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Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 4, 2015

On mountain peaks and tourist trash

Discussing Mount Hayachine, ethnologist Kunio Yanagita observed that it stood on, "a somewhat different plane from the normal world." This could be a description of mountains in general, a landscape where we may experience nature in the raw, and even at times, a numinous presence.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 1, 2015

Minor genetic changes turned Black Death germ from mild to murderous

The bacterium Yersinia pestis has inflicted almost unimaginable misery upon humankind over the centuries, killing an estimated 200 million or more people and triggering horrific plagues in the 6th and 14th centuries.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jun 30, 2015

Giants stage dramatic rally against Kuroda in ninth inning

It took nearly the entire game, but the Yomiuri Giants finally found the solution to their Hiroki Kuroda problem.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 30, 2015

'Odd-looking' sea creature thrived a half billion years ago

More than half a billion years ago, a peculiar little creature with rows of spikes on its back and delicate, feather-like front limbs used to strain bits of food from the water thrived in the primordial seas of what is now China.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 29, 2015

The kabuki art of public apology

Until Japanese CEOs back up their apologies with concrete action, their words will ring hollow — as will government efforts to improve the sorry state of the country's corporate governance.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 25, 2015

The case for joining the AIIB

Japan should consider the AIIB as a strategic challenge to work with other countries in Asia to build a regional architecture and order.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 24, 2015

Turkey's master of slow-boil cinema keeps his characters simmering with tension in 'Winter Sleep'

This may seem an odd form of praise, but Nuri Bilge Ceylan does boredom awfully well. The Turkish director's last film, "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" (2011), was a police procedural that had been denuded of the drama you'd normally expect from the genre. Yet as its protagonists trudged fruitlessly from...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Jun 22, 2015

Let your green-eyed monster loose with 'urayamashii'

Today we introduce the proper use of the adjective u3046u3089u3084u307eu3057u3044, meaning 'jealous' or 'envious.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 19, 2015

Temp workers dealt blow as dispatch bill clears Lower House

Opposition lawmakers leave in protest as the Lower House passes a bill to let companies use temporary workers as long as they want instead of hiring them full time.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2015

Wearables, drones, talking robots take center stage at International Tokyo Toy Show

Wearable devices, drones and talking robots are hot topics in the tech industry, and toy makers are trying to ride these trends with their latest offerings, the toy industry's annual trade show revealed Thursday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 16, 2015

Hong Kong on high alert as new democracy showdown looms

Hong Kong's leader warned Tuesday that violence will not be tolerated, a day after authorities arrested 10 people and seized suspected explosives ahead of a crucial vote on a China-backed electoral reform package this week.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 15, 2015

Speculation swirls over result of Abe-Hashimoto meeting

Speculation is swirling among the politically well-connected that Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto may have agreed to help Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pass contentious security legislation when the two met in Tokyo on Sunday.
WORLD
Jun 14, 2015

British royals set to return to Runnymede, where the Magna Carta was sealed 800 years ago

Queen Elizabeth II will return on Monday to the setting where 800 years ago one of her predecessors accepted the Magna Carta, the English document that put limits on the power of the crown for the first time and laid the foundation for modern freedoms.
JAPAN / Media
Jun 12, 2015

Times advisory board meets, offers recommendations

Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 12, 2015

Tokyo companies begin work on Transformer-like robot

Two Tokyo-based firms said Friday they have begun developing a transformable robot that can be operated from inside, both as a humanoid robot and a vehicle.
EDITORIALS
Jun 12, 2015

Erdogan rebuked — for now

Last weekend's elections in Turkey dealt President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a stunning setback and herald a period of instability in Turkish politics.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 10, 2015

Foreign same-sex couples here enjoy rights that Japanese don't

Gay and lesbian non-Japanese couples married abroad can register as spouses with authorities here, but Immigration has mixed messages for foreigners married to Japanese same-sex partners.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2015

Worrying plight of the young and unemployed

Advanced economies must try to promote a sense of purposefulness and self-reliance for their bloated pools of disengaged youth.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 8, 2015

How to achieve UNSC reform

The Group of Four countries should engage in a deliberate and combined campaign of noncooperation in their push for U.N. Security Council reforms.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2015

Washington should offer to talk to Pyongyang

The possibility of division and dissension in Pyongyang gives Washington a new reason to suggest direct discussions without preconditions, but with the prospect of benefits for a change in direction.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 7, 2015

Old Lacy Bed and a legacy left by Vivian Girls

"Share the Joy," the 2011 album by Brooklyn trio Vivian Girls, starts off with the distinctive rumble of a drone strike in progress before suddenly veering into a lollygagging eighth-note groove for beginner musicians.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jun 6, 2015

Osamu Dazai's travel guide 'Return to Tsugaru' is more concerned with people than place

In the northernmost reaches of Honshu, Japan's largest island, lies Tsugaru, an area isolated even from its neighbors in Aomori Prefecture, let alone the rest of Japan. As a celebrated author and son of Tsugaru himself, Dazai Osamu must have seemed the perfect choice for this 1944 volume in Oyama Shoten's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 1, 2015

To know bamboo is to know Asia — and a whole lot of Japanese

This fast-growing plant has found its way into much of the language of Japan, revealing a great deal about the history and culture of East Asia.
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Jun 1, 2015

Zuibun is more useful than you could have possibly imagined

Today we will introduce some uses of the adverb 'zuibun,' which is used when the speaker wants to say that the degree of something is higher than they were expecting.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 1, 2015

NSA surveillance powers lapse after no deal in Senate

Three U.S. spy programs aimed at stopping terrorists expired early Monday amid a standoff among Senate Republicans over legislation to renew them.
SOCCER / J. League
May 30, 2015

Patric's late goal gives Gamba a draw with Marinos

Gamba Osaka substitute Patric scored in the 95th minute to claim a 1-1 draw and deny Yokohama F. Marinos a fifth straight J. League win on Saturday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NATURE'S PANTRY
May 29, 2015

Searching Kyoto for the holy grail of Japanese rice vinegar

Akihiro Iio, now in his late 30s, is the fifth generation of his family to run Iio Jozo, a venerable vinegar house outside of Kyoto. Using locally grown rice, the Iio family has been producing vinegar in Kyoto for more than 120 years, and since the early 1960s their output has been 100 percent organic....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 26, 2015

'Newcomer,' 56, wins Kishida

Named after a prominent early 20th-century playwright, author and translator, and presented annually by the Hakusuisha publishing house since 1955, the Kishida Kunio Drama Award is indisputably Japan's top honor for writers of plays premiered the year before.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.