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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 8, 2014

Let's be 'Frank' about mental illness and music

Imagine a band where the singer is so painfully shy and awkward that he must wear a giant papier-mache puppet head — not only on stage, but pretty much all the time. That's the premise of "Frank," starring Michael Fassbender under the mask; a story loosely based on the beyond-cult indie musician Frank...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 4, 2014

U.S. defends response to Ebola case; about 50 people under observation

U.S. officials Friday broadly defended the response to the country's first case of Ebola, although one acknowledged that while the government is confident of containing the virus, it had been "rocky" in Dallas where the patient is in serious condition.
Reader Mail
Oct 1, 2014

What's Abe been crowing about?

Regarding the Sept. 25 article "20% of college dropouts cite financial difficulties as reason": It's a sad state of affairs when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has fun globe-trotting and lauding himself over what he claims are his great economic achievements while the reality at home becomes more desperate....
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2014

Volcanic eruption fires concern about Kagoshima reactor restarts

Saturday's eruption of Mount Ontake is likely to set back plans to restart nuclear reactors in Kagoshima Prefecture and possibly elsewhere, as local officials and residents start debating how safe the plants would be in the event of a nearby volcanic eruption.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 27, 2014

Read up on books about books about Japan

Revving up the metabolism of culture with the pulse of new artistic voices, a good literary journal doesn't usually have much to do with profit — it's all about circulation. Japanese literary journals enjoy a healthy transmission here, thanks to the financial backing of big publishing firms. How do...
Reader Mail
Sep 27, 2014

A feat Indians can cheer about

Regarding the Sept. 24 AP article "India joins elite club by putting spacecraft into Martian orbit": As an Indian, I'm very proud of this moment.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 16, 2014

Diverse compilation delivers a serious message about nuclear power

Various artists "Atomic Bomb Compilation Vol. 2" (Self-released)
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2014

Canberra buries its nuclear angst about Delhi

Australia and India bury a number of past differences by signing the long-awaited agreement on civil nuclear cooperation. It will entitle India to buy uranium from Australia.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 8, 2014

Stupid advice for women worried about rape

Anyone who doubts that politically correct online activitists are out to lunch need only read up on their reaction to a nail polish that allows women to discreetly discover whether their drink has been spiked by one of several common 'date rape' drugs.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2014

Why the shale revolution is not about to end

Doubts about the sustainability of the North American oil and gas boom center on rapidly declining output from many shale wells after they are drilled.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Q&A
Aug 29, 2014

How much do you know about dengue fever?

The health ministry has confirmed the first domestic dengue fever case in Japan in nearly 70 years. A Saitama Prefecture teen girl was found Wednesday to have contracted the virus through a mosquito in Japan, followed by news that two more people — a man and a woman in Tokyo — have also been infected....
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2014

Make no mistake about Thailand's problem

The Thai military has not played the role of 'democratic defender' following its recent coup. Instead, its intervention shows its desperate move to maintain power ahead of the imminent royal succession.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2014

Aging WWII veterans fret about shift away from pacifist principles

Tokuro Inokuma, a former Imperial Japanese Army soldier, got his first taste of the horrors of war in 1945 when he scrambled to gather up the scattered limbs of his fellow servicemen, blown apart by a U.S. air raid in Japan. He was 16.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2014

What should the U.S. do about Islamic State?

The U.S. lost the Iraq War years ago. The sooner it accepts that there is nothing to be saved there and moves on, the better off it'll be. That includes refraining from attacking the Islamic State.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Aug 7, 2014

Aomori warns foreign players about fraudulent agents

Despite having a collection of 80-plus import players for all recent seasons and the fact that 30 foreign-born head coaches, including one (Howie Landa) who never coached in the preseason or regular season, have been hired since the league's first game was played in 2005, there's no information on the...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 5, 2014

China meat supplier probe hurting McDonald's sales

McDonald's Corp., poised to resume selling beef and chicken in China this week after a supplier was accused of repackaging old meat, says the matter is hurting the chain's results in Asia.
WORLD
Aug 4, 2014

China auto factory ignored warnings about dust blast risk

Local government officials in China repeatedly warned a car parts factory that was rocked by a deadly blast over the weekend that high levels of dust could spark an explosion, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported Monday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 3, 2014

Japan has a word to add about teaching math

Before critics conclude that Americans suffer from an incurable case of innumeracy, they might want to ask if the long-standing poor performance of U.S. students in international math test competition, compared with Japanese students, is the result of the way the subject is taught in American schools.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 2, 2014

Hot in the city: scorching Kumagaya

Exploring new ways of dealing with the heat from a city in Saitama that certainly knows a thing or two about keeping cool
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 29, 2014

Avengers in Sci-Fi talk about Zeppelin and the problem with festivals

You don't usually hear Led Zeppelin and science fiction mentioned in the same breath. But for Taro Kohata, who plays guitar and synthesizer, and sings for rock band Avengers In Sci-Fi, the two go hand in hand.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jul 26, 2014

Much about nothing in Akabane Iwabuchi

The nexus between Tokyo's rainy season and the heat of summer brings beastly humidity. I choose to explore Akabane Iwabuchi, an area in Tokyo's Kita Ward, for the possibility of cool breezes coming off the nearby Arakawa River. But that idea is toast the second I exit the subway; sunlight pulses off...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jul 23, 2014

Dungy backs off latest remarks about Sam

NFL television analyst and former coach Tony Dungy backed off Tuesday from comments he "wouldn't want to deal with" the diversions arising from drafting Michael Sam, who is hoping to become the league's first openly gay player, saying he was referring to media attention surrounding such a move.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jul 22, 2014

Just what is so wrong about Yoko Ono?

As Yoko Ono prepares to take the stage at Fuji Rock Festival on July 26, a BBC video of her performing the 1969 Plastic Ono Band track "Don't Worry Kyoko" at this year's Glastonbury festival has racked up nearly 2 million views, largely from people tuning in to see the "worst live performance of all...

Longform

Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.
The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo