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JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Feb 14, 2015

Doomsday fever spurs a religious revolution

Sometimes the world seems eternal; sometimes the end looms black and near. We moderns know the apocalyptic mood well, having survived Dec. 21, 2012, in spite of an ancient Mayan "prediction" of doom on that date, but, facing as we do numerous other portents of extinction — climate change, environmental...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 12, 2015

How art deco stripped nudity of eroticism

When the Teien Museum of Art reopened late last year, after a period of refurbishment and expansion, the exhibition held was no real test for either the main building or the newly added annex. The art of Rei Naito was so minimalist that it seemed as though it was hardly there.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 12, 2015

Obama's lovefest with Modi

There are questions about how deep the relationship is between India and the U.S., as opposed to that between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 9, 2015

Plumbing the delicious depths of February with ume

Traditionally, Kisaragi (如月, the old name for February) was considered a month of hope — a chance to wipe the slate clean and start over. Before the nation switched to the Western calendar, it was the month for ushering in Oshōgatsu (お正月, New Year) and marked a time when everyone took it...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 6, 2015

Amputee women in Japan proudly step forward

Japan isn't the easiest place to live for people with disabilities. Buildings and transportation aren't always accessible; people are apt to regard disabilities as shameful; and a societal tendency to turn away from anything unpleasant makes it difficult to effect change. Nevertheless change is possible,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Feb 4, 2015

At age 50, seeing the writing on the wall

At half a century old, I only look forward — to see how much time is left before my clock runs out.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Feb 4, 2015

Readers' letters: bursting bubbles on gaijin life and the Hague child-abduction treaty

A couple of readers' mails in response to recent Just Be Cause columns by Debito Arudou.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Feb 1, 2015

Bringing a 'cesspool to sushiland' life to the stage

"Coming to Japan was the best decision I've ever made," says Stefhen Bryan, loud and enthusiastically, contrasting with the frown he was making a moment earlier at the miso-flavored ramen he'd ordered and just tasted. "Should've gotten the salt-flavored."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Feb 1, 2015

Not small potatoes: a dog named Satoimo

This dog would make a lovely companion for another canine in need of a friend. And with the right friends, Satoimo himself will grow into an ever more confident and trustworthy partner.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 31, 2015

The mountain village that tried to disappear

Our arrival at Yunishigawa-Onsen Station in Tochigi Prefecture is more than a little disconcerting.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2015

Back to the love hotel for ex-pink film director

Interviews with people you know well can turn awkward if you try to be the probing questioner instead of the coffee-shop companion. No such worries with 61-year-old Ryuichi Hiroki, the former pink film (i.e., soft pornography) director who made his commercial and critical breakthrough with the erotically...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2015

Quirky in-flight magazine files for bankruptcy

AP —Apparently, airline passengers aren't buying enough garden gnomes, superhero pajamas and heated cat shelters. SkyMall has filed for bankruptcy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 22, 2015

Makoto Ozone set to step out with his other family

During his years in New York, pianist Makoto Ozone fronted a number of small combos and gigged with such heavyweights as Branford Marsalis, Gary Burton and Christian McBride. But the collaborators he has come back to time and time again are his Japan-based big band, No Name Horses.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jan 22, 2015

Chocolate delight at Hyatt Regency; Ritz-Carlton offers berry good buffet; Peninsula Spa soothes, pampers

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 21, 2015

Mount Fuji is 'brown hill,' A-Bomb Dome is 'depressing': Whiners diss Japan's wonders

Let's explore what some disgruntled travelers have to say about Japan's most impressive World Heritage Sites.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY
Jan 19, 2015

Magic moments of noncompetitive surfing

Many of the highlights of surfing have more to do with experiencing the splendor and power of the waves than with the competitive ability to ride them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 17, 2015

Lingering outside the way station for the dead

It's a hardy soul who braves Osorezan (Mount Osore), a volcano in Aomori Prefecture known as the Japanese way station for the dead. For most, the name conjures up images of the supernatural and the unknown, but for Marie Mutsuki Mockett, it is a place of healing and beauty.
Japan Times
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 16, 2015

USOC gets Olympic bid wrong again

"Once you become predictable, no one's interested anymore."
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 16, 2015

Manchester United's high-priced squad fails to inspire

It is only Louis van Gaal's cv that is preventing him from receiving the sort of merciless criticism directed at David Moyes last season.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: TECH
Jan 16, 2015

The latest gadgetry of convenience

Michi nails it
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jan 16, 2015

Coffee-cup placement

Dear Alice,
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 14, 2015

Worst-case scenarios make good sense but can lead to silliness

Worst-case scenarios make good sense to too many people in Japan, and in turn influence decisions in ways that can only be described as . . . silly.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 14, 2015

Ichiyanagi opera aims to be 'total work of art'

As part of its 40th-anniversary celebrations, Kanagawa Kenmin Hall in Yokohama will stage a world-premier version of "Legend of the Water Flame," an opera by the renowned composer Toshi Ichiyanagi that's scored around a libretto by a fellow octogenarian, the poet Makoto Ooka.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 11, 2015

Dispelling the glamor factor of Islamic State

The Pentagon is trying to figure out why Islamic State has been so successful at attracting followers. Islamic State's recruitment imagery offers a different, more contemporary and overtly violent form of glamour.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 10, 2015

Code + culture: New Internet artists from Japan

If the Internet is an ocean, why do we spend so much time floating on its surface? What's really going on down there? Not just in the deepest, darkest trenches, but among the forgotten protocols, faulty algorithms and emerging parameters outside the busy shipping lanes and far from the crowded life rafts...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2015

Pakistan at a tipping point

It may be too much wishful thinking to expect the slaughter of 132 schoolchildren and nine teaching staff in Peshawar last month to mark a tipping point that forces Pakistan's squabbling factions, the nominal political rulers, army commanders and judges to put their heads together to prevent their country from becoming a failed state.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 6, 2015

Britain's alt-j finds inspiration in Miley Cyrus and Nara

An un-Googleable delta symbol name (∆), genre-hopping, challenging sounds and esoteric lyrics inspired by Japanese deer are not the usual recipe for surefire pop success. Yet when alt-j arrives in Japan for its debut headline show — catapulted by 1 million album sales, a Mercury prize and a nomination...

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic