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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Oct 29, 2016

Stylist Kosei Matsuda: 'On every wall there's a door to walk through'

Young designer on sea urchin, Anpanman and working on photo shoots
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 11, 2016

Thomas Ruff: in the grand scheme of things

Thomas Ruff is one of the key figures of photography in the postmodern era, and his retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, will probably already be pencilled into your calendar if you have any interest in contemporary art.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 7, 2016

Luca Fantin: Italian creativity blooms in the heart of Ginza

Chef Luca Fantin's cooking is far from most people's idea of typical Italian fare. The softly spoken 37-year-old native of Treviso serves elaborate multicourse tasting menus that are as creative, contemporary and cutting edge as anywhere else in Tokyo. This has won him plaudits, a Michelin star — he's...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 29, 2016

The underground pipeline shaping North Korea's new capitalists

As the United States and other nations grasp for new ways to sanction Pyongyang in response to its latest nuclear test, some North Korean defectors see investment in its rudimentary market economy as a way to foment gradual change from within.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 24, 2016

Making a toast to retiring beer girl Misato

The intai jiai (retirement game) is a significant event in Japanese pro baseball for long-time star players about to hang up their spikes and call it a career. It usually occurs at the end of a season after it has been announced the player is leaving the game and after league standings have been decided....
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Sep 23, 2016

Barton cites early instruction as key to Japan's success

ISU announcer Ted Barton has seen it all during his long career in the sport.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 22, 2016

Despite flaws, paperless voting machines remain widespread in U.S.

About 1 in 4 registered voters in the United States live in areas that use electronic voting machines that do not produce a paper backup despite concerns that they are vulnerable to tampering and malfunctions, according to a Reuters analysis.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 15, 2016

Builders go back in time to construct a castle the medieval way

Blacksmiths, stonemasons and quarry men are hard at work in a Burgundy forest building a 13th-century-style castle using the most basic tools and materials, replicating the methods used hundreds of years ago to better understand them.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Sep 10, 2016

Hiking with kids is not an uphill climb

Hiking in Japan is always fun with family, and with summer subsiding, some of the best months for a mountain walk are around the corner. Japan offers countless choices in its vast mountain ranges, but one of my favorite family hikes is only 90 minutes north of Kyoto. The mountain villages of Kibune and...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / B. League
Sep 8, 2016

Sunrockers working to meet professional commitments

The B. League, a brand-new men's professional basketball circuit in Japan, will open its inaugural season later this month.
Japan Times
JAPAN / TICAD VI SPECIAL
Aug 26, 2016

Expanding business with Africa

Africa is a dynamic and growing market, one that has steadily drawn the interest of Japanese companies across all major business fields in recent years. As we approach the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) to be held on Aug. 27 and 28 in Nairobi, I would like to use...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 24, 2016

There are some very big issues with 'Little Boy'

Seventy-one years after Japan surrendered in World War II, a taboo in Japan has been broken, or, more precisely, ripped apart. A movie specifically about the U.S-Japan conflict that more than mentions the atomic bombs, directed by Mexico's Alejandro Monteverde, is opening this weekend. For many Japanese,...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / OLYMPIC NOTEBOOK
Aug 19, 2016

Real personality of Rio hidden from view behind IOC's security blanket

The eyes of the world are on Rio de Janeiro while the Olympics are in town, but it is difficult to shake the feeling that the city is not showing its true face.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2016

Hefner, 90, gets to stay as his famed Playboy Mansion sells for $100 million

The famed Los Angeles Playboy mansion belonging to Hugh Hefner, founder of the Playboy empire, has been sold for $100 million, and Hefner, 90, will live in the mansion for the rest of his life, a representative for the buyer said in a news release on Tuesday.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 16, 2016

Japan secures first-ever men's team table tennis medal with victory in semis

Japan guaranteed itself a first-ever Olympic men's table tennis team medal on Monday after beating Germany 3-1 to set up a final showdown with defending champion China.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 8, 2016

安: a peaceful character for these turbulent times

One kanji character that learners encounter at a fairly early stage is u5b89, pronounced 'an' or 'yasuraka' and meaning 'peaceful' and, by extension, 'safe.'
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2016

Putin better not meddle in U.S. race

Any clear-eyed assessment by the Kremlin must conclude that a Donald Trump presidency is not in Russia's interests.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 8, 2016

True meaning of Ichiro even greater than 3,000-hit milestone

There were a lot of people in Japan who awoke early April 3, 2001 (the night of April 2 in the U.S.), with a mix of anticipation and wonder as they watched new Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki's first game in the major leagues. Ichiro was hitless after three at-bats. Then, in the seventh, he...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 2, 2016

The earliest memes also had humor

The curators at Tokyo's National Museum of Western Art (NMWA) have decided that Japan, a country well-known for its own print art, should know more about the print art of Europe. In this endeavor, they have chosen the work of Israhel van Meckenem (c. 1445-1503), a Germanic print artist from the Lower...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 2, 2016

Refusal to nominate Rudd betrays Turnbull's weakness

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's rejection of Kevin Rudd's quest to lead the U.N. is a sorry reminder of the creeping U.S.-style partisanship of Australian politics.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 27, 2016

'Trumpetings' mean trouble for Japan and Asia

The last thing this region needs is more tension and conflict, which is what would come with a Trump presidency.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 26, 2016

Butoh for kids has fun with 'birthday suit' tale

"Gloomy," "eerie," "vulgar," "avant-garde" and "conceptual" are adjectives often used to describe butoh, the genre of Japanese modern dance started in 1959 by Tatsumi Hishikata and Kazuo Ohno in which performers usually paint their near-naked bodies white.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 23, 2016

Bushido: The samurai code goes to war

In a scene from the 1957 film "The Bridge on the River Kwai," a haughty British Col. in a prisoner-of-war camp confronts the camp's Japanese commandant. Citing the Geneva Convention as justification, he argues that his officers should not be forced into manual labor, which makes the commandant furious...
WORLD / Politics
Jul 23, 2016

Clinton's pick of Kaine for running mate signals pivot to center for election

Hillary Clinton named Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate for the Democratic presidential ticket, a widely anticipated choice that may say more about how she wants to govern than how she plans to win in November.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2016

Lessons of the Chilcot report

The Chilcot report demolishes Tony Blair's sham justifications for embroiling the U.K. in possibly the most disastrous war of the modern era.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / PHOTO ESSAY
Jul 9, 2016

Yuasa: The salty, fermented heart of Japan

Craftsmen from two regional factories — one makes miso; the other, shoyu — ponder the future of their little town and its centuries-old traditions
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 8, 2016

The herb diet of Okinawa's long-living elders

Young and middle-aged Okinawans are among the most enthusiastic consumers of junk and processed food in Japan. American fast food and a sugar-rich diet have burdened islanders — who once lived staggeringly long lives — with the highest body-mass index rates in the country. Middle-aged men, in particular,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jul 8, 2016

In search of 'natsuzake,' Japan's summer sake

Summer is my least favorite season in Japan. Stepping outside, the heat and humidity hits with startling force: the hot air weighs heavy on my limbs, enveloping me in a stifling and unwelcome embrace. The thought of spending the height of summer in Tokyo fills me with existential dread.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 7, 2016

New butoh venue aims for intimacy

Butoh has found a permanent home in Kyoto. Appropriately, for a form of dance that originated in Japan but has flown under the radar here, that home is a tiny 154-year-old kura, or storehouse, hidden down an alley and squeezed between a medical college and residential buildings slap bang in the middle...

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake