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Japan Times
Special Supplements
Mar 29, 2019

Job agency pursues quality over quantity

As Japan's labor market becomes increasingly globalized, Spring Professional (the Adecco Group Japan Permanent Placement Division) has been rapidly attaining achievements and a reputation for successfully matching job seekers of varied nationalities with domestic and foreign enterprises in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / Italian Trade Promotion
Mar 26, 2019

Italian produce a recipe for trade success

The Feb. 1 signing of an economic partnership agreement (EPA) between the European Union and Japan, reasons behind the growing Japanese appetite for Italian cheeses and an unexpected source for the growth of Italian grappa imports into Japan were all topics Ambassador Giorgio Starace touched upon during...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 23, 2019

Are democratic principles at risk of being undermined?

Is democracy dying? Certainly authoritarianism is rising. A generation ago, it was the opposite — authoritarianism seemed moribund, democracy on the cusp of new life. Sekai magazine (April) sums up the gloomier mood now gaining ground. "We cannot," it says, "take democracy for granted."
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Mar 23, 2019

Denki Groove campaign reveals what Japan truly thinks of celebrities embroiled in drug scandals

It doesn’t take much for a celebrity drug scandal to be picked up by domestic news outlets in Japan, so when TV personality Pierre Taki was arrested on suspicion of cocaine use on March 12, it’s perhaps not surprising that TV and print media jumped on the story. Segments featured on morning shows...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 22, 2019

New Zealand marks one week since mosque massacre with prayers, scarves

New Zealanders prepared for nationwide prayers on Friday to mark one week since a mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch killed 50 worshippers.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 17, 2019

Yellow vest protest violence flares as demonstrations enter fourth month

Rioters set fire to a bank and ransacked stores on Paris's Champs Elysees avenue on Saturday in a new flare-up of violence as France's yellow vest protests against President Emmanuel Macron and his pro-business reforms entered a fourth month.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 16, 2019

Does NHK drama credit instant noodles to the right inventor?

Each morning at 8 o'clock, millions of homemakers across the country tune into a 15-minute-long segment of a serialized morning drama on NHK. The current story, titled "Manpuku," relates the saga of the man who invented instant noodles and his devoted wife, played by Hiroki Hasegawa and Sakura Ando,...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Mar 13, 2019

South Korea labels air pollution a 'social disaster' in move that could unlock emergency funds

South Korea on Wednesday ramped up its firepower as it battles pollution, passing a set of bills that designate the problem a 'social disaster' and which could unlock emergency funds to tackle the issue.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 9, 2019

China's detention system offers a few lessons for Japan

Shukan Gendai magazine last month sounded a warning: "Students, if you're arrested in China it's a very serious matter."
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 8, 2019

Growth fears and Chinese equity plunge haunt global stocks

Deepening fears for the health of the global economy pushed world stocks to three-week lows on Friday after China exports contracted by a fifth, sending shares in some of the country's key indexes more than 4 percent lower.
Japan Times
SOCCER
Mar 5, 2019

England bids farewell to World Cup star Gordon Banks

Thousands of fans joined luminaries of English soccer for a final farewell on Monday to Gordon Banks, a steelworker's son who became one of the world's greatest goalkeepers and will forever be remembered for a miraculous save against Pele.
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2019

French 3% tax on internet giants could yield €500 million yearly, says finance minister Le Maire

A 3 percent tax on the French revenue of large internet companies could yield €500 million per year, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 2, 2019

Dealing with gun issues in a nation with few guns

Japan's reputation as a country relatively free of gun crime is borne out by official statistics. In terms of individuals charged with crimes committed using firearms, the 2018 white paper issued by the National Police Agency listed eight homicides in 2017 — all of which involved members of crime syndicates...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Mar 2, 2019

Tomoko Houtzager: Moving to the bush just to live off the land

A WWOOF trip to Australia leads to a new way of life for a former city girl.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 23, 2019

Artificial intelligence debate raises more questions than answers

"The human race, version 2" — a thought to inspire hope or fear, maybe a little (or a lot) of both. "We today," says Komazawa University economist Tomohiro Inoue, whose thought it is, "will soon be 'the former human race.'"
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Feb 17, 2019

Whitewashing racial bias: The ball's in Japan's court

In what felt something like a case of deja vu from last year's Masatoshi Hamada blackface fiasco, Japan welcomed in 2019 with yet another racially insensitive controversy, this time in the form of an ad from food company Nissin.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 9, 2019

Heisei Era hindsight gives new meaning to established terms

The ubiquitous word "productivity" last summer acquired a new meaning — or at least a new twist. Members of the LGBT community, wrote Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Mio Sugita, "do not reproduce. In other words, they are unproductive. I wonder if it is appropriate to spend taxpayer money on them."...
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Feb 7, 2019

Express love with playful twist on sweets

Valentine's Day is around the corner, and the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel is playing "the game of love" with its extravagant marriage of chocolate and Champagne, the Valentine's Chocolat Chessboard 2019.
CULTURE
Feb 5, 2019

Game for a laugh: Learning to become a manzai comedian

As I stand in the cramped wooden gangway at the side of the stage, going over my lines in a frantic whisper, I am reminded of something that American comedian Patrick Harlan had told me when we first met four months ago.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 2, 2019

Facial recognition technology: What would George Orwell say?

This coming June, British author George Orwell's dystopian novel, "Nineteen Eighty-Four," marks the 70th anniversary of its publication. In the United States, Penguin has announced plans for a special 75,000-copy reprint. According to The New York Times, the publisher noted that, sales of the novel have...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 2, 2019

How Japan unleashed Lu Xun's ferocious literary passion

Although he was poised to be a doctor, Lu Xun, the most celebrated of all modern Chinese authors, abandoned medicine for something he felt would truly enlighten and modernize his nation: literature.
Reader Mail
Feb 1, 2019

Columnist's misguided take on Naomi Osaka

In his opinion piece titled "How Japanese is Naomi Osaka?" in the Jan. 28 edition, Kuni Miyake asks a leading question.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 31, 2019

E-cigarettes nearly twice as effective at helping smokers quit than patches or gum, study finds

E-cigarettes are almost twice as effective at helping smokers quit as nicotine replacement treatments such as patches, lozenges and gum, according to the results of a major clinical trial.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2019

Naomi Osaka's victory proves to be a boon for her sponsors

Naomi Osaka's Australian Open victory on Saturday has already been a boon to some of her sponsors as they capitalize on the newly crowned world No. 1's rising fame.
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.

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