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Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 5, 2015

The myths and misery of translating Japanese video games

Given ever-expanding access to the culture of Japan, people worldwide have many different reasons for studying the Japanese language these days. But I don't know if job opportunities for non-Japanese have expanded as rapidly. Many folks probably fall back on the same set of options as always: eigo kyōshi...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 27, 2014

The Strange Library

Haruki Murakami's "The Strange Library" is a short story, not a novel. So why, one might wonder, has it been published as a single volume? Reading the story, two answers suggest themselves. The first is that, though it is short — 58 loosely printed pages of text — Murakami manages to endow those...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 20, 2014

Blowing the dust off Edo Period erotica

You always remember your first time.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: ARCHITECTURE
Nov 28, 2014

Hadid remains at the center of controversy

Exhibitions can have consequences, often unintended.
EDITORIALS
Nov 11, 2014

A step in the right direction

A long-awaited meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping takes place in Beijing, but it's just the first step in restoring bilateral relations that have reached their lowest ebb since the two nations normalized diplomatic ties in 1972.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 25, 2014

Understanding the complex web of life

"Biodiversity provides the foundation on which all life depends, including human societies," writes Nik Sekhran in the opening pages of "Biodiversity for Sustainable Development," a captivating book released earlier this month by the United Nations Development Programme.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 8, 2014

Who cares what Faust looks like

German contemporary theater has only begun to be introduced in Japan this century, before when the term "Western theater" was generally associated with works by British or American directors that told a story and diligently portrayed the psychological state of the characters.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Sep 27, 2014

The tricky path abroad for Japanese games

On the website Change.org, there is a petition addressed to Bandai Namco Games signed by 711 people, as of Sept. 25, that reads simply, "Bring 'God Eater 2' to North America and EU."
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN WEB WATCH
Sep 13, 2014

Internet fraud takes a turn for the strange

Two widely reported Web stories this year have been related to online-services fraud. One concerns online banking, the other account-hacking on a smartphone messenger service.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Sep 7, 2014

Yoko and author's other furry friends help kids cope with childhood challenges

Rosemary Wells' stories — including a series about a Japanese kitten's experience at an American school — have been delighting children and adults alike around the world for over 40 years.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 25, 2014

Arming yourself with the legal system's greatest weapon

For American lawyers accustomed to struggling with massive walls of law books and expensive database services, one of the great things about Japanese law is that it is so compact and accessible.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 23, 2014

'Cuckoo's Nest' still flies in the face of oppression

Among the astonishing outburst of new American cinema in the 1970s, Milos Forman's multi-Oscar-winning "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" offered most Japanese moviegoers their first encounter with the peculiarly piercing eyes of Jack Nicholson, who played its central character, Randle P. McMurphy.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 16, 2014

Keikyu using new app for foreign visitors

Keikyu Corp., a major private railway serving the Tokyo area, began trial operations Wednesday for a service in which staff members use tablet computers to translate information for customers in 27 languages.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 10, 2014

Britain unveils emergency laws to keep email, phone data for security

Britain said on Thursday it would rush through emergency legislation to force telecoms firms to retain customer data for a year, calling the move vital for national security following a decision by Europe's top court.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 24, 2014

The electronic remains of Ursula Bogner

Ursula Bogner (1946-94) was a German pharmacist, wife and mother with a passion for the unfamiliar, which included electronic music.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 21, 2014

How a master circled the system

Favorites of today's museum-going public, the lushly colorful, sensuous and grotesque paintings of beautiful women by Tsuchida Bakusen (1887-1936) have long been written into the canon of nihonga (Japanese-style painting). It is easy to forget, however, just how transgressive Bakusen's images were at...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 21, 2014

Syria warns United Nations: Aid delivery without consent is an attack

Syria's government warned the U.N. Security Council that delivering humanitarian aid across its borders into rebel-held areas without its consent would amount to an attack, suggesting it would have the right to retaliate against convoys.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 17, 2014

Dying for democracy: 1980 Gwangju uprising transformed South Korea

As South Korea marks the 34th anniversary of the Gwangju uprising, we examine the massacre's influence on national identity and the country's struggle for democracy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 14, 2014

'The Big Fellah' IRA drama entertains as it also elucidates

Written by English playwright Richard Bean, and premiered in London in 2010, "The Big Fellah" spans 30 years in the lives of U.S. supporters of the Irish Republican Army as that movement fought to sever Northern Ireland's ties to the United Kingdom and unify the island of Ireland.
Reader Mail
Apr 16, 2014

Confused by energy conclusion

I am slightly confused over Jeff Kingston's April 6 Counterpoint article, "Lessons of Fukushima: Reactor restarts are unwise". It focuses on the findings of an online report by Kingston's colleague Kyle Cleveland, titled "Mobilizing Nuclear Bias: The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis and the Politics of Uncertainty."...
WORLD / Politics
Mar 29, 2014

Russia threatened countries ahead of U.N. vote on Ukraine: envoys

Russia threatened several Eastern European and Central Asian states with retaliation if they voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution this week declaring invalid Crimea's referendum on seceding from Ukraine, U.N. diplomats said.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 21, 2014

Move over, Tigers — the era of the Chihuahua Mama is here

I don't mind screaming children so much as I mind their doting mothers. Eyeing the antics of the parent, sometimes you can clearly see why their child is screaming. Recently, believe it or not, I heard a 1-year-old, coddled in the arms of her exuberant mother, scream at the top of its lungs, "I am not...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Mar 18, 2014

Long road to hold Kim, North Korea liable for crimes

Western and Asian powers will begin pressing this week for North Korea to be held liable for crimes against humanity documented in a United Nations report, but concede that their chances of influencing the isolated country are slim.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 10, 2014

Suspected Russian spyware targets Europe, United States

A sophisticated piece of spyware has been quietly infecting hundreds of government computers across Europe and the United States in one of the most complex cyberespionage programs uncovered to date.
Japan Times
JAPAN / INTERPRETATION & TRANSLATION
Feb 17, 2014

Translating Western plays for Japanese audiences

Converting each word automatically from English into Japanese is not what translating plays written in English is all about.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 13, 2014

The trouble with books that change over time

A few weeks ago, I bought a copy of "The Second Machine Age" by two MIT researchers, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, who are among the most insightful commentators currently writing about the likely impact on employment of advanced robotics, machine learning and big-data analytics. Since I already...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 29, 2013

So much for nau: What will we say next?

The end of the year is always a good time to reflect on what is, was and will be. With regard to language, one of the most stimulating things I have recently read in this respect was from an article in the journal Nihongogaku (日本語学) about a study in which Japanese university students were asked...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 10, 2013

London Grammar takes a road less traveled in 2013

The big music story of 2013 hasn't been the emergence of a bright new artist or genre. When people look back on this year they'll think of Robin Thicke's creepy uncle routine, Miley Cyrus giving oral pleasure to builders' hardware or Kanye West's Nietzschean rants about his fiancée's bottom. This was...
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 5, 2013

NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show

The National Security Agency is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world, according to top-secret documents and interviews with U.S. intelligence officials, enabling the agency to track the movements of individuals — and map their relationships —...

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan