Search - life

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 23, 2016

Insect Literature

The Berlin-based author Yoko Tawada recently remarked that one of the difficulties she faced when translating Kafka's short story "Metamorphosis" into Japanese was that the associations Japanese people had with insects — even presumably giant beetles — were different to those of Europeans. Tawada...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 23, 2016

Wind/Pinball

"As long as I had something to transmit," says the narrator of these two short novels from 1979 and 1980, "my existence would be assured." Over three decades later, his creator Haruki Murakami is transmitting all over the world, a Japanese hero of postmodern literature.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 23, 2016

East Coast blizzard may dump record amount of snow on U.S. capital

A winter storm that could bury parts of the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region under nearly 3 feet (90 cm) of snow slammed into Washington on Friday, threatening the nation's capital with record accumulations as it barreled up the populous East Coast.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 22, 2016

Abe indicates pivot toward reduction of wage disparities in policy speech

In a key policy speech for 2016, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledges to promote measures to reduce wage disparities.
EDITORIALS
Jan 22, 2016

World nervously watches China

China's investment-driven growth model is fast crumbling and a new one has yet to take hold.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2016

The bigger Asia builds, the harder it falls?

Could the opening of the world's second-largest building in the heart of Shanghai portend a financial crash?
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jan 22, 2016

12 refugees found drowned on Turkish shore; hypothermia claims trio who reached Lesbos

Twelve bodies were found on Turkey's western coast and 26 people were rescued on Tuesday after a boat carrying migrants bound for Greece capsized, the Turkish coast guard said in a statement.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 21, 2016

Grimes is set to challenge your definition of pop

No matter how hard her fans and the music press campaign to make it happen, Grimes will never become the true pop star they want her to be. Although her otherworldly, Ableton-assisted music is crammed full of hooks fit to sit alongside Rihanna and Taylor Swift in the Top 40, the Canadian musician/producer...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jan 21, 2016

France clearing key conduit above Calais 'Jungle' refugee enclave

French bulldozers have begun to clear a 100-meter (110-yard) strip next to a road that passes above a migrant camp in Calais, as local authorities attempt to secure a busy traffic route between France and Britain.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2016

The bill for China's flawed ascent is coming due

The Chinese government's contract with its 1.4 billion subjects is that it will deliver prosperity and they will be obedient. But how much longer can this deal continue?
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jan 20, 2016

Coaches recall trail-blazing '71 Utah State visit

Many people enjoy the convenience of today's digital era, where they rely heavily on things like email, Facebook and Line to send messages.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 20, 2016

DNA ties fugitive Red Army Faction trio to failed '15 armored car robbery in Germany

Three members of the defunct radical leftist Red Army Faction carried out a failed armed robbery last year to finance their life on the run, German prosecutors believe.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / DAVOS SPECIAL 2016
Jan 20, 2016

Japan takes on global role under 'Vision for Tomorrow'

Vision for Tomorrow is a regional partner community project of the World Economic Forum in collaboration with consulting firm Accenture Japan Ltd. In short, the project aims to contribute to the world by Japan's experience together with today's advanced technology.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / DAVOS SPECIAL 2016
Jan 20, 2016

2020 Olympics host to hold world forum on sport, culture

With a little over four years to go before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, discussions in Japan are gearing up about what positive legacies will come from the international sports extravaganza, sports minister Hiroshi Hase said in an exclusive interview with The Japan Times in January.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / DAVOS SPECIAL 2016
Jan 20, 2016

'Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution'

The world is changing at an unprecedented pace with profound implications. In global governance, the balance of power between nation states and the international framework that managed it in the last century are frayed. The worst refugee crisis in living memory is just one reminder of how geostrategic...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / DAVOS SPECIAL 2016
Jan 20, 2016

Le Corbusier's Japanese ghost lives on in Ueno

The Swiss-French architect and artist Charles Eduoard Jeanneret-Gris, better known as Le Corbusier, was by any measure one of the greatest architects of the twentieth century.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 19, 2016

The frayed edges of modern Japan

In the Edo Period (1603-1868) and the years that followed, Japan made strenuous efforts to bring together its patchwork of feudal regions into a strongly centralized state with a unified culture. Accordingly, the nation now is one of the most homogenous in the world. But there are a couple of places...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 19, 2016

'Daido Moriyama Photo Exhibition'

Jan. 23-Feb. 20
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 19, 2016

Chinese ambassador hails 'inseparable' relationship, urges Japan not to adopt policy of containment

Adopting a policy of containment with regard to China's growing clout would be a mistake, the Chinese ambassador to Japan said Tuesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 19, 2016

El Nino is snow joke for Japan's ski resorts, hit also by declining interest in the sport

The nation's ski industry, hurt by demographics that have aged out many from the sport, this winter has additionally suffered — until this week — balmy, winter weather, courtesy of El Nino.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jan 19, 2016

Radicals seen easily spreading jihadi word in Indonesia's poorly run prisons

Afif was an inmate in a high-security Indonesian jail when he transformed from aspiring radical Islamist to soldier for Islamic State, ready to sacrifice his life for a group based thousands of miles away in the Middle East.
LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
Jan 18, 2016

Let's discuss My Number

My Number, the new personal identification system for social security and taxation matters, kicks off amid data security fears.
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jan 18, 2016

Photo of Helen Keller's 1937 visit to Gifu school discovered

A photo taken during a visit by Helen Keller, a noted humanitarian who overcame being deaf and blind, to Gifu Prefectural School for the Blind in 1937 has been discovered at a late student's house and was donated to the school.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 18, 2016

Trump blasts Cruz as 'nasty guy' as rival fires back over 'New York values'

A rolling brawl between the two U.S. Republican presidential front-runners didn't abate on Sunday as Donald Trump termed his closest competitor, Ted Cruz, "nasty" and the Texas senator stood his ground in criticizing the billionaire's "New York values."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Jan 17, 2016

Please cuddle: a cat named Rikka

This 8-year-old looker is stressed and yearning for a warm home of his own, especially one with people, but preferably not with too many cats.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 16, 2016

Travesty of justice: legal reform unlikely despite erroneous convictions

Two elderly men fighting for decades to clear their names are poised to receive high-profile retrials in 2016 and yet their ordeals are unlikely to trigger wide-ranging reform to the country's justice system, experts 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