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COMMENTARY / World
Sep 6, 2013

U.K.'s response to Syrian crisis

Prime Minister David Cameron badly mishandled the issue of whether Britain should take part in a punitive attack on the Assad government for its alleged use of chemical weapons.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 6, 2013

DoCoMo said near deal to sell iPhones

NTT DoCoMo Inc. appears set to finally join its domestic archrivals and start providing Apple Inc.'s iPhone, beginning with the latest version.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2013

At stake in bid — ¥3 trillion

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government estimates that hosting the 2020 Summer Olympics will produce economic effects worth ¥3 trillion from Hokkaido to Okinawa.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 6, 2013

Science's great unknowns: 20 unsolved questions

What is the universe made of? Astronomers face an embarrassing conundrum: they don't know what 95 percent of the universe is made of. Atoms, which form everything we see around us, only account for a measly 5 percent. Over the past 80 years it has become clear that the substantial remainder is comprised...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 6, 2013

Big asteroid named after Chilean cult filmmaker

Paris AFP-JIJI
BASKETBALL
Sep 6, 2013

Knicks' Tyler recovering from foot surgery

New York Knicks big man Jeremy Tyler underwent surgery on Thursday to repair "a stress fracture of his right fifth metatarsal," the team announced.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2013

Director James Mangold puts soul into Wolverine's demons

"The Wolverine" may look like just another in a long line of superhero movies to hit the screen this year — it's the latest installment in Marvel's "X-Men" franchise — but it's certainly the first one directed by a guy who cites director Yasujiro Ozu of "Tokyo Monogatari (Tokyo Story)" fame as an...
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2013

Kobayashi film explores Japan's suicide problem

A folk-singer-turned-filmmaker who went to France in 1981 to apprentice under his idol François Truffaut, Masahiro Kobayashi may have failed in his quest (he couldn't work up the courage to press Truffaut's doorbell), but after returning to Japan became a prolific scriptwriter for pinku (softcore...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2013

'Upside Down'

Here it is: the movie equivalent of a crazy, distracting, impossibly attractive lover. Everything about "Upside Down" is nutso preposterous but it draws you in and locks you in a warm embrace, declaring undying love and promising mystery and eternal longing forever more. If there was a way I could go...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 5, 2013

Manga fans to gather in Kyoto for annual fair

Kyoto is well-known for temples, geisha and other pieces of Japan's past. This weekend, though, the city will be abuzz with the country's present treasured artifacts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 4, 2013

Rock group Zoobombs announce split, prepare for sudden farewell tour

This month marks the 20th anniversary of Tokyo rock 'n' roll act Zoobombs. It also marks their demise as the group has announced they will part ways at the end of September.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 4, 2013

'Special Exhibition: Momoyama Ceramic Masterpieces — Shino, Ki-seto, Seto-guro and Oribe Wares'

The ceramics in this exhibition date to the late-Momoyama Period (1573-1615) and all hail from the Mino Province in modern-day Gifu Prefecture. Four kinds of Mino ceramic ware became representative of the Momoyama Period — Shino (thick white glaze with red marks), Ki-Seto (yellow glaze and green blemishes),...
WORLD
Sep 4, 2013

Obama strains to win over public on Syria

President Barack Obama has turned the question of whether to strike Syria into an extraordinary national sales job — seeking to convince skeptics in Congress and among the public that military action would be worth the risk.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 4, 2013

Al-Qaida hopes to sabotage, destroy drones

Cells of engineers are working to exploit vulnerabilities of the weapons system, so far but they have not succeeded, a classified report finds.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2013

Is America now becoming an international outlaw?

When Barack Obama succeeded George W. Bush as U.S. president, the world heaved a collective sigh of relief. How ironic then that Obama risks making the U.S. the biggest international outlaw of our times.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 3, 2013

Google crunches data on munching snacks in the office

Last year Google had an M&M problem. So, as it does with most dilemmas, the Internet giant put its data wizards into action.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2013

A danger in trying to transform Mideast

Big bets in foreign policy should have at least a reasonable prospect of success, but that is not the case in today's Middle East.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 2, 2013

Tin Man's throne: the rise and fall of a Roppongi royal

Gilbert Otaigbe is the current owner of Black Horse bar and nightclub in Roppongi. At the height of his success in the mid-2000s, he owned at least seven bars, clubs and restaurants.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Sep 2, 2013

A lesson in line, last of the summer design needs, and Issey Miyake's bright ideas

'Line' is one of the most important elements of design. It defines, separates, decorates and gives life to a structure — and Shinn Asano's Sen furniture series couldn't utilize it any better.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Sep 2, 2013

Housing loans: Nothing is 100 percent easy

The government has yet to confirm the timing of the approved consumption tax increase from 5 to 8 percent. It's slated to take place next April but there is still fear that the economy is too frail to withstand the effect the added tax might have on actual consumption. Consequently, the government is...
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 1, 2013

The Syria questions you were too afraid to ask

The United States is preparing for a possibly imminent series of limited military strikes against Syria, the first direct U.S. intervention in the two-year civil war, in retaliation for President Bashar Assad's suspected use of chemical weapons against civilians.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Aug 31, 2013

Balentien maintains poise, perspective as he chases single-season HR record

Wladimir Balentien flips on the television and takes in a rare moment of relaxation. Instead of his Tokyo Yakult Swallows uniform, which will be worn later, he's clad simply in a red T-shirt commemorating his back-to-back home run titles and yellow shorts from a past NPB All-Star Series.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2013

It's a kid's world at Festa 2013

Children enjoyed intercultural experiences ranging from Thai vegetable carving to learning Sri Lanka's Sinhala alphabet Saturday in Tokyo.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 31, 2013

Naoto Kan speaks out

Naoto Kan took his first steps in the world of politics around 40 years ago as a pugnacious citizen-activist, admonishing those with power as only those without it can. He likes to say he's the same man now, but of course there's an irony in that. After all, in the intervening years he acquired about...
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Aug 31, 2013

Japan's nuclear comedy just goes on and on

What has been will be again,
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 31, 2013

Hope blooms eternal for the Simien National Park

In 1967, Ethiopia was the last African country south of the Sahara still without any national parks — an embarrassment for a nation then entertaining ambitions to assume leadership of the continent.
Reader Mail
Aug 31, 2013

Logical end to 'scientific' whaling

Regarding Rowan Hooper's Aug. 11 Natural Selections article, "In science terms, Japan has no need at all to kill whales": I favor the discontinuation of such whaling — not because it's unlikely that Japan's claim will be upheld in the International Court of Justice or that Japan's "commercial" whaling...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 31, 2013

Nearly 50 years after epic win, Mills backs Tokyo for 2020

Billy Mills' rise to prominence began nearly 50 years ago. Now, as he looks back on his highly successful career as a distance runner, author, humanitarian and motivational speaker, he reflects on how significant a role the 1964 Tokyo Olympics played in his life.
WORLD
Aug 31, 2013

Secret documents detail U.S. war in cyberspace

The Obama administration's cyber operations sometimes involve what one leaked budget document calls 'field operations' abroad, commonly with the help of CIA operatives or clandestine military forces, 'to physically place hardware implants or software modifications.'
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 31, 2013

Most on Abe's expert panel approve plan to hike sales tax

The government's expert panel on the planned consumption tax hike wrapped up discussions Saturday with more than 70 percent of its members supporting the plan as it now stands, saying Japan will suffer a much bigger economic blow if the tax isn't raised.

Longform

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