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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.
JAPAN / Media / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 17, 2013

Rhapsody in scrubs; Foreign hometowns; CM of the week: De Niro for BeeTV

The doctor shows just keep coming, but the two-part "Kyokuhoku Rhapsody" (NHK-G, Tues.-Wed., 10 p.m.) borrows a current issue from the headlines to make its dramatic point.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 17, 2013

Playing to the beat of the gods

TAIKO BOOM: Japanese Drumming in Place and Motion, by Shawn Bender. University of California Press, 2012, 259?pp., $29.95 (paperback)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 17, 2013

History of British intelligence

'Empire of Secrets' is, as Calder Walton himself writes, 'the first book devoted to British intelligence during the twilight of empire that has been based on declassified intelligence reports.'
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 17, 2013

Japan's rollercoaster modern history has kept coming off the rails

At the end of this month, Roger Pulvers will be leaving Counterpoint. In his last three columns since his inaugural weekly Counterpoint on April 3, 2005, he will consider in turn Japan in the past, present and future.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 17, 2013

Data from 3/11 could save lives if used effectively

As the second anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake approached, the media again rallied to pay tribute to the tragedy's victims, whether dead or alive. Many of the latter are still in limbo, unsure of their future since the events of that day wiped out much of their past.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Mar 16, 2013

Kuroda rides in on high hopes, high-set bar

"Abenomics" looks ready to bloom just in time for spring, given the Diet's approval Friday of Haruhiko Kuroda as the next governor of the Bank of Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2013

Beef, wheat may be sacrificed in talks

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may sacrifice barriers protecting Japan's beef and wheat farmers to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade accord, a former government adviser on farm policy said.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Mar 15, 2013

Stats confirm steals often make difference between winning and losing

Steals generate excitement for fans of all ages.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years