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Japan Times
SPORTS
Jan 31, 2015

Japan Coaches' Awards recognize top coaches from throughout the nation

Sometimes, or perhaps many times, the success of athletes and sports teams can be achieved with an enormous amount of effort provided by those who give them instructions and strategies — coaches.
Japan Times
SPORTS / NOTES ON A SCORECARD
Jan 30, 2015

No reason for fans to despair over Nishikori's defeat

What a difference three years makes.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 29, 2015

Marlins glad to add Ichiro

Ichiro Suzuki sipped green tea, elicited a few laughs and turned the tables on a media member with three questions of his own during his introductory news conference with the Miami Marlins.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 29, 2015

Scott delivers epic tale with 'Exodus'

While promoting his new film "Exodus: Gods and Kings," Christian Bale referred to his character, Moses, as "likely schizophrenic" and "one of the most barbaric individuals that I ever read about in my life."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2015

Say goodnight to the bad guy: The cost of making enemies in the age of globalized cinema

In the summer of 2010, Hollywood studio MGM had the film "Red Dawn" in the bag and ready for release. There was one little problem, though: The movie — a remake of the 1984 film of the same name, a Cold War paranoid-fantasy about a Soviet invasion of America — had rebooted itself by imagining a more...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2015

Washington suffers from a tolerance problem

For the next two years, the chances are good that the U.S. government will be almost completely paralyzed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jan 27, 2015

Kuwata's left jab has nothing on the politics of ad money

If this column is going to be about one thing in 2015, it will be politics in music.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBA / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 27, 2015

Shameful practice of resting healthy players must end

"Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing them."
COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jan 26, 2015

Sex slave wrangling misses human picture

When a dispute arises between the South Korea and Japan, such as the 'comfort women' controversy, the South Koreans who most fiercely criticize Japan are 'liberals' while the Japanese who criticize South Korea are 'conservative rightists.'
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2015

Are the poor better off than King Louis XIV?

To argue that common folk live better now than royalty did in earlier times is a fatuous and politically inspired attempt to minimize the issue of income inequality.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 24, 2015

Can the DPJ reinvigorate Japanese democracy?

Columbia University's Gerald Curtis recently wrote, "It is a sad commentary on Japan's politics that after nearly 70 years of democracy a competitive party system has all but disintegrated."
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 23, 2015

Coalition needs two years to expel Islamic State group from Iraq: U.K.

The U.S.-led coalition could take up to two years to expel the Islamic State group from Iraq, and Baghdad's own forces will be incapable of proper combat operations for months, Britain's foreign minister warned on Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2015

Scholar offers secure way for employees to blow the whistle

One man is on a quest to create transparency in Japan with a whistleblower website that has echoes of Wikileaks and promises high-tech anonymity.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 21, 2015

David Bowie is Happening Now: 'a strange hybrid'

"David Bowie Is Happening Now" is a strange hybrid. Rather than focusing on Bowie himself, it documents an exhibition held at London's Victoria and Albert Museum in 2013 of artifacts from the singer's long and varied career. The exhibition itself was a huge success — immersive and imaginatively presented...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 20, 2015

Perseverance wins Ningen Isu an encore

Kimonos and heavy metal. It's a combination that few groups have pulled off convincingly. While the aesthetic may have been used last year to turn (or bang) more than a few heads in the West by heavy metal idol unit Babymetal, the tiny trio certainly wasn't the first to attempt it.
COMMENTARY
Jan 19, 2015

Charlie and the anti-Muslim media factory

If European Muslims are expected to identify with their citizenships and other secular identities, then their fellow Europeans should not categorize them by their religious identity.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jan 18, 2015

Fukuoka triumphs in first game under new coach Joe Bryant

In a game that went down to the wire, Joe "Jellybean" Bryant, the Rizing Fukuoka's new head coach, was able to instill confidence in his players on Saturday night.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 17, 2015

Lingering outside the way station for the dead

It's a hardy soul who braves Osorezan (Mount Osore), a volcano in Aomori Prefecture known as the Japanese way station for the dead. For most, the name conjures up images of the supernatural and the unknown, but for Marie Mutsuki Mockett, it is a place of healing and beauty.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 14, 2015

Ichiyanagi opera aims to be 'total work of art'

As part of its 40th-anniversary celebrations, Kanagawa Kenmin Hall in Yokohama will stage a world-premier version of "Legend of the Water Flame," an opera by the renowned composer Toshi Ichiyanagi that's scored around a libretto by a fellow octogenarian, the poet Makoto Ooka.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 13, 2015

Eat Osaka teaches you how to cook like a local

Here's a joke unlikely to be endorsed by the Osaka Government Tourism Bureau: "There are three great reasons to visit Osaka: great people, great food and because Kyoto doesn't have an airport." The truth hurts, even if it's also mildly humorous.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 9, 2015

Don't fight trips to the gym: Take it outside

It's January. The bars are empty and the gyms are full of people with good intentions. By February or March, of course, that situation will reverse, as new year resolutions begin to flag and it becomes increasingly difficult to justify that extortionate gym membership.
WORLD
Jan 9, 2015

Paris attack highlights broader attempt to silence media

The attack on journalists in Paris is not an isolated incident but part of a broader attempt to muzzle the press. At least 158 reporters and photographers have been killed while doing their jobs since 2011, the worst three-year period on record.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jan 3, 2015

Talking tanuki — or whatever you call them

After deer, easily the most commonly seen wild mammals up here in the Kurohime hills where I live, and in northern Nagano Prefecture in general, are the furry, short-legged burrowing creatures called tanuki in Japanese.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jan 3, 2015

Fujitsu outplays Kwansei Gakuin, claims first Rice Bowl title

The dominance of the X League champion in the Rice Bowl extended for another year, as the Fujitsu Frontiers defeated the Kwansei Gakuin University Fighters 33-24 for the overall national championship on Saturday at Tokyo Dome.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 27, 2014

Learning to love robots

With half the decade complete, we examine an industry that has significantly changed the way we think about ourselves.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2014

North Korea's nukes are much scarier than its hacks

While the world's attention focuses on North Korea's cyberwar with Sony Pictures, the Hermit Kingdom is rapidly increasing its stockpile of nuclear weapons material, with real little pushback from the U.S.
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 26, 2014

Allardyce coming good at West Ham

Four years ago this month, Blackburn Rovers' new owners sacked Sam Allardyce, who had led the club to a 10th-place finish the previous season and were 13th in the Premier League when the axe fell.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2014

Now boastful Japan not really in tune with what visitors want, foreign expert warns

Japan's self-professed "omotenashi" (spirit of selfless hospitality) is often misinterpreted to force predetermined services on foreign visitors, says one longtime observer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Dec 23, 2014

Who was music being made for in 2014?

When looking back on the year in music, the big question music fans should be asking themselves is, "Who was music being made for in 2014?" Looking at the broader picture, we can find the answers writ large across the Japanese music scene.

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