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Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 16, 2014

Punk author Kou Machida on his offbeat samurai story

You wouldn't expect a punk musician to write decent novels, any more than you'd expect a boxer to be good at darning. The talents prized by the former vocation — restlessness, insouciance, hard-wired disregard for authority — don't lend themselves to the rigors of the author's life: all those long,...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 16, 2014

Skipper Nakahata building new identity with BayStars

Three years ago, it might have been difficult to identify Kiyoshi Nakahata with a Japanese professional baseball team other than the Yomiuri Giants. He played his entire career with the Kyojin, served as a coach with the team after his playing days were finished and stayed in the family as a commentator...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2014

The bill for Putin's policy will be high

Virtually every retaliatory move against the West proposed by Vladimir Putin as a result of the Ukraine crisis has backfired on Russia and left it in a far weaker financial position.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Aug 14, 2014

Surrender had lasting impact on many Japanese after war's end

Many Japanese people remember Aug. 15 as the day World War II ended. Sixty-nine years ago today, in a speech broadcast on the radio, Emperor Hirohito announced that Japan had notified the Allied powers of its acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 14, 2014

Pixies to bring 'Indie Cindy' to Summer Sonic

Sat on the upper deck of his band's tour bus, Pixies frontman Black Francis shrugs his shoulders and screws up his face. This is, I've come to realize, how the man born Charles Thompson IV tends to field questions before, if and when the fancy takes him, forcefully making his point — a technique strangely...
EDITORIALS
Aug 14, 2014

Don't hide the harsh reality of war

As the number of survivors of the 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings falls below 200,000, it is becoming increasingly difficult for younger generations to understand the horror of war experienced by Japan's victims, whose average age is 79.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 13, 2014

Tavarataivas (365 Nichi no Simple Life)

Perhaps you are aware of the tiny house movement, where people move into a teensy-tiny house with the barest of amenities, or Project 333, where people choose to dress with only 33 items for three months or longer. Both have gained significant interest over the last few years as more people in the so...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 13, 2014

Homebuyers in Japan seen at risk on floating-rate loan rush

Homebuyers are piling into floating-rate mortgages, stirring debate over whether they are too complacent as Bank of Japan stimulus revives inflation.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 13, 2014

Robin Williams fondly remembered by Japan's film industry

It was an open secret among Japanese film distribution companies that Robin Williams, who died at his California home on Monday in an apparent suicide, was a "yobitai sutaa" ("a want-to-invite star").
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2014

Homebuyers in Japan seen at risk amid floating-rate loan rush

Japanese homebuyers are piling into floating-rate mortgages, stirring debate over whether they are too complacent as Bank of Japan stimulus revives inflation.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech / ADVANCES IN PROGRESS
Aug 11, 2014

Future appears bright for indoor veggie farms

A 1,260-sq.-meter factory in Kashiwanoha, Chiba Prefecture, is kept extremely clean, shutting out external air because it affects product quality, and workers wear clean-room suits and take a warm shower before entering the facility.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Aug 10, 2014

Ginobili won't play in FIBA World Cup, sees Argentina career end

San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili has become resigned to not playing for Argentina again after missing the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain due to injury.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 9, 2014

Monuments to peace reveal island's violent history

With its perpetual flame for peace and slabs of granite inscribed with the names of the more than 241,000 people who died on all sides during the Battle of Okinawa, the Okinawa Peace Memorial Park in Mabuni is the island's most famous monument — but also one of its most controversial. Critics argue...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / OLYMPIC NOTEBOOK
Aug 9, 2014

Legacy of 1984 Olympics still growing strong

What will be the legacy of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics?
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2014

A war is not inconceivable

Washington's demonization of Vladimir Putin has been so successful in the press, and it has been so secret about the American role in Kiev, that it has left the U.S. and EU public convinced that the Ukraine crisis has been the result of Russia's desire to expand.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 7, 2014

The robots return in 'Transformers: Age of Extinction'

Filmmaker Michael Bay thinks there's something interesting about Japanese samurai that sets them apart from English knights.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 5, 2014

Dragon Ash, Chara impress at Rock in Japan's first weekend

The first thing you're greeted with when walking into the gates of Rock In Japan Festival is a large sign with a list of rules titled, "7 Things Rock In Japan Wants to Tell You."
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 5, 2014

Japan eyes financial support for abductees returning from North Korea

A government panel proposed Tuesday a number of measures to prepare for the possible return of abductees from North Korea, including the enactment of a special law to give them financial support.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Aug 4, 2014

Tigers face annual 'road trip of death' in midst of CL race

Should the Hanshin Tigers be worried about the "road trip of death?" Sure, it sounds ominous, as do most things when you tack "of death" onto the end, but it's not nearly as bad as in the past. Either way, the team has to face it now.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 4, 2014

Evangelion director to be featured at Tokyo International Film Festival

The work of visionary director Hideaki Anno will take center stage at this year's Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF).
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 1, 2014

An Iraq in peril struggles to hold together

Salman Khaled has already lived through Baghdad's sectarian disintegration; with Iraq now splintering into Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish regions, he says this time the survival of the country is at stake.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 30, 2014

Ida

Pawel Pawlikowski has a solid reputation in Europe — especially Britain, for award-winners such as "Summer of Love" (2004) and "Last Resort" (2000). But after spending his entire film career away from home, Pawlikowski returned to his native Poland to try something different. "Ida" is the result: The...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 29, 2014

Russia will pay a steep price for Putin victories

Russians may not yet understand that they are going to have to pay for Vladimir Putin's confiscations and annexations, starting perhaps with the $50 billion that the Permanent Court of Arbitration has just ordered Russia to pay to shareholders of the dismantled oil company Yukos.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 28, 2014

Pushing locals aside, Russians take top rebel posts in east Ukraine

As Ukrainian troops gained ground in eastern Ukraine in early July, separatist leader, Aleksander Borodai, a Russian national, left for Moscow for political consultations.

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