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ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 20, 2017

Warmbier death is latest twist in fraught U.S.-North Korea ties

Otto Warmbier, an American college student who fell into a coma while detained by North Korea and was returned to the U.S. last week in a stunning display of diplomatic prowess, has died, his family said Monday — the latest twist in increasingly fraught ties between Washington and Pyongyang.
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2017

Fiery indictment of U.K. inequality

The tragedy at Grenfell Tower, the worst such disaster in British history, demands a reassessment of the attention given to the poorest and most vulnerable in British society — and a similar reckoning by other governments.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2017

Why tower blocks are unfit for public housing

Countries that still house many of their poor in tower blocks need to work on moving them out into human-scale housing that can be maintained more efficiently.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2017

Tough kindergartens finding favor with Japanese parents

A day at the Buddy Sports kindergarten in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, starts with a morning run, with the children usually jogging about 3 km before class starts at 10 a.m.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2017

Wealthy Chinese rise to 1.6 million in past decade, up nearly nine times: survey

The number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in China has risen nearly nine times since a decade ago, a private survey released on Tuesday showed, as strong growth in the world's second-largest economy has spurred wealth creation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 20, 2017

Lynyrd Skynyrd sues ex-drummer over movie about 1977 plane crash

Surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd have filed a lawsuit against the Southern rock band's former drummer to halt the production of a movie depicting the 1977 plane crash that killed lead singer Ronnie Van Zant.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2017

Boeing launches new version of 737 with flurry of orders at subdued Paris air show

Boeing unveiled a new version of its bestselling 737 aircraft on Monday, injecting life into a faltering civil aviation market as French President Emmanuel Macron flew in to open the world's biggest air show in Paris.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jun 19, 2017

In Myanmar, religious tensions simmer after Muslim schools shuttered

Chit Tin, a 55-year-old Muslim man has prayed at the same madrassa in eastern Yangon his whole adult life, most of it spent under a junta that crushed opposition, ruined Myanmar's economy and turned it into an international pariah state.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 19, 2017

Van attack targets worshippers after prayers at London mosque

A van plowed into worshippers leaving a London mosque Monday, killing at least one person and injuring 10 others in what witnesses said was a deliberate attack on Muslims.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 19, 2017

Sinister world of the dark web is just a few clicks away

The internet has long been an essential fixture of people's lives. But the candy-colored cupcake photos on Instagram and hilarious animal videos on YouTube are just the sugar-coated, cat-tastic surface of the internet.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 18, 2017

Japan’s 'kanban' are still hanging in there

Little information remains about the personal life of the artisan Kojiro Shimizu. His personality and interests, his passions and motivations — all are shrouded in mystery. What we know is that he worked in Kyoto in the late 19th and early 20th century and that he appeared to be on good terms with...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Jun 18, 2017

Angels in our midst: a cat named Mizukiri

Mizukiri owes his life to one of those rare gems among us who refuse to turn a blind eye when they encounter a creature in need.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2017

Abe's infrastructure reforms hit roadblock as cities balk at effort to mend Japan's aging sewer systems

Hidden beneath its streets, Japan's aging sewer pipes spotlight a challenge that has held back reforms Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing to revitalize the world's third-biggest economy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jun 17, 2017

'Flowering of the Bamboo': Revisiting the mass poisoning of 1948

The acronym GUBU (grotesque, unusual, bizarre and unprecedented) fits the mass murder at the Teihoku Bank in Tokyo on Jan. 26, 1948. Sixteen people were deliberately poisoned, including an 8-year-old boy. More money was left behind than stolen.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 17, 2017

'Harmless Like You': An estranged mother and son tied together by art

"Harmless Like You" centers on the lives of a mother, who is an artist, and her son, an art dealer. Neither are particularly likable characters and both freely admit to their weirdness.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 17, 2017

Rand Castile, distinguished Asian art curator

Rand Castile, who passed away last month, was a noted curator of Japanese art.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2017

Online merchants wary of Amazon feel warm embrace of … Wal-Mart?

Chad Rubin began selling vacuum cleaner parts on Amazon.com Inc. in 2008 and turned it into a multimillion-dollar business. But in recent years, Rubin has found it increasingly difficult to compete on the cluttered site, where he has been forced to buy advertising that cuts into his profit. Last year,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 16, 2017

Squeezing paper from a stone: an entrepreneur's approach to ease deforestation

Stone tablets were one of the earliest writing tools used by man before paper. One entrepreneur now plans to take things full circle by making paper out of stone.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 16, 2017

Drifting through the storied sand dunes of Tottori

The woman from Ethiopia, resplendent in a scarlet headdress and gold ear pendants, blended in splendidly with the vast dune plateau.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jun 16, 2017

Sexual orientation remains a taboo subject in schools, leaving students in the dark

Whenever Shigeyoshi Suzuki, 39, a public elementary school teacher in Tokyo, sees children voicing anti-gay slurs or taunts, he will always put a stop to it and make them aware of the harms of such discrimination.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2017

Why the media keeps missing political earthquakes

The widely embraced political certainties of the 1980s and 1990s are dead, and those who still cling to them are condemned to repeat, 'I was wrong.'
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2017

Tattoo artist goes to court to legally shed shady image ahead of 2020 Games

Tattoo artists in Japan lobbied Tuesday for better legal protection of a profession that has long been associated with organized crime, seeking to end a decades-old prejudice as the nation braces for an influx of tourists and athletes sporting body art ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 14, 2017

Discovering the 'it girl' of turn-of-the-century Paris in 'The Dancer'

Loie Fuller was the ultimate "it girl." A little-known dancer from Illinois, she wound up in turn-of-the-century Paris, smack-dab in the middle of La Belle Epoque. Her friends? They were artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and filmmakers the Lumiere Brothers, and her protegee was acclaimed dancer Isadora...

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