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November 22, 2024
 

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Rowan Hooper

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Rowan Hooper
Rowan Hooper has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from Sheffield University, UK, and he worked as an insect biologist in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, for five years before spending a two-year period at The Japan Times in Tokyo. He is now news editor for New Scientist magazine, based in London.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Aug 22, 2007
Spot-billed duck
* Japanese name: Karugamo * Scientific name: Anas poecilorhyncha * Description: A medium-sized, mainly gray duck that has a pale head and a black bill with a bright yellow tip. At 60 cm long, and with mottled "scaly pattern" plumage, it looks and sounds similar to the more familiar mallard, but the...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 8, 2007
How is it our time seems to speed up?
"I never think of the future; I find it comes soon enough."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Aug 8, 2007
Mountain slug
* Japanese name: Yamanamekuji * Scientific name: Incilaria fruhstorferi * Description: Growing up to 20 cm long — bigger than a baby's arm — this is surely no slug, but a monster; a specter from a Hayao Miyazaki movie come to life. If you see one, be prepared to photograph it next to your hand,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 25, 2007
Carpenter bee
* Japanese name: Kumabachi * Scientific name: Xylocopa appendiculata * Description: A large, stout, noisy insect, the carpenter bee spooks most people when they see one. It should not spook any reader of this column, though: the bees are mostly harmless. In fact, males are completely harmless, and females...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 11, 2007
Rock swallow
* Japanese name: Iwa tsubame * Scientific name: Delichon dasypus * Description: The translation of the Chinese name for this bird is smoky-bellied hair-leg swallow. It is also known as the Asian housemartin. It's a small bird, some 12-cm long, and is colored a dark steel-blue above and is white —...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 11, 2007
Satellite of love
Empress Michiko has a habit of gazing at the moon on New Year's Day. How do I know? Well, here's the poem the Empress wrote for this year's New Year poetry reading:
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jun 27, 2007
Soft-shelled turtle
* Japanese name: Suppon * Scientific name: Pelodiscus sinensis * Description: This is a medium-sized turtle whose carapace (the upper part of the shell) grows up to 25-cm long, and is colored olive, gray, or mottled pale green/brown. It has a long head with a pointed snout and bulging eyes, giving it...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jun 13, 2007
Buchi salamander
* Japanese name: Buchi-sansho-uo * Scientific name: Hynobius naevius * Description: This is a lizard-like animal growing from 8 to 15 cm long, including the tail. Also known as the blotched or spotted salamander, it is dark brown with a purple tinge, and has blotches of silver and white spots over its...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 13, 2007
Religion's cute, but creation chemistry is complex
The ancient Chinese believed the universe began inside a cosmic egg. In Japanese mythology, two gods, Izanagi and Izanami, stirred the oceans with a giant spear, forming the islands of Japan and, eventually, its people. There are countless more creation myths. Every culture has them. But I like to think...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 30, 2007
Sex, morals and DNA
It wouldn't be surprising to see a message along the following lines on an Internet dating site: "SJF, 26, wants to meet kind, generous, romantic, honest man."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 23, 2007
Mitten crab
* Japanese name: Mokuzu gani * Scientific name: Eriocheir japonica * Description: A curious-looking crustacean, colored light brown or olive green, the mitten crab does indeed appear to be wearing a furry pair of gloves, with dense tufts growing on the claws, which have white tips. Adults and large...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 9, 2007
OK computer, is that person's face happy or sad?
Afriend of mine told me the other day about the time she was teaching special needs children in Miyazaki Prefecture. One boy had autism, and threw terrible tantrums the first few times my friend came to teach.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 9, 2007
Four-spot midget
* Japanese name: Hinuma itotombo * Scientific name: Mortonagrion hirosei * Description: "Four-spot midget" is an odd name for an insect, but in this case it is entirely accurate. This is a tiny animal, just 25-mm in length with four distinct spots on the top of the thorax. Males and females are the...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 25, 2007
Oil beetle
* Japanese name: Hime tsuchihanmyo * Scientific name: Meloe coarctatus * Description: A handsome (at least I think so) shiny black beetle, with long legs and an elongated body, which unusually has short elytra (wing covers) that expose most of the abdomen. In most beetles, the hard wing-cases completely...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 11, 2007
Greenshank
* Japanese name: Aoashi-shigi * Scientific name: Tringa nebularia * Description: An elegant, medium-sized wading bird (some 30-cm long in the body), the greenshank lives up to its name: It has long green legs ("shanks"). It also has a long sharp bill, which is gray at the base and, unlike other waders'...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 11, 2007
Bye-bye 'Borneo'
For how much longer will the name "Borneo" conjure up the same sense of magic as it does now, or as it did when I was a child?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Mar 28, 2007
Tree sparrow
* Japanese name: Suzume * Scientific name: Passer montanus * Description: A small bird, some 12.5- to 14-cm long, it has a rich brown-colored head, with a hint of copper. There is a black patch on the cheeks and a double white bar across the brown wings. Males and females are almost identical in size...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Mar 14, 2007
Teal
* Japanese name: Kogamo * Scientific name: Anas crecca crecca * Description: A small, surface-feeding dabbling duck, the teal is 34- to 38-cm long and has a 58- to 64-cm wingspan. Males (known as drakes) have an orange-chestnut colored head with a large stripe of emerald green, trimmed with a thin thread...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 14, 2007
What's 'separate' about humankind?
In a sense, I'm a mind reader. In writing this, I believe that you think that I want you to think that I intend to persuade you of something I believe. Got that?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 28, 2007
Tree nymph butterfly
* Japanese name: Ogomadara * Scientific name: Idea leuconoe * Description: This large, striking, black-and-white butterfly is also known as the rice-paper butterfly, perhaps because of the unusual texture of the wings, but also perhaps because the way it flits and floats in the air is said to be like...
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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