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BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 5, 2016

Toyota joins Ford against Apple-Google car screen dominance

Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to use a car-phone connectivity system championed by Ford Motor Co. in a bid to keep Apple Inc. and Google from dominating control of dashboards.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jan 4, 2016

'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' shoots to overtake 'Avatar' opening record

Having vanquished "Titanic" and "Jurassic World," "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" has set its sights on "Avatar."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 3, 2016

The shape-shifting landscape of Japan's electronic underground

Detroit techno pioneer Derrick May joined Tokyo's DJ Emma on New Year's Eve to say goodbye to one of the capital's most respected electronic music venues, Air.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jan 2, 2016

20 Questions: the best answers of 2015

Japan Times On Sunday contributors select the responses that made them laugh loudest this year
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 1, 2016

New Year's holidays are a time to revisit traditions, customs

O-shogatsu, or New Year's holidays, is a special time for Japanese people, who typically go back to the basics of their long-standing traditions. It's a time when those who left their hometowns for the big cities for work or school go back to visit their families, invite relatives and friends to their...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jan 1, 2016

Jubilance in Times Square as New York rings in 2016

More than a million people in New York's Times Square hailed the arrival of 2016 early Friday with kisses, cheers and a measure of relief as America's biggest New Year's Eve celebration unfolded without a hitch under a blanket of unprecedented security.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 27, 2015

Does the future of Japanese music depend on streaming services?

When music consultant Mikiro Enomoto asked a class of Kyoto Seika University students how they listened to new music last year, he reckons 80 percent of them mentioned YouTube or YouTube-linked sites. When he asked the same question to this year's class, almost all of them said they don't bother looking...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 27, 2015

'Star Wars' takes Chinese social media by storm ahead of release

After a mammoth marketing campaign, the growing online chatter in China around "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" suggests that the latest installment of the hit film franchise has a shot at breaking box-office records in the world's second-largest movie market.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 26, 2015

Ripped-off bar hostesses in Japan stand up for their rights

With an increase in nonregular employment driving more women into the night entertainment business, some are turning to labor unions to deal with clubs that try to con them.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 25, 2015

Tourism surge puts shine on biz hotels, hostels

With the drastic increase in tourism, the lack of lodging in the nation's biggest cities, particularly Tokyo and Osaka, is providing a major opportunity for those running two types of accommodations: "business hotels" and hostels.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 23, 2015

Top 10 films of 2015: Like finding a needle in a haystack

Finding alternatives in 2015 to big-budget blockbusters and beard-stroking festival films wasn't easyIt has been a lean year. All too often, it felt like you had seen the movies of 2015 before — each new release seemed to be the shadow of a shadow of an original idea. You could see it popcorn flicks...
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 23, 2015

'Star Wars' fan is arrested over threat to student who revealed plot

A Montana man has been arrested on suspicion of threatening to shoot a student for divulging a plot line from the newly released "Star Wars" epic, court documents showed on Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 20, 2015

Young music fans found their voices in 2015

The music industry in Japan has long been seen as lagging behind the times. Once every six months there is an article that marvels at the supremacy of CDs, and new albums from acts that were big in the 1990s tend to dominate charts alongside idol-pop groups that few would label "musically progressive."...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Dec 16, 2015

Moviegoers suffering from motion sickness not enamored with CGI effects

Once upon a time, cinemas screening "The Exorcist" handed out barf bags to their patrons as a cheap gimmick. (The movie was so "sick" it would make you sick.)
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 14, 2015

Textbook publishers must be above reproach

Recent scandals highlight the fine line between legitimate business practices and shady dealings in the textbook industry.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Dec 12, 2015

Crafty ways to have fun without mess

For some parents (or maybe it's just me), there is one particular festive word that causes instant anxiety: "craft."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 9, 2015

Domestic film industry focuses inwards at its own peril

The Japanese film industry released 615 films last year, according to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan. That figure may include glorified student productions and dressed-up pornography, but is still substantial by any measure. Relatively few of those films, however, are sold abroad....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 6, 2015

Soichi Terada arrives fashionably late to the global house-music scene

Good things come to those who wait. For 50-year-old producer Soichi Terada it's a wait that has lasted more than 20 years, but now he's one of the most in-demand artists in the house music scene, and has just returned from a tour of Europe that saw him perform in front of capacity crowds in some of the...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Dec 5, 2015

Alien invasion: Vexatious foreign species are increasingly taking up residence in Japan

Shibuya has a rat problem.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 5, 2015

Hunter and hunted: Where are they now?

The mutilations are frightful — dog, cat, rabbit and pigeon corpses missing heads, tails, limbs, ears. Weekly Playboy magazine reports nearly 40 sightings in the past four months in the Kanto region alone. Who's out there doing these things? With what thoughts in mind?
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 4, 2015

Ex-girlfriend sues Charlie Sheen in first known lawsuit over HIV status

A former girlfriend of Charlie Sheen on Thursday sued the actor for assault, negligence and emotional distress, saying they had sex at least five times before he revealed he was HIV-positive.
Japan Times
JAPAN / AT A GLANCE
Dec 1, 2015

Little Myanmar thrives in Tokyo as more residents arrive

In the hustle and bustle of Tokyo's Takadanobaba district there exists what might be termed Little Yangon, with a number of restaurants and shops catering to the growing community of residents from Myanmar.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 27, 2015

Leicester, Man Utd are improbable top-of-table foes

Top of the league in Spain: Barcelona. In Germany: Bayern Munich. In France: PSG. In England: Leicester City. An unlikely foursome.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 27, 2015

South Korea trains young hackers, plays catch-up years after North's elite unit proved abilities

In a darkened "war room" dozens of South Korea's brightest college students are practicing hacking each other as part of a government program to train them to battle some of the world's best — the shadowy techno-soldiers of Kim Jong Un's regime.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 25, 2015

Amazon yank Nazi-, Imperial Japan-themed TV ads from N.Y. subway

Amazon.com Inc. on Monday agreed to pull advertisements for a new television show featuring Nazi-inspired imagery from New York City's subway system, a transit official said, hours after Mayor Bill de Blasio called on the company to do so.
BUSINESS / TRAVEL INSIDER
Nov 24, 2015

SAS debuts new cabins; all-female Ethiopian crew; KLM redesigns interiors

SAS debuts new cabins
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2015

Islamic State is an existential threat to the West

Western leaders are wrong: Islamic State does pose an existential threat.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 22, 2015

Following uproar, Germany withdraws '16 Eurovision contest pick Naidoo

Germany on Saturday withdrew its contender for next year's Eurovision song contest following a backlash from critics who accuse the R&B artist of using anti-Semitic and homophobic slurs in his songs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Nov 21, 2015

'The Power of Okinawa' is the most authoritative study of Ryukyu folk music

Of all the varieties of folk-music in Japan, Okinawa's is arguably the most vibrant and self-evolving. Astute listeners soon realize that each island group in the region has its own distinct microculture and musical traditions.

Longform

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