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LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 1, 2019

Heisei it ain't so! An era of great vocabulary is ending

In the beginning there was the word. More precisely, the prefix. When the Heisei Era officially started, on Jan. 8, 1989, Japan's economy was still merrily bubbling along. That must have been one reason for the popularity of 超 (chō, hyper-). The prefix itself is anything but new, but the idea to make...
JAPAN / Help Wanted?
Mar 31, 2019

Foreign workers are on the way, but are Japanese businesses ready?

A new visa program designed to lure more workers to Japan takes effect Monday, and government officials and industry leaders hope two new types will help alleviate the national labor shortage.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 24, 2019

Fashion week applauds Fukushima Pride

Though it has been 12 years since Junko Koshino's designs hit Tokyo fashion week runways, the acclaimed designer shines her spotlight on Fukushima handicraft artisans.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Mar 24, 2019

Apple's iPhone struggles unravel ambitions of Japan Display

When Japan Display Inc. broke ground on a new factory in central Japan in 2015, the future looked bright for one of the world's top vendors of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 23, 2019

Flower power: A Tokyo florist's decision to close his shop amid a shrinking market affects a wider community

It's 2:30 a.m. and dark outside. Tsuyoshi Hirasawa can see his breath in the February chill as he turns the key in the ignition of his white Honda minivan. The large hands gripping the steering wheel are rough and leathery from years of working with water, soil and the stems and branches of plants he...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2019

Will the Thai elections be free and fair?

And if they aren't, what should liberal and democratic political parties in Thailand do?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2019

Technocracy replaces philosophy

In much of Asia, the left-right ideological struggle is over and it is technocracy and technology that now reign supreme.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Mar 20, 2019

Vietnamese blue-collar workers in Japan seen facing risks as labor system opens up

When a young Vietnamese woman found out late last year that she was pregnant after arriving in Japan on a technical trainee visa, she was given a stark choice: "Have an abortion or go back to Vietnam."
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Mar 18, 2019

FAA workers sounded alarm about Boeing performing its own safety checks as early as 2012

Employees of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration warned as early as seven years ago that Boeing Co. had too much sway over safety approvals of new aircraft, prompting an investigation by Department of Transportation auditors who confirmed the agency hadn't done enough to "hold Boeing accountable."...
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Mar 16, 2019

Boeing 737 crashes raise tough questions about automation

Tom Enders just couldn't resist the swipe at the competition. It was June 2011, and the chief executive officer of Airbus SE was on a stage at the Paris air show after the plane-maker won in a matter of days an unprecedented 600 orders for its upgraded A320neo airliner, while Boeing Co. stood on the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / Heisei Icons,Heisei Icons
Mar 13, 2019

Takashi Murakami: The face of Japanese contemporary art abroad, underappreciated at home

In Tokyo alone, Murakami's commercial work can be seen in the official mascots for the Roppongi Hills complex and Tokyo MX TV station.
Japan Times
JAPAN / 3/11: Moving forward
Mar 10, 2019

'Recovery Olympics' moniker for 2020 Games rubs 3/11 evacuees the wrong way

Residents in the area view the preparations as something happening in the background. In fact, some believe they are actually hindering the region's recovery.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 5, 2019

Brexit hasn't triggered a general Japanese retreat from Britain

The headline-grabbing departures are only a tiny fraction of the dozens of Japanese companies in the U.K. and the150,000 jobs that they provide.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 4, 2019

Blind Japanese inventor harnessing technology to improve lives of visually impaired

Dr. Chieko Asakawa's life motto: Make the impossible possible — by never giving up.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 27, 2019

A rocky way forward for Henoko base

New U.S. base faces a double blow: a referendum defeat and an uphill construction battle.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Feb 24, 2019

Japanese fashion taps the potential of digital media platforms

Fashion has had to adapt to social media — its early exposure of new collections, its influencers starting and accelerating trends and its new forms of retailing. But it has caught up, and in exciting ways.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2019

Big teams rarely come up with innovations

Innovations are more likely to arise from lone researchers or very small groups.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 20, 2019

Ahead of Trump-Kim summit, focus shifts from immediate denuclearization to longer-term approach

With the second North Korea-U.S. summit just a week away, the focus of that meeting has shifted from demands that Pyongyang immediately relinquish its nukes to whether the two parties have the wherewithal to lay the groundwork for such an ambitious goal in the long term, interviews with leading U.S....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 12, 2019

'Kinkakuji': Staging a Japanese classic with a German twist

A new opera based on the quintessentially Japanese novel "Kinkakuji" is set to open in Tokyo following a premiere held not in Kyoto, where the famed golden pavilion of its title is to be found, but at the Opera National du Rhin in Strasbourg, France.
Feb 12, 2019

Unazuki Yamanoha Set to Reopen on March 1, 2019

TOKYO, Japan – February 12, 2019 – ORIX Real Estate Corporation (“ORIX Real Estate”) announced that renovation of the Unazuki Yamanoha (“Unazuki Yamanoha Onsen Hotel”) it operates has been completed, and that the hotel will reopen on March 1, 2019.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 12, 2019

Fear of filing? Instead of refunds, U.S. taxpayers finding they may owe IRS

Adam Oleson has enjoyed a tax refund every year for the past couple of decades. He normally counts on it to make an extra house payment, reduce student-loan debts or pay down the credit cards.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2019

How Narendra Modi’s political priorities ambushed Amazon and Walmart, and benefited India’s richest man

Amazon Inc. and Walmart Inc.'s plans to dominate India's online retail landscape have been ambushed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's political priorities heading into a tightening election.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 5, 2019

Will the Japan-China reset continue?

The thaw seems increasingly like the calm before the storm.
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2019

Don't give up yet on the INF treaty

Treaties must be observed to be valuable, but withdrawal and termination should only be a last resort.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Feb 3, 2019

The first of 2019's resurrections

'Super Mario' introduces Peachette; 'Biohazard'/'Resident Evil' rises again in an even scarier form; and 'Catherine' gets fleshed out.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 26, 2019

End of an era gives Japan a chance to hit the reset button

Maybe we're immortal. It's not a new idea. Christianity's appeal over 2,000 years rests largely on its promise of eternal life. In Japanese Buddhism, the soul passes from life to life — a dreadful prospect, it was held, which only the enlightened escaped.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 22, 2019

A decade later, China's lethal infant milk scandal leaves a legacy of distrust

More than a decade after tainted infant milk powder in China killed six children and exposed institutional neglect of food safety, Chinese parents still don't trust local companies to feed their babies.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / davos special 2019
Jan 22, 2019

Public-private collaboration key to challenges

Are our current institutions and global governance architecture sufficient to solve the new challenges the world is currently facing?
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 20, 2019

India's electric vehicle goals being realized on two wheels, not four

Hurt by high fuel prices, Vinod Gore, a farmer in Gove village in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, ditched his petrol scooter for an electric model, underlining how two-wheelers are driving the country's goal of electrification of its vehicles.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo