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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2018

North Korean charm sure beats the alternative

Engaging with Pyongyang may encourage the regime down the path of liberalization.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Dec 2, 2017

Akiko Katayama: Making the leap from business to food in NYC

Accountant-turned-food writer rediscovers the Japanese culinary tradition in NYC.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 26, 2017

Asking questions to the Japanese internet

The website Yahoo! u77e5u6075u888b (Chiebukuro, literally 'bag of knowledge') is a great resource for language learners and for anyone interested in observing Japanese interact online.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBA / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 7, 2017

Nets star Lopez relishes chance to travel globe

Brook Lopez dunks and rebounds basketballs for a living, and — ouch! — collides with fellow 2-meter behemoths in the lane. So when the grind of the 82-game season comes to a halt, the Brooklyn Nets center is eager to take it easy.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 12, 2017

Is the sun setting on the U.S. imperium?

U.S. policy on Asia seems adrift under the Trump administration.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 18, 2017

Darwin specimens showcase evolution for first time in Tokyo exhibition

Charles Darwin certainly did not consider it a sin to kill a mockingbird. The 19th-century English biologist killed many of the birds whilst on board the HMS Beagle survey ship as he traveled around the world. The specimens are more important than you might think and you can see a number of them at "Treasures...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 18, 2017

'Moving Zen' and the modern samurai

"Be true to the thought of the moment and avoid distraction. Other than continuing to exert yourself, enter into nothing else, but go to the extent of living single thought by single thought."
Japan Times
SPORTS / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Nov 1, 2016

San Diego, Chargers hold special place in writer's heart

San Diego may lose its NFL Chargers. And because MAS considers himself an honorary San Diegan, he is despondent over that possibility. Why? Well, it's a long but — MAS hopes — interesting story. So, here goes.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2016

Europe must act in Aleppo because it can

Will Europe surrender what remains of its soul in Aleppo, or will it stop the killing?
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 20, 2016

The gene that may benefit sumo giants

Samoa, with its string of beautiful islands and coral atolls in the South Pacific, is attracting more than just tourists these days. Scientists are heading there, too. The nation holds the uneviable position of being No. 1 in the world for obesity. Among Samoan men, 80 percent are either overweight or...
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jul 29, 2016

England's only World Cup triumph turns 50

The innocence of youth.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 18, 2016

Autism may not be confined to the brain

Thirteen-year-old Naoki Higashida describes his own personal feelings about having autism as follows:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 7, 2016

Ryan McGinley: youth laid bare

In 1980s America the art scene fawned over the infamous "Brat Pack" group of writers that included Bret Easton Ellis, Jay McInerney, Donna Tartt and Tama Janowitz. They portrayed American (privileged) youth in that decade like it was — with all their nitty gritty drug taking, vodka swilling and New...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 16, 2016

Saluting Shakespeare's scientific legacy

On April 23, the literary world marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. It's a good excuse for a lot of fuss: Britain's Royal Mint has produced a new £2 coin, the postal service has prepared a set of commemorative stamps depicting portraits of the Bard and thousands of theaters...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2016

Conservatives in academia need to 'come out'

Unless left-wing academics come to value, or at least tolerate, political diversity, intellectual inquiry in the humanities and social sciences faces a bleak future.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 14, 2015

Zzzz — a novel way to manipulate sleep

The Milinda Panha is a Buddhist text written more than 2,000 years ago. It takes the form of a dialogue between Indo-Greek King Menander I and a Buddhist sage.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Nov 7, 2015

Get kids' education down to a science

If you've read my earlier Child's Play columns, then you probably know that my family and I will visit just about any place that deals with science and technology. Lucky for me, Tokyo is full of these places, but it certainly isn't the only city in Japan with learning opportunities like this.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Oct 21, 2015

Three cases of whine offer lessons in how not to criticize Japan

Novelist John Updike famously declared America to be "a conspiracy to make you happy." I wonder sometimes if Japan is, then, a conspiracy to make you unhappy? Or, if not exactly unhappy, how about uncomfortable, exasperated or confused?
WORLD
Oct 16, 2015

Belgian tourist dies after falling into Chilean geyser

A Belgian woman who suffered burns on 80 percent of her body after falling into a boiling hot geyser last week in northern Chile died on Thursday, the Santiago hospital where she was receiving treatment said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Oct 11, 2015

Japan’s Constitution won’t protect revolting foreigners

It's worth bearing in mind that the most prominent case concerning the constitutional rights of foreigners involved an American who got kicked out of the country for participating in antiwar protests.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
May 23, 2015

With capture of Ramadi, Islamic State expands its hold over region

Almost a year after the Islamic State's shock capture of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, the black flags of the jihadis have been raised over Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province to the west of Baghdad, seat of Iraq's increasingly theoretical central government.
JAPAN / OBITUARY
Mar 31, 2015

Obituary: Jane D. Rees

Longtime columnist for The Japan Times and other publications Jane Rees passed away on March 12 at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. She was 95.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 20, 2014

Love of robots may pave way for better treatment of animals

If chimps had history books, a few individuals would have important chapters devoted to them. One would be David Greybeard, the chimp who in 1960 was observed by Jane Goodall using a piece of grass as a tool.
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.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 10, 2014

Spanish nurse worsens; Madrid blames Ebola infection on human error

The health of a Spanish nurse with Ebola worsened on Thursday and four other people were put into isolation in Madrid, while the country's government rejected claims its methods for dealing with the disease weren't working and blamed human error.
Reader Mail
Aug 20, 2014

Help the 'Well Said' translations

I appreciate the Japanese-language learning columns included in The Japan Times, and read them almost every week. However, I feel that two aspects of the "Well Said" column need improvement.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 14, 2014

The thrill of the job won't pay the rent

"If your work isn't what you love, then something isn't right." — Talking Heads
Japan Times
WORLD
May 11, 2014

Eternal City celebrates legacy of first emperor

Rome, a city that thinks in millenniums, is going through a bout of "Augustus fever" to mark the 2,000th anniversary of the death of its first emperor, who left his mark on Rome and Western civilization like few others.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.