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JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 15, 2014

Creative crooks stay one step ahead

The "Ore, ore" ("It's me") fraudsters and their ilk, who telephone elderly people and pretend to be a relative in need of money to help them out of a jam, keep coming up with new scams.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Nov 5, 2014

Let's ensure no happy returns to Japan for this vile 'dating coach'

After bragging on a YouTube video about degrading assaults on women in Tokyo, Blanc says he's coming back.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Oct 29, 2014

Japan Basketball Association chief Maruo says new league will launch in 2016 despite failure to meet FIBA deadline

Despite facing an expected suspension from FIBA, Japan Basketball Association acting president Mitsuru Maruo insisted that the country's governing body would not stop trying to address and fix its problems, including the unification of the nation's two men's top leagues.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 24, 2014

Lone-wolf attacks on the rise in era of asymmetric war

Six needle-nosed CF-18 fighter jets took off from the Canadian Forces base in Cold Lake, Alberta, on Tuesday to join the coalition fighting the Islamic State group. The next day, a convert to Islam attacked symbols of the Canadian state, killing a soldier and riddling the parliament building with bullets....
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 23, 2014

Gunman killed after shooting in Canadian Parliament; Harper safe

At least one gunman entered the Canadian Parliament buildings on Wednesday and many shots were fired just outside the room where Prime Minister Stephen Harper was addressing a meeting of legislators.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 20, 2014

Subtle humor of haiku's cousin senryū is on a roll

"Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit," philosophizes the long-winded Polonius in Shakespeare's "Hamlet." That's also a fitting description of senryū — a form of short poetry defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as "a three-line unrhymed Japanese poem structurally similar to haiku, but...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 7, 2014

Ryan Hemsworth gives Japan's budding music producers some support overseas

Canadian music producer and DJ Ryan Hemsworth is always on the move. He's zig-zagged across North America, Europe and Australia multiple times over the last two years, an endeavor he has said is "such a crazy luxury, but the most exhausting thing as well." His upcoming trip to Japan, however, is special....
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 29, 2014

Japan Post eyes banking unit to solve ¥700 billion pension problem before IPO

Japan Post Holdings Co. will settle ¥700 billion of pension liabilities to bolster its balance sheet before an initial public offering, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 29, 2014

Developing countries embracing nuclear energy despite Fukushima woes

Three years after Japan closed all of its nuclear plants in the wake of the Fukushima meltdown and Germany decided to shut its industry, developing countries are leading the biggest construction boom in more than two decades.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 21, 2014

New smartphone app gives sight to the blind

Jonathan Mosen, who has been blind since birth, spent a recent evening snapping photos of packages in the mail, his son's school report and labels on bottles in the fridge. In seconds, he was listening to audio of the printed words the camera had captured, courtesy of a new app on his Apple iPhone.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 18, 2014

Comfy life amid stagnation

While information and communications technologies have increased the conveniences and comforts of life in Japan to an unprecedented level, the nation's economy remains stagnant, partly because of the saturation of the auto market.
BUSINESS / NOTEBOOK
Sep 16, 2014

Premium highballs; Noritake dinnerware fair; Hennessy pop-up bar

New Products
WORLD / Politics
Sep 16, 2014

Gordon Brown wrestles with Scotland's fate ahead of referendum

Once mocked for claiming to have saved the world after the 2008 financial crisis, former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown may now have the fate of Scotland in his hands.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 14, 2014

Ford's exit from Toronto mayoral race gives his older brother, the power behind the throne, a crack at the top job

The withdrawal of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and the entry of his older brother in the election race has turned the spotlight from a volatile man who had admitted smoking crack cocaine to his less charismatic but steadier sibling, long seen as the power behind the throne.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2014

Scotland can expect a huge hangover after vote

There will be a lot of hurt heads, a lot of tears and, without a doubt, an immense amount of anger that will last who knows how long if Alex Salmond's dream of an independent Scotland comes true. The referendum campaign has been thrilling but utterly divisive.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 8, 2014

Mind the 'geb': Little word is a big problem for Japan's German residents

Inflexible residence card system leaves married Germans with ridiculously long names on their IDs — along with an annoying little extra word.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Sep 1, 2014

Seward out to have big impact in Japan

Kyoto University's football team recently revealed that it had acquired Adam Seward, a former NFL player, as its new linebackers coach — perhaps the biggest news before the Kansai collegiate season kicked off this past weekend.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2014

Two-headed Russian eagle mulls moves at crossroads

The bicontinental nature of Russia is reflected in its national symbol, a double-headed eagle looking in two directions. That eagle finds itself in a precarious spot now that it must look around for as many non-Western partners and openings for business as possible.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 2014

The Goude, the bad and the ugly

On Aug. 15, 1977, an issue of New York Magazine was released with an image of Jamaican singer and model Grace Jones on the cover: She is almost naked, standing on one very long leg; her oil-coated torso twisting to face the camera, with one hand lightly holding a microphone and the other effortlessly...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 23, 2014

Criminal notoriety for the sake of fame

Hirofumi Watanabe, the man convicted Thursday of threatening publishers, stores, universities and basically anyone or anything that had something to do with the popular manga "Kuroko no Basuke (Kuroko's Basketball)," has enjoyed a peculiar sort of celebrity since he was arrested in December. Prior to...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 22, 2014

Tan's revenge spells end for Mackay

If revenge is a dish best served cold, Vincent Tan's retribution on his former Cardiff City manager Malky Mackay came straight from the freezer.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 17, 2014

Small-minded leaders flirt with a 'sunlit picture of Hell'

One hundred years later, we Americans, Australians, British, Chinese, Europeans, Indians, Japanese, Koreans and Russians still have leaders with the same narrow chauvinist mind-set that sparked World War I, supposedly the war to end all wars.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 11, 2014

Obama-backed Hawaii governor defeated in primaries clouded by storms

Incumbent Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie was soundly defeated in the state's Democratic primary, results showed on Sunday, in an election that came as the state was cleaning up from one powerful storm and preparing for another.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 9, 2014

Support for Scottish independence drops after TV debate: poll

Support for Scottish independence has fallen following a TV debate last week and the campaign to split the United Kingdom will need a dramatic turnaround if it is to win a forthcoming referendum, a poll showed on Saturday.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Aug 2, 2014

The v-word doesn't always mean victory

If you are easily offended, please don't read this column because it's about obscenity laws in Japan and that in itself may be obscene. If my editor will let me, we'll even put up a possibly obscene image! (Don't worry, I won't — Ed.)

Longform

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