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Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 9, 2016

'Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy': Access the back stages of bunraku

High drama with puppets might strike Westerners as an unlikely theatrical experience, but mannequins and those who operate them are accorded considerable respect in Asia.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 9, 2016

'The Silent Dead': A police procedural that works in strange, original ways

In this modern-day police procedural by Tetsuya Honda, homicide investigators are flummoxed by the discovery of two male corpses wrapped in blue plastic tarpaulins in, and near, a pond in Tokyo's Katsushika Ward. When similar submerged bodies are found in Saitama, the pressure builds to track down what...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jul 9, 2016

Nonstop growth, inept management were constant problems throughout the bj-league's 11 seasons

Second in a two-part series
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 9, 2016

Violence again convulses 2016 election campaign, testing Trump, Clinton

In the hours after a gunman shot 12 police officers in Dallas, killing five, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton abruptly canceled campaign events. Their Twitter accounts largely went quiet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jul 9, 2016

Decision to turn Sulu into gay 'Star Trek' character 'unfortunate': Takei

While veteran "Star Trek" actor George Takei might be the inspiration to make fan favorite Hikaru Sulu gay in the rebooted franchise's new film, he called the decision "really unfortunate," media outlets reported Friday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 8, 2016

The herb diet of Okinawa's long-living elders

Young and middle-aged Okinawans are among the most enthusiastic consumers of junk and processed food in Japan. American fast food and a sugar-rich diet have burdened islanders — who once lived staggeringly long lives — with the highest body-mass index rates in the country. Middle-aged men, in particular,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jul 8, 2016

In search of 'natsuzake,' Japan's summer sake

Summer is my least favorite season in Japan. Stepping outside, the heat and humidity hits with startling force: the hot air weighs heavy on my limbs, enveloping me in a stifling and unwelcome embrace. The thought of spending the height of summer in Tokyo fills me with existential dread.
Reader Mail
Jul 8, 2016

Opposition camp needs to retool

It seems clear that the Liberal Democratic Party is going to win the Upper House election, and that if things continue as they are they will just keep winning in the future. So what has gone wrong — because things have gone wrong if the LDP can win any elections — and what should be done?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 7, 2016

New butoh venue aims for intimacy

Butoh has found a permanent home in Kyoto. Appropriately, for a form of dance that originated in Japan but has flown under the radar here, that home is a tiny 154-year-old kura, or storehouse, hidden down an alley and squeezed between a medical college and residential buildings slap bang in the middle...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 7, 2016

Goldblum on cinema's next big villain

Jeff Goldblum, an actor whose quirky comedic delivery has earned him a sizeable cult following, seems to have a thing for science fiction flicks. His latest, "Independence Day: Resurgence," sees the 63-year-old reprise the role of alien-battling scientist David Levinson, who audiences first met in the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2016

Controlling Islamist terror

Unless concerted efforts are made to fight the ideology of jihad and drain the terrorism-breeding swamps, liberal, pluralistic states could come under siege.
JAPAN / Politics / DECISION 2016
Jul 7, 2016

Showdown in apathetic Fukushima finds justice minister scrambling for survival

Justice Minister Mitsuhide Iwaki is feeling threatened.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 7, 2016

Bush, Howard stand by decision to invade Iraq after U.K. report lacerates Blair

British Prime Minister Tony Blair told U.S. President George W. Bush eight months before the 2003 invasion of Iraq "I will be with you, whatever," and relied on flawed intelligence and legal advice to go to war, a seven-year inquiry concluded on Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 7, 2016

UltraSuperNew kicks off summer party season with a mix of live painting and music

When global creative agency UltraSuperNew was thinking up a way to involve its client Heineken beer in a promotional campaign, it decided to throw a monthlong party.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2016

The sobering evidence of social science

Social science cannot tell us what to do, but it can tell us the results of what we are doing.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 6, 2016

Shinzato denies rape, says prejudging by public denies him 'fair trial' in Okinawa

An American man charged with raping and murdering a 20-year-old Okinawan woman says he did not intend to kill her.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 6, 2016

May leads three-horse race for British prime minister; Brexit hurts the pound and property funds

Home Secretary Theresa May opened up a strong lead on Tuesday in what is now a three-horse race to become Britain's next prime minister, but the first stage of voting was overshadowed by post-Brexit carnage for property investors and the pound.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2016

As Japan's population slides, one mayor wrestles with overcrowding

As Japan's population shrinks and ages, some rural communities are in danger of extinction. Yet in Tokyo, one mayor has the opposite problem.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 6, 2016

Beyond Higgs boson: Physicists set to unveil collider's biggest data trove yet

Scientists at Europe's physics research center, CERN, are preparing to unwrap the biggest trove of data yet from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), three years after they confirmed the existence of the elusive Higgs boson.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 5, 2016

The embellished world of Kozan Miyagawa's ceramics

In 1954-55, three Kyoto ceramists of the Sodeisha group of artists began a revolution by creating objects that fulfilled no practical role.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 5, 2016

'Julia Margaret Cameron: A Woman Who Breathed Life into Photographs'

July 2-Sept 19
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Jul 5, 2016

Japan Inc. suffers Brexit fallout as resurgent yen threatens profit outlook

Japan Inc. is already counting the cost of Brexit. The yen's extended surge after the United Kingdom voted to exit the EU has turned the outlook for a gain in annual profit to the first decline in four years.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 5, 2016

Post-Brexit, Britain may need 'Hotel California' model

After the self-inflicted wound of voting to quit the European Union, Britain's best option to limit the mutual economic and political damage could be called the "Hotel California" model.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 4, 2016

New Zealand police find record cocaine haul inside horse decoration

New Zealand customs seized 35 kg of cocaine stuffed inside a decorative diamante-encrusted horse's head that was mailed from Mexico.

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