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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 1, 2018

Hide: The musician whose death rocked Japan

On the evening of May 2, 1998, as most of Japan was basking in the annual Golden Week holidays, a few dozen young women had gathered outside an apartment building in Tokyo's Minamiazabu neighborhood.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 30, 2018

Banning women from the sumo ring: centuries-old tradition, straight-up sexism or something more complex?

In a life-threatening moment, Maizuru Mayor Ryozo Tatami suddenly collapsed while delivering a speech during a sumo exhibition in Kyoto.
EDITORIALS
Apr 30, 2018

Time to tackle the plastic problem

Japan has a crucial role to play in the effort to reduce plastic-based pollution.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2018

A showcase of humanity's vilest and noblest manifestations

Calling the Holocaust unfathomable is a moral flinch from facts that demand scholarship.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 30, 2018

Campaigners say hydropower dam plan threatens Europe's last wild rivers

Plans to build about 3,000 hydropower plants in the Balkans in the next few years endanger Europe's last wild rivers and some of the most important biodiversity hot spots on the continent, campaigners say.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Apr 29, 2018

A wetland works wonders in battered Tohoku

A proposed wetland nature center in Miyagi Prefecture would give wild birds a new home while attracting bird-loving tourists to Tohoku.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 29, 2018

Chichibu: Steeped in tradition, but challenged by industry

The city of Chichibu, about 90 minutes by train from Ikebukuro, Tokyo, has a population of approximately 60,000. The region, which sits in the shadow of Mount Buko and alongside the Arakawa river is steeped in tradition with more than 300 festivals taking place each year.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Apr 29, 2018

Lust for life: A regal kitten with loving personality

Moana the kitten can race up a storm, but she makes up for her exuberance with affection.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / AT A GLANCE
Apr 28, 2018

150 years since the Edo Castle surrender

What's done is done. But what if a historic negotiation over the surrender of Edo Castle between Saigo Takamori, who led the Imperial forces during the fall of Edo, and Katsu Kaishu, the shogunate's army minister, had fallen through 150 years ago? The surrender of the fort, or the collapse of the Tokugawa...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 28, 2018

Confronting the definition of a 'moral education'

How can people be taught to be good? What does "good" mean? "Moral education," the education ministry explains on its website, "aims to develop a Japanese citizen who will never lose the consistent spirit of respect for his fellow man; who will realize this spirit at home, at school and in other actual...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS ABOUT JAPAN
Apr 28, 2018

Clarissa Goenawan's 'Rainbirds': A murder, a cram school, a mystery

Indonesian-born Clarissa Goenawan's debut novel, 'Rainbirds,' is set in Japan, was written in Singapore, and was first published in the U.S. making it something of a transnational literary tour de force.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2018

Trump's long con will last until voters wise up

Donald Trump has exaggerated his wealth for years. In office, he's trying a similar scam.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 28, 2018

Israeli forces reportedly kill three Gaza border protesters, wound 600

Israeli troops shot dead three protesters along the Gaza border on Friday, Gaza medics said, hours after the United Nations human rights chief criticized Israel for using "excessive force" against demonstrators.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 27, 2018

A feast for the senses: Ashikaga offers travelers more than just wisteria

In Tochigi Prefecture, the Ashikaga Flower Park is home to an abundance of wisteria, a plant that has been celebrated across the centuries in Japanese literature.
Japan Times
SOCCER
Apr 27, 2018

Vahid Halilhodzic says firing was a 'shock'

Former national team manager Vahid Halilhodzic insisted Friday that he still had not "found out the truth" as to why he was fired two months before he was set to lead Japan at the World Cup.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 27, 2018

'Avengers: Infinity War': Bold, bombastic and a bit of a bummer

This review contains discussion of plot points that may be seen as mild spoilers for "Avengers: Infinity War."
Reader Mail
Apr 27, 2018

Finding the true meaning of identity

Regarding the package of stories exploring dual citizenship in the April 19 edition, identity is not held in a passport. My mom moved to the U.S. in 1959, and today at 86 has not only kept her Japanese passport all these years, when many of her Japanese friends switched to U.S. citizenship, but also...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 26, 2018

Scientists discover hormone that helps plants sense drought

Plants deserve more credit. They can't move to find food or water, or to escape a predator. But that doesn't mean they are helpless — far from it. They don't have eyes, ears, a nose or mouth, but they can sense the world remarkably well — in some cases better than we can.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 26, 2018

Kuwait orders Philippines ambassador to leave in dispute over reported abuse of domestic workers

Kuwait has ordered the ambassador from the Philippines to leave within a week and recalled its own envoy for consultations after embassy staff tried to "rescue" Filipino domestic workers amid reports of abuse.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / B. League / B. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 26, 2018

Rickert, Ibaraki riding 13-game win streak

The determined, cohesive Ibaraki Robots have entered the second-division playoff picture with a spectacular run in recent weeks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Apr 26, 2018

Yuko Takeuchi steps into an iconic role on 'Miss Sherlock' with elementary ease

Guinness World Records announced in 2012 that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes was the most portrayed character on film and TV, depicted 254 times by more than 75 different actors.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 26, 2018

Nordic cooking, Japanese bounty: Strong Noma current runs through new Tokyo restaurant Inua

The culinary thread running from Greenland to Copenhagen and thence to Hokkaido and the rest of Japan may not be immediately obvious. But those are some of the key points on the line of inspiration behind a new restaurant that will open in Tokyo in late June.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 25, 2018

'Love × Doc': A rom-com on doctor's orders

When successful Japanese scriptwriters direct films, they tend to try too hard, cramming in characters, gags, plot twists and a blizzard of cuts. Sometimes, the busyness works, as in Koki Mitani's "Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald," a 1997 screwball comedy about a chaotic radio broadcast that delivers on its...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 25, 2018

On North Korea's Kim, Trump shifts from 'Little Rocket Man' to 'very honorable' man

Ditching his derisive "Rocket Man" label for North Korea's leader, U.S. President Donald Trump shifted his assessment of Kim Jong Un on Tuesday, calling the dictator — whose country is said to operate a system of gulags — a "very honorable" man.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 24, 2018

Ready Player Win: Morisaki represents Japan in his first Hollywood gig

As far as Hollywood debuts go, it doesn't get much bigger than stepping into a Steven Spielberg blockbuster. For Win Morisaki, it's a giant leap toward his goal of becoming an international actor.

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