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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 30, 2016

Japan's meek media kowtows to the government

Last week I compared the Catholic Church in Boston and Japan's "nuclear village" of atomic-power advocates — two powerful institutions that stifled embarrassing revelations for some time. The Oscar-winning film "Spotlight" depicts the comeuppance of the church hierarchy after investigative reporters...
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Apr 16, 2016

Anime biz sings the praises of shows

The first time I attended AnimeJapan, the industry's annual spring showcase in Odaiba, Tokyo, it was called the Tokyo International Anime Fair. Members of the public couldn't enter during the first two days, amateur cosplay (costume play) was prohibited, and while there were some presentations, most...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 9, 2016

'The Stones Cry Out' tells the history of the world through a rock fragment

A Japanese soldier's discovery in a cave during World War II — the realization that a pebble might be a microcosm of the world's entire matter — forever changes the perspective of Tsuyoshi Manase, the main character in the exquisitely written short novel "The Stones Cry Out" that earned author Hikaru...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Apr 3, 2016

Yen for animation inspired Hong Kong designer's robot

Like innumerable children with imaginations fired by animated films, Hong Kong product and graphic designer Ricky Ma grew up watching cartoons featuring the adventures of robots, and dreamed of building his own one day.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 9, 2016

Ten perfect Valentine's Days in 10 global cities

Early stroll: The Limmat River in Zurich, A beautiful place for a morning walk before your big date. Enjoy a panoramic view of the city from the observation tower on Uetliberg Mountain. | BLOOMBERG
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 21, 2016

Dracoraptor, forerunner of fearsome T-rex, unearthed in Wales

In the early years of the Jurassic Period, when the world was recovering from one of the worst mass extinctions on record, a modest meat-eating dinosaur from Wales helped pave the way for some of the most fearsome predators ever to stalk the Earth.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 31, 2015

Sensory overload in Aomori's capital city

I nearly walk by Aomori's Furukawa market on the first pass, expecting something akin to the cacophony of Tokyo's central wholesale fish market (known casually to most as Tsukiji). Sliding open the door to the squat building, however, I am assaulted with the not unwelcome scent of fresh seafood, an encouraging...
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 30, 2015

Fossil unearthed in Spain sheds light on ape evolution

The well-preserved partial skull and skeleton of a gibbon-like creature that lived 11.6 million years ago in Spain is shedding new light on the evolutionary history of modern apes.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE KIDS' TABLE
Oct 16, 2015

Lunch on a 'beach' in the center of the city

I wiggle my toes in soft white sand and watch the children play happily a few feet away. Just add the sound of the crashing surf and you might have tricked me into thinking I was on a beach holiday — as one of the little girls exclaims, emerging from her stroller, "Mommy, are we in Guam?"
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 23, 2015

German scientists find rare dinosaur tracks

German scientists have found an unusually long trail of footprints from a 30-ton dinosaur in an abandoned quarry in Lower Saxony, and think they could be around 145 million years old.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 11, 2015

Liberating the robot from factory floor by inflating it

Kevin Albert is playing the part of lion tamer. The 33-year-old engineer, with a passing resemblance to Joe Namath, sticks his head into the four-fingered grip of a robotic hand, pauses for a moment and then emerges unscathed.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
May 29, 2015

Expert judges that dinosaurs were warm-blooded

Dinosaurs were warm-blooded, according to a scientist who judged their metabolism using body mass and growth rates deduced from fossils of species including Tyrannosaurus rex.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 24, 2015

Nepal's sons return to rebuild quake-damaged family homes

Dressed in his brother's old British Army fatigues, Mohan Ghale is rebuilding his mother's home stone by stone, after returning to Barpak village, high in the Himalayas, which was demolished by last month's earthquake.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 15, 2015

The 3-D world of NHK yx Koyxen's abstract techno

Kohei Matsunaga does not see things like you and I see things. Take the 3-D glasses that he is rarely photographed without, for instance. Throwaway red-and-blue anaglyph paper frames from cinema's distant past, they have become an apt visual trademark for the Osaka-based artist, who delights in operating...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 18, 2015

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

It isn't the greatest of franchises but that doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye to "Night at the Museum." The third and final installment, "Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb," of the zany, entertainment-for-all vehicle also marks the last screen appearance of Robin Williams, who died last...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 13, 2015

Royal Blood reigns over British rock

The dressing room of Camden's Electric Ballroom in London is hardly the most glamorous of settings at the best of times, and for Royal Blood it is the early evening after the night before. The previous night, the blues rock duo played its biggest ever headline show at the venue and, preparing for an...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 8, 2014

Bangkok hotel is one crime scene in Sony hack

The incursion into Sony Pictures Entertainment's computer system reached its climax in, of all places, the elegant St. Regis Bangkok in the capital of Thailand.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Nov 29, 2014

Appeasing autumn appetites in Nishi-Azabu

All the walking in the world does not, alas, burn off the binge-fests of food and drink that occur at year-end holidays. Anticipating this, I agree to a free trial lesson at a friend's gym, which she claims offers a workout that's fast, effective and comes served on a plate. How bad can that be? I decide...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / IEC GENERAL MEETING IN TOKYO
Nov 4, 2014

Tours, events show city, culture

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is welcoming all guests to the IEC, and is happily offering a variety of complimentary programs to let registered guests from overseas enjoy Japan and Tokyo to the maximum.
COMMENTARY / World / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 1, 2014

Commemorating wartime Soviet spy Sorge

Seventy years ago on Nov. 7, the Japanese authorities executed Richard Sorge, a Soviet spy who became a member of the Nazi Party and was operating as a journalist in wartime Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Oct 25, 2014

Dead reckoning in the haunts of Honancho

Halloween in Tokyo rarely gets scarier than the price of imported pumpkins, but I've heard that Honancho — a terminal station on the Marunouchi subway line — hosts an uber-spooky obakeyashiki (ghost house). Navigating the station's dank, barely-lit stairwell at Exit 2, I'm already apprehensive.
EDITORIALS
Sep 17, 2014

Learn from the 3/11 transcripts

The transcripts of the interviews of 19 people who dealt with the March 2011 triple meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, including the late Masao Yoshida, then chief of the plant, may offer little new information about the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl...
JAPAN / FOCUS
Sep 11, 2014

Yoshida transcripts on Fukushima nuclear crisis released

The government finally discloses the transcripts of its investigative talks with the late manager of the doomed Fukushima No. 1 power plant after media leaks force its hand.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 17, 2014

Tokyo combats flood threats with second mammoth reservoir

Below the condos and boutiques of Tokyo's upscale Minato Ward — which includes Roppongi Hills, home to Goldman Sachs Group's Japan headquarters — a boring machine has carved out the city's newest defense against floods.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jul 26, 2014

Much about nothing in Akabane Iwabuchi

The nexus between Tokyo's rainy season and the heat of summer brings beastly humidity. I choose to explore Akabane Iwabuchi, an area in Tokyo's Kita Ward, for the possibility of cool breezes coming off the nearby Arakawa River. But that idea is toast the second I exit the subway; sunlight pulses off...
EDITORIALS
Jul 20, 2014

Godzilla's message still relevant

Ahead of the first run of the latest, Hollywood-produced version of 'Godzilla,' the digitally remastered edition of the original 1954 movie has been making the rounds at theaters across the country to mark the 60th anniversary of the birth of the pop culture icon. After some 30 sequels, Godzilla's message remains relevant today.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Jul 9, 2014

Visit Japan's prehistoric past

It's hard to imagine, but millions of years ago elephants roamed Japan. Although they died out long before civilization, Tokyo's National Museum of Nature and Science can help us imagine these majestic creatures and other prehistoric mammals through a display of Japan-specific fossils. The "Ancient Mammals...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami