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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KNOWING KISSATEN
Mar 24, 2017

Tokyo's classical music cafes are time capsules for audiophiles

In this age of musical abundance, it's hard to fathom that an LP once cost the equivalent of a few days' wages in Japan. In the 1950s, audiophiles who couldn't afford to buy their own music did their listening at coffee shops known as meikyoku kissaten ("musical masterpiece cafes"), which boasted high-end...
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Mar 24, 2017

London attack a reminder of fears for post-Brexit security cooperation

Hours before Wednesday's attack in London, the head of the European Union police agency Europol warned that a large group of radicalized individuals posed a constant threat to Britain and Europe.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2017

The happiest nations don't focus on growth

The world's happiest nations rank low in economic growth but high in social trust.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Mar 21, 2017

Flawed system cost Honda second world junior title

Marin Honda saved her best for last.
BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2017

Malaysia intercepted, returned Thailand-bound arms-related shipment to North Korea in 2011

Malaysia intercepted and returned a shipment of North Korean military communications equipment sent to Thailand in 2011, the country's police chief said on Monday, amid growing scrutiny of the Southeast Asian nation's dealings with North Korea.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 20, 2017

Nagoya dye house looks abroad to keep traditional black in fashion

A dye house in Nagoya that specializes in kuro montsukizome, the dyeing of black-crested formal kimono that has been practiced since the Edo Period (1603 to 1868), is working on selling stoles and T-shirts that make use of the same technology.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2017

Once again, Jordan finds itself at the precipice

Jordan has muddled through many crises and may do so again, but the current dangers pose an extraordinary challenge.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 14, 2017

Japan defense chief Inada in crosshairs after Moritomo scandal flip-flop

A court record linking Defense Minister Tomomi Inada and a scandal-tainted nationalist Osaka-based school operator emerged Tuesday, prompting Inada to withdraw an earlier denial of the link.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 14, 2017

Masaaki Yamada: A painter of all stripes and colors

Masaaki Yamada (1929-2010) is like a mystery man of modernism. He apparently had no specialist art training of note and is known only by a skeleton biography that is mostly blank before 1943, and patchy thereafter. Said to have begun painting from the so-called tabula rasa of bombed out World War II...
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2017

Pressure continues to mount on Moritomo Gakuen chief

Pressure on Yasunori Kagoike, head of scandal-plagued Moritomo Gakuen, in the Diet and in Osaka Prefecture showed no sign of abating Monday even though he withdrew his application to open a new elementary school and indicated last week he would resign.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 13, 2017

Toto rolls out droll toilet humor with a whiff of class

Sit back and relax as this week's Bilingual column splashes on the results of Toto's 2016 Toilet Senryu Contest.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 11, 2017

'Japandemonium Illustrated: The Yokai Encyclopedias of Toriyama Sekien': Excavating Edo's ancient memes with the power of 'yokai'

Beginning with 2008's "Yokai Attack!," translators Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt have been on a quest to bring an aspect of Japanese culture that has lurked in the shadows to the world at large.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2017

IAEA board backs incumbent Amano for a third term

The U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors on Wednesday backed the agency's chief, Yukiya Amano, for a third term as director general after he ran unopposed on a platform of continuity in dealing with issues like Iran's nuclear programme.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 8, 2017

A dystopian future set in the present aftermath

With "Homo Sapiens", director Nikolaus Geyrhalter paints a haunting dystopian vision of civilization minus its creators. This unique documentary consists of nothing but steady, perfectly framed wide-shots of abandoned structures and wastelands. Imagine Wes Anderson doing location shots for "The Walking...
BASEBALL
Mar 8, 2017

China aims for incremental improvements on global baseball stage

China manager John McLaren starts each day by having his players remember their team motto: "Get better every day." He'll then pick out a player, who will then belt out a tune of his choice for the room, "they're lacking there a little bit," McLaren said with a grin.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2017

SpaceX's moon mission is NASA's wake-up call

The lunar vacation offered by Elon Musk's SpaceX may also serve as the starting gun for a new and very different space race.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Mar 7, 2017

Honda prepping for world juniors with legend Zoueva

Reigning world junior champion Marin Honda traveled to Canton, Michigan, recently to spend time working with coach and choreographer Marina Zoueva at the Arctic Edge Ice Arena. Honda is tuning up for defense of her title at the world junior championships in Taipei this month.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 3, 2017

Bitcoin 'creator' races to patent technology with gambling tycoon

The man who last year made global headlines by claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin, is working with a fugitive online gambling entrepreneur to file scores of patents relating to the digital currency and its underlying technology, blockchain.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2017

Why Dutch sentiment has turned against immigrants

Soon after she moved into her new neighborhood, Ijburg, on the eastern outskirts of Amsterdam, in 2005, Xandra Lammers started a blog about it. Ijburg is a curious place, an architectural wonder, built in the middle of a lake on reclaimed land and partly on water. She still keeps the blog alive, but...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 27, 2017

Tax break for OTC drugs seeks to get Japanese managing their health, not swarming clinics

Buying medicine at a drugstore can now save you taxes.

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