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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 4, 2015

The End of the World and the Cat's Disappearance: A post-pandemic tale of a heroic webcam idol

At their best, films about the future — sci-fi, fantasy and anything in between — offer up mind-expanding speculations and deep-drilling allegories, if not necessarily accurate predictions. Hardly anything in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" came to pass by 2001, but its vision of something...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 4, 2015

Song One: 'anyone not in a coma can see where this is going'

Years of working as a film critic have given me some sort of special mutant superpower to see deep into the cinematic future. That little cough in the first act will surely be a terminal illness in the last, and that seemingly casual close-up of the keys on the counter will be the crucial prop when the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Mar 4, 2015

U.S. author recounts 'lecture' he got about 'comfort women' from uninvited Japanese guests

The American historian whose book has been slammed by the Japanese government for its content on WWII sex slaves speaks out.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 4, 2015

John Caird delivers home truths with 'Twelfth Night'

As an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, John Caird may be one of the leading pillars of the English theater establishment, but in a recent interview with The Japan Times, this acclaimed director of plays, musicals and opera declared, "In a sense, some part of me is becoming...
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 4, 2015

German pensioner needs drill to dig for Nazi-looted Amber Room

A pensioner has started digging in Germany's western Ruhr region for the Amber Room, a priceless work of art looted by Nazis from the Soviet Union during World War II and missing for 70 years, but says he needs a new drill to help him.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 3, 2015

A long, leisurely lunch leaves no doubts at Chic Peut-etre

Let's hear it for lunch. Long, leisurely sessions at the table, with multiple courses and an equal number of wines to go with them. And then at the end, lingering over coffee and conversation. That's the way it happens every Saturday at Chic Peut-etre.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2015

Two kamikaze pilots, two late reprieves, one pacifist view

Hisashi Tezuka knew his life had been spared when he heard the Emperor's voice crackling through the wireless.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 2, 2015

Yokohama: If you could live anywhere in Japan, where would it be?

Tyler Parr asks passers-by where they would choose to live on this archipelago if money and jobs were not an issue.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Mar 1, 2015

Four years on, Tohoku towns still waiting for schools, homes, answers

While cooped-up kids need places to play, exhausted residents could do with support from more teachers and caregivers.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 28, 2015

Omotenashi — Japanese hospitality?

As the Tokyo 2020 Bid Committee's appointed "Cool Tokyo" ambassador, multilingual television journalist Christel Takigawa set media buzzing worldwide with her Sept. 7, 2013, speech to the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires in which she made great play of the word "motenashi" by attaching...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Feb 28, 2015

Japanese sword sent to teacher; 12,800 war heroes to be enshrined in Yasukuni Shrine; Russian steps into outer space; Japanese-language 'Satanic Verses' raises Muslim ire

100 YEARS AGOTuesday, March 30, 1915
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 28, 2015

China drafts law on counterterrorism operations abroad

China is close to approving a law that will create a legal framework for sending troops abroad on counterterrorism missions as Beijing seeks to address the vulnerability of the country's growing global commercial and diplomatic interests.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 27, 2015

Two more Cabinet ministers ensnared in money scandals

The Abe administration's money scandals snowball as two more Cabinet ministers admit their chapters accepted donations in 2013 from a company that was set to receive state subsides.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2015

Greece loses, European Union wins

In the first round of the battle for the euro, everybody technically just kicked the can down the road four months by extending the existing bailout arrangements for Greece. But Greece can't win.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2015

Empire of petty shopkeepers

It is clear that British Prime Minister David Cameron as well as many leading lights of the government coalition do not believe in the EU, yet they do not have a strategy for a British exit without penalties.
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Feb 26, 2015

Suite offer from New Otani; InterContinental celebrates Hokuriku; Capitol Tokyu strawberry fair

The Hotel New Otani is offering an accommodation plan especially for groups of women through March 15.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Feb 26, 2015

Resistant strain of swine flu feared; virus killing thousands in India

A surge in swine flu infections has killed more than 800 people in India and is challenging health workers, who say the virus is harder to treat than the type that caused a global pandemic in 2009.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 26, 2015

Astronomers find giant black hole in early universe

A black hole 12 billion times more massive than the sun has been found in a glowing quasar that existed when the universe was just a fraction of its current age, scientists said on Wednesday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 25, 2015

With more beer machines and school days, were the '90s better?

Japan has come a long way in the past 20 years. Or has it?
EDITORIALS
Feb 25, 2015

Risky expansion of SDF missions

New Abe administration policies in the works appear to expand the scope of of SDF activities abroad to almost anything short of direct use of force.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / Japan Pulse
Feb 25, 2015

Mister Donut went berry picking for its newest line of treats

From now until May, Mister Donut will have a special selection of five strawberry-flavored sweets for customers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 25, 2015

Takarazuka double-bill special marks the end of a Star star's era

The 101-year-old all-female Takarazuka Revue company is currently staging a double bill of "Like a Black Panther" and "Dear Diamond!!" at its Takarazuka Grand Theater in the city of Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, prior to a long Tokyo run from late March that will see its top star, Reon Yuzuki, take her...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 25, 2015

Obama vetoes Republican attempt to force Keystone pipeline approval

President Barack Obama issued his third veto Tuesday to reject legislation that would allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, escalating a battle over the project with Republicans in Congress.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Feb 24, 2015

Sympathy for the snob: Real DJs play vinyl

Up a backstreet in Shibuya's Udagawacho neighborhood, tucked in behind the Milky Way, Chelsea Hotel and Star Lounge live-music venues — an area tight with record stores — I'm on my way to a party crammed with style-conscious young folk in sweaters and berets, DJing against the backdrop of Roman Polanski's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / TRAVEL INSIDER
Feb 24, 2015

New sales exec at United; discount Asian flights; springtime in Europe

United Airlines new exec
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2015

Poroshenko aims for arms by calling for peacekeepers

It's a shame that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's call for U.N. peacekeepers to help enforce the Minsk ceasefire is so belated and insincere.
LIFE / Japan Showcase / SAGA PREFECTURE
Feb 23, 2015

Explore beautiful vistas, enduring history of Saga

Saga prefecture sits in the northern half of Kyushu, sandwiched between bustling Fukuoka and historic Nagasaki. From the wild north coast to the porcelain towns of western Saga to the sake brewing districts of the southern Kashima region, this compact prefecture offers a host of hidden delights.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic