Search - life

 
 
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Aug 16, 2018

Bucking superstition, Japanese woman tunnels way to top of civil-engineering world

For civil engineer Reiko Abe, 55, being competent at her job was never enough. Her sex and the superstitions surrounding it caused her to be turned away from job interviews and construction sites in Japan.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 16, 2018

Why AI won't replace doctors yet

IBM's Watson supercomputer lacks one key element that experienced physicians have in abundance — tacit knowledge.
Japan Times
SOCCER
Aug 16, 2018

Keisuke Honda's globetrotting career leads to Australia

Six weeks ago, Samurai Blue star Keisuke Honda announced that he had participated in his last World Cup and hinted that retirement was on the table.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 16, 2018

Summer Sonic's helter-skelter lineup provides a lot of chances for younger Japanese acts

When it comes to music festivals in Japan, Fuji Rock is the pretty one, Rock in Japan is the domestic one and Summer Sonic is the crowd pleaser. Past headliners have included acts as diverse as Metallica, Beyonce, Green Day and Stevie Wonder.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Aug 15, 2018

Sharing a cup of Japanese tea with the world

Shizuoka Prefecture, which is Japan’s biggest tea producing region and accounts for around 40 percent of all the nation’s tea production, is seeing its tea market slowly die due to severe aging issues among tea farmers and a plunge in tea leave prices caused by wholesalers looking for cheap leaves...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Aug 15, 2018

Made men: Tokyo-based 'yakuza' talent agency delivers the real deal

They aren't just acting tough; they really are tough.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2018

How your personality affects your paycheck

A new study suggests that extroverts are paid more and 'agreeable' men get less.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2018

'Killing for the Prosecution': A complex crime drama stuffed with exposition

Once a maker of Hollywood-style sci-fi ("Gunhed," 1989) and noir ("Painted Desert," 1993), Masato Harada has become a director of films about fact-based, character-testing group missions, be it police routing radicals from a Karuizawa villa ("The Choice of Hercules," 2002) or samurai fighting the biggest...
BUSINESS
Aug 15, 2018

Illinois attorney general sues Trump Tower Chicago for river environmental violations

Illinois' attorney general announced a lawsuit on Tuesday against Trump Tower in Chicago, alleging the violation of environmental laws and a threat to fish in the Chicago River.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 15, 2018

Yosemite reopens its valley as flames and smoke linger in deadly wildfire's wake

The heart of Yosemite National Park in California, shut down for nearly three weeks due to a deadly wildfire, was reopened to visitors on Tuesday, but smoke limited visibility and a key route to the park's best known landmarks remained closed.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 14, 2018

Indians outfielder Leonys Martin recovering from bacterial infection

Cleveland Indians outfielder Leonys Martin is recovering from a bacterial infection that team president Chris Antonetti described as "life-threatening."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 14, 2018

'Imitation Exhibit'

Aug. 9-Sept. 2
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 14, 2018

Initially let go, Florida man charged with manslaughter in 'stand your ground' shooting

A Florida man was charged with manslaughter on Monday for fatally shooting another man on July 19 during an argument over a parking spot, after police initially declined to arrest him due to the state's "stand your ground" self-defense law, officials said.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 13, 2018

U.S. prosecutors to wrap up Manafort case; trial may soon go to jury

U.S. prosecutors on Monday plan to wrap up their tax and bank fraud case against former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, making it likely the case will go to the jury by midweek if the defense decides not to call any witnesses.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2018

Birds of a feather do fall out sometimes

Seasoned diplomats are much subtler and more prudent than badgers of the same stripe.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 13, 2018

Gender discrimination: Nation's dignity is being questioned

Are the rigged entrance exams at Tokyo Medical University merely the tip of the iceberg?
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Aug 13, 2018

The good, the bad and the 'by all means' of 'zehi' in Japanese

A closer look at u662fu975e(u305cu3072), which means 'good and/or bad' or 'by all means.'
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Aug 13, 2018

Arrested and killed: Inside the Bangladesh prime minister's war on drugs

Bangladesh police arrested Riazul Islam as he was walking home from his in-laws' house. At 3:15 a.m., he was shot dead in a sandy field beside a set of railroad tracks north of Dhaka.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 11, 2018

Shocked to silence: Yasuhiro Fujio reflects on S. Pellegrino Young Chef title

The lights flashed, the music swelled and glittering confetti streamed down onto a stage filled with culinary luminaries. It was the moment of truth, the denouement of an intense, year-long and worldwide competition. And there in the spotlight, receiving the winner's trophy as S. Pellegrino Young Chef...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Aug 11, 2018

Designer Linda Polgar gives vintage textiles a new lease of life

Longtime Tokyo resident on choosing fabric, fashion designers and surviving Japanese summer.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 11, 2018

'The Penguin Book of Haiku': Morsels of poetry from the mountaintop to the gutter

According to author and translator Adam L. Kern, there's a pervasive myth that haiku is only nature poetry, that it is always serious and connected to Zen, that there are hardly any women haiku poets. But haiku covers far greater ground.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2018

There's nothing wrong with being wrong

Humans are built to make mistakes. Admitting them is crucial to a functioning democracy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Aug 11, 2018

'Asian August' comes to Hollywood, but will it last?

Phil Yu is excited. The Los Angeles-based blogger saw an advance screening months ago of "Crazy Rich Asians," and now the first Hollywood movie with an all-Asian cast in 25 years is about to arrive in theaters, along with two other predominantly Asian films.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 10, 2018

Taking the path once trodden by Ian Fleming and James Bond

In 1962, Ian Fleming, the author of James Bond, visited Japan. His journey here, and the characters he met, would go on to inspire 007's adventures in 'You Only Live Twice.' But in 2018, how possible is it to retrace the author's footsteps across Japan?
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2018

In the Age of Malware we're flirting with national disaster

The things we like about the Internet are the same things that make us vulnerable to its dangers.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / FOCUS
Aug 10, 2018

Chinese women create WeChat group in wake of wave of sex harassment cases

Battling censorship and stereotypes, Chinese women are organizing online to harness the momentum of the country's nascent #MeToo movement in a push for authorities and businesses to end sexual misconduct.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Aug 10, 2018

'Namie Amuro generation': Okinawa moms pursue dream of fame

Five Okinawa women in their 40s, who practiced singing and dancing as teens at the same school as pop diva Namie Amuro, have recently relaunched their music careers after a lengthy break with a goal of achieving fame.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past