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Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 24, 2014

Tire-makers race to turn dandelions into rubber

Dutch biologist Ingrid van der Meer often meets with disbelief when she talks about her work on dandelions and how it could secure the future of road transport.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 20, 2014

MLB names four stars for series against Samurai Japan

As the Nichibei Yakyu extravaganza returns for the first time in eight years, Major League Baseball looks set to bring a serious squad to Japan come November.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Aug 17, 2014

Could the lingua franca approach to learning break Japan's English curse?

Learning English as a lingua franca (ELF) involves approaching the language as a tongue shared by non-native speakers around the world rather than as a lingo that must be mastered to native-speaker level.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 11, 2014

Somewhere, a grandfather is rolling in his grave

Summertime in Japan is tinged with sadness, not just because we have to drag ourselves through this kirokutekina mōsho (記録的な猛暑, record-breaking heat), but because we must deal with the annual arrival of the "shūsenkinenbi (終戦記念日, the anniversary of the end of the Pacific War),"...
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 7, 2014

West African health care systems reel as Ebola toll hits 932

Health workers in West Africa appealed on Wednesday for urgent help in controlling the world's worst Ebola outbreak as the death toll climbed to 932 and Liberia shut down a major hospital where several staff were infected, including a Spanish priest.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 6, 2014

Ebola mortality rate expected to rise as outbreak runs its deadly course

The death rate so far in the world's worst outbreak of Ebola is not as extreme as recorded in the past, but experts expect it to prove no less virulent in the end, once more victims succumb and the grim data are tallied up.
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2014

Most shared Japan Times stories from July

In case you missed them, here are the most shared stories from The Japan Times for July 2014. The top 10 most shared new stories Welfare ruling stuns foreigners The landmark decision by the Supreme Court that permanent foreign residents of Japan are not entitled to welfare benefits will discourage more...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2014

Christian Arabs forced to flee

There were still about 60,000 Christians in Mosul when the U.S. and its sidekicks invaded Iraq 11 years ago. Only two months after the arrival of ISIS extremists, there are none. How did these and other Christian Arabs lose their place in the Arab world?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 31, 2014

Yokohama Triennale 2014: Remembering the forgotten

Noise. Speed. Words. Images. We live in a digital era, constantly exposed to a massive stream of information, which we believe is vital to our daily lives.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jul 24, 2014

Murata scheduled to fight Mexican Luna on Sept. 5

Middleweight boxer Ryota Murata will square off against Mexico's Adrian Luna on Sept. 5 at Yoyogi National Gymnasium No. 2 in his fifth professional fight, his management team, Teiken Promotions, announced on Thursday.
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Jul 21, 2014

Malnutrition kills 3 million toddlers a year

More than 3 million children under the age of 5 die annually of malnutrition, the U.N. food agency and World Health Organization said on June 12. 'Malnutrition is responsible for about half of all child deaths under 5 years of age, causing over 3 million deaths every year,' the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said. Some 162 million children are left stunted by chronic malnutrition and 99 million children are underweight across the world, it added. The FAO and WHO urged governments to 'make strong commitment to ensure healthier diets for all' at an international conference on nutrition to be held in Rome in November.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 18, 2014

As Scotland decides, not all Scots get a say

Ruth McPherson was born and educated in Scotland but left to work in London two years ago and so has no say on whether her native country should end three centuries of union with England.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 16, 2014

Europe rewards edgy dramatists

Tim Etchells, artistic director of Forced Entertainment, the English company whose "The Coming Storm" was a highlight of last year's Festival/Tokyo, told me then that they now play abroad more than at home — mainly because festival organizers pay their costs. In contrast, producers are loathe to take...
WORLD / Politics
Jul 15, 2014

BRICS neutrality on Ukraine a victory for Putin

A summit of the BRICS group of emerging market countries will abstain from criticizing Russia's recent actions in Ukraine, Brazilian officials said, a diplomatic victory for President Vladimir Putin.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Jul 8, 2014

Sotnikova to headline field at NHK Trophy

The epic 2013-14 season is behind us and it is onward to a new campaign, and in many ways a new era.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 1, 2014

Coulson faces retrial on News Corp. bribery charges

Andy Coulson, who will be sentenced this week over phone hacking, will be retried on bribery charges after a London jury failed to reach verdicts following an eight- month trial into wrongdoing at News Corp. tabloids.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / OLYMPIC NOTEBOOK
Jun 28, 2014

IOC visit puts spotlight on 2020 venues, budget

It's no shocking revelation that the IOC's planning revolves around lots of meetings.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 23, 2014

Irie rediscovers mojo after difficult year in pool

After a year of adversity, Japan's top backstroke swimmer Ryosuke Irie is back in the spotlight, trying to once again be one of the world's best.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 18, 2014

Female dramatists dispel gender concern

Last month in Berlin, in a conversation with Annemie Vanackere, artistic director at the city's cutting-edge Hebbel am Ufer company, she was saying how she loved contemporary Japanese theater, and how HAU had worked with several Japanese dramatists. Then she suddenly asked me: "Why were they all men?...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Jun 13, 2014

JOC grooms young athletes for international success at Elite Academy

Since 2008, the Japanese Olympic Committee has run a national youth athlete development program called the JOC Elite Academy. It's a part of the JOC Gold Plan, which was drawn up to improve Japan's international competitiveness in sports seven years before the development program was established.
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."
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2014

Obama's cold-eyed 'management' of policy

The White House faces a strange conundrum. Polls show that many Americans want a foreign policy that does not go out looking for fights and Obama is delivering on that. Yet his approval ratings remain generally low.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 25, 2014

'Fort Kill the Jews': Spanish village votes on fate of controversial name

At 4 p.m. Friday, it's eerily quiet in this tiny Spanish village. The blinds on the stone houses are drawn and there's not a person to be seen wandering the few streets that make up Castrillo Matajudios.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2014

Narendra Modi: India's Shinzo Abe

Just as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's return to power in late 2012 reflected Japan's determination to reinvent itself as a more competitive and confident country, Narendra Modi's election victory reflects Indians' desire for a dynamic, assertive leader to help revitalize their country's economy and security.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan