Search - author

 
 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 27, 2016

'Trumpetings' mean trouble for Japan and Asia

The last thing this region needs is more tension and conflict, which is what would come with a Trump presidency.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Jul 27, 2016

What to expect when applying for college overseas

In a few weeks, my daughter, an American-Japanese dual national born, raised and mostly educated in Japanese in Japan, will begin her first year of higher learning at her dream school — Middlebury College, one of America's oldest liberal arts institutes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 27, 2016

'A Walk in the Woods': Trekking up the path to friendship

Everyone needs to go for a walk — if only to clear their minds and get their circulation going. Reese Witherspoon walked 1,610 kilometers on the Pacific Crest Trail in "Wild" because her character (real-life author Cheryl Strayed) needed to clean her head of the mess that had become her life. In "A...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2016

U.S. Democrats should learn from Scandinavia

Scandinavian-style social welfare could breathe new life into the fading American Dream.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 26, 2016

The Kabukiza's special August season of short plays looks set to be a scorcher

Kabuki never used to be performed in August at the Kabukiza Theatre in Tokyo, but in 1990 two of its late, great actors, Nakamura Kanzaburo XVIII and Bando Mitsugoro X, instigated the staging of short programs during that sweltering month to help expand the audience.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2016

Mirage of a rules-based order

As demonstrated by China's response to The Hague's South China Sea decision, international law is powerful against the powerless, but powerless against the powerful.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2016

Why the U.S. should move nukes out of Turkey

The U.S. should move its nuclear missiles in southern Turkey to more secure European locations.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 25, 2016

Imperial abdication talk poses question of Japan's next era

As the news reverberated throughout Japan earlier this month that Emperor Akihito intended to relinquish his throne while alive — in the first such move in about 200 years — the nation was struck by one of the biggest implications of his exit: the arrival of a new era.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 23, 2016

A dark age dawns for politics in Japan

"Historic," that much-overused word, seems almost acceptable as a description of the Upper House elections earlier this month that gave Japan — for the first time in its postwar history — a government strong enough to get serious about rewriting the Constitution.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 23, 2016

Bushido: The samurai code goes to war

In a scene from the 1957 film "The Bridge on the River Kwai," a haughty British Col. in a prisoner-of-war camp confronts the camp's Japanese commandant. Citing the Geneva Convention as justification, he argues that his officers should not be forced into manual labor, which makes the commandant furious...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 23, 2016

'The Maid': A mind reader probes the intimate thoughts of her employers

In Japan, true feelings (known as honne) are often hidden behind the mask of a false front (tatemae). So the comic potential of a mind-reading maid working in private family homes — encountering sexual frustrations, jealousy and the mutual resentment of parents and their children — sounds rich indeed....
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 21, 2016

Neuroscientists chart new gray matter map pinpointing key areas of cerebral cortex

Neuroscientists acting as cartographers of the human mind have devised the most comprehensive map ever made of the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain responsible for higher cognitive functions such as abstract thought, language and memory.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Jul 20, 2016

Eiken broadens language tests to address criticisms

As the Eiken Foundation tries to meet the demands of a growing number of test-takers, what do students, parents and teachers make of the tests?
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2016

Territorial battles will continue despite ruling

Ultimately, the countries of the Asia-Pacific region will have to negotiate a resolution to its many dangerous territorial disputes rather than rely on court decisions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 20, 2016

There's a starman, waiting on the screen . . .

In 1975, just as David Bowie had achieved breakthrough success, he was simultaneously teetering on the verge of a nervous breakdown. A re-issued single of "Space Oddity" was No. 1 in the U.K., and he scored his first No. 1 single in the States with "Fame," while also cracking the top five with "Young...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2016

Choice of history in China will guide sea dispute

The 'victim' historical narrative propagated by Beijing may be politically convenient at the moment, but it ultimately threatens to undermine China's rise.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jul 17, 2016

Feeling despair from a distance as black lives taken

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it — always." — Mahatma Gandhi
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2016

Scotland is determined to retain its EU status

Scotland is European, and it needs EU membership to flourish.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 16, 2016

Ultraman: Ultracool at 50

Ultraman has been defending humanity against monsters and aliens for half a century. We examine the superhero's enduring legacy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jul 16, 2016

Anime discovers a rural outpost

For the past few years, the beginning of July has found me on a flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles to attend Anime Expo (AX), the largest annual North American convention devoted to Japanese popular culture, and its related industry-only event, Project Anime (PA). Both continue to break attendance records....
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2016

'Strange Glow': A grounded, intelligent look at radiation

"Strange Glow" hits all the notes you'd expect from a book described as "the story of people's encounters with radiation" — from physicist Ernest Rutherford's overturning of the"plum pudding" model of the atom to the "radium girls" who were poisoned by the glow-in-the-dark radium paint they applied...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jul 16, 2016

'Zen's sudden awakening to the truth beyond reason, beyond language'

Rabbi Zusia tramped through his native Poland — this admittedly is an odd way of introducing a story about Zen — collecting money to ransom Jews unjustly imprisoned, victims of the rampant anti-Semitism then prevailing. At a wayside inn he saw birds in a cage. Zusia, simple soul that he was, promptly...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2016

Penguin park opens in Shinjuku

JR Shinjuku Station held a ceremony to unveil a new park and bronze penguin statue representing the mascot for East Japan Railway Co.'s (JR East) Suica IC card at its recently opened south exit, on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2016

Selection of next U.N. chief reaches critical stage

The Security Council should select the most qualified candidate for the next U.N. chief, as the U.N. can no longer afford to have less than the best at its helm.
WORLD / Society
Jul 15, 2016

U.S. lawmakers introduce bill to criminalize 'revenge porn'

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced long-stalled legislation on Thursday that would make it a federal crime to share sexually explicit material of a person online without the subject's consent.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 12, 2016

For China, Trump perhaps better the devil they don't know

In 2010, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton provoked outrage in Beijing when she pushed the South China Sea to the top of the regional and U.S. security agendas.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2016

How Clinton limps forward after the FBI report

FBI Director James Comey may have recommended against charging Hillary Clinton; but, politically speaking, he hung her out to dry.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2016

U.S. cops protect violent, racist system

Black or white, the U.S. police are paid to oppress, not protect, and citizens of all races have good cause to be afraid of them.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2016

Police are killing, and dying, in a vicious circle

What's at stake in the U.S. is the preservation of police legitimacy.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 11, 2016

'Sukiyaki' lyricist Rokusuke Ei dies at 83

Rokusuke Ei, who wrote the lyrics to the global hit "Sukiyaki" ("Ue o Muite Aruko"), passed away from pneumonia at his home on Thursday. He was 83.

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