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EDITORIALS
Aug 9, 2014

The waterworks are wearing out

The cost of maintaining and repairing Japan's water infrastructure is expected to be at least ¥1 trillion annually after 2020 as the 40-year life span on most pipes andd equipment runs out about the same time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 6, 2014

Theater's magic brings wonderful 'War Horse' to life

It is now 100 years since the start of World War I, which claimed close to 17 million lives before it ended in November 1918. Hence the Tokyo opening of "War Horse" — a play set during that so-called "war to end war" — serves in part as a memorial to the awful conflict.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 23, 2014

Indonesia's new leader promises to make life easier for investors

Indonesia's new president, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, promised to make life simpler for investors by beefing up the country's threadbare infrastructure, untangling near-impenetrable regulations and sacking his ministers if they aren't up to the job.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 28, 2014

A life of lettuce has its benefits

Lettuce. Let us raise a glass to lettuce.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 11, 2014

Top young dramatist urges theater toward key role in nation's cultural life

Fifteen months ago, when I interviewed Takahiro Fujita as the most prominent newcomer in Japan's contemporary theater world, the playwright and director declared, "I'm always looking for something new, and I suppose I will always carry on doing that."
WORLD / Science & Health
May 11, 2014

Biologists invent new DNA letters for life's alphabet

Scientists have taken the first steps toward writing the blueprint of life in an alphabet unknown to nature, they have reported in the journal Nature.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Mar 17, 2014

Consider safety, quality of life and ecology — and scrap Futenma move

We strongly oppose moving the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station to Henoko because of the profound impact this would have on safety and quality of life in Nago, not to mention the environmental damage.
Japan Times
JAPAN / THREE YEARS AFTER 3/11
Mar 10, 2014

Tohoku kids stressed, haunted by trauma

Almost every day around a dozen students seek out nurse Akemi Idogawa at their temporary junior high school in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, hoping she will help ease their trauma.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2014

'A Five Star Life'

Unless one has a lot of wealth at handy disposal, one goes through a fair share of less than luxury hotels. Though in my case, "less" tends to lean toward "vastly less." Anyway, here's the story of a woman whose job is to stay at the best hotels in the world. Nice, huh? "A Five Star Life" traces a few...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 22, 2014

Workshops for theater — and life

"When I worked in an office, I was always nervous and I tensed up a lot just trying to behave correctly. But since coming to these workshops, I often feel like communicating with others spontaneously, of my own free will."
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2014

NSA-less costs of making life safe

Aren't there other ways of spending tens of billions of dollars that would save more lives than America's National Security Agency is credited with saving each year
CULTURE / Books
Dec 28, 2013

A Day in the Life

"A Day in the Life" features 12 short stories told from the point of view of a man in his 60s. Each tale is essentially a reflection of aging, an examination of the moment in our lives when the confidence of our youth is replaced by the uncertainty of our physical and mental faculties.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Nov 8, 2013

Capturing the life and lives of Tokyo, one day at a time

Every day we presumably walk past about 2,000 or 3,000 people we don't know anything about,' French photographer Cedric Riveau says. 'But everyone has his or her story to tell.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 21, 2013

Protagonist returns with the burdens of later life

In popular Irish mythology it's often said that the seeds of the Celtic Tiger were sown shortly after Italia '90, when the country's team reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup soccer tournament for the first time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 3, 2013

The messy, chaotic real life of artists

A couple of years ago, the New Yorker writer Janet Malcolm, who knows enough about journalism to hardly ever give interviews herself, spoke to Katie Roiphe for the Paris Review. Except that she didn't actually speak to her — or at least, not while Roiphe's tape recorder was rolling.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jul 6, 2013

'Water of life' helps to keep spirits up

Back in 1980, when I first settled in Kurohime, up in the hills of northern Nagano Prefecture, I often had to go to Tokyo to meet editors. They were good times, as those office-wallahs would take pity on young struggling authors and use them as an excuse to visit bars.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 16, 2013

Real-life celebrity drama; the Akihabara idol underground; CM of the week: Asahi Soft Drinks

The Takashimas were once the first family of Japanese show business. Tadao Takashima was a popular stage musical actor in the 1960s and Hanayo Sumi a star in the Takarazuka all-female musical revue company. They married and were celebrated as a "sweet couple," producing two sons who went on to acting...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2013

Spotlight on Vladimir Putin's Potemkin love life

Whether a new woman will help to soften foreigners' perception of Russian President Vladimir Putin's cynical diplomacy and brutal rule is open to question.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2013

Lay judges get a peek at prison life

When lay judges hand down a prison term, many focus on the merits of the case itself and not about the life behind bars that awaits the guilty.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 25, 2013

Tokyo Sea Life exhibits rare larvae

Tokyo Sea Life Park has begun exhibiting fry of the unique ocellated icefish, after successfully hatching eggs from a pair of the rare creatures for the first time in the world earlier this month.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
May 22, 2013

A fortunate life among hot springs

Kazuhiro Shiraishi, 66, is a guest-house manager in the Izu-kogen Highlands, a famous resort area on the Izu Peninsula of Shizuoka Prefecture. Looking out onto the Pacific Ocean, and just 90 minutes by train from Tokyo, Izu has a warm climate all year round and a gorgeous coastline dotted with open-air...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 19, 2013

Authorized life of Thatcher is clear-eyed, rich in details

It is a tricky deal being an authorized biographer. Charles Moore's big advantage over those who have previously tackled Margaret Thatcher is that he has been provided with material denied to them. Of the arrangement that he was offered by his subject, he writes: "I would have full access to herself...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 5, 2013

'Sakura, Futatabi no Kanako (Orpheus' Lyre)'

I used to think that religion in Japan was for most a matter of custom, not belief. You clap your hands at the shrine because that's what people do, not because you think the resident gods are actually listening.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Mar 19, 2013

Couple find happiness, plan to settle for life

Joerg Schnackenberg, 51, from Germany, and his wife, Teruka, 59, met in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, in 1995. Joerg, a biochemist who came to Japan right after finishing his Ph.D. at a German university, had been working at a private marine technology institute in Kamaishi for three years. Teruka, a nihonga...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Mar 10, 2013

Two years on, Fukushima evacuees seek justice and a normal life

Living in a tiny temporary house isn't all bad.
SPORTS / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Feb 27, 2013

Time for Jordan to get on with life

The American media recently made a big to-do over Michael Jordan turning 50. Among noted outlets, Sports Illustrated devoted the greater part of an issue to His Airness. And ESPN the Magazine likewise allocated huge space to the beginning of Mike's sixth decade on earth.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami