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July 16, 2025
 

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COMMUNITY
Nov 13, 1999

Goodwill ambassador delivers hope

Akasaka Prince Hotel's Crystal Palace Room was filled with billowing arcs and floating columns of peach, rose and violet balloons Nov. 9 to help celebrate the opening of the stage play "Friendship (Yujo)" and the release of "The Paradise of Angels (Tenshi no Paradaisu)," a five-volume set of children's...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Mar 5, 1999

Help, maybe

Recently the Franciscan Chapel Center, whose volunteer groups are active in many areas of need in our community, has provided a considerable amount of information for this column. Among them are columns that have dealt with providing rice balls for the homeless, exposed Japan as the leading source of...
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 7, 2023

Silent phones, freezing rain and anguish in Turkey quake

The disaster toppled nearly 3,500 buildings across 10 provinces, killing more than 3,000 people and injuring more than 11,000, while leaving an unknown number trapped under debris.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 29, 2022

A protest? A vigil? In Beijing, anxious crowds are unsure how far to go.

In a country where protests are swiftly quashed, many who gathered to voice their discontent — under the watchful eye of the police — were uncertain about how far to go.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 30, 2022

Four-year forests: The Japanese way to 'rewild the world'

Created in the 1970s, the Miyawaki method can help new saplings grow an average of a meter every year — a godsend for deforested areas.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Mar 30, 2022

How Ukraine has kept Russia's army at bay in villages near Kyiv

Russian advances have been halted by small, mobile Ukrainian units wielding anti-tank weapons shipped in from abroad.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 26, 2022

Thinning Antarctic ice shelf finally crumbles after heat wave

Satellite images show the 1,200 square-kilometer Conger Ice Shelf in east Antarctica collapsed completely on or around March 15.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2021

Psychedelic drugs will follow pot’s path to legalization

What distinguishes the movement to legalize psychedelics is that it is substantially more elite than the movement surrounding pot, a drug that crosses economic and cultural lines.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / Remembering 3/11
Mar 8, 2021

Tectonic wobbles and muddy deposits: The seismic clues leading up to 3/11

New research is allowing scientists to envision a future where megathrust quakes are not only less unexpected, but perhaps, to a certain degree, predictable.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 9, 2021

These are the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol

There were infamous white nationalists and noted conspiracy theorists who have spread dark visions of pedophile Satanists running the country. Others were more anonymous, people who had journeyed from Indiana and South Carolina to heed U.S. President Donald Trump’s call to show their support. One person,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 26, 2020

When reading was a refuge and had no end

This was the worst year, and nothing made sense any longer, except when it was the best year, because time for reading seemed to expand like one of those endless summer afternoons when one was in the late stages of grade school. I despised 2020 while also, as a person of solitary disposition, found myself...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 12, 2020

How hostile design keeps Japan's homeless at arm's length

In the early morning hours of Nov. 16, a 46-year-old man allegedly struck a 64-year-old woman sitting in a Tokyo bus shelter in the head with a bag of rocks, killing her. On Nov. 21, the man, accompanied by his mother, turned himself in to the police, who charged him with inflicting a fatal injury. The...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 5, 2020

Japan's celebrities juggle private lives with public expectation

A U.S. survey has found 69% of Japanese respondents believe extramarital affairs are unforgivable.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2020

The potential for a policy failure on vaccines is huge

Leaders must make decisions about who will get a coronavirus shot first and provide adequate explanations to those denied the vaccine.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 25, 2020

'Smart lockdowns' are the future in Europe

EU countries are experimenting with new ways of dealing with COVID-19. Germany, Portugal and Italy have all enforced selective or "smart” lockdowns, shutting down smaller regions in response to new outbreaks as opposed to bringing their entire countries to a halt.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2020

Lockdowns haven’t proved they’re worth the havoc

The U.S. survived the 1968 pandemic without shutting down society, and there isn't much evidence that shutdowns are truly effective this time.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2020

Lockdown critics may have some valid points

It's always worth listening to smart people with ideas that go against the grain.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Mar 30, 2020

We live in neither East nor West

With COVID-19 pulling the world apart, it's the people, from healthworkers to thoughtful neighbors that can bring it back together.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2020

Italy's lockdown tests the limits of democracy

Restrictions on 17 million people are the most draconian in the West, but they're far less strict than China's. The onus is on citizens to comply.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 21, 2019

Review: 'The Nutcracker and the Mouse King' at the New National Theatre, Tokyo

A truly entertaining production of “The Nutcracker” should leave you questioning whether the performance was just a dream. “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” a take on the holiday classic staged by the New National Theatre, Tokyo, in the run-up to Christmas, is no exception. Performed for the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2019

Which Tiananmen narrative is true?

There is little doubt about the Beijing spring of 1989 that called for greater openness, freedoms and democracy in China, or about its suppression. But there is a counter-narrative that receives no mention in the China-bashing mainstream media.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 17, 2019

Boris Johnson slim, trimmed and ready to fight for power

For a man who has made his name as a comical shambles, cracking jokes on talk-shows and scruffing up his famous blond mop, Boris Johnson is taking a deadly serious approach to his work.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 11, 2019

Tabloids press pause as nation celebrates dawn of the Reiwa Era

Welcome one and all to Big in Japan, the Reiwa version. During the just-ended 10-day Golden Week holiday, only one general weekly magazine — Aera (May 13) — went to press, giving it the distinction of being the first publication out of the starting gates in the new era. Aera's coverage of imperial...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 20, 2019

Downsized dwellings: Inside Tokyo's tiny living spaces

Twenty-five-year-old Sotaro Ito lives in a 9.46-square-meter apartment with a loft in the capital's retro-hip Koenji district.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 20, 2019

In search of family and friends in Japan

Here is another of our occasional columns featuring requests from readers who are hoping to reconnect with "long-lost" people in Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 12, 2019

U.S.-led coalition warplanes hit last Islamic State enclave in eastern Syria

U.S.-led coalition warplanes struck Islamic State's last stronghold in eastern Syria and hundreds of civilians fled the besieged enclave on Monday as U.S.-backed fighters pressed their campaign to seize it.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2018

Religion and politics; hopes and disappointments

What a confused and frightened world needs from spiritual leaders is perception, wisdom and illumination, not the same old damaging socialist message from the 1970s.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 23, 2018

Bidding Sir Hugh Cortazzi farewell

Sir Hugh Cortazzi was instrumental in building a foundation of goodwill between Japan and the United Kingdom.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2018

Traumatic memories and concerns for the future unnerve those displaced by Hiroshima rain disaster

Shigenobu Ikeda, 74, dreams of returning to his home in Hiroshima.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 13, 2018

Readers reach out to lost friends and family in Japan

Another of our occasional 'in search of' columns featuring people hoping for a blast from their pasts, along with an update on efforts to help children and parents in international abduction cases.
Students in Japan struggle with Japanese language and math sections on national exam
The correct answer rate for the Japanese language section on a national test dropped to 67.0% from 67.8% the previous year among elementary school sixth-graders.
Japan team finds ancient ocean full of squids
The ancient ocean was full of squids, whose population exceeded that of fish or ammonites, a Japanese research team mainly from Hokkaido University has found through a new method using technology.
Japan researchers identify gut bacteria strain that boosts anticancer drugs
Researchers at the National Cancer Center Japan say a new type of gut bacteria named YB328 could help unlock the potential of cancer immunotherapy.
Tourists in Japan have telemedicine options before calling 119
Foreign tourists at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo. More than 1 million international visitors have a medical issue in Japan every year.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan
After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
With China and Trump, Japan defense report says world entering ‘new era of crisis’
A senior member of a Self-Defense Forces honor guard inspects a formation before the arrival of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for a visit to the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on June 30.
Tokyo stocks hit by a perfect storm of tariffs, politics and budget worries
Tokyo stocks are underperforming shares in other large markets globally.
Japan researchers identify gut bacteria strain that boosts anticancer drugs
Researchers at the National Cancer Center Japan say a new type of gut bacteria named YB328 could help unlock the potential of cancer immunotherapy.
Tokyobike founder believes in taking in sights of dynamic cities slowly
Ichiro Kanai, founder and president of Tokyobike, is developing a niche but a new customer base who want to cycle as part of a lifestyle.
Music idol and anime fandom merch is big business
Businesses who cater to fandoms gathered at Tokyo Lifestyle Week for the second annual Oshikatsu — Merch Collection Expo, a trade show devoted to fandom goods.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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
By Megha Wadhwa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027
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