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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 31, 2018

Can U.S. media stand up for press freedom?

Donald Trump's Twitter onslaught is in danger of drowning press freedom.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 20, 2018

Bill Hersey, man about Tokyo, 1930-2018: some tributes

Writer's kindness was legend, and his photos and columns told the story of a Tokyo social scene's rebirth after war and Occupation.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2017

Europe is tiring of Anglo-American lectures

Following Brexit and Trump, the Anglo-Saxon world's intellectual leadership is on the wane in Europe.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 21, 2017

Magazines hold their own against TV's 'iron chefs'

Prior to Japan's switch-over to full digital TV broadcasting in 2011, a number of industry insiders were already voicing concerns about how the new technology would affect their bottom line. With expanded bandwidth and additional channels, what — aside from reruns of old programs — could the networks...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 25, 2017

Alex Kerr recalls 1970s Japan and David Kidd, the mentor whose influence never fades

Author and Japan hand Alex Kerr remembers the 'larger than life, outrageous, tall, skinny, blond' David Kidd and the 'golden age.'
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Aug 30, 2017

Readers pay tribute to longtime Japan Times columnist Jean Pearce

A selection of readers' — and writers' — tributes to Jean Pearce, who for decades helped Japan's foreign community feel more at home in their adopted country.
Japan Times
LIFE / OBITUARY
Jul 9, 2017

Jean Pearce, Japan Times columnist and author, 1921-2017

Jean Pearce, my mother, who for decades helped Japan's foreign community feel more at home in their adopted country through her columns in The Japan Times, passed away peacefully on June 14 at the age of 96 in Washington, D.C.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Mar 27, 2017

Seiko contemporary masters demonstrate craftsmanship

Demonstrating the quintessential Japanese sense of beauty and intricate craftsmanship, Seiko Watch Corp. is releasing another limited edition mechanical watch from its high-end Credor brand this summer.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2016

Why are some politicians impervious to facts?

Many politicians make innaccurate statements, and most people can't be bothered to question them.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 27, 2016

Syria government says it will restore ancient Palmyra as city is taken back from Islamic State

Palmyra's ancient Roman temples and archway, blown up by Islamic State fighters last year, will be restored, the head of the antiquities authority said on Saturday before Syria recaptured the city, inflicting a significant defeat on the Islamist group, which had controlled the desert city since May last...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / DAVOS SPECIAL 2016
Jan 20, 2016

Le Corbusier's Japanese ghost lives on in Ueno

The Swiss-French architect and artist Charles Eduoard Jeanneret-Gris, better known as Le Corbusier, was by any measure one of the greatest architects of the twentieth century.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 3, 2015

Russia boasts satellite proof of Turkey's ties to Islamic State oil trade, claims Erdogan benefiting

Russia's defense ministry said on Wednesday it had proof that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his family were benefiting from the illegal smuggling of oil from Islamic State-held territory in Syria and Iraq.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 30, 2014

Kiev seeks to join NATO; Putin calls Ukraine Nazis

Ukraine called on Friday for full membership in NATO, its strongest plea yet for Western military help, after accusing Russia of sending in armored columns that have driven back its forces on behalf of pro-Moscow rebels.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 28, 2014

'Japanese' remark serves economist's purpose

Swedes must be stewing with regret for giving American economist Paul Krugman the Nobel Prize after one of his columns likened the trajectory of Scandinavia's biggest economy to Tokyo's battle with deflation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 7, 2013

Russia's homophobic curse

With the general mood in Russia's populace favoring a ban on gay culture, homophobic mobsters of all colors feel cozy under an official umbrella.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 7, 2013

Shigeru Ban: 'People's architect' combines permanence and paper

Generally speaking, an architect's style is defined by particular forms or shapes. There's Frank Lloyd Wright's prominent horizontal lines, for instance; Le Corbusier's simple white boxes; or, more recently, the deliberately abstract masses of Frank Gehry — of Guggenheim Bilbao fame.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 31, 2013

Last post: Japan's outdated model is dead; long live the emerging vision

As of today, Roger Pulvers takes leave of Counterpoint, for which he has written weekly since its inception on April 3, 2005. In his final three columns, he set out to consider in turn Japan in the past, present and future. This is the concluding part of that trilogy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Feb 19, 2013

Journey to Kenya turns writer's life on its head, spurs Africa fascination

It was a single visit to Kenya in 1972 that completely changed Michio Hiraiwa's philosophy on life. He fell in love with the country, and visited there 150 times over the past 40 years. Once a workaholic, Hiraiwa says he now leads a stress-free and relaxed life, visiting Kenya and Tanzania four times...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jan 8, 2013

From Taiji to Okinawa, readers dissect some issues of 2012

In the first of our new Community Chest letters columns, we bring together a selection of mails received in response to some of the final Community stories of 2012.
OLYMPICS / LONDON POSTCARD
Aug 8, 2012

Bolt's growing legend makes for good reading

My maternal great-grandmother used to wash the linens every Monday. She considered it a good tone-setter for the week.
COMMENTARY
Jun 5, 2012

Fighting peace for Taiwan

Four months after the presidential elections in Taiwan, there is a big difference when comparing the aftereffects of the elections in 2008 to those in 2012.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 10, 2011

Watch your manners!

MANNERS AND MISCHIEF: Gender, Power and Etiquette in Japan. Edited by Jan Bardsley and Laura Miller. University of California Press, 2011, 245 pp., $22.95 (paper) Don't let the cutesy Hello Kitty cover fool you. "Manners and Mischief" disdains frivolity and stands firm as an academic text for students...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 23, 2011

Mystery at a crossroads of continents

By the time I reached the small town of Palmyra, way out in the middle of the Syrian desert, I had become somewhat accustomed to the ways of the locals.
JAPAN / LIVING IN LUXURY
Sep 10, 2010

Royal trappings grace Akasaka Guest House

People who visited the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, may have stepped into the old two-story Guest House, which stands behind the 40-story main hotel.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 5, 2010

Lofty tonic in the heat

So what do you do when it's summer in Japan and the heat and humidity have become just plain silly?
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 28, 2010

Is the Atsugi tragedy finally drawing to a close?

During the 18 years I have been writing this column, few stories have haunted me as much as that about the Japanese-owned incinerator that, for more than a decade, fumigated the U.S. Naval Air Facility at Atsugi in the Kanagawa Prefecture cities of Yamato and Ayase.
LIFE / WEEK 3
Dec 20, 2009

Real Escape Game brings its creator's wonderment to life

Code-like messages on the walls grabbed my attention first: "g=circle, square, triangle"; "42, 23, 16 . . . " Then I saw the padlocked safe and the six candy dispensers — the latter for sustenance, I guessed, in case we intrepid 18 gamesters locked in this mysterious room should malinger in accomplishing...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 15, 2009

Shades of Greece on the Inland Sea

The windmill is the first thing I notice, its delicate white blades gleaming against the cloud- flecked sky. Nearby, a semi-circle of polished Doric-style columns occupies prime position overlooking the glassy sea. As a breeze blows gently through olive trees on the shady hillside, it's easy to imagine...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 8, 2009

Cubism remixed at a European crossroads

Cubism, as it emerged from the experiments of the painters Pablo Picasso and George Braque, was for some a necessary but limited artistic investigation in the 20th century. For others, though, it offered a blueprint for a new language, as in that part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that became Czechoslovakia,...

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go