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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 8, 2018

'Legend of the Demon Cat' presents the multicolored beauty of Chen Kaige's China

The current decade has seen China's film market rise to heights exceeded only by Hollywood; in 2017, box-office earnings grew nearly 13.45 percent year-on-year to a splendiferous 55.9 billion yuan ($8.6 billion). This bonanza has spurred massive investment and fueled out-sized ambitions.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 8, 2018

Japan's new advanced fighter may be based on existing foreign design: sources

This month Japan made a third request to defense companies seeking proposals for the new aircraft, with a separate and more detailed document delivered to London and Washington, sources said.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Mar 7, 2018

Foreign tourists push up Okinawa lobster prices, putting delicacy out of reach for many local residents

Chinese tourists, who tend to have a big appetite for shellfish, have increasingly pushed up prices for Ise-ebi (Japanese spiny lobster) in Okinawa fish markets to the point that many local residents can no longer afford the delicacy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 6, 2018

Time to welcome our robot overlords?

"Hello World — For the Post-Human Age" at Art Tower Mito looks at developments in art in the context of digital technology and artificial intelligence. It starts with a lightly comedic farce, in the form of Cecile B. Evans' 2016 multimedia installation "Sprung a Leak." This three-act work, partly inspired...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Mar 5, 2018

Chubu Electric tests mobile payment app as prelude to blockchain-based energy marketplace

Chubu Electric Power Co. has developed a mobile payment app for virtual currencies, and has started testing it in-house with employees using it to purchase coffee.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2018

Putin wants modern weapons, not a modern Russia

The Russian president's key speech last week was full of unfunded promises and thinly veiled threats.
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Mar 3, 2018

NHK puppet show offers a rare glimpse into unconventional lives

Arguably the best interview show on terrestrial TV at present stars a bunch of puppets exploring the often unexamined corners of Japanese society.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Mar 3, 2018

Japan Times 1993: Blacks face an image problem in Japan

Many of the dozens of black professionals interviewed last week said they are still struggling to change the racist perceptions of blacks that shadow them wherever they go in this country.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 28, 2018

Japanese researchers create most detailed map of universe's dark-matter distribution

A team of researchers said Tuesday that it has created a more comprehensive map showing the universe's dark matter distribution by using a camera on Japan's Subaru Telescope in Hawaii.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 27, 2018

The multifaceted talents of Seiji Togo

Seiji Togo (1897-1978) has been characterized as having two distinctive career phases corresponding to youth and maturity. The first was as a pioneer of European modern movements in Japan. The second was as a postwar painter of simplified and smoothly contoured female beauties that received popular acclaim...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Regional voices: Chubu
Feb 26, 2018

Trailblazing Nagoya restaurant that accepts XEM cryptocurrency moves to Tokyo

A popular restaurant that accepted NEM, a virtual currency, has relocated to Tokyo from Nagoya, where it operated until last October.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 25, 2018

Apple moves to store iCloud keys in China, raising rights concerns

When Apple Inc. begins hosting Chinese users' iCloud accounts in a new Chinese data center at the end of this month to comply with new laws there, Chinese authorities will have far easier access to text messages, email and other data stored in the cloud.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / DESSERT WATCH
Feb 24, 2018

Starbucks back with its range of cherry blossom-inspired treats

Life in Japan can be measured in seasonal dessert offerings. With Valentine's Day now in the past, the focus falls squarely on one of the year's spotlight stretches. Cherry blossom season approaches, with companies big and small prepping an array of sakura-tinged foodstuffs for the pink-loving masses....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 23, 2018

Sapporo: Famous for its snow, but a delight in green

Sapporo balances a vibrant city feel with the quieter reprieves of lush parks, dense forests and meandering trails that speak to Hokkaido's nature-centric reputation. One minute you're fighting crowds at a fish market and the next you're listening to birds chirping in the Japanese maples.
Japan Times
Feb 23, 2018

TSUNEISHI SHIPBUILDING Delivers First “TESS38” Ship - Its 38,300-tonne Log and Bulk Carrier

TSUNEISHI SHIPBUILDING Co., Ltd. (HQ: 1083 Tsuneishi, Numakuma-cho, Fukuyama, Hiroshima, Japan; President: Kenji Kawano; hereinafter, “TSUNEISHI”) completed the construction of its first TESS38 “WECO JOSEFINE” at one of its overseas shipyards, TSUNEISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES (CEBU), Inc. (Location:...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 22, 2018

Chiaki Soma puts on a not-so-common theater festival

In the world of Japanese contemporary drama, the action often takes place offstage as well as on.
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Feb 22, 2018

World Gardening Fair celebrates final year

The Hotel Okura Tokyo's final World Gardening Fair will be held from May 2 to 6 at Ascot Hall in the Hotel Okura. This beloved charity event that has been held for 18 years will offer not only the unique opportunity to see various botanical displays, but also experience the food, traditions and culture...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 19, 2018

Why Japan's national land preservation policy is useless

The government has a low degree of consciousness with regard to the preservation of national land.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Feb 19, 2018

Tobishima is the next tourism hot spot — it just doesn't know why yet

Tobishima, Aichi Prefecture — a village without a single hotel, ryokan (Japanese-style inn) or souvenir shop — will establish a tourism exchange association in April, in the hope of encouraging local residents to rediscover the area's appeals and become involved in boosting tourism.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Feb 19, 2018

Reading the Roman alphabet in Japanese isn't as easy as ABC

It was a long journey from the cobbled streets of ancient Rome to the windy coasts of Japan, but when they finally arrived, they were here to stay: the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet. Better known here as ローマ字 (rōmaji, Roman letters), or just アルファベット (arufabetto, the alphabet),...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Feb 18, 2018

Fukushima fruit exports to Southeast Asia peachy as contamination fears dissipate

Among peaches Japan exported to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia last year, those produced in Fukushima Prefecture led the way, retaining their No. 1 status for two years in a row.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 17, 2018

Nagaya nostalgia: The long and the short of Tokyo's famed 'row houses'

Nagaya have been disappearing from downtown Tokyo for many decades, with row upon row of these "long houses" torn down to make way for more comfortable — and profitable — residential complexes and office blocks.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Feb 17, 2018

Heroism and the changing state of morality

Every age breeds its own morality. One era's good is another's evil. Today's virtue is tomorrow's vice, today's wisdom tomorrow's stupidity, today's sanity tomorrow's madness.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 14, 2018

AmPm masters the Spotify game

The central pair behind electronic project AmPm didn't have high expectations when they flew to Jakarta last August for Spotify On Stage, a live event organized by the market-leading music streaming service.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 13, 2018

An excavation of hu-man traits

The excavation of the tomb of the Tang Dynasty general Mu Tai (660-729, buried in 730) took place in Qingcheng County in China's Gansu Province in 2001. Unearthed were colorfully painted and realistically detailed small-scale sculptures of "foreign" peoples and their animals, such as horses and camels,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 13, 2018

'Impressionist Masterpieces from the E.G. Buehrle Collection, Zurich (Switzerland)'

Feb. 14-May 7

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.