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Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Nov 2, 2011

Shōgi showdown for supercomputer

Eiki Ito, 49, started programming a shōgi (Japanese chess) computer in 1998, because back then, he says, his job with an IT firm wasn't keeping him busy enough. Thirteen years later, his pet machine boasts a computing ability of 4 million moves per second. And it may well soon beat one of the strongest...
EDITORIALS
Oct 30, 2011

Sleepless in Tokyo

If you ever wonder why Tokyoites are always sleeping on the train, a report at the 6th World Congress of the World Sleep Federation explains why: They're not sleeping enough at home.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INDIA-JAPAN SYMPOSIUM
Oct 24, 2011

India bids for closer East Asia ties for regional integration

India wants to play a role in the economic integration of Asia through closer ties with East Asian powers including China — despite a long history of political hostility — and Japan, journalists and experts from India said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 23, 2011

Tying up the loose ends of gaijin life

A ROOM WHERE THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER CANNOT BE HEARD: A Novel in Three Parts, by Levy Hideo. Translated by Christopher D. Scott. Columbia University Press, 2011, 115pp., $19.95 (hardback) One is certain that more than a few reviewers of Levy Hideo's "A Room Where The Star Spangled Banner Cannot Be Heard"...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 22, 2011

Yawn of the dead? Not in this life

"The reason I love zombies . . ."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 21, 2011

Overcoming disaster via cinematic therapy

Back in May, the rumor among cinephiles in the Japanese media was that the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) wouldn't happen this year. The mood was that it was too soon after the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 to hold anything festive, especially in the visual-arts scene. All over Japan,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 21, 2011

Now's your chance to catch up on Japanese cinema

Non-Japanese residents in Tokyo who want to see new and classic Japanese films but are frustrated by the small number of subtitled screenings can catch up — and move ahead — at the Tokyo International Film Festival (Oct. 22-30).
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2011

The EU's clean-air turbulence

Passengers flying to and from Europe face higher fares from next year, and anyone flying to Japan or Asia will pay sharply more than those staying within Europe or going to the Middle East, thanks to new rules from the European Union in pursuit of an oxymoron, making air travel environmentally friendly....
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Oct 18, 2011

Noda, tear down this 'nuclear village'

Dear Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, The Great East Japan Earthquake was a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions. While the quake and tsunami did tremendous damage to Tohoku, the triple meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant did even more harm to the country by threatening the health of the population,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 16, 2011

In the pink down on the Rio Negro

Agreat splash, sounding as if a sumo wrestler had just belly-flopped into a swimming pool, echoed up through the wooden floor of my cabin. Yes, the floor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 14, 2011

'Captain America: The First Avenger'

Anyone who grew up reading comic books from decades past will surely recall the ubiquitous "Hey Skinny!" ads for the Charles Atlas bodybuilding program. They featured a pigeon-chested weakling named Joe who gets humiliated in front of his girlfriend by a beefy bully; after trying the Atlas program, Joe...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2011

Jobs leaves questions behind

Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. deserves praise as a remarkable radical thinker and businessman who made path-breaking innovations to transform modern life, from the Mac computer to the smart — both in looks and in performance — iPhone, iPod and iPad. But I would like to raise some deliberately jarring...
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2011

Up from the heritage of monsters

They didn't invite the city fathers of Ferrol, the birthplace of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, the bloody tyrant who ruled Spain from 1938 to 1973, so the conference can't just have been about fascist dictators.
EDITORIALS
Oct 9, 2011

The man who dented the universe

Steve Jobs, the visionary entrepreneur, passed away at the age of 56. Few people have had a more profound influence on the world. Mr. Jobs' genius lay in his ability to see technology for what it is — a tool that has the capacity to transform how we live.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 8, 2011

Communication skill, beyond language, called key necessity

When Mark Rubiner drove tens of thousands of kilometers from Arizona to Mexico and through South America when he was only 21 years old, his high school Spanish skills became a key tool for survival.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2011

Battle line over the renminbi

Talk of a new "trade war" over the allegedly undervalued Chinese currency is yet again echoing through the corridors of power in Washington. The U.S. Senate seems determined to pass a bill penalizing China for manipulating the renminbi to keep its value artificially low. Beijing has responded by "regretting"...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 7, 2011

Welbeck leads charge as England looks to punch ticket

We smiled when, in May 2009, Sir Alex Ferguson said that Danny Welbeck was going to make it "at the highest level" and would be part of England's 2010 World Cup squad.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 6, 2011

Gamarjobat: Pantomime artists who have plenty to say

Tough-looking with their cockscomb mohawks — the red one topping Ketch!; the yellow one, HIRO-PON — the "silent-comedy" duo Gamarjobat ("Hello" in Georgian) are now well into a 31-stop tour that's filling theaters around the country with whoops and rollicking laughter — as well as their own "language"...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2011

Ex-East Bloc states reflect on the Arab Spring

A seamless political thread running through the current U.N. General Assembly debate has been that of the Arab Spring, the movement that has shifted the political sands throughout the Middle East.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 2, 2011

Japan's leaders still don't get it — but whither that 'heretical' 1960s spirit?

Upwards of 2,000 demonstrators clash with riot police. Sections of trains are set alight, the fire spreads into the station and trains don't start running until late in the morning. In the middle of the night, some 450 people are arrested.
EDITORIALS
Oct 2, 2011

Resources used up this year

This year, humanity used up its annual "allotment" of renewable resources on Sept. 27. Dubbed Earth Overshoot Day by the Global Footprint Network (GFN) and its member organization nef (New Economics Foundation), Sept. 27 was the day on paper when humanity began adding to its ecological debt.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 2, 2011

Satoshi Kamata: Rebel spirit writ large

Monday, Sept. 19, was Respect for the Aged Day in Japan. But on that sweltering national holiday, it wasn't the heat that that drew tens of thousands of people to Meiji Park in central Tokyo, but their concerns for all the nation's citizens, and others, who may face a threat from nuclear power.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 30, 2011

Win free tickets for karate tourney

Readers of The Japan Times have the opportunity to win 10 pairs of free tickets for the 10th Shinkyokushinkai World Karate Championship to be held at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on Oct. 22-23.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 27, 2011

Ichifuji owners Midori and Takashi Nakao

Midori and Takashi Nakao, 55 and 61, are the owners of Ichifuji, a shop selling Japanese crockery in Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market. Established in 1951, the store is located in one of the oldest buildings in the jōgai shijō or outer market. More than 5,000 types of Japanese tableware are available to...
Reader Mail
Sep 22, 2011

A prevalent form of propaganda

Tom Pierson, whose Sept. 18 letter ("Pro-Israeli policy at what price?") demonizes Israel without justification, might know that anti-Israel propaganda is prevalent everywhere and that it is not some "elephant in the room" that no one will discuss. He somehow connects 9/11, high gas prices, increased...
COMMENTARY
Sep 22, 2011

More capital for EU banks or else

Europe's banking crisis — and "crisis" is used advisedly — tells us how much and how little has changed since the onset of global financial turmoil in September 2008. Then, people worried about the viability of major American banks, loaded with "toxic" mortgage-backed securities whose value was difficult...

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers