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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2019

Long-form journalism is the future of print

'Creative destruction' will erase the dinosaurs and in their place will arise a new generation of print outlets dedicated to long-form analysis and commentary.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 4, 2019

Deciphering the curious act of talking to oneself

Talking to oneself is not respectable. It suggests many things, none of them good: abysmal loneliness, a mental screw loose, a social wire frayed, insanity, dementia. Shukan Post magazine this month cites experts in dementia who see solitary dialogue as a potential premonitory sign — not a conclusive...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Apr 6, 2019

Getting to the bottom of Chicano subculture coverage on Japan

Over the past month and a half, a number of Western media outlets have revisited a topic that has long been a hit for online publications.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 15, 2019

California totally free of drought for the first time in seven years

California was declared totally drought-free for the first time in more than seven years on Thursday, following unusually abundant winter rains and snowfall statewide, according to the government's weekly report on U.S. drought conditions.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Mar 10, 2019

Fighting for some successful revivals

Become over 40 manga characters with 'Jump Force'; 'Dead or Alive' is very much alive and kicking; and 'Nier: Automata' is even better than it was before.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 2, 2019

NHK's restructuring plan sparks concern over influence

In a recent post for the progressive website Common Dreams, consumer advocate and one-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader bemoaned public broadcasting in the United States. Created by the government "to provide serious programming without any advertisements," the Public Broadcasting Service and National...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / Defining the Heisei Era
Feb 23, 2019

Defining the Heisei Era: Women in Japan speak out on inequality

Last April, a female reporter from TV Asahi accused Junichi Fukuda, the top bureaucrat at the Finance Ministry, of sexual harassment.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 2, 2019

Tabloid's objectification of women continues to stir controversy

The weekly magazine Spa has apologized for an article it published in December that ranked universities in terms of how easy it is to get their female students into bed. The article generated backlash but the apology was issued in response to a petition that had been drawn up in protest.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2019

Kei Komuro's family financial trouble resolved? Depends who you ask

Princess Mako's suitor — whose prospective engagement to her is currently up in the air over family financial trouble — claims the issue is resolved.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Jan 22, 2019

The Todai Riots: 1968-69

A photographer who documented the occupation of the University of Tokyo from inside the barricades half a century ago remembers the final days of resistance
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Jan 19, 2019

The University of Tokyo riots of 1968-69: A photographer remembers the final days of resistance

Riot police at the University of Tokyo haul off a man wearing a white helmet, cuffed hands clasped above his bowed head. His expression is a mixture of resignation and defiance, but the fine details are hard to discern, obscured by the dark shades of the monochrome photograph he is depicted in — where...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 13, 2019

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger: 'Following the truth, wherever it leads'

In the spring of 2014, a low rumble could be felt deep in the media landscape. An in-house report about the need for digital innovation at The New York Times was leaked by competitors, and what it revealed was a major news organization clearly struggling to overcome internal stasis and catch up with...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 12, 2019

Perceived dearth of freedom in Japan's schools reflects wider woes

What a strange place a school is — a world within a world, a society within a society. Kids grow up in it asking themselves, "Is the real world like this?"
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jan 7, 2019

Tabloid mag under fire for publishing list of Japanese colleges where girls are 'easily available' for sex at drinking parties

A tabloid magazine has ignited intense backlash on social media after it published a list of colleges whose students are "easily available" for sex after drinking, underscoring what critics described as the country's systematic objectification of women.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 22, 2018

Doors to foreign workers no longer slammed shut

There's no such place as Imizustan. Warabistan is equally fictitious. "Stan" means "homeland" in ancient Persian — hence Pakistan, Afghanistan and so on. A substantial Pakistani community in Imizu, Toyama Prefecture, spawned the nickname Imizustan. Warabi, Saitama Prefecture, hosts a growing community...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 8, 2018

Korean wartime labor rulings spark debate

The 2017 South Korean film, "The Battleship Island," has yet to receive a theatrical release in Japan, even though it's set on Hashima, more commonly known as Gunkanjima, a former mining complex off the coast of Kyushu and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Given the current diplomatic tensions between Japan...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 17, 2018

Flamboyant 'host club king' Takeshi Aida given an extravagant sendoff

An extravagant wake and funeral was held earlier this month in memory of host club Ai Honten's flamboyant founder, Takeshi Aida, who passed away on Oct. 25 at the age of 78 after a prolonged illness.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 10, 2018

Japan struggles to keep loneliness at arm's length

Society is crumbling into its component elements.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 3, 2018

Little buzz in Japan over Canada's move to legalize marijuana

Japan's media coverage of Canada's Oct. 17 announcement that possession and use of marijuana would be legalized — subject to certain restrictions — has been mostly brief and low-key.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 20, 2018

Conservative magazines set sights on Ikegami

"I don't watch much TV on my own," writes university lecturer Atsushi Iwata in WiLL magazine (November), "but sometimes I watch together with my wife. I don't particularly care about what she watches, but there are times when I ask her to change the channel — particularly when it's a program with Akira...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 6, 2018

Shincho 45's fumbles over LGBT issues hastened its demise

Some magazines meet their end with a whimper. Last month, however, a monthly called Shincho 45 went out with a bang.
Reader Mail
Sep 28, 2018

Saying farewell to Shibaura

Regarding the editorial "Turning a new page" in the Sept. 9 edition, I am disappointed that The Japan Times has left Shibaura, where it was an institution much like Tora-san in Shibamata. I'm disappointed because I have been studying English with the newspaper published in Minato Ward.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 1, 2018

News outlets raise questions over U.S. military presence in Japan

War remembrance in Japan tends to adhere to a seasonal schedule. As the nation swelters in the mid-summer heat, media coverage, particularly on NHK, comes to a head on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It then subsides momentarily before Aug. 15, when...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 4, 2018

There's no easy way to escape from your smartphone

Two decades ago, it was still common to see articles in the media disparaging the lack of manners and self-absorbed behavior of mobile phone users. By around 2003, however, the phones had become so ubiquitous that the erstwhile complainers had most likely become phone addicts themselves.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 15, 2018

The enduring appeal of 'Akira,' the manga

Katsuhiro Otomo's cyberpunk masterpiece, 'Akira,' has gone through multiple English-language incarnations throughout the years, but reader demand has never wavered.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2018

The 'thin gray line': Media stifles libel stories

All too often major media outlets shield one another from public scrutiny and accountability.

Longform

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