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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 17, 2017

The extraordinary untold Japan story of 'You Only Live Twice'

On the 50th anniversary of the premiere of the fifth 'James Bond' film in Japan, we explore spy rings in Tokyo, a secretive Sherlock Holmes society and an Australian double agent behind 007's Japanese adventure.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Jun 17, 2017

Performance artist Eiko Otake is a stranger in New York

Move to rest, sleep, and dream. Move to pass time, bloom, and linger.' These are the opening lines of performing artist Eiko Otake's 'Delicious Movement Manifesto.'
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 16, 2017

Quantum computing, the machines of tomorrow

It is a sunny Tuesday morning in late March at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center. The corridor from the reception area follows the long, curving glass curtain-wall that looks out over the visitors' parking lot to leafless trees covering a distant hill in Yorktown Heights, New York, an hour north...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 4, 2017

U.K. election exposes Northern Ireland's deep divisions

Political leaders in Northern Ireland are casting Thursday's British election as a referendum on whether voters want to be part of the United Kingdom or neighboring Ireland.
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
May 31, 2017

Gambler Halilhodzic hoping chips keep falling his way

National team manager Vahid Halilhodzic's willingness to take risks has worked out well in recent months, and Japan will be hoping that his instincts continue to pay off in its upcoming World Cup qualifier against Iraq.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
May 29, 2017

BITPoint in talks to add bitcoin payments to outlets across Japan

BITPoint Japan, the company behind Peach Aviation's move to let travelers use bitcoin to pay for tickets, is planning to give hundreds of thousands of retail outlets the ability to accept the digital currency.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
May 20, 2017

Hokkaido's ancient place in the modern world

"Even the birds do not fly to Ezo," went a popular 19th-century saying about Japan's northernmost island. "Ezo" means "land of barbarians." Settlement tamed it into "Hokkaido" — "north sea road." But it was a rough passage.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2017

Toward a global treaty on plastic waste

Plastic pollution is a global scourge that is entirely of our making — and entirely within our power to solve as well.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
May 14, 2017

Liberating young minds with technology

Education in Japan, within the nexus of business, science and internationalization, is currently developing progressive initiatives.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
May 14, 2017

Racial and ethnic hate speech thrives in online games

Spend enough time hunting terrorists or wandering dystopian wastelands in online games and you are bound to come across players hurling xenophobic and racist taunts at each other, from Islamophobes in Europe to South Koreans and Japanese bickering over disputed islands.
CULTURE / Stage
May 2, 2017

Love is in the air as racy play 'Spring Awakening' comes to theaters

The old never give the young an easy time. "They think they know everything," "They're lazy" — the cross-generational gripes have been around as long as people have.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 15, 2017

Pursuing peculiar passions: the wacky world of Japan's offbeat groups

Play it safe. Follow the rules. Respect authority. And, above all, don't stick out like that silly proverbial nail.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 2, 2017

Leiji Matsumoto surfs the floating world

The work of manga artist Leiji Matsumoto mixes historical periods, themes and technologies, often in a science-fiction setting: His signature comics involve steam locomotives and reborn World War II battleships sailing among the stars. These grand flights of fancy, which have found fans around the world,...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 25, 2017

Radiation brings fear, and kids let it all out

Children too young, one might think, to even know the word 'radiation' have picked it up and flung it with gleeful malice at disoriented new classmates who have enough to cope with already.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 13, 2017

Toto rolls out droll toilet humor with a whiff of class

Sit back and relax as this week's Bilingual column splashes on the results of Toto's 2016 Toilet Senryu Contest.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 8, 2017

A dystopian future set in the present aftermath

With "Homo Sapiens", director Nikolaus Geyrhalter paints a haunting dystopian vision of civilization minus its creators. This unique documentary consists of nothing but steady, perfectly framed wide-shots of abandoned structures and wastelands. Imagine Wes Anderson doing location shots for "The Walking...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 1, 2017

The poverty of thought in our welfare systems

Sometimes I want to look up from whatever I'm doing (usually when I'm staring at a screen) and send up a prayer of thanks that at 81 years old, filmmaker Ken Loach continues to be who he is.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2017

Japan's health care system edges foreign care in expat survey

Just over half of non-Japanese residents feel Japan's health care system is generally better than that in their home countries, a trend particularly pronounced among U.S. citizens, with 3 out of 4 rating it more highly, an informal Japan Times survey has found.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 16, 2017

Souring relations with market puts BOJ's bold experiment to test

Japan's attempts to revive anemic consumer spending through unconventional monetary policy have created new problems for the central bank in its daily dealings with financial markets, as rising global yields muddle its efforts to manage local rates.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Feb 15, 2017

Trump shocks Japan's American expats into action

Established political groups see a surge in interest while new organizations form to meet demand.
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Feb 13, 2017

Adding 'ao,' the blue that can also be green, to your Japanese linguistic palette

Introducing the noun u9752 (u3042u304a), meaning blue, and its related expressions.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Feb 5, 2017

No country for old emperors

Brushing over precedents and kicking looming threats down the line, a government-appointed panel has dutifully paved the way for a politically convenient one-off abdication.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 30, 2017

Japan breathes new life into regional, non-U.S. trade pact

With U.S. President Donald Trump's formal decision to withdraw from the long controversial American-led Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, attention in the Asia-Pacific region is turning toward making renewed efforts to complete a separate multilateral trade agreement that excludes the U.S. — the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Jan 29, 2017

Tokyo court rulings chip away at labor unions' right to free speech

Workers sued for millions of yen over protests outside the company that fired them take their case to the Supreme Court.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 21, 2017

When pollen attacks! Experts reveal new approaches to combating hay fever

With the allergy season just around the corner, we examine the latest attempts to stem one of the country's most irritating problems.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 6, 2017

Volunteers, tequila makers lift imperiled bat off the mat, U.S. says

An unusual alliance of volunteer researchers and tequila makers have helped rescue a crucial American Southwest pollinator known as the lesser long-nosed bat from the brink of extinction, according to U.S. wildlife managers who want the bat removed from the endangered and threatened species list.
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 23, 2016

Arsenal up to old tricks as season nears midway point

Arsenal FC — An Apology.
SPORTS / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Nov 29, 2016

Lack of fundamentals making football unrecognizable

Like Howard Beale, the Peter Finch character in the classic film "Network," MAS is mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 19, 2016

Manipulating the brain to hasten learning

For some athletes, success has come from a dedication to practice and the repetition of a particular routine. Baseball icon Ichiro Suzuki or English soccer star David Beckham are two examples that immediately spring to mind.

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