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COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2015

RIP Land Rover Defender, the greatest car ever

Regulation and marketing-driven blandness, the enemies of everything original, have killed one of the world's last real cars.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 5, 2015

City pop revival is literally a trend in name only

City pop is the latest trend to hit Japan's indie-music scene. Well, not the musical style, just the words.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 3, 2015

Kyorakutei: Hand-cut soba for serious noodle connoisseurs

The narrow backstreets of Kagurazaka boast an embarrassment of dining choices. This bustling traditional entertainment district offers great Japanese, a profusion of French and some excellent Italian restaurants, too. When it comes to noodles, though, only one name matters: Kyorakutei.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 2, 2015

Actor Yusuke Iseya's most important role is helping the environment through his Rebirth Project

Prepared to step out of his comfort zone and say what he really thinks, Yusuke Iseya is something of a rarity in the Japanese entertainment industry. An actor with a conscience, he's most well-known for movies such as "13 Assassins," "Tomorrow's Joe" and the Hollywood film "Blindness," yet rather than...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2015

Vote by U.S. Congress stokes hope for TPP progress in July

With the U.S. Congress formally granting President Barack Obama trade promotion authority, proponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement in Japan are hoping at least the broad outlines of a bilateral deal for agriculture and auto parts may be worked out when negotiations resume in July.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 30, 2015

Sony to raise about ¥440 billion in sales of shares and convertible bonds

Sony Corp. plans to raise about ¥440 billion ($3.6 billion) in a sale of shares and convertible bonds to help finance an increase in production of image sensors used in smartphones.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2015

Slowboat to China: No quick fix for luxury yacht firm Ferretti

When Chinese industrial conglomerate Weichai Group snapped up cash-strapped Italian luxury yacht builder Ferretti in 2012, the deal looked like a match made in heaven.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 27, 2015

Home electronics market loses its spark

On May 25, Yamada Denki Co., the largest home electronics retailer in Japan, announced that it would be closing 46 outlets. Given that the stores had been losing money for at least a year and Yamada operates more than 1,000, the announcement wasn't surprising, though the swiftness of its actions was....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 26, 2015

Univision pulls plug on Miss USA pageant after candidate Trump's Mexico slur

Univision, the largest Spanish-language television network in the United States, said on Thursday it would not air the Miss USA pageant, which is co-owned by Donald Trump, because of what it called insulting remarks made by Trump about Mexican immigrants.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 19, 2015

Crystal Kay returns with a confident ballad to soundtrack 'Wild Heroes'

Shortly after Ariana Miyamoto was crowned Miss Universe Japan, the country's first ever mixed-race beauty queen, Crystal Kay took to social media to voice her approval: "You go girl, I'm proud of Japan."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 13, 2015

Ojika's residents beat the rat race by abandoning it, bucking a national trend in the process

If only there was an island somewhere ...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Jun 13, 2015

Take on the samurai in Edo Period Toei

When my parents were young, action movies were about gunslingers, sheriffs and saloons. For my in-laws in Osaka, however, cinema was more about swords and samurai.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2015

How outrage became a U.S. growth industry

Intolerance is making the U.S. less free, and less fun.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2015

Shibuya might close streets to cars on weekends again

Tokyo's Shibuya Ward said Friday it may resume its old custom of closing two main streets to cars on weekends in hopes of invigorating the area in the lead-up to the Summer Olympics in 2020.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 11, 2015

Christopher Lee, actor who played Dracula and Frankenstein, dies at 93

Christopher Lee, the English actor who found fame as Count Dracula in the 1950s and whose career was resurrected a half century later with villainous roles in the "Star Wars" and "Lord of The Rings" franchises, has died. He was 93.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 11, 2015

Algorithms give us what we want, but little else

Algorithms may take the guesswork out of marketing, crime prevention and even romance. But they also take the guesswork out of life itself, making it predictably dull.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 11, 2015

'Mockingjay' rises toward a revolution

Today's Hollywood is great at catering to the superfan. Whether it's the dedicated following that supports (or argues over) TV shows like "Game of Thrones," "True Blood" or "The Walking Dead," or the comic-book enthusiasts that salivate over every detail of a superhero flick like "Avengers: Age of Ultron,"...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2015

Record industry warily embraces Apple Music

A decade ago, Apple Inc. helped revitalize a music industry hit hard by online piracy with its iTunes Store. Now, amid a steady slump in digital downloads, the industry is hopeful that the tech giant's new streaming service will give record companies another desperately needed boost.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 10, 2015

Japan's toxic prophets are revealed in 'Yokokuhan' adaptation

Directors of the better Japanese commercial films typically carve out thematic or stylistic niches for themselves, so that even if they do a manga adaptation for the masses, it's their kind of manga filmed in their kind of way. One is Yoshihiro Nakamura, a master of mysteries and thrillers with brainteaser...
LIFE / Travel / TRAVEL INSIDER
Jun 9, 2015

Cathay Pacific packages; new Scoot route; Miffy traveling in Europe

Cathay Pacific packages
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 8, 2015

Japan's maverick billionaire bets big abroad

Corporate Japan should seriously consider emulating Softbank CEO's Masayoshi Son's gutsy approach to doing business.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 6, 2015

'Bottakuri' scams put the squeeze on the unwary

"On any given evening, you can see noisy quarrels between club staff and customers outside the local police box," attorney Katsuyuki Aoshima tells Asahi Geino (May 2), adding, "The police treat these as civil claims between the shop and the customer, and won't get involved, adopting the position of neutral...
BASEBALL / MLB / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Jun 2, 2015

Revived Mets ignite renewed attention in ballclub

Sitting in the dugout of a New York Mets foe before a recent contest, MAS overheard an intriguing comment.
JAPAN / Politics
May 31, 2015

U.S. to take Japan under cyberdefense umbrella as hacker threats grow

The United States will extend its cyberdefense umbrella over Japan, helping its ally cope with the growing threat of online attacks against military bases and infrastructure such as power grids, the two nations said in a joint statement Saturday.
EDITORIALS
May 31, 2015

Japan's aquariums must evolve

The vote by Japanese zoos and aquarium to remain in the industry's world body means dolphin-keepers will have to rethink how they obtain their animals.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 28, 2015

Shoko reclaims her spot on the stage

Shoko Nakamura embarked on a challenging journey when she began retraining for ballet performances just one month after giving birth to her son, Joel, in 2011. The dancer, who goes by just her first name when performing, says the physical pain involved in getting back into shape often reduced her to...

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