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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / FOOD MATTERS
Mar 29, 2013

Fearless foodies? Let them eat dirt

Soil, dirt, mud ... Call it what you like, the not-so-secret special ingredient at some of Japan's high-end restaurants has a distinctly earthy quality. And over the last couple of months, it's been getting substantial media attention, both at home and abroad.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 29, 2013

'Crawlspace'

Good news for sci-fi/horror geeks with big and generous hearts who have nothing to do on a spring Sunday but to check out this "Alien"-meets-"28 Days Later"-meets-"Species"-and-they-decide-to-move-in-together-to-save-on-rent kind of movie. And not so good news for the rest of us.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 28, 2013

No regrets for mothers of children with Down syndrome

On a chilly afternoon in early spring, Mayumi Mitogawa, 52, and her 14-year-old son, Yutaka, sat together on a bench, getting ready to have their picture taken. He jokingly made a face and tried to push her out of the way, showing a hint of the shyness common to teens about being seen with their mom....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 28, 2013

April: Karl Hyde to headline SonarSound

The next month features a great mix of concerts for all sorts of live-music fans. Several long-running bands visit Japan in April, as do some of the most hyped-up young outfits in the world today. Whether you like apocalyptic postrock or Swedish indie rock, the next 30 days have you covered.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 28, 2013

'Special Exhibition: Kano Sanraku and Sansetsu'

Established in the 15th century, the Kano School is one of Japan's most famous institutions of Japanese-style painting. Its particular set of aesthetics dominated the genre for more than three centuries.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Mar 27, 2013

Kite artist Tetsuya Kishida

Japanese kite artist Tetsuya Kishida, 89, has been creating and flying kites since the age of 6. He used to be a salesman for the steel industry and he later sold bonsai. In his late 40s, he finally turned his hobby of painting kites into a profession. His artistic repertoire is inspired by images from...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Mar 27, 2013

Track legends moved by interaction with athletes in Tohoku

Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis came to Japan hoping to boost the spirits of young athletes from the Tohoku region, but the track legend says it was he who came away inspired in the end.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Mar 26, 2013

Syria 'red lines' leave Obama flummoxed

The suspicious attack that killed 26 people in northern Syria last week exposed the difficulty of determining whether the Syrian regime has resorted to using chemical weapons, as well as the lingering uncertainty over how President Barack Obama would respond if what he has called a "red line" is crossed....
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 26, 2013

Yi Zhou: From the screen to the canvas of garments

"Hollowness" is not a word that often springs to mind in the context of a luxury fashion item. For the Shanghai-based multimedia artist Yi Zhou, however, this was the starting point for her Each x Other fashion collection.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2013

Abe wants TOEFL to be key exam

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is not satisfied with revising monetary policy — he also appears bent on reviving another failing field: the public's ability to speak English.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 25, 2013

Supreme Court reflects 'modern marriage'

There's a widow who was a pioneer of the "modern marriage," and one who never wed. Two who have been divorced.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 25, 2013

'Abenomists' beware: Rising prices just one pitfall of spiraling yen

The Bank of Japan on Wednesday installed a new governor and two deputy governors who — in line with the wishes of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — are advocates of ultra-easy monetary policy.
EDITORIALS
Mar 25, 2013

Prosperity for fisheries

Fortunately a fishing cooperative in Fukushima Prefecture has been able to shake off rumors that its products are tainted with radioactive substances.
COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 25, 2013

It's not skin color, it's every way you're different

What should a Japanese expat say to a mixed-race couple in New York who wonder how their children would be treated if they raised them in Japan?
JAPAN / Media / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 24, 2013

"Paji"; Persian influence in ancient Japan?; CM of the week: Nissin Foods

"Paji," a manga that won an award from the Cultural Agency, has been turned into a two-hour TV drama (TV Tokyo, Wed., 9 p.m.). The title is a mash-up of "papa" and "ojiisan" (grandfather) and describes the main character, Mokuchi (Shiro Ito), a 71-year-old widower who is raising his 5-year-old granddaughter,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Mar 24, 2013

Being a zombie is a no-brainer for this Japanese actress

Unlike many of her prim-and-proper friends at Shirayuri College — a Catholic school in Kanda, Tokyo — 20-year-old Akane Kanbayashi doesn't recoil at the sight of splattered blood and dismembered human bodies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 22, 2013

Kids with guns on film, blasting at the culture gap

Contemporary Japanese films are often extremely violent; the lives of ordinary Japanese, much less so. According to a multinational study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Japan's homicide rate in 2009 was 0.4 per 100,000 population, for a total of 506 deaths. Similar figures for...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 21, 2013

Japan needs to rebrand for SXSW

The purpose of the South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas, is for musicians to woo new fans and industry insiders. The five-day festival, though, hasn't been about bands for a while — it's about brands.
WORLD
Mar 20, 2013

Pope often quiet on sex abuse cases as archbishop

The Rev. Julio Cesar Grassi was a celebrity in the archdiocese of Buenos Aires. The young, dynamic, media-savvy priest networked with wealthy Argentines to fund an array of schools, orphanages and job training programs for poor and abandoned youths, winning praise from Argentine politicians and his superior,...
EDITORIALS
Mar 19, 2013

Extending turnaround help

The government should renew a law giving small and medium-size enterprises grace periods to repay debts.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 18, 2013

Karzai embarks on a high-stakes quest for Afghan sovereignty

As Afghanistan's second presidential election loomed in early 2009, President Hamid Karzai described his once-genial relationship with the U.S. as a "gentle wrestling match" that he hoped to win.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 18, 2013

Irish GM spud resists blight but not mistrust

Ewen Mullins is the face of modern Ireland. Young, cosmopolitan and highly educated, he is a plant scientist whose work on a genetically modified potato looks to the future. But Mullins also must think back to one of Ireland's darkest chapters, the Great Famine of the 1840s.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan