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LIFE / Food & Drink
May 31, 2013

Why it matters where our food comes from

The latest trend in fine dining has nothing to do with molecular gastronomy or pan-Latin fusion: Sustainability is the new order of the day. At the influential World's 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony in London last month, the organizers presented their first Sustainable Restaurant Award to Narisawa,...
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2013

Alcohol addiction could doom Putin's dreams

Russians' love for vodka has a long history. Legend holds that vodka arrived in Moscow in the 14th century, brought by Genovese merchants to Prince Dmitry Ivanovich.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 30, 2013

Lottery operators still looking for last year's winners

Seven 2012 grand prize Takarakuji winners still haven't picked up their money.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 30, 2013

After breakthrough covers, James Blake proud that 'Overgrown' belongs to him

For most, the passage from underground dubstep sensation to critically acclaimed, Bon Iver-collaborating, Kanye West-endorsed artist is the kind of career path you can only dream of.
WORLD
May 30, 2013

U.S. Army mulls hybrid-engine model for next mainstay tank

Next year, the U.S. Army is expected to choose a larger tank to replace its Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, which has been in service since 1981. If the army accepts one contractor's proposal, its armored brigades could be relying heavily on a tank with a hybrid engine for several decades.
JAPAN
May 30, 2013

Flak dooms handbook pushing motherhood

A government task force discussing measures to boost Japan's low birthrate has scrapped an idea to give young women handbooks informing them of certain medical facts — including those pertaining to infertility — faced by some women in their late 30s.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 30, 2013

Softbank's bid for Sprint close to U.S. security OK

Softbank Corp.'s $20.1 billion takeover of Sprint Nextel Corp., the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, is close to passing a national security review by U.S. officials, a source said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 30, 2013

K-ballet brings back 'Giselle' and introduces new leads

As summer approaches with the misty other-worldliness of Japan's rainy season, Tokyo's K-Ballet graces the stage in June with a revival of the hauntingly romantic masterpiece "Giselle." Six different ballerinas will perform the lead role as the production synthesizes K-Ballet's changing image from a...
Japan Times
WORLD
May 29, 2013

U.S. scientists wage war on stink bugs

It was an absolutely false claim, but totally believable.
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2013

Dealing with tax avoidance of super-rich firms

In both the U.K. and the U.S., a disconnect exists between those who want to curtail tax havens for the wealthy and those who want low taxes to lure investors.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 28, 2013

281_Anti Nuke's anger at authority is at a critical mass

More than two years after the triple reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, hundreds of thousands of residents of the Tohoku region of northeastern Honshu remain displaced, the power station teeters on the brink of further disaster and large swaths of northern Japan are so irradiated...
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2013

The iron fist in a trade glove

By ratcheting up disputes in the East and South China seas, China shows it doesn't let booming bilateral trade get in the way of its territorial assertiveness.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
May 28, 2013

Sandy's legacy: better hurricane forecasting

With hurricane season just a week away and a very active season predicted by meteorologists, thoughts are on what happened last year, when a tropical cyclone named Sandy raced north from the Caribbean, hung a sharp left off the mid-Atlantic coast and smashed into New Jersey and New York, killing 147...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
May 27, 2013

Can Etsy's crafty goodness be recycled in Japan?

Advertising titan Dentsu and NTT DoCoMo take a stab a launching a Etsy-like site of homemade goodness.
WORLD / Politics
May 27, 2013

U.S. military's camouflage conundrum defies logic

In 2002, the U.S. military had just two kinds of camouflage uniform. One was green, for the woods. The other was brown, for the desert. Then things got strange.
Reader Mail
May 26, 2013

Language debate goes nowhere

I assume that one purpose of publishing The Washington Post article titled "English-language education proposal has French up in arms" on The Japan Times' front page May 20 was to stimulate the ongoing debate about English education in Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 25, 2013

Driverless cars, pilotless planes ... will there be jobs left for us?

Suddenly a robotized, automated economic reality is moving off the science fiction pages and into daily life. The growing use of unmanned battlefield drones is encouraging the growth of pilotless commercial aircraft — the first ever flew in British airspace last month. Google's driverless car is completing...
JAPAN
May 25, 2013

Ex-sex slaves won't meet Hashimoto

Two South Korean former 'comfort women' cancel their planned meeting with Nippon Ishin no Kai coleader Toru Hashimoto, saying via a representative that they don't want to be his political pawns.
EDITORIALS
May 25, 2013

Bill threatens the lives of the poor

By tightening procedures to receive livelihood assistance, a bill just submitted to the Diet could end up raising the suicide rate and the number of deaths by hunger.
EDITORIALS
May 25, 2013

Challenge of a lifetime, again

Having conquered Mount Everest for the third time, Yuichiro Miura, 80, demonstrates the physical possibilities of human endurance while inspiring Japan's elderly.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
May 24, 2013

Electric fireflies to light up river

The Tokyo Hotaru Festival is back for a second round. This participatory art installation involves 100,000 blue LED light bulbs that will be floated down Tokyo's Sumida River.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 24, 2013

Shizuoka theater festival courts the avant-garde

Claude Regy says the team at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) threw him the "best birthday party ever" when he arrived in Japan just days after the actual May 1 occasion.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
May 24, 2013

Asian Queer Film Festival to feature works from South Korea, Cambodia

The LGBT community in Tokyo is hard at work. Not even a month after the Rainbow Pride parade, the biennial Asian Queer Film Festival is set to grace the Cinemart Roppongi this weekend.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 24, 2013

Record haul expected during 20-minute fireworks display

The port city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, located on the country's Noto Peninsula, will be filled with things to do for one week from the end of May as it kicks off its Citizens' Festival.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 23, 2013

Guitarist Dustin Wong brings singer Takako Minekawa out on a 'Toropical' journey

Guitarist Dustin Wong hesitates for a split second. It's a pause that would go unnoticed during most other sets, but Wong has spent the last 40 minutes seemingly in a trance while playing guitar and looping the notes via an array of pedals in front of him. The flurry of interlocking sounds he's produced...
JAPAN
May 23, 2013

Cesium levels in water, plankton baffle scientists

Plankton and seawater samples taken less than a year after the Fukushima meltdowns show high concentrations of radioactive cesium at different locations, puzzling scientists.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’