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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Dec 2, 2017

Akiko Katayama: Making the leap from business to food in NYC

Accountant-turned-food writer rediscovers the Japanese culinary tradition in NYC.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Nov 20, 2017

Manga series highlights Nagoya's unique charms and cuisine

A popular cuisine-themed comic series is now trending on social media — and winning the hearts of those who know Nagoya.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 5, 2017

Speed bump won't stop Kiyomiya, Japanese baseball's teen powerhouse

So far, 2017 has been a banner year for sports prodigies in Japan, from table tennis and shogi to baseball.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2017

As manga goes digital via smartphone apps, do paper comics still have a place?

Japan's famed manga industry is turning the page to an unknown chapter.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 29, 2017

Spare a thought for the secretaries

Few recent scandals have been as entertaining as Lower House lawmaker Mayuko Toyota's verbal and physical attack on her secretary as revealed in a recording leaked to the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho. With the recording coming to light in the week before the Tokyo assembly elections, Toyota decided...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 8, 2017

Abe’s hotel spa and gym visits inflame media speculation

Are Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's weekly "workouts" masking something more ominous?
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 4, 2017

In bid to give couples some privacy, Cuba to revive network of state-run love motels

As Cuba's communist government seeks to "diversify options for love," it is reviving a network of state-run "love motels" in Havana where couples can rent rooms by the hour, the official trade union weekly Trabajadores said Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 29, 2017

Ex-education minister Shimomura denies media report claiming undeclared Kake donations

Shimomura responds to a Shukan Bunshun report that he allegedly received u00a52 million in undisclosed payments from scandal-tainted school operator.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 29, 2017

North Korea fires apparent Scud-type missile that lands in Japan's exclusive economic zone

Pyongyang's latest missile test lobs a suspected Scud into Japan's stated exclusive economic zone, prompting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to vow “concrete measures.”
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 28, 2016

Blood and benefits: Duterte imposes his formula on the Philippines

Rodrigo Duterte has kept his word.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 18, 2016

Japan's pop music scene saw a power struggle in 2016

Media, both domestic and overseas, spent a lot of time focused on the streaming services arriving in Japan in 2016. Months of "Can these platforms thrive in CD-loving Japan?" speculation reached a climax in September, when global market leader Spotify finally debuted here. There was a big press conference,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 17, 2016

Western culture and the end of Japanese 'harmony'

Japan grew up with wa (harmony). Conflict and competition are the creative engines of Western civilization; Japan traveled a different route to the tumultuous present.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2016

President Trump: Japanese-Americans, Japanese in U.S. weigh in

People of Japanese ancestry speak up about their impressions of President-elect Donald Trump.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Oct 26, 2016

Japan's Filipinos heed Pope Francis' call to action on refugees and climate

Pontiff's emphasis on mercy for migrants and warnings about climate change resonate with the community in Japan.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 20, 2016

Japanese comedian Pikotaro's video 'PPAP' cracks the Billboard Hot 100

Comedian Pikotaro’s music video “Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen,” abbreviated as “PPAP,” that recently went viral on social media has entered the weekly U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart at 77th.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 8, 2016

Nagoya: The most boring city in Japan

At a meeting of city leaders last Monday, the mayor of Nagoya, Takashi Kawamura, expressed annoyance with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. That same day, Abe had opened a new session of the Diet by touching on the issue of regional revitalization in his usual general policy speech; he said that the central...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 21, 2016

'Scoop!': Read all about it here

Japanese weekly scandal magazines are pond scum, are they not? Dishing up grainy paparazzi photos of the famous and powerful, accompanied by wink-wink stories about improprieties and crimes — alleged or exposed — they appeal to the lowest common denominator, with their only raison d'etre being sales...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 31, 2016

Japan's team spirit remains youthful in anime

The word "seishun" ("youth") comprises the kanji characters for the words "blue" and "spring," which connotes the freshness and innocence of those earlier years in life. It's also the name of a genre of anime and manga. Even as the population ages, seishun manga and anime seem to lock themselves to the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 16, 2016

Why Japanese media still kowtow to Ken Takakura

"Ken San" is a new documentary about late actor Ken Takakura opening in local theaters next month. Described as Japan's "greatest" and "last" movie star, Takakura was respected by both the Japanese people who worked with him and international film giants such as Martin Scorsese, John Woo and Paul Schrader....
WORLD
Jul 1, 2016

Muslims, Eastern Europeans targeted as hate crime reports spike 500% in U.K. after Brexit vote

The number of hate crimes reported to British police online, including assaults, has increased by more than 500 percent in the week after the country voted to leave the European Union, a senior police chief said on Thursday.
JAPAN / Media
Jun 17, 2016

Minor’s death sentence sees Japan media split on anonymity rule

The debate centers on whether to name a man who lost an appeal against a death sentence for a 2010 double murder.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 23, 2016

Ebb tide for press freedoms in Shinzo Abe's Japan

A perfect storm is descending on freedom of the press in Japan: The country just sank to No. 72 in the global press freedom ranking issued Wednesday by Reporters Without Borders, down from No. 11 in 2010. And David Kaye, the U.N. special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 19, 2016

Japan's tabloids book front-row seats at the Trump circus

Donald Trump. And now that we've got your attention ...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 20, 2016

Deja vu as Shukan Shincho turns back the clock

The title of the Japanese government's White Paper on the Economy for the 31st year of Showa (1956) was "The 'postwar' era is over." That same year, a delegation from the World Bank headed by Alfred Watkins spent five months studying the feasibility of extending a loan for an expressway linking the cities...

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan