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Japan Times
LIFE / Language / NEWS IN NIHONGO
Oct 15, 2018

Murakami says writing is what he can do for disaster victims

Haruki Murakami says that writing good stories is the best he can do for victims of terrorist attacks and natural disasters.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Oct 15, 2018

Developing-world cities could make or break 1.5 C warming target, scientists say in key U.N. report

The future that fast-growing cities in South Asia and Africa choose — cleaner and safer, or dirtier and more dangerous — will be pivotal to efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, scientists said in a key U.N. report last week.
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 13, 2018

Eternal saints: The art of self-preservation

Examining the extreme ritual behind the monks who spent years turning themselves into mummies while they were alive
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 13, 2018

Italy's first sushi chef on risk, reward and personal sacrifice

Minoru 'Shiro' Hirasawa served the country's first sushi over 40 years ago.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 13, 2018

Mountain High: Junko Tabei's adventures at the top of the world

Junko Tabei was a pioneering alpinist who dramatically changed the landscape of mountaineering around the world. Previously available only in Japanese, excerpts of her writing have been translated and compiled into 'Honouring High Places,' a beautifully illustrated retrospective.
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Oct 13, 2018

Kenzaburo Oe's 'Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness': Reflections on father-son relationships

In Oe's 'Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness,' the lifelong sense of obsession and profound sense of guilt engendered within his own familial history finds acute literary expression.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Oct 10, 2018

Japan demonstrates how too many rules can ruin governance

Culture of over-regulation helps explain the country's persistent problem with data falsification.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2018

Why Banksy's art stunt is economic genius

His shredding trick demonstrates the street artist's talent for exploring the ways in which people value art.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 6, 2018

'Anthony Bourdain's Hungry Ghosts': Deliciously sinister, beautifully illustrated supernatural tales

Hard-boiled, multifaceted writer Joel Rose paired up with the late Anthony Bourdain to pen 'Anthony Bourdain's Hungry Ghosts,' an illustrated collection of fright and food evoking the Japanese kaidan (ghost story) tradition.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2018

Moralizing, demonizing and common sense at the U.N.

In a week of speeches that swirled from the sublime to the ridiculous or were simply just boring, the recent United Nations General Assembly debate reached some notable exceptions. Among the sonorous drone of 193 addresses, either restating the obvious or repeating by rote the contemporary global mantra...
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 5, 2018

Scientists urge global doomsday vault for 'good' germs

As the world's microbial diversity is decimated by antibiotics, processed food, filtered water and other wonders of modern life, researchers are proposing the creation of a global microbiota vault to protect the long-term health of humanity.
EDITORIALS
Oct 4, 2018

Goodbye NAFTA, hello USMCA

After more than a year of intense negotiations, Canada, Mexico and the United States have agreed on a trilateral trade deal to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, a nearly 25-year-old pact that has been excoriated by U.S. President Donald Trump as the "worst trade deal ever." While the leaders...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 4, 2018

Crack down on sexual harassment in schools

It's time to close the loopholes that allow teachers who sexually harass students to remain in the education industry.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2018

The Beijing backlash begins

Trump's trade war with China shouldn't obscure a broader push-back against the country's mercantilist practices.
BUSINESS
Oct 4, 2018

As planet warms, China's drought losses predicted to soar into tens of billions of dollars

Economic losses caused by drought in China will rocket to tens of billions of dollars per year if global warming breaches the limits set by governments in a 2015 agreement to tackle climate change, scientists said.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2018

Storm warning for the fossil fuel industry

This year's extreme weather will intensify political pressure on fossil fuel firms.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 30, 2018

The direction of education in Japan

Japan has the 6-3-3-4 education system — compulsory education of six years in elementary school and three years in junior high school. Students then commonly go on to three years in high school and four years in university.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
Sep 29, 2018

At the Kyoto dorm that time forgot, Japanese students dig in

The reception area at Yoshida Dormitory, a 105-year-old student residency in Kyoto University, is reached via a short lane lined by tall gingko trees and rows of bicycles, some of which look like they have been stationary for as long it would take to complete a Ph.D. The classic wooden entrance is a...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 27, 2018

Countdown to Okinawa's critical election

The Okinawa gubernatorial election is an important one for the prefecture, for the central government, for the Japan-U.S. alliance and for the Indo-Pacific region as a whole.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2018

'Outrageous prejudice': Publisher suspends publication of Shincho 45 following furor in LGBT community

Shinchosha Publishing announced its Shincho 45 magazine will effectively fold after carrying articles that its president said contained “outrageous prejudice” against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2018

'Cafe Funiculi Funicula': Extra spoonfuls of sentimentality make this flick hard to swallow

An old-fashioned coffee house serves up a dash of mystery and a great dollop of sentiment in Ayuko Tsukahara's "Cafe Funiculi Funicula." Based on a pair of best-selling novels by playwright-turned-author Toshikazu Kawaguchi, this aggressively tear-jerky paean to life, death and past regrets plays like...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2018

How China is losing the world

Beijing's overreach risks creating a well-spring of resistance to its global ambitions.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2018

Space junk presents a clear and present danger

Pollution generated by human activity isn't limited to the Earth and its climate.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2018

Extreme weather at the ballot box

It's time for voters everywhere to hold leaders accountable for their failure to cut carbon dioxide emissions.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 22, 2018

Haruki Murakami's 'Underground' still holds chilling lessons about Japan

Haruki Murakami's sole foray into journalism, 'Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche,' celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. What lessons does it hold today about where Japan has gone as a society?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Sep 22, 2018

'The Journey': Jiro Osaragi depicts a society coming to grips with defeat and occupation

Jiro Osaragi's 'The Journey' is an intriguing literary and psychological depiction of a society coming to grips with the aftermath of defeat and occupation.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2018

Trump is just a symptom of America's illness

Trump isn't a root cause of American crisis. He is a symptom of pre-existing conditions.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 22, 2018

Japanese publisher says stories in Shincho 45 magazine expressed 'aberrant prejudice' against LGBT community

The president of a publishing company has confirmed there were troublesome opinions expressed in articles that ran in a monthly magazine that supported a national lawmaker who called LGBT couples unproductive.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 21, 2018

With population boom, urbanization, World Bank warns waste could grow 70% by 2050

Global waste could grow by 70 percent by 2050 as urbanization and populations rise, the World Bank said Thursday, with South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa set to generate the biggest increase in rubbish.

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