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Japan Times
CULTURE
Jan 1, 2015

Most read Culture stories of 2014

OK Go's Japanese-inspired music video and Sailor Moon's special birthday were some of the most read and shared Culture articles of 2014.
JAPAN / History
Jan 1, 2015

Donald Keene reflects on 70-year Japan experience

My first visit to Japan was very short, only a week or so in December 1945. Three months earlier, while on the island of Guam, I had heard the broadcast by the Emperor announcing the end of the war. Soon afterward, I was sent from Guam to China to serve as an interpreter between the Americans and the...
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 31, 2014

Wolf killed in Utah may have been famed Grand Canyon wanderer

A gray wolf killed by a Utah hunter may have been Echo, a female who attracted national attention after wandering through several states to become the first of the protected animals seen at Arizona's Grand Canyon in 70 years, officials said on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2014

A great year for the far right

The far-right resurgence is impossible to miss, and 2014 will be remembered as the year extreme nationalists in Europe and Asia made a credible bid for power for the first time since the end of World War II.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 30, 2014

The young stars creating a buzz in the enka scene

Even though enka star Saburo Kitajima announced his retirement from NHK's annual "Kohaku Uta Gassen" music program last year, and U.S. singer Jero has seemingly moved into R&B, don't count enka out of the zeitgeist just yet.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2014

Autistic people find independence at unique facility in Saitama

Due to a dearth of job opportunities in Japan for autistic people, mainly deriving from a lack of understanding toward the disorder, it is often difficult for them to lead independent lives after they attain adulthood.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 30, 2014

Their nation in pieces, Iraqis ponder what comes next

The machine gun poking out from between a framed portrait of a Shiite imam and a stuffed toy Minnie Mouse was trained on anyone who approached the checkpoint.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 29, 2014

Sharia law forces gays into hiding in Indonesia's Aceh

Overwhelmed by fear, members of the main gay rights group in the Indonesian town of Banda Aceh started burning piles of documents outside their headquarters in late October, worried that the Sharia police would raid them at any moment.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 29, 2014

To shine or to die: the messy world of romanized Japanese

One of the also-rans in the competition for the best buzzword of 2014 was the little word "shine." It stirred some discussion this summer when it appeared as a one-word heading in the blog of Prime Minister Abe's just-established Kagayaku Josei Ō en Kaigi (輝く女性応援会議, Council for Supporting...
WORLD
Dec 29, 2014

Airbus sends experts to help in probe over vanished AirAsia A320

Airbus NV has dispatched two experts to Jakarta to assist in the investigation of the missing A320 airliner operated by AirAsia Bhd., the budget carrier that rose from almost nothing in 2001 to become the plane maker's biggest customer.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 27, 2014

Homage to a beautiful dog named Rhubarb

Earlier this month, our 15-year-old dog died, leaving our household grieving and heartbroken.
EDITORIALS
Dec 26, 2014

Occupy Central's spirit endures

The Occupy Central movement that shut down the heart of Hong Kong for 79 days over the demand for greater democracy in the Special Administrative Region is over. But the impulses that drove the movement have not disspated.
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 26, 2014

Allardyce coming good at West Ham

Four years ago this month, Blackburn Rovers' new owners sacked Sam Allardyce, who had led the club to a 10th-place finish the previous season and were 13th in the Premier League when the axe fell.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 25, 2014

Medical detective work is next phase in Ebola fight

Medical detective work will be the next big phase in the fight against Ebola when the United Nations deploys hundreds of health workers to identify chains of infection as the virus passes from person to person, top U.N. health workers said.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 24, 2014

Abe vows to stay the course in third term as prime minister

Shinzo Abe vowed Wednesday to continue pursuing his economic, diplomatic and security policies after Diet members re-elected him to a third term as prime minister.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Dec 24, 2014

Japan's night schools offer hope of a second chance for many

Takashi Kinoshita, 73, lived most of his adulthood with a secret that until recently he wouldn't dare divulge even to his children: he was nearly illiterate.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE PERSISTENT VEGETARIAN
Dec 24, 2014

Le Pain Quotidien serves up a hearty, organic vegetarian lunch

I try not to over-associate being vegetarian with being somehow fancy or trendy — organic-diet this or macrobiotic that. While I prefer to think of it as a rather everyday lifestyle, the oshare (hip) association in Japan runs strong.
EDITORIALS
Dec 23, 2014

Protecting sexual minorities' rights

A Japanese civic group survey has the ruling Liberal Democratic Party standing out from other parties in its failure to view issues involving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual people as human rights problems.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2014

Making obesity a disability will only fuel problem

The decision by Europe's highest court that obesity can be a disability will only give the many overweight people in rich countries legal grounds to feel righteous about their condition, regardless of its causes.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2014

Conservative Abe's secrecy law doesn't hold a candle to Seoul's press suppression

For people concerned with the weakening of press freedoms under the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, its criticism of Asahi Shimbun and the new state secrets law, there should still be a sense of relief that media suppression in Japan has not quite reached the levels now being seen in South Korea.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Dec 22, 2014

Rewinding some of Japan's top YouTubers

YouTube highlighted 14 of the Internet's best Japanese vloggers.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 22, 2014

Annals of cheap: Narita express buses

Narita Airport is still inconvenient for Tokyoites, but now getting there is less expensive.
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Dec 21, 2014

In no-surprise poll, parties' main players re-elected in Kinki

In an election that produced no surprises, it's little wonder the biggest political names in the six prefectures that make up the Kinki region (Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara and Wakayama) were all returned to the Diet, though one or two had a close call.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan