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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 9, 2016

Japan warns of growing North Korea threat after fifth nuclear test

North Korea conducted its fifth and most powerful nuclear test to date around 9:30 a.m. Friday, prompting Tokyo to immediately file a protest.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Sep 9, 2016

Japanese wine is no longer a novelty

Five years ago, Japanese wine was still considered a novelty, and finding it in Tokyo required a fair amount of searching. These days, most shops carry at least a few varieties and some have entire shelves dedicated to domestic wine. Popular magazines now run features on local producers and ways to match...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 9, 2016

Being young, Japanese, a woman and a chef — in Paris

Chiho Kanzaki has been cooking for as long as she can remember. Growing up in Tokyo, she used to watch her father prepare dinner for their family and would climb onto a stool to imitate his movements in the kitchen. Like a lot of little girls enamored of the food world, she imagined herself as a baker...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 8, 2016

New PlayStation 4 models change life cycle of gaming consoles

Sony Corp. has released two new versions of its PlayStation 4: the PlayStation 4 Pro and a slimmer, more efficient version of the PlayStation 4.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 7, 2016

'Karate Kill': Kick back to a good old action film

Back in the 1990s, a British trade magazine sent me to Los Angeles every November to report on the American Film Market — then mostly an emporium of cheapo genre films, held at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. It was the heyday of the straight-to-video actioner and the doors of many sales suites were...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 6, 2016

'Similarity and Difference: Who's Who by Kazuo Okazaki'

Sept. 7-Oct. 30
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Sep 5, 2016

Nagoya park becomes 'holy ground' for 'Pokemon Go' players

A little over a month has passed since the smartphone game "Pokemon Go" was released in Japan, but people are still found wandering around Nagoya's Tsuruma Park — a magnet for its players — until late at night.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 4, 2016

Clown sightings spook South Carolina, perplex police

One clown showed up on a roadside in a rain poncho, another waved money at children near woods.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 3, 2016

India, after leak of secret data, shelves plan to expand French submarine order

India is unlikely to give French naval contractor DCNS a proposed order for three new submarines, in addition to the six it is already building in the country, following the leak of secret data about its capabilities, Indian defense officials said.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 2, 2016

Japanese chefs defy expectations across Asia

The rainbow trout confit at Mezzaluna, an acclaimed fine-dining restaurant in Bangkok that overlooks the city from the top of the 65-story Lebua State Tower, is an impeccable example of contemporary French cuisine. As is the luxurious foie gras flan, which lies beneath a grilled morsel of red snapper...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Sep 1, 2016

Fine French fare high above the city; N.Y. chef brings talents to Tokyo; reopening sees accommodation plan

Fine French fare high above the city
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2016

How new nuclear could lift renewables at a third of Hinkley cost

A former chief scientist for one of the world's biggest consumer-goods companies says he can make nuclear power cheaper and safer and wants $30 million so that he can prove it.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2016

Tailored loans support restoration of Kyoto's historic townhouses

For generations, artisans and merchants in Kyoto lived in thousands of traditional machiya townhouses that are steadily disappearing or falling into disrepair.
EDITORIALS
Aug 31, 2016

A new name for old conspiracy bill

If passed, legislation that criminalizes the acts of plotting and preparing to commit crimes will lead to greater government surveillance.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 31, 2016

'Self/Less': Losing oneself in the narrative

The age of excessive high-tech is a good time to be filthy rich, especially if you happen to be an entitled scoundrel whose level of wealth-fueled egomania makes Scrooge look like a benevolent fuddy-duddy. In "Self/Less," Ben Kingsley as New York real estate mogul Damian is that scoundrel, and he pushes...
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 31, 2016

A new generation of jihadis awakens in Indonesia

During a May 2011 shootout, Indonesia's counterterrorism forces killed the leader of a militant group thought to be behind a series of failed bomb attempts around the city of Solo in Central Java.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 29, 2016

Foreign part-timers proliferate in Chubu as scarce Japanese flee drunks at pubs

Foreign students working part-time in izakaya (pubs) are rising rapidly in the Chubu region amid the increasing tendency of many young Japanese to avoid drunk customers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Aug 27, 2016

Vintage ventures in Tabata Ginza

The midday sky swirls with typhoon clouds as I set off to explore a little shopping area known as Tabata Ginza in Tokyo's Kita Ward. I'm thrilled to be in the charismatic company of a third-generation rakugoka (traditional storyteller) who lives nearby. I met Mikio Katsura, 32, by chance in Tabata last...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Aug 27, 2016

Games you've been waiting a long time for

An endless exploration
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 26, 2016

IPhone ready to play catch-up in Japan with swipe-to-pay chips

Apple Inc. is planning a new iPhone feature for Japan that will let people pay for mass-transit rides with their smartphones instead of physical payment cards. A future iPhone will include technology called FeliCa, a mobile tap-to-pay standard in Japan developed by Sony Corp., according to people familiar...
Japan Times
CULTURE
Aug 25, 2016

Koenji's Awa Odori festival celebrates 60 years

For the past few weeks, visitors and residents in Koenji have been haunted by a song — a plaintive, pentatonic melody that seems to circle endlessly, never quite resolving. You can hear it playing over speakers on the station platform just before the train doors close. It's there again as you walk...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 24, 2016

'The Myth of the American Sleepover': Missing some identifying teen spirit

It's one hot night near the end of summer somewhere in leafy suburban America, and a bunch of high school kids — from baby-faced freshmen to confident seniors — ride bikes out to their favorite swimming holes, cruise around in cars blaring tunes, wander from house to house thinking that the next...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 23, 2016

Flamenco fusion set to fire up Tokyo

Surrender to the heat of September as the Antonio Gades Company brings its sultry blend of ballet and flamenco to Tokyo, showcasing three of its classic works in two separate programs at Bunkamura's magnificent Orchard Hall.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 23, 2016

Dance icon Saburo Teshigawara's 'Magic Flute' brings abstract notes to Mozart's final gem

Since studying visual arts and sculpture before taking up ballet at the age of 20 in 1973, Saburo Teshigawara has become a world-renowned choreographer and dancer whose unique style and aesthetic sense has even drawn him commissions from the Paris Opera Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater....
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 22, 2016

In Aichi, ashes of the dead shift to conveyer belt system as Japan grays

The first columbarium in the Chubu region to use an automated cinerary box conveyor system opened last month in Nagoya as the popularity of tombs that do not require much maintenance grows.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 20, 2016

How to teach moral education in a relative age?

The wartime moral ideal was blind obedience and self-sacrificing devotion to the nation. Could the upgrading of moral education be a first step on the road back to that?
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2016

India adopts new approach to muscle-flexing China

As they embark on their journeys to become global powers, it's in China and India's interest to remove mistrust by closely collaborating with one another.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat