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Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Aug 23, 2014

Yoshimoto Kogyo's role in creating a real-life robot with a sense of humor

With big, round, smiling eyes and a shirt and bow tie displayed on the screen on his chest, humanoid robot Pepper is ready to entertain his guests. Music begins to play, and Pepper shows off his moves to the 1960s hit song "The Loco-Motion" as a crowd of onlookers laughs with pleasure.
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Aug 22, 2014

Balotelli set to join Liverpool

Mario Balotelli's roller-coaster career took another twist on Thursday when he said goodbye to his AC Milan teammates after training before an expected transfer to Liverpool.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 21, 2014

Fears of Ebola slow tourist flow to Africa

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is putting off thousands of tourists who had planned trips to Africa this year, especially Asians, including to destinations far from the nearest infected community such as Kenya and South Africa.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 21, 2014

Liberian police shoot to disperse Ebola quarantine protest; virus deaths reach 1,350

Police in the Liberian capital Monrovia fired live rounds and teargas on Wednesday to disperse a stone-throwing crowd trying to break an Ebola quarantine imposed on their neighborhood, as the death toll from the epidemic in West Africa hit 1,350.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Aug 13, 2014

Past victimhood blinds Japan to present-day racial discrimination

Until Japan gets over itself and accepts that racialization processes are intrinsic to every society, it will never resolve its constant and unwarranted exceptionalism.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 13, 2014

SPAC's teen 'Dream' comes true

Mount Fuji towers nearby, and the hills around are covered with beautiful tea fields, while occupying a huge, 21-hectare plot of greenery dotted with theaters and rehearsal spaces is the home base of Shizuoka Performing Arts Center.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Aug 12, 2014

Spreading the gospel of natural winemaking

Should you ever be lucky enough to get your hands on a bottle of wine from Beau Paysage — the cult producer in Yamanashi Prefecture, whose coveted cuvees sell out within hours of release — look at the back label. On it, you'll find a message from winemaker Eishi Okamoto, earnestly delivered in Japanese...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2014

Who will give refuge to the last pagans of Iraq?

Already the Islamic State has practically eliminated the Shiite Muslim and Christian populations from the lands it controls. The worst of the persecution has been aimed at the Yezidi, a religious group whose pagan roots go back at least to the late Bronze Age.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2014

Impact of a vodka glass on history

Toward the start of the 1970s, the Soviet government realized there was nothing it could do about the supposedly enthusiastic 'builders of communism' imbibing huge quantities of vodka. Hence, the Soviet government figured it might as well make more money off the habit.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 9, 2014

Okinawa: pocket of resistance

The battle over Henoko Bay looks set to challenge the power of the archipelago's protest movement.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2014

Nuclear disarmament is a humanitarian imperative

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement's involvement in the nuclear debate — specifically the humanitarian impact — dates back to the moment the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Aug 7, 2014

Contest seeks your best shot of Tokyo; Hard Rock brings global burgers; art and pleasing the palate

Contest seeks your best shot of Tokyo
Reader Mail
Aug 6, 2014

Bravo to Seoul's persistence

Regarding the Aug. 5 Jiji article "South Korea to issue 'comfort women' white paper in 2015": It's curious how Japan would have the world remember the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but cries foul when other nations remind Japan that not too long ago it was a militaristic power hellbent on...
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 5, 2014

Europe marks 100 years since outbreak of 'war to end all wars'

Lights across Britain switched off for an hour on Monday night in a tribute to the dead of World War I inspired by the prophetic observation of Britain's foreign minister on the eve of war 100 years ago.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2014

Regional security deficits threaten economic growth

Political insecurity, potential conflict and deteriorating international relations pose a greater threat to global economic progress than the post-2008 financial crisis debate foresaw.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 1, 2014

U.S.-Russia standoff has global repercussions

China has no interest in Russia succumbing to U.S. pressure, breaking apart or becoming a global power. Its interests are in keeping Russia as its stable strategic hinterland and a natural-resource base.
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Jul 28, 2014

Harry Potter area opens at USJ

USJ Co. opened a new attraction area based on the 'Harry Potter' movie series at its Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka on July 15. About 3,000 fans, some of whom spent the night in line, were at the park for the launch of the new attraction.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 27, 2014

The pathetic state of infrastructure in America

The deliberate starving of public funding for America's roads, bridges, parks, schools, public hospitals, even hospitals charged with caring for U.S. veterans, reflects the economic and political system's ass-backward priorities.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 26, 2014

Is Japan sinking further into 'Aum-ification'?

The world — this insignificant little spinning rock we call home — is nearing its end. Armageddon lies ahead: violence, upheaval, horror. The normal human mind shrinks from the mere thought, but "higher consciousness" embraces it. Higher consciousness sees things in a wider perspective. Where you...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 26, 2014

Japan's 'Moe' obsession: the purest form of love, or creepy fetishization of young girls?

Anyone who has visited Tokyo's Akihabara district in the past decade will have run into countless images of cartoonish girls: in posters, in figurines and in the form of real women dressed up as French maids.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2014

China sees growth in a cleaner environment

Surprisingly China — currently the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide — is emerging as a global leader in climate policy as it seeks to build a cleaner and more efficient economy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2014

Putin nears a tipping point

By overplaying its hand in Afghanistan and lying to the world about the downing of a Korean Air Lines flight 31 years ago, the Soviet regime exposed and accelerated the rot that made its collapse inevitable. There is no reason to believe in a different fate for Vladimir Putin's effort to re-establish Russia as an imperial power.
LIFE / Travel / TRAVEL INSIDER
Jul 22, 2014

Cathay grabs record win; easier connections; Air India joins alliance

Cathay grabs record win
WORLD
Jul 17, 2014

Ebola survivor shunned as a 'zombie' joins fight against virus

Jamila got a cold reception when she returned home after 12 days in an isolation ward battling the Ebola virus in her hometown of Conakry, Guinea's capital.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 9, 2014

Lessons of suicidal Cowra breakout remain unlearned

At around 2 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 5, 1944, 1,104 Japanese soldiers and sailors armed only with knives, forks and a few baseball bats poured out of their huts at the Cowra prisoner-of-war camp 300 km west of Sydney in the Australian state of New South Wales. Charging through a hail of machine-gun fire,...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 8, 2014

Japan's innovation challenge

The Abe administration's capacity for deciding how to raise the birthrate, improve child-care facilities, realize an appropriae work-life balance and promote other 'innovations' that enable Japan to solve its many problems is now being tested.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2014

Xi's fumbles give Obama's pivot a second chance

Years from now, when the history of Barack Obama's much-maligned 'pivot to Asia' is written, he may owe a debt of gratitude to Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose overbearing ways in the region are giving Obama a second wind.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 5, 2014

Fiery Shinjuku protest goes global without NHK

Until the Great East Japan Earthquake, social media didn't have much purchase on Japanese social life. But disasters are transformative, and in a country where the mass media is cautious about its role vis-a-vis the authorities, social media came into its own after the tsunami and meltdown.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear