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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Dec 12, 2014

Hunting for pictures, and crocodiles, in remote Aboriginal country

We are deep in a forest crowded by Australian paperback trees, the air thick with humidity but eerily silent save for the screeching of tropical birds, when Marcus shouts: "Look, crocodiles!"
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 11, 2014

South Korean wealthy no longer above law

The uproar that forced a Korean Air Lines executive to resign after delaying a flight because she was unhappy with the way nuts were served points to growing intolerance of corporate bad behavior in a country dominated by family conglomerates.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 6, 2014

Hot-air Abe can't campaign on 'womenomics'

For a guy with a two-thirds majority in the Diet, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has accomplished remarkably little since 2012.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 5, 2014

Bilingirl has plenty to teach you

Chika Yoshida, aka Bilingirl, wears many hats. She teaches English, sings, dances and makes costumes. She could be dressed up as Malificent with horns sticking out of her head, have her face painted white and talk in a squeaky voice like comedian duo Nippon Elekitel Rengo or be singing songs from the...
Reader Mail
Dec 3, 2014

Why the clenched fists?

When Japanese are excited they punch the air with raised arms and clenched fists. Recently Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did it in photographs accompanying stories like "Wealth gap widening under Abe" (Nov. 23), and "U.S. in suspense over 'Abenomics,' " and another one accompanying "Newspapers take sides...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 2, 2014

Shizuoka set for a rock fest with local flare

A raucous bassist shouting at the top of his lungs, a guitarist who models himself on AC/DC's Angus Young and a drummer dressed in nothing but a fundoshi (loincloth) — meet The Wemmer.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2014

Drop the black suit, Akita International University tells job-seekers

Black unfashionable "recruit suits" have come to be regarded as a kind of uniform for job-hunting in Japan, where they are also symbols of a national culture that places emphasis on uniformity.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 1, 2014

Ebola rages in Sierra Leone as U.N. misses goals for curbing cases

The United Nations has probably missed targets it set for curbing West Africa's Ebola epidemic, as new infections surge in Sierra Leone.
Japan Times
JAPAN / AT A GLANCE
Nov 30, 2014

Shinagawa, a gateway to old and new Tokyo

In the Edo Period, Shinagawa was the first "shukuba machi," or "post station town" to be built on the Tokaido, the coastal road linking the bustling Nihonbashi district in Edo, then the de facto capital under the Tokugawa shogunate, to Kyoto, which remained the nominal capital in the west.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2014

Praise for killer exposes Americans as barbarians

In praising the killing of Osama bin Laden, Americans are celebrating summary execution.
COMMENTARY
Nov 27, 2014

In India, sadly, flying and fighting go together

Why do manners go out the window as soon as Indians board a plane?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2014

'Washi' paper-making village hopes UNESCO designation will bring tailwind

Villagers in Higashi-Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, are riding high.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Nov 24, 2014

For many young British Muslims, tug of peace is stronger than pull of war

For some British Muslims, the path to jihad and the path to peaceful aid work can traverse much of the same terrain.
EDITORIALS
Nov 20, 2014

Another black eye for bankers

Bankers believe, with good cause, that they are too big to fail. The result is a belief in their own immunity and a culture of impunity that produces scandal after scandal.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Nov 19, 2014

San Francisco's huff with Hashimoto over 'comfort women' reveals double standards

San Francisco's reaction to Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's comments about 'comfort women' says much about equality between nations, about how we judge each other through cultural lenses and blinders, and how we have to keep finding ways to address grievances from our past.
EDITORIALS
Nov 17, 2014

A shameful statement on Ainu

A statement made by a member of the Hokkaido prefectural assembly is an insult to the Ainu people.
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2014

Americans consider Japan most important Asian country, survey suggests

Japan is regarded among the American public and opinion leaders as the most important country in Asia, according to the results of an annual survey by the Foreign Ministry.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Nov 7, 2014

Readers' letters: carrying ID, subway 'saviors,' JA rackets, Taiji alternatives and goats

A selection of emails received in response to recent Community articles.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 5, 2014

A more potent beauty, a more complex beast

Some people under 40 are likely to think "Beauty and the Beast" is a classic story created by Disney in 1991. But that animated movie, which has enthralled millions of little girls and boys (and many of their parents, too), was actually based on a hefty novel by France's Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 1, 2014

Christian right still key to GOP plans in South

If Republicans win control of the Senate in the midterm elections they should say a prayer of thanks for Christian conservatives.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 31, 2014

Does right-wing extremism threaten Japan's democracy?

Japan's image abroad is suffering as a result of the apparently growing influence of right-wing extremists in the government. It is in Japan's national interest to discourage revisionists from propagating historical lies that might threaten the democratic processes.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Oct 26, 2014

Japan struggles to keep up as China woos international students

Japan's efforts to increase the number of international students coming to its shores are being dwarfed by similar initiatives in neighboring China.
EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 2014

Moral education's slippery slope

An advisory body to Japan's education minister calls for upgrading grade school 'moral education' — which deals with children's way of thinking and their attitude toward life — to an official subject on a par with mathematics and science.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 25, 2014

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo: breaking with tradition

There is an identity crisis at the heart of Japanese fashion. It has two contradictory faces that it would like to reconcile — both domestically and abroad. On one hand, the image of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu acolytes posing on the streets of Harajuku prevails and yet, at the same time, the word "Japanese"...
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Oct 24, 2014

Stately Nagoya, Aichi HQs on way to becoming tourist destinations

Nagoya and Aichi Prefecture plan to turn some of their office buildings into tourist destinations and are taking steps to preserve them properly.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 24, 2014

Easter Island's ancient inhabitants weren't so lonely after all

They lived on a remote dot of land in the middle of the Pacific, 3,700 km west of South America and 1,770 km from the closest island, erecting huge stone figures that still stare enigmatically from the hillsides.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Oct 22, 2014

Another island nation, idolized and imitated: Jamaica and I

Only in my 30s did I learn that I, too, had roots, or at least branches aside from my mother's, which only extended to some cotton plantation south of the Mason-Dixon line.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Oct 20, 2014

Readers tackle the 'Japan clean, yet beach covered in crap' enigma

Some emails received in response to Roberto De Vido's recent Foreign Agenda column about a trash-strewn beach in Kanagawa.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat