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Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 23, 2014

Keep calm before carrying on when speaking Japanese

In Haruki Murakami's 1985 novel "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World," one of the two protagonists is a coolheaded data agent working for the monolithic "System" that protects the world from "Semiotec" data thieves. He takes on a job that's a little too dangerous and finds himself confronted...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 23, 2014

Computers 'to top humans by 2029'

Computers will be cleverer than humans by 2029, according to Ray Kurzweil, Google's director of engineering.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Feb 22, 2014

Arisugawa-no-Miya's no mere people's park

Tokyo's weather in February is unpredictable, so when the day I have set aside for exploring features a record-breaking blizzard, I'm not surprised. So, bundled up like Everest conqueror Edmund Hillary, I exit Hiroo Station in Minato Ward to find the air feathered with swirling flakes and the streets...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 19, 2014

'The Marvelous Real: Contemporary Spanish and Latin American Art from The MUSAC Collection'

Realism usually refers to attempts to represent subjects in a precise and truthful manner. However, here, the "realism" of Spanish art is not about technique — it's about artists finding the best way to portray what they see as "real."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 19, 2014

'Flying Expressions from the New Collection'

This exhibition focuses on the different forms of artistic expression of Maki Yamashita (1890-1973), Ryonosuke Shimomura (1923-1998) and Jun Tsukawaki (1952-), whose works were acquired by the Otani Memorial Art Museum, Nishinomiya City, in 2012.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 18, 2014

AKB48 "Tsugi no Ashiato"

No Japanese music group has been more interesting these past two years than AKB48, but "interesting" doesn't always mean "good." Several of the 89-members-and-growing outfit's most notable moments have been ugly (the Minami Minegishi head-shaving scandal tops that list), but the idol group has also made...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / TELLING LIVES
Feb 14, 2014

Storied family-run toy shop 'sells dreams' to Tokyo tourists

'Continuing a small toy shop for five generations is a kind of miracle,” says Masaki Terao, 58, proprietor and purse-string holder at Toys Terao, which his family has been running on Nakamise-dori in front of Asakusa's Sensoji Temple for nearly 130 years.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2014

Drift rightward has been building for years

Fashion model Junko Amo made headlines on Aug. 15, 2002, when she initiated a visit to controversial Yasukuni Shrine with a group of some 180 people she met via 2channel, Japan's biggest Internet forum.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 12, 2014

The Pre-Raphaelites: Britain’s Romantic rule breakers

Some paintings will always be identified with the place where you first saw them. You may even feel surprised to see them somewhere else. This is how I felt when I visited the Mori Arts Center Gallery, one of Tokyo's high-rise art venues, to see "Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 11, 2014

Mitsume play the indie game, but are winning the mainstream

Mitsume subscribes to an easy-to-get-behind ethos regularly found in indie-rock communities: "Since our first album, we've been under nobody's control but our own," says lead vocalist Moto Kawabe. "We prefer to do whatever we can ourselves."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2014

Student seeks Japan-Russia isle thaw

For Yuki Nishida, 23, the Soviet Union and Russia had long been the frightening foes who seized Kunashiri Island, where his grandmother lived, after Japan's World War II surrender.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Feb 10, 2014

Japan's leather industry, almost as tough as old boots

In his east Tokyo workshop, across the Sumida river from Asakusa Station, Katsuhiko Nakano is surrounded on all sides by bags and tools. He is one of the few leather craftsmen in the city who makes goods by hand.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 8, 2014

The Nature of Japan

The title of longtime Japan Times columnist Mark Brazil's collection of essays sells itself a little short, for "The Nature of Japan" is less about identifying the web of life that inhabits this archipelago as it is about offering an insightful peek into the Japanese relationship with the great outdoors....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 1, 2014

Fujisan

The haunting tales included in this collection of short stories by Randy Taguchi all take place in the shadow of Mount Fuji.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2014

Once admired from afar, now enjoyed up close

Billed as an exhibition of masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), 'Admired from Afar' is the latest in a number of exhibitions of Japanese art from American collections.
Reader Mail
Jan 29, 2014

Statement will haunt NHK chief

It is regrettable that the new NHK chairman made such a controversial statement about "comfort women" during the war.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NAGOYA RESTAURANTS
Jan 28, 2014

Nagoya staples at popular national chain Yamachan

If you are visiting friends in Nagoya and they are treating you to dinner, it would be a safe bet to assume they are taking you to one of the many branches of Yamachan that are scattered around the city. Although there are now 72 stores nationwide, a staggering 38 of those are in Aichi Prefecture, the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 27, 2014

A death in detention in Tokyo and a bitter belated farewell

What was the back story to this Ghanaian's death from pneumonia? A pre-existing condition? Or something the immigration authorities wanted hidden? Without an autopsy, there would be no answers to these gnawing questions. We already knew all we would ever know.
EDITORIALS
Jan 23, 2014

Damages from a terror probe

Despite the award of ¥90.2 million in damages to 17 Muslims in Japan found to have suffered defamation of character after details of a police investigation of international terrorism were leaked onto the Internet, the plaintiffs have appealed the Tokyo District Court ruling for affirming that the probe itself was necessary.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 21, 2014

Nintendo chief under fire over Wii washout

Nintendo Co. President Satoru Iwata, who tripled revenue by introducing hits like the Wii console, is coming under fire from investors and analysts after the company's latest game machine flopped.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
Jan 20, 2014

My niece, the drug smuggler

Imagine two New York Jewish women groomed among the stylish and well-educated on opposite shores of Long Island. They meet up in Tokyo for the first time. In a strange twist of fate, they are not sipping tea from fine bone china, as they might have back home. Instead they find themselves seated on opposite...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 20, 2014

Snowden a 'thief who may have had Russian aid,' U.S. lawmaker claims

Edward Snowden, the fugitive former contractor who leaked classified National Security Agency documents, "was a thief" who had possible Russian assistance and has "incredibly harmed" the U.S. military, the House Intelligence Committee chairman said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 15, 2014

Two photographers in a state of play

In an intriguing double-header, two of photography's more colorful characters are exhibited together at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, providing an interesting glimpse of art form as play.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2014

Abe should end Yasukuni visits

Ever since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Yasukuni Shrine last month, a former British ambassador to Japan has been trying to guess what Abe's motives for such an act could have been.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?