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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2013

It's the end of everything as we know it (perhaps)

I hope you had it while you could because, last week, sex ended.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Apr 16, 2013

Taking cues from soccer could help baseball reach goal

Judging by popular opinion, many seem to think convincing MLB to commit to sending its top players to the Olympics is the key to getting the sport back into the program in the future, preferably in time for the 2020 Games.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 14, 2013

Takarazuka: Japan's newest 'traditional' theater turns 100

Ask your average Japanese person or non-native Japanophile to name a “traditional” form of domestic theater and the classics such as kabuki and noh would feature prominently.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 14, 2013

Gun rights lobby pushes weaker bill

As the U.S. Senate prepares to begin debate this week on the biggest gun-control bill in nearly two decades, the gun rights lobby and its Senate allies are working on a series of amendments that have the potential to do the opposite — loosening many of the restrictions that exist in the current law....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 14, 2013

Hobsbawm's last words

FRACTURED TIMES: Culture and Society in the 20th Century, by Eric Hobsbawm. Little, Brown, 2013, 336 pp., £25 (hardcover)
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 14, 2013

Ancient Roman bones reveal brutal history

In the days of ancient Rome, it was never a good idea to send amateurs to pacify the Germanic tribes. The Emperor Augustus found this out in A.D. 9, when his handpicked crony, Varus, blundered into a series of ambushes in the Teutoburg Forest and lost about 20,000 men in three days.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Apr 13, 2013

Aichi tries to hang on to female doctors

Starting from April, female doctors with children at Fujita Health University Hospital in Toyoake, Aichi Prefecture, who need shorter working hours to care for their young will have the option of working 20 or 30 hours a week, instead of the regular 40 hours.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Apr 12, 2013

New Gundam room at Grand Pacific Le Daiba; relaxation plan at Rihga Royal Tokyo; Van Gogh-themed dishes at Westin Miyako Kyoto

In celebration of the first anniversary of one of the Grand Pacific Le Daiba hotel's most outstanding and popular rooms, called Project Room-G, and accommodating requests from Gundam enthusiasts, the Tokyo hotel will continue to offer the special rooms while also adding a new kind of room to the same Gundam series.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 11, 2013

Muza Kawasaki marks grand return

Tokyo Symphony Orchestra has returned to its home at Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 11, 2013

Pyongyang-Tehran military ties test nuclear nonproliferation regime

Circumstantial evidence and a growing number of reports suggest that North Korea and Iran are sharing advances in nuclear and missile technology.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 10, 2013

A Japanese poet's whale elegy

If some Japanese advocates of whale hunting could commune with their ancestors, they'd feel the past dismay at the impious waste of whales' lives.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Apr 10, 2013

Pop tourism gains traction

Pre-flight shopping at Narita airport a couple of weeks ago, I passed a mannequin sporting a light-blue necktie and a turquoise wig with pig tails dangling down to its mini skirt. The vision spoke volumes: It was Hatsune Miku, of course, Japan's holographic, animated virtual pop star, beloved fashion...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Apr 9, 2013

Fashion idols of all stripes rock it in Cool Japan

Marc Jacobs' playful sides goes on display at Idol
Japan Times
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 / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 7, 2013

Abe-phoria: A national punching bag morphs into a popular leader

There is an irrational exuberance about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe evident in his 70 percent public-approval rating, a soaring Nikkei stock average and the Japanese media cheerleading the same man it hounded out of office in September 2007.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 7, 2013

Appi's snowy joys await seekers of late-season thrills

With degrees in fine arts, Akiyoshi Osumi used his creative talents to coin a perfect slogan for the Appi Kogen Snow Resort: "Be Happy in Appi."
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 6, 2013

One man's crusade against America's war on drugs

Once consigned to the fringes of libertarianism, the argument for the legalization of drugs has received an unlikely boost in America in recent months with the release of a documentary titled "The House I Live In." Coinciding with the decision by the states of Colorado and Washington to legalise marijuana,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 5, 2013

'Rentaneko (Rent-a-Cat)'

Director: Naoko Ogigami
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 4, 2013

Data from space bolsters theory of dark matter

The first results from a $2 billion instrument aboard the International Space Station offer tentative support for the theory that exotic dark matter, invisible but abundant, permeates the universe.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 4, 2013

Rubens' best work is collaborative

The 17th-century Flemish baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens is a great historical painter, not because of the scenes from ancient Roman history that he sometimes painted, but because, when we encounter his works, we find ourselves trying to understand what kind of society could possibly have produced art...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 4, 2013

"A Profusion of Flowers: The Language of Flowers and the Encyclopedia of Flowers"

This exhibition features pieces that highlight a Japanese interpretation of beauty within flowers, and is divided into three sections: flowers and people in narrative tales, flowers and birds as Utopian visions, and flowers of the four seasons. The works will be juxtaposed with waka poetry and quotations...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2013

Renovated Kabukiza reopens in Ginza district

The Kabukiza theater, spiritual home of the 410-year-old performing art, reopened Tuesday in Ginza, Tokyo, after a three-year hiatus following extensive renovation work.

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