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Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jan 10, 2014

Chubu won't stop at just 10 million tourists

The government achieved its target of seeing 10 million tourists in 2013, thanks largely to the easing of visa requirements for Southeast Asian travelers and the weakening of the yen to fight deflation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 8, 2014

New York's Apples make a big impression

In the last three months since I arrived in New York to study American drama with a grant from the Asian Cultural Council, a U.S. nonprofit dedicated to international cultural exchange, I have been to the theater more than 70 times — including at least a dozen visits to somewhere that's been a truly...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 4, 2014

Kenya Hara: the future of design

Sitting at a plain white table in a meeting room high up on the 12th floor of a narrow building in central Tokyo, product designer Kenya Hara asks me to picture a shallow plate in my mind. "Now imagine a slightly deeper plate," Hara says, "that gets deeper and deeper and eventually becomes a bowl."
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 30, 2013

Where the wild things are: the animal social network

Stumpy is a hulking fixture in seas around Ningaloo Reef off the coast of Western Australia. Photographed there often, he has a tranquil, inquisitive demeanor — despite his 10-ton heft.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 27, 2013

Centrair eager to use idle ¥3 billion bus lounge

Five years after completing its bus lounge, Chubu Centrair International Airport will finally make the bus service available to the public starting from the Golden Week holidays next spring.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEDGE
Dec 22, 2013

'Abenomics' exposing sheltered dairy farmers

The price of raw milk sold to dairy product makers rose by ¥5 per kg in October as imported cattle feed gets costlier amid the weakening yen.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 20, 2013

Haiyan victims still suffering as Christmas nears

More than a month has passed since Typhoon Haiyan demolished a large number of towns and villages in the central Philippines, and the people now have sufficient supplies of food and other basics. But most lost their homes and are now having to live in the open, according to the International Children's...
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN WEB WATCH
Dec 17, 2013

Looking at 2013's Japanese social-media scene

In the Japanese social-networking scene, Facebook still isn't dominating the way it does in the United States and many other countries. There are several other networks in Japan, both old and new, that occupy unique positions, though 2013 was an unusually quiet year, with no big takeovers among social-networking...
Japan Times
JAPAN / FUKUSHIMA FILE
Dec 15, 2013

Fukushima loses first high school to meltdowns

A private high school in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, will close for good at the end of March because the nuclear disaster has decimated enrollment, school officials said.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 13, 2013

Nagakute turns on rogue pond turtles

The rampant rise of red-eared terrapins is posing an ecological threat in a park in Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 12, 2013

Ice-cream businesses fight the winter chill

With temperatures this year that peaked in the mid-30s, made only worse by Tokyo's hair plastering humidity, there were two major topics that were featured prominently on television: how hot it was and what could be done to beat the heat. Cameras showed long lines of people wearing sandals and cooling...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2013

Can JAL deliver the iced goods for Japan Post?

Japan Post has begun delivering refrigerated parcels overseas through an exclusive deal with Japan Airlines, but the future of the tie-up remains murky due to JAL's limited cargo services and intensifying competition with rival delivery firms.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 6, 2013

Fires thrive along with exports of scrap

Firefighters and the Japan Coast Guard have been plagued with a growing number of blazes breaking out among piles of mixed scrap in harbors and on board ships, with the most recent one occurring in Mikawa port in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Nov 29, 2013

Future teachers get prepped for foreign pupils

A lot of teachers have a tough time teaching children of foreign nationalities due to the language barrier and cultural differences.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2013

Paul Greengrass brings real-life action to the screen with 'Captain Phillips'

Paul Greengrass once seemed like the least likely candidate to be a director of Hollywood blockbusters: the Cambridge graduate started his career by putting in 10 years as a documentary filmmaker/journalist for the hard-hitting British current affairs program "World In Action." When he moved into feature...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Nov 27, 2013

Pope criticizes unfettered capitalism in statement

Pope Francis on Tuesday sharply criticized growing economic inequality and unfettered markets in a lengthy paper outlining a populist philosophy that he says will guide his papacy as he pushes the Catholic Church to reach out more, particularly to the disenfranchised.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Nov 27, 2013

Pope denounces trickle-down economics in critique of inequality

Pope Francis on Tuesday sharply criticized growing economic inequality and unfettered markets in a lengthy paper outlining a populist philosophy that he says will guide his papacy as he pushes the Catholic Church to reach out more, particularly to the disenfranchised.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 26, 2013

State secrecy bill could have a chilling effect on reporting

The state secrecy bill currently before the Diet could have a chilling effect on news reporting in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 26, 2013

If your baby needs a name, let the Internet decide

There's little doubt that Mei Xiang is a thoroughly modern mother, what with the fertility treatments and 24/7 video baby monitor and all. But if you need one more piece of evidence that the giant panda of the National Zoo in Washington is perfectly on trend, consider the process for naming her new cub:...
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEDGE
Nov 24, 2013

Firm's tech takes out chemical arms

A Japanese firm claims it has technology that can help Syria dispose of its chemical weapons in line with a Sept. 27 United Nations Security Council resolution ordering the nation to do so.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 23, 2013

Sendai Charter to aid conservation across Asia

Sendai is lovely at this time of year, its tree-lined streets alight with autumn colors.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Nov 22, 2013

NGO helps towns ignored on Leyte

International Children's Action Network, a nonprofit organization based in Nagoya, is providing aid to Leyte Island after Typhoon Haiyan devastated the central Philippines on Nov. 8.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2013

How Beijing shapes outside perception of China

Beijing uses visa denials and censorship to pressure foreign media and academics to portray China in a favorable light.
Japan Times
JAPAN / FUKUSHIMA FILE
Nov 17, 2013

Fukushima evacuees' housing units crumbling

The temporary housing units sheltering those displaced by the March 11 quake, tsunami and nuclear disasters are falling apart just as winter sets in.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Nov 15, 2013

Lamborghini sets up shop at NITech

Nagoya Institute of Technology in Aichi Prefecture has teamed up with Lamborghini SpA on finding a way to mass produce carbon fiber-reinforced plastic so the light yet durable material can be applied to products other than cars and planes.

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