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Harboring feelings for her one-time film director, a woman (Adela Sou, left) sets out to find him after he mysteriously disappears in “Everything, Everywhere.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2024

‘Everything, Everywhere’: Contemplative drama speaks to lonely drifters

Kah Wai Lim captures the beauty of the Balkans in his film about an adrift filmmaker and his muse who searches for him.
Takuro Adachi’s documentary “Sono Kodo ni Mimi wo Ateyo” follows doctors working in Aichi Prefecture’s busiest ER over nine months.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2024

‘Sono Kodo ni Mimi o Ateyo’: An absorbing dive into pressures of the ER

Filmed at the height of the pandemic, Takuro Adachi’s documentary spotlights emergency room doctors who attend to patients from every strata of society.
Maxime Lucu celebrates after France's win over Wales during the Six Nations tournament in March 2022.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 1, 2024

Maxime Lucu to replace Antoine Dupont for France's Six Nations opener

Dupont is missing the tournament in order to prepare to play Rugby Sevens at this year's Paris Olympics.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers his keynote address at the f8 Developers Conference in San Francisco in 2011.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2024

Facebook, the social network old-timer, turns 20

"Facebook, when it launched, was revolutionary"
The victory of Ukraine-born Karolina Shiino (center) in the Miss Japan contest held last month has sparked a debate on what makes someone truly Japanese.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 1, 2024

A Ukraine-born beauty queen and what it means to be Japanese

Shiino's Miss Japan victory has ignited a debate on the definition of "Japaneseness," and raises questions on what it truly means to be Japanese.
Building off her own experiences, “Voice” director Yukiko Mishima considers the effects of sexual assault and how the survivors and those around them continue with their lives.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 2, 2024

‘Voice’ examines the reverberations of trauma

Yukiko Mishima’s film draws from the director's own experience to shed light on life after experiencing assault.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is a longtime investor in WeWork, sticking with the company throughout its many ups and downs.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 2, 2024

SoftBank swoops in to rescue WeWork Japan

The development comes just four months after the troubled coworking business — once valued at $47 billion — filed for bankruptcy in the U.S.
Western strategy in the Middle East has been a failure, leaving the region less stable than ever, exemplified by the conflict in Gaza.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2024

Why 'the rest' are rejecting the West

Western strategy in the Middle East has been a failure, leaving the region less stable than ever.
The title monster in “Godzilla Minus One” is a threat, of course, but the real story is about finding community in the wake of destruction.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 3, 2024

‘Godzilla Minus One’ stomps into ‘Oppenheimer’ territory

Those movies, along with “The Boy and the Heron,” are essentially in conversation about the moral weight of American and Japanese actions in World War II.
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak leaves a court in Kuala Lumpur on April 3, 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Feb 3, 2024

Malaysia reduces sentence of disgraced ex-leader Najib Razak

The leniency for Najib comes after weeks of speculation in Malaysia that he might be pardoned by the reigning monarch.
U.S. singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs onstage in Arlington, Texas, on March 31 last year.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 3, 2024

Taylor Swift will be on time for Super Bowl, Japan Embassy assures anxious public

Anxious fans have been speculating for days over how pop music icon Taylor Swift could perform in Tokyo and attend the Super Bowl to watch her beau play.
“Metallic Rouge” centers on android assassins on Mars and explores classic science fiction tropes like whether robots have souls.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Feb 4, 2024

You're spoiled for choice with new anime to watch this winter

From the fantasy series "Delicious in Dungeon" to the sci-fi offering "Metallic Rouge," nearly 50 new shows are airing this season.
Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift arrives for the 66th Annual Grammy Awards at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Feb 5, 2024

Taylor Swift makes Grammys history as women rule music's top honors

Winning for her album "Midnights," Taylor Swift has won the best album prize a total of four times, eclipsing Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder.
Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, where Super Bowl 58 will be held on Sunday. The city is promising a spectacle around the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers showdown.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Feb 6, 2024

Las Vegas planning Super Bowl supernova to cement sports hub status

The spectacle could be biggest television event in the United States since Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in 1969.
Taylor Swift (right) cheers on her boyfriend Travis Kelce's team, the Kansas City Chiefs, in the AFC divisional round playoff game against the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, New York, on Jan. 21. The Chiefs will play the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 6, 2024

Taylor Swift rocks the world and drives the far right crazy

The “Swift effect” has become a force in both U.S. domestic politics and international relations.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen holds a welcome ceremony in September 2022 for then-Tuvaluan Prime Minister Kausea Natano in Taipei.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 7, 2024

Tuvalu could recognize China, but how much would it affect Taiwan?

Taipei might benefit from shifting its energy and resources away from competing with Beijing over formal recognition.
Haru (Kengo Kora) and two childhood friends are haunted by a murder that occurred during their youth and its aftereffects in "Sin and Evil."
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2024

‘Sin and Evil’: Small town idyll masks decay in ambitious film

Yuki Saito’s debut feature about the lingering effects of past transgressions is overplotted but draws sharp performances from its adult leads.
Straight-to-video films, locally called “V-Cinema,” were popular in the 1990s and into the 2000s, becoming a training ground and launchpad for Japanese directors and actors.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2024

Threatened with extinction, V-Cinema hopes for new saviors

Physical deterioration and copyright issues mar the influential film genre that once served as a launchpad for directors and actors in Japan.
Japanese fans of Taylor Swift take a selfie before entering Tokyo Dome for the pop star's Eras Tour show in Japan on Feb. 7.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Feb 7, 2024

Taylor-mania hits Tokyo as Swift resumes tour before Super Bowl

Excited fans from countries such as Australia, Thailand and China joined the vast crowd at Tokyo Dome ahead of the megastar's Eras Tour show on Wednesday.
The “dogeza” position is used for the sincerest of apologies and it was deployed by the man who mistakenly ruined an attempt at a Guinness world record on live television.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 9, 2024

The year so far has been marked by some good and bad apologies

A social norm seems to persist in Japan that one should apologize first and explain later. That goes for companies as well.
Around 55,000 fans showed up for Taylor Swift's first show on the Tokyo leg of her world tour.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 8, 2024

Fans share love for Taylor Swift at sold-out Tokyo shows

Swifties from all over the world flew into Japan to see the pop superstar perform at The Eras Tour’s only stops in East Asia.
A fight over Benefit One is the latest in a growing number of takeover deals in Japan, spurred in part by the Tokyo Stock Exchange pushing for improved corporate governance.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 8, 2024

Dai-ichi Life gets Pasona's nod on Benefit One acquisition

The agreement with Pasona Group, which owns 51.16% of Benefit One, is crucial for Dai-ichi to win the battle against digital health care provider M3.
Chef Natsuki Suzuki opened Naz in the fall of 2020 on the rural fringe of the resort town of Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Destination Restaurants
Feb 11, 2024

Naz: Bounty from landlocked Nagano's rivers and pastures

Dining at Naz is like sitting down at a bespoke dinner club for a meal catered exclusively for you. And what a meal it is.
A Banei Keiba horse race takes place at the Obihiro racecourse in Hokkaido on Dec. 9. The unpredictable stop-and-start drama of the world's slowest horse race has drawn new fans.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2024

'Suspense' of slowest horse race wins new fans in Japan

At the Banei Keiba races in Hokkaido, spectators cheer on workhorses moving at the pace of a brisk human walk.
German band Kraftwerk performs at a music festival in Wiesen in May 2009.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 9, 2024

German techno pioneers Kraftwerk set to headline Fuji Rock 2024

The popular festival's first line-up announcement also boasts girl in red, Ride and The Last Dinner Party.
The Temple University Japan campus in Tokyo. The university plans to open a satellite campus in the city of Kyoto in 2025.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 9, 2024

New Temple University campus set to open in Kyoto in January 2025

Temple plans to offer English-language courses to elementary and junior high school students, in addition to its regular undergraduate programs.
Pop superstar Taylor Swift delighted fans at her sold-out Tokyo Dome show on Wednesday by confidently telling the audience, “Eras Tour e yokōso!” (“Welcome to The Eras Tour!”)
CULTURE / Music
Feb 9, 2024

Taylor Swift slays her Tokyo era

Pop's reigning queen gets sold-out crowd singing along to her hits for the Japan leg of the global Eras Tour.
Taylor Swift kicked off her four-night stint at Tokyo Dome on Wednesday while Lionel Messi played at the Japan National Stadium, just a few kilometers away.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 9, 2024

The Taylor Swift and Messi moment shows Tokyo is back

On Wednesday, Swift and Messi wowed their respective fans, just 5 km away from each other. Their overlap in Tokyo is proof of the city's great resurgence.
Boeing 737 Max airplanes on the tarmac at the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, in 2019
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 10, 2024

How production pressures plunged Boeing into yet another crisis

Soul-searching about quality controls and plunged Boeing into its second safety crisis in five years.
Seiji Ozawa shows his humorous side during a photo shoot with The Japan Times in 2017. The influential conductor died Feb. 6.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 10, 2024

The story behind my favorite photo of Seiji Ozawa

A lot of photography comes down to luck and reflexes. Once you get that magic shot, though, it can stay with you forever.

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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