is one of Japan's last remaining hihōkan (sex museum, literally "treasure palace") in the faded resort town of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture — a strange, dimly lit space of questionable morals and dated fantasies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 13, 2014

'Narahara Ikko: Domains'

It has been 56 years since photographer Ikko Narahara's early masterpiece "Oukoku (Kingdom)" (1958) has been shown in Tokyo.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 4, 2014

Lawson stores add tens of millions of Amazon products

Lawson Inc. customers will be able to order items from Amazon Japan for later collection, under an enhanced tie-up announced Tuesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 1, 2014

Cultivating shrunken worlds in Bonsai-mura

Omiya is one of greater Tokyo's rare pockets of residential comfort that can accurately be defined as middle class — a trait it shares with places such as Chiba's Ichikawa Mama or southwestern Tokyo's Denenchofu district.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 25, 2014

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo: young blood

Ten years have now passed since Tokyo first strutted its stuff on the international catwalk and yet the metropolis still lacks the pulling power of rivals such as Milan, New York and Paris. As if the domestic industry didn't have enough on its plate, the wheels threatened to come off the spring/summer...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight