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CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Apr 19, 2018

BTS is big, let's hope the hype helps other Asian acts

Earlier this month, an album sung mainly in Japanese landed on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart at No. 43. That's a rare accomplishment for any Japanese artist — and an even less frequent one for a non-Japanese outfit to pull off.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 18, 2018

St. Helena's cherished lifeline ship to return as anti-piracy armory in Gulf of Oman

The RMS St. Helena, Britain's last working postal ship, was for nearly three decades the main source of contact between one of humanity's remotest islands and the outside world.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Beyond Omotenashi
Apr 15, 2018

Visitors to Okinawa invited to be citizen scientists as tourism takes its toll on coral

Divers equipped with a simple color chart and an app can help keep an eye on the island prefecture's delicate coral ecosystem.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 14, 2018

Japan struggles to fashion casino guidelines that satisfy the public

On April 3, the ruling coalition adopted a plan for integrated resorts featuring casino gambling that it will submit for Diet approval during the current session, although some media organizations think that won't happen. The public still isn't comfortable with the idea of casinos and the coalition's...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Apr 14, 2018

Ryoko Hori: The art of massage and crafts

Born and raised in Osaka, Ryoko Hori, 37, moved to Tokyo to study fashion design at the age of 18. As a student she was lucky enough to work for the famous clothing brand Issey Miyake, but she wanted even more experiences in life. She had never been abroad, so after her graduation in 2003, she decided...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 14, 2018

Japan faces up to the prospect of losing a middle-class war

Modern middle-class life, you could reasonably argue, generates more happiness among more people than any other ever conceived. It has been extravagantly derided — as bourgeois, soulless, spiritless, narrow, boring, mindlessly acquisitive and so on. But back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when...
WORLD
Apr 11, 2018

As Syria tensions surge, Russian fighter jet buzzes French warship in breach of international law

Reuters
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 7, 2018

Magazines indulge Japan's healthy obsession with staying spry

There has been a recent surge of articles in Japan's weekly magazines about diet, health and avoiding illnesses.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 6, 2018

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera announces a fresh set of SDF logs from Iraq have been found in growing scandal

Onodera pledged to further probe the ministry's careless handling of data and promised to announce the result as soon as possible.
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 6, 2018

Mighty Man City given reality check by Liverpool

Manchester City has collected compliments and plaudits almost on a weekly basis this season and rightly so, though the premature if inevitable claims about Pep Guardiola's team being the best English side of all-time took a severe dent when Liverpool thrashed — not too strong a word — the visitors...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 31, 2018

Takeshi Kitano to abandon his 'army' of talent

There's a tired adage that goes, "Behind every great man is a great woman." In Japan, you could amend it to: "Behind every great older man is a great woman making sure he stays relevant, especially if he's in show business." The tabloid press have had a grand time exploring how the late beloved movie...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 29, 2018

Kiyoshi Koyama: A life lived with jazz

"I have lived a life alongside jazz," says Kiyoshi Koyama, jazz critic, journalist and radio host. This is apparent on a recent visit to his home in Chiba Prefecture, where he and his wife live surrounded by walls of neatly organized records, CDs, books and other archives — a lifetime of research and...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 24, 2018

Once falsely convicted in Japan, rarely exonerated

A lot of eating goes on in the new documentary "Gokutomo" ("Friends in Prison"), which is about five men, all convicted of murder, who spent many years in prison. Watching one of them casually buy a sweet bean bun at a convenience store, you realize that, as an indulgence, food can be the most obvious...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 23, 2018

LDP and Komeito at odds over casino resort rules, dashing deadline hopes

The two members of Japan's ruling coalition can't agree on how many gambling resorts to build, how much to charge and whether to prioritize profit over addiction prevention.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 17, 2018

The Irish influence on Soseki, a pioneer of Japanese literature

St. Patrick's Day is the time of year when many raise a glass in their local "authentic Irish" pub to Ireland's literary greats, from master satirist Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) to poet Seamus Heaney (1939-2013). In Japan too, the dynamic interaction of Ireland and Japan's literary traditions is a rich...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 12, 2018

The optimists strike back on the state of the world

Some of today's pessimism is a political fad. It's self-defeating, feeding on itself, promoting paralysis and more pessimism.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2018

Six thousand days into a war without an objective

It would be helpful to have an explanation of U.S. interests and objectives in America's longest war.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 10, 2018

Confusing power with powerlessness

"We're all terrified. It's like living in a mass grave." It's an underground shelter. "No water, no food, no ventilation, no toilets. Explosion after explosion. It never stops."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Mar 10, 2018

Japan tries its hardest to keep up with the Kardashians

The internet desperately tried to keep up with the Kardashians last week when the famous family visited Japan. Kim, Kourtney and Khloe traveled to Tokyo and Kyoto while filming an episode of their enormously popular reality show that has been running for 14 seasons, and they brought their entire entourage...
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2018

Israel's El Al seeks U.N. help in bid to fly through Saudi airspace as Air India service nears

El Al Israel Airlines has appealed to the United Nations over a bid to reroute its services between Tel Aviv and India through Saudi Arabian airspace.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 5, 2018

Weakened Merkel tasked with performing delicate balancing act to keep coalition intact

Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) have bought Chancellor Angela Merkel time with their vote to join her conservatives in another coalition, but she risks losing her long grip on power if she fails to balance the awkward allies' conflicting demands.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / B. League
Mar 4, 2018

Nick Fazekas heats up in second half to lead Brave Thunders past B-Corsairs

Anyone who forgot that Kawasaki Brave Thunders star Nick Fazekas was the B. League's 2016-17 MVP was reminded of his scoring prowess in the second half of Sunday's series finale at Yokohama International Swimming Pool.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 3, 2018

Japan's media out of step with mental health issues

In January, a couple in Neyagawa, Osaka Prefecture, were arrested for allegedly confining their daughter for at least 15 years before she froze to death in December at the age of 33. The couple told police they had kept her in the tiny room where her body was found because she was mentally ill. They...
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Mar 3, 2018

NHK puppet show offers a rare glimpse into unconventional lives

Arguably the best interview show on terrestrial TV at present stars a bunch of puppets exploring the often unexamined corners of Japanese society.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 24, 2018

One-dose flu drug Xofluza gets nod from health ministry

Osaka-based drugmaker Shionogi & Co. has announced that the health ministry gave it approval to manufacture and market its new flu drug Xofluza, which requires only a single dose regardless of age.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building