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Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 19, 2017

Voters in Abe's heartland fear future sales tax hike as they struggle with stagnant wages

Chiyoko Yamamoto works in one of the best regions in Japan — a place with one of the lowest rates of unemployment, a growing economy, and the highest level of female employment in the country.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 19, 2017

DeepMind's superpowerful AI sets its sights on drug discovery

DeepMind, the London-based artificial intelligence company owned by Alphabet Inc., is planning to let its software learn how to fold proteins, an important problem for drug discovery.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 18, 2017

'Dawn Wind in My Poncho': Boys come of age on a typical road trip

Japanese road movies are many; ones featuring high school kids, relatively few. One was Daigo Matsui's 2015 "Our Huff and Puff Journey," about four high school girls in Fukuoka who set off on their commuter bikes to see a concert in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Oct 18, 2017

Tokyo's 'Blade Library' offers joy of blade running to amputees

Haruta Saito, a young amputee who dreams of becoming a Paralympian, remembers strapping on a prosthetic "running blade" for the first time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 17, 2017

Psych-rock act Kikagaku Moyo makes a virtue of DIY and keeping it 'sloppy'

If you were to glance at Kikagaku Moyo's tour itinerary for 2017, it would be easy to forget that the group was Japanese at all. The psych-rock quintet recently completed the second leg of a European tour that encompassed nearly 50 dates, having racked up 26 shows around North America earlier in the...
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Oct 17, 2017

Olympic legend Button's advice for Hanyu: Don't overtrain

One of the great aspects of being a sportswriter is the people the job puts you in contact with.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Oct 17, 2017

A divided Iraq tests U.S. influence as fight against Islamic State wanes

After years of focusing divided Iraq on a shared fight against the Islamic State group, the United States is now straining to leverage its limited influence to avoid a full-blown conflict between the Iraqi and Kurdish forces it has armed and trained.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 16, 2017

A world without exhaust pipes

The growing popularity of electric vehicles is set to curb one of the largest sources of global pollution, but consumption bias continues to impede many buyers' embrace of the technology.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 16, 2017

Clinton blames election loss on sexism and 'maddening double standards' as she urges women to organize

Former U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton blamed her 2016 election loss to Donald Trump on sexism and the "double standards" women are held to in public life during a promotional tour for her new memoir in Britain on Sunday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 15, 2017

Shine On! works its animal magic on kids facing tough times

Shine On! Kids offers support and encouragement to very ill children and their families around Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Oct 15, 2017

How Japan's service industry is trying to adapt to the worst labor crunch in 25 years

Before Hisashi Kanbe in 2013 introduced BakeryScan, the world's first image recognition checkout system designed specifically for bread, it was the job of every bakery worker in Japan to memorize the assorted prices of each baked good — from baguettes back to bagels.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Oct 15, 2017

North Korea's Kim works to turn missile-testing outpost into tourism cash cow

In the seaside city of Wonsan, North Korean families cook up barbecues on the beach, go fishing, and eat royal jelly flavored ice cream in the summer breeze. For their leader Kim Jong Un, the resort is a summer retreat, a future temple to tourism, and a good place to test missiles.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Oct 14, 2017

Autumn is peak season for ‘sanma,’ a once-common fish that's playing hard to catch

The sanma (Pacific saury) that's caught at this time of year is rich with heart-healthy oils, and is considered a quintessential autumn delicacy in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 14, 2017

'Yuki Means Happiness': A foreign nanny novel set in Japan

Although cultural mores are changing, foreign nannies remain a rarity in Japan compared with many Western countries. Rarer still is the foreign nanny novel set in Japan.
BUSINESS
Oct 14, 2017

U.S. regulators OK Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley natural gas pipelines

RICHMOND, Virginia
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 14, 2017

California wildfires rage as death toll hits record 35

Fire officials in Northern California reported further headway on Friday against the most lethal outbreak of wildfires in state history, as the death toll rose to 35 and teams with cadaver dogs combed charred ruins for human remains.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 13, 2017

In surprise move, Samsung CEO Kwon Oh-hyun to resign after record profit

The chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics Co. is stepping down in a surprise resignation after decades at the company, saying it needed new leadership following a bribery scandal that led to the imprisonment of its de facto chief.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 13, 2017

Dempagumi.inc's Risa Aizawa on the true power of fashion

Fashion designers can be stiff creatures, especially when it comes to divulging their history or feelings in an interview. However, Risa Aizawa is not your run-of-the-mill fashion designer. She is a member of the five-person Akihabara-born idol group Dempagumi.inc, known more for it's hard-core dedication...
EDITORIALS
Oct 13, 2017

Responding to the suffering from the nuclear crisis

Lawmakers need to come to grips with the lessons from the 2011 accident and the government's responsibility for the safety of nuclear power.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 13, 2017

China bars British activist from Hong Kong, says territory's affairs are 'purely internal matter'

China said on Thursday it had the right to bar people from Hong Kong, a day after a British activist was denied entry into the former British colony, and that it had complained to Britain after it demanded an explanation.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2017

U.S. hikes tensions in talks to renew NAFTA with call for 'sunset clause'

Washington has dramatically increased tensions in talks to renew the North American Free Trade Agreement by proposing that the life span of any new deal be limited to five years, people familiar with the negotiations said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / AUTUMN HOTEL SPECIAL
Oct 13, 2017

Rest and relaxation in tranquil forest setting

Under the concept of creating a "villa in the woods," Kanaya Resort Hakone will celebrate its grand opening on Nov. 3, as the latest addition to the Kanaya Resorts family to offer guests the ultimate in a sophisticated and comfortable stay.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Oct 13, 2017

Kobe Steel cheating scandal driven by competition to improve metals, especially for automakers

Behind the scandal engulfing Kobe Steel Ltd. over the falsification of data for some of the materials it supplied is a harsh reality for Japanese steel companies: the need to provide higher and higher quality metals to compete.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 10, 2017

Tokyo remodels the 'design event'

If Akio Aoki had his way, there would be one new word included in dictionaries across the globe: "Designart."
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 10, 2017

Asia-Pacific region at higher risk from disasters, U.N. warns in report

Natural disasters could become more destructive in the Asia-Pacific region, where a person is already five times more likely to be affected than in other area of the world, the United Nations warned Tuesday, urging countries to invest in resilience plans.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Oct 10, 2017

North Korean 'princess' now one of the secretive state's top policy makers

The promotion of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's 28-year-old sister to the country's top decision-making body is a sign he is strengthening his position by drawing his most important people closer to the center of power, experts and officials say.

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