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JAPAN / History / IMPERIAL ANNALS
Oct 11, 2014

Selective history: Hirohito's chronicles

Between July 30 and Aug. 2, 1945, when most of Japan's cities, including Tokyo, lay in smoldering ruins from U.S. aerial bombing and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were days away from being incinerated by American nuclear weapons, Emperor Hirohito sent an envoy to several Shinto shrines to pray for the "crushing...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 10, 2014

Spanish nurse worsens; Madrid blames Ebola infection on human error

The health of a Spanish nurse with Ebola worsened on Thursday and four other people were put into isolation in Madrid, while the country's government rejected claims its methods for dealing with the disease weren't working and blamed human error.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Oct 1, 2014

Readers' letters: Ian Thorpe, the Yushukan, racism, teaching English, tipping and sunlight

Some emails received in response to recent Community articles.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Sep 24, 2014

Job insecurity among Japan's university teachers is a recipe for further decline

Increasing the number of academic working poor hired as part-time teachers flies in the face of the education ministry's call to build universities that 'can compete on the world stage.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 20, 2014

The feral felines of Cat Heaven Island

Cat heaven is a place on Earth — and it's just 20 minutes by ferry from Fukuoka.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 10, 2014

Ex-president's son wounded as Nigeria battles Boko Haram militants

Nigerian ground forces backed by warplanes on Tuesday battled Islamist Boko Haram militants in a second day of heavy fighting around a northeast town, in which the officer son of former President Olusegun Obasanjo was wounded, a senior official said.
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.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 5, 2014

Ukraine, rebels vow to back peace plan, cease-fire

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the main pro-Russian rebel leader said they would both order cease-fires on Friday, provided that an agreement is signed on a new peace plan to end the five-month war in Ukraine's east.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 1, 2014

Putin calls for talks on east Ukraine 'statehood'; rebels fire on ship

Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Sunday for immediate talks on the "statehood" of southern and eastern Ukraine, although his spokesman said this did not mean Moscow now endorsed rebel calls for independence for territory they have seized.
WORLD
Sep 1, 2014

U.S. lawmakers call for arming Ukraine government

U.S. Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Sunday urged Washington to arm the Ukrainian government, saying it needed help to repel what they called Russia's invasion of the country.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 30, 2014

Ukraine says Russian tanks flatten entire town; EU ready to prepare sanctions

Ukraine said on Saturday Russian tanks had flattened a small border town and pro-Russian rebels had made fresh gains in its east, as EU leaders signaled they were ready to prepare more sanctions on Moscow over the crisis.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 21, 2014

Ballet's dance with the avant-garde

On May 29, 1913, the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris witnessed what has become a tale of artistic scandal re-told and exaggerated to almost mythic proportions. It is said that just seconds after the stage curtain was raised, the Ballet Russes' performance of Igor Stravinksy's "The Rite of Spring"...
Reader Mail
Aug 20, 2014

Help the 'Well Said' translations

I appreciate the Japanese-language learning columns included in The Japan Times, and read them almost every week. However, I feel that two aspects of the "Well Said" column need improvement.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 17, 2014

Ukraine rebels gearing up for eastern counterstrike

Pro-Russian separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine are receiving new armored vehicles and fighters trained in Russia, and plan to launch a major counteroffensive against government forces, a rebel leader said in a video released on Saturday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 16, 2014

What kind of life could live in the clouds?

Do you remember seeing clouds from an airplane for the first time? Even if that first time was as an adult, you were probably struck by the appearance of solidity. Seen from above, a cloudscape looks like a landscape — it looks like a place where things might live.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Aug 13, 2014

Past victimhood blinds Japan to present-day racial discrimination

Until Japan gets over itself and accepts that racialization processes are intrinsic to every society, it will never resolve its constant and unwarranted exceptionalism.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 27, 2014

The pathetic state of infrastructure in America

The deliberate starving of public funding for America's roads, bridges, parks, schools, public hospitals, even hospitals charged with caring for U.S. veterans, reflects the economic and political system's ass-backward priorities.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 19, 2014

If chimps inherit their intelligence, does that prove humans do, too?

Some people are smarter than others. And though animal intelligence is far less well studied, it turns out that within a particular population, say of chimpanzees, some animals are smarter than others, too — and these differences are heritable. To put it another way, some chimps' mothers are smarter...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 14, 2014

Ghostly footprints of the 'modern girl' along Kamakura's coastline

There's a scene in Junichiro Tanizaki's serialized novel "Naomi" (originally titled "A Fool's Love") from 1924 where the besotted protagonist, Joji, watches his wife, Naomi — part Lolita, part Madame Bovary, all trouble — through the pine trees. Having just emerged from a seaside villa, she is sashaying...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 14, 2014

The thrill of the job won't pay the rent

"If your work isn't what you love, then something isn't right." — Talking Heads
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 14, 2014

The hormone behind man's best friend

The other day I saw a picture of a dead dog on Twitter. Gross, right? Not at all, for this wasn't just any old dog: This was Hachiko, perhaps the most famous dog in the world, and certainly the most famous in Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 14, 2014

Iraq's top Shiite cleric issues call to fight jihadist rebels

Iraq's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric urged followers to take up arms against a full-blown Sunni militant insurgency to topple Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a conflict that threatens civil war and a possible break-up of the country.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 17, 2014

Tiananmen's silver year: from protest to massacre

Twenty-five years ago on June 4 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) turned on Chinese citizens in a ruthless display of violence, not for the first time, slaughtering many in the streets of Beijing to crush a pro-democracy movement lead by university students.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 17, 2014

Alien invasion threatening native species

An invasion has been going on under our noses. It is multipronged, ruthless and very difficult to repel. It has been called an "ecological apocalypse."
Japan Times
WORLD
May 11, 2014

Eternal City celebrates legacy of first emperor

Rome, a city that thinks in millenniums, is going through a bout of "Augustus fever" to mark the 2,000th anniversary of the death of its first emperor, who left his mark on Rome and Western civilization like few others.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
May 7, 2014

Economic divide fueling surge in Xinjiang unrest

Hundreds of migrant workers from distant corners of China pour daily into the Urumqi South railway station, their first waypoint on a journey carrying them to lucrative work in other parts of the far western Xinjiang region.
JAPAN / Media
Apr 30, 2014

Advisers assess Japan Times performance after INYT tie-up

Now that The Japan Times is being distributed together with the International New York Times, the advisory board members agreed that there should be a newsroom shift toward even more coverage of Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2014

Reverberations of the Ukraine crisis

Having annexed Crimea, Russia has lost Ukraine, turning it from friend to foe. There can be no return to business as usual anytime soon.

Longform

Ayumi Matsuki, a priestess at Yoshiwara Shrine, shows off some "o-mamori" charms. She says visitors to the shrine have increased since the NHK drama “Unbound” began airing this month.
Tracing Tsutaya Juzaburo, Edo’s media maverick