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WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 29, 2014

Cells cloned from diabetic make insulin

And now there are three: In the wake of announcements from laboratories in Oregon and California that they had created human embryos by cloning cells of living people, a lab in New York announced on Monday that it had done that and more.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2014

Why Hamas joining Fatah is good for Mideast peace

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's personal investment in the Mideast peace process exerts enough leverage to make the Israelis and Palestinians pretend to talk — but not enough to make them agree to something they otherwise don't really want. The Fatah-Hamas rapprochement may be a good thing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NATURE'S PANTRY
Apr 29, 2014

A natural miso and soy factory that is always full of beans

Although rice is certainly the king of Japanese food, soybeans are the queen. Small makers of miso, soy sauce and tofu dot the landscape of Japan, but blink once and you will notice that the local shops are closing up as supermarket culture takes over daily life.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2014

Alarm bells ringing in Asia

The deteriorating situation in Ukraine and rising tensions between Russia and the U.S. threaten to bury President Barack Obama's floundering 'pivot' toward Asia.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Apr 29, 2014

China's income inequality surpasses U.S., posing risk for Xi

The income gap between the rich and poor in China has surpassed that of the U.S. and is among the widest in the world, a report says, adding to the challenges for President Xi Jinping as growth slows.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 26, 2014

'Granta' opens a window into Japanese literature

With such a piddling amount of Japanese fiction finding its way into English translation each year, you learn to make the most of what you can get. So when this year's Tokyo International Literary Festival marked the launch of not one, but two compendia of Japan-related writing, it felt like an embarrassment of riches. In addition to the latest issue of 'Monkey Business,' the annual journal edited by veteran translators Motoyuki Shibata and Ted Goossen, the festival welcomed the arrival of a Japan-themed issue of the British quarterly, 'Granta,' released simultaneously in English and Japanese.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Apr 25, 2014

Interconnectivity exposes global shipping fleet to hacking threat

The next hacker playground: the open seas — and the oil tankers and container vessels that ship 90 percent of the goods moved around the planet.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2014

America's Afghanistan albatross

Pakistani interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs can be made to stop only if the Obama administration finally makes that a condition for continuing its generous aid to cash-strapped Pakistan — a remote prospect.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 24, 2014

'Soko Nomi Nite Hikari Kagayaku (The Light Shines Only There)'

Japan's image overseas might have a funhouse aspect, but even many outlanders who live here only get a selective view of the place, since their Japanese colleagues and friends mostly come from the educated, middle-class stratum of society and live more or less stable, law-abiding lives.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Apr 23, 2014

In a world of pretense, are Japanese just more honest about lying?

The net sum of lying may be similar in Japan and America, but in their acceptance of life exigencies, the Japanese may be more realistic, more charitable and forgiving about the role that deception plays in our social relations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 23, 2014

French to the fore on SPAC's 2014 festival menu

It is often said that "variety is the spice of life," but in the multifarious world of theater it is more a staple than a special condiment. That said, "variety" is the keyword chosen by Satoshi Miyagi, artistic director of the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC), to capture the upcoming and especially...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 23, 2014

PUK's children's puppet shows suspend disbelief for all ages

Parents around the capital seeking entertainment options for young children over the next several weeks could do a lot worse than check out Puppet Theater PUK, where old and new stories will come to life in the hands of seasoned puppeteers.
WORLD
Apr 22, 2014

Failed gamble in New World still relevant to Scots

A few years before giving up its independence, Scotland took a bold gamble to secure a brighter future, founding a colony on the isthmus of Panama to corner trade between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2014

Beyond good and evil in Ukraine

The U.S. fools no one with its high-minded condemnations of Russan President Vladimir Putin's designs on Ukraine when its own sense of international political morality is also defined by cold calculations of national interest.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2014

A moment of truth for the women of India

"The Power of 49": That's how Indian activists have started describing the potential influence of women, who make up just under 50 percent of the population, in the country's ongoing elections. Political parties are courting women for the first time as a bloc, a transformative force that could upend...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 20, 2014

For Hindu nationalists, a chance to right wrongs

From a distance, the scene is as colorful as any in India. Men dressed as Hindu deities, with tinsel crowns and tridents, wait for their turn on the stage. Teenagers saunter by trucks carrying effigies of mythological heroes and listen to speeches.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 19, 2014

The media get ready for open season on Tanaka

"In the Spring," wrote Alfred, Lord Tennyson in his famous poem "Locksley Hall," "a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 19, 2014

How should a civilized nation treat women?

In 1872, a Peruvian ship transporting Chinese coolies docked at Yokohama for repairs. One of the coolies jumped overboard and sought refuge, complaining of gross ill-treatment. What to do?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Apr 19, 2014

Shogun

This best-selling historical novel by the British author, James Clavell, is set in Japan around 1600. It begins when The Erasmus, a Dutch ship, reaches Japan by mistake. James Blackthorne, the English captain working for the ship (based on William Adams, the first Englishman to enter Japan) is singled...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2014

Philosophers still vital to our high-tech world

A Harvard University report showing a big dropoff across the U.S. in the proportion of bachelor degree graduates who majored in the humanities contrasts with the finding by a Swiss think tank that three or four of the top five 'Global Thought Leaders' are involved in philosophy.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2014

Ukraine's Chernobyl factor

Twenty-eight years after its Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded, Ukraine confronts a nuclear specter of a different kind: the possibility that the country's reactors could become military targets in the event of a Russian invasion.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 17, 2014

Casual pot use among young alters brain's motivation region: study

Young, casual marijuana smokers experience potentially harmful changes to their brains, with the drug altering regions of the mind related to motivation and emotion, researchers have found.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2014

Confronting unending lies

Perhaps what is most amazing and regretful about the situation in Russia is the nearly complete absence of truth and objectivity in the mass media covering Ukrainian events.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 16, 2014

Symbolic olives trace the journey of Catholics in Japan

Japanese-born artist Yu Araki is currently presenting his site-specific video installation "Angelo Lives," (2014) at Nakameguro's quirky The Container art space.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 15, 2014

No sign of 'Showtime' in future for listing Lakers

Hey, everyone has a bad decade or so.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Apr 15, 2014

Springtime for bamboo

Few plants are as useful as bamboo. A member of the grass family, it is fast growing and very prolific given the right growing conditions, which makes it eco-friendly too.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 15, 2014

India's election will not be decided on old lines

A great rage and discontent is blowing across India's landscape of thwarted modernization. Whoever rides this angry tiger into the country's highest office following the current election will have to pacify it quickly.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 12, 2014

The curious tale of the man who slapped Tojo

On May 3, 1946, the indictments were read at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Among the defendants was a gangly, bespectacled, 59-year-old civilian named Shumei Okawa, who happened to be seated directly behind the former prime minister, army Gen. Hideki Tojo.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake