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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 15, 2016

Making the most of Obama's awkward ASEAN summit

The U.S. president needs to prod Southeast Asian leaders to get their act together on trade and security.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 15, 2016

It's the season of love: Won't someone please grab hold of my chin?

In Japan these days, it can seem as if love itself is on the decline — and that no one really cares.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 13, 2016

Japan is losing its drive to get behind the wheel

Even domestic automakers seem to be concentrating on expanding overseas as the market at home looks bleak.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Feb 10, 2016

Educate the people and keep the 'manji' (卍) on Japan's maps

Why the ancient symbol should be left where it is, despite its dark connotations from the 20th century.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2016

Hillary doesn't get what campaigns are about

Hillary Clinton's biggest flaw as a candidate is her failure to project an optimistic vision for the future.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2016

As perceptions of animals evolve, so does English

In a language like English, which implicitly categorizes animals as things rather than persons, adopting the personal pronoun would embody the same recognition — and remind us who animals really are.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2016

What the next U.S. leader should know about N. Korea

Current U.S. policy deals with the North Korea of the past, not the North Korea of today.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2016

The predators behind the TPP

Twelve Pacific Rim countries representing around 40 percent of the global economy signed the u2028Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade accord on Thursday. Dutch author Karel van Wolferen u2028examines the corporate ramifications of the divisive deal
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Feb 5, 2016

Chiaki Hara reaches out to cancer survivors

Things were looking good for Chiaki Hara at the start of 2005. She was an accomplished actress, having starred in the 1997 tragic romance "Shitsurakuen" ("Lost Paradise") and 2002' drama "Aiki," and her profile as a social commentator was also on the rise. Then, at the age of 30, she was diagnosed with...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Feb 3, 2016

Japanese Odissi dancer masters Indian classical art form

Masako Ono's skills in this ancient style of dance have won her kudos and success in her adopted land of India.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 31, 2016

Bank remittance case suggests My Number may be tough to opt out of

A reader asks about the relationship between the My Number registration system and sending money abroad.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 30, 2016

Is society on the cusp of massive change?

Philosopher Tatsuru Uchida, interviewed earlier this month by the Asahi Shimbun, merely confirms what we all know, or sense, when he says: "This is an age of transition. We're going through the confusion characteristic of bedrock change."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jan 27, 2016

Do your Japanese colleagues drive you nuts? Maybe it's you, not them (or both)

The Trail Mix Incident — where cultural conditioning trumped Japanese social etiquette — highlights how the defense of territory is universal.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 26, 2016

Theater academy pulls no punches

In a rehearsal studio at the Za-Koenji theater in west-central Tokyo's Koenji district, trainee actress Yuuhi Suenobu was striving to act the role of a frightened young woman wandering aimlessly in a chaotic wasteland with her injured mother.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2016

Britain facing a watershed year

A vote against EU membership, especially in such a dangerous international environment, would truly be an irrational move for Britain.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 25, 2016

Stop blaming China for the Nikkei's gloom

Shinzo Abe is the architect of Japan's bear market as he's squandered a rare opportunity for bold reforms.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 25, 2016

There are many way-zu in Japanese to show there's more than one

In contrast to English, in Japanese the grammatical marking of plurals is optional, meaning the whole matter is dealt with a lot less systematically.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 24, 2016

Kyu Won Han's advice to new opera fans: immerse yourself

Baritone Kyu Won Han says the best piece of advice he can give to opera newcomers is: read up.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 21, 2016

Grimes is set to challenge your definition of pop

No matter how hard her fans and the music press campaign to make it happen, Grimes will never become the true pop star they want her to be. Although her otherworldly, Ableton-assisted music is crammed full of hooks fit to sit alongside Rihanna and Taylor Swift in the Top 40, the Canadian musician/producer...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 20, 2016

J-horror master Yoshihiro Nakamura returns to form

Yoshihiro Nakamura entered the film world on a well-trodden path. After making 8 mm films while studying at Tokyo's Seijo University and winning a prize at the 1993 Pia Film Festival — a famous incubator for young Japanese filmmakers — he worked as an assistant director for Juzo Itami, Yoichi Sai...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / DAVOS SPECIAL 2016
Jan 20, 2016

Turning challenges of cybersecurity into new opportunities for growth

As information and communication technology (ICT) has extended into all areas of society, we have become ever more reliant upon it. The subtle ways in which it is changing the world, though both exciting and frightening, are not widely recognized or understood. This year, Japan will host the G-7 summit...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 19, 2016

The frayed edges of modern Japan

In the Edo Period (1603-1868) and the years that followed, Japan made strenuous efforts to bring together its patchwork of feudal regions into a strongly centralized state with a unified culture. Accordingly, the nation now is one of the most homogenous in the world. But there are a couple of places...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 18, 2016

Another year of living precariously in 21st-century Japan

2015 was a pretty gloomy year worldwide. And the same could be said for life on the archipelago.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Jan 17, 2016

'Being black can be more fun than being gay'

A look at the experience of two black men in the LGBT community in Tokyo, a 'minority of a minority of a minority.'
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Jan 17, 2016

Bringing art — and Super 8 — to students in the sticks

An American teacher seeks to bring out students' creativity and help keep Super 8 medium alive through project at university in Tochigi.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 17, 2016

Inspiration that comes in dreams and rice balls

Ichiko Aoba takes her seat at an old-fashioned coffee house in Tokyo's Shibuya district, and places a sketchpad and a plump pouch of rolling tobacco on the table. During the hour-long conversation that follows, the tobacco goes untouched, but the sketchpad gets a thorough workout. As she talks, the 25-year-old...

Longform

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