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LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 23, 2012

It's Murphy's Law if you don't get the joke in Japanese

If you miss the punch line to a Japanese joke, don't feel bad. It's simply unrealistic to use something as elusive as humor to measure your ability to understand a foreign language.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 22, 2012

Changing self and systems for a leaner and greener Japan

Year in, year out, it never ceases to amaze me what a difference a day makes.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2012

In war, desecration of the enemy is all too common

The video that emerged in recent days appearing to show four U.S. Marines urinating on several dead Taliban fighters has outraged many people in this country. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta have condemned the act, the military has promised an inquiry, and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 5, 2012

Bo Ningen bend it like the Brits on new EP, 'Henkan'

How might typical Japanese music fans look if they stopped worrying about social norms? Take a look at British-based psychedelic-rock band Bo Ningen and you may find the answer.
COMMENTARY
Jan 5, 2012

Why Obama will (won't) win re-election in 2012

Could 2012 turn conventional wisdom on its head? Here's the conventional wisdom: U.S. President Barack Obama's re-election is vulnerable to the weak economy and high joblessness. Here's what might happen: The economy gradually improves, and although unemployment stays high (exceeding 8 percent), what...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Jan 4, 2012

A look back at the best games of 2011

It's that time of year again: Time to look back at all the games that were released in 2011 and sort out the best of the best. Which games won over gamers and stood out from the pack?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 1, 2012

For how much longer will Japan's fate remain in the hands of amateurs?

As we enter into a new year in which last year's greatest event is still, dreadfully, uppermost in the mind of everyone in Japan, let's pause to think hard about the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, the tsunami it triggered, and the release into the environment of radioactive substances from...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 1, 2012

Media awards: Tokyo powers down as idols power up

Media Figure of the Year: Tepco A fact of modern life that the Occupy Wall Street movement brought home to the average person is that corporations are nominally "persons," meaning they have been granted the same "rights" as individuals, at least in the United States. In Japan, such legal definitions...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2012

What 2011 means for Japan in 2012 and beyond

We asked three long-term foreign residents to give their thoughts about Japan's past year and the coming year.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 31, 2011

Used bookstores turn to Internet sales for a lift in turbulent times

Last of two parts
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 31, 2011

Just when you think nothing can go wrong

You've heard it . . .
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 29, 2011

Shonen Knife celebrates 30 years

Today we celebrate 30 years under the Knife. Yes, it was on Dec. 29, 1981, that three teenage girls — Naoko Yamano, her sister Atsuko and their friend Mitchie Nakatani — entered an Osaka rehearsal studio for the first time. They emerged as Shonen Knife.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2011

What will become of North Korea?

According to North Korean state television, the heart attack that killed Kim Jong Il on Dec. 17 was "due to severe mental and physical stress from overwork."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 27, 2011

Kamakura: What word for you sums up 2011?

Mattia CimolaiStudent, 23 (Italian)Change. I'm from Italy and this year a lot of things have changed there, like the government and so on.
COMMENTARY
Dec 26, 2011

The Korean god that failed and then was gone

Major historic chapter-ending news often seems so terribly sudden. Many North Koreans were said to be sincerely weeping over the demise of "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il, but for other people around the world, the end came none too soon. Their eyes are quite dry and will so remain, for as long as there is...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 25, 2011

Behold! Christ's grave in Shingo, Aomori Prefecture

One line of text from Wikipedia was all it took to lure me to the town of Shingo, in south-central Aomori Prefecture. It read: "The village promotes itself as the home of the Grave of Christ after a local legend."
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 23, 2011

Auto-correct: Police getting more serious with parking scofflaws

Police are finding new ways to get traffic violators attention.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Dec 23, 2011

2011 trends: Korean boom spreads to a new generation

The love of all things Korean continued to grow in 2011, and along with it, a bit of a backlash.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 20, 2011

Four years after 'Nova shock,' eikaiwa is down but not out

Ask any ordinary person what significance Oct. 26 holds and you might find them struggling for an answer, but for many involved in Japan's beleaguered English teaching industry, it was the day the nation's premier operator fell into administration and took much of the rest of the industry with it.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 20, 2011

Gaba 'contractor' status under fire from staff, courts

As an 8-year-old in Indiana, William first became curious about Japan when he made friends with a Japanese guy called Hideki who introduced him to Super Mario and the magical world of Japanese video games.
Japan Times
Rugby
Dec 18, 2011

Hong Kong wins big in Airlines Cup final

Playing off the South American continent for the first time, Brazil ended its participation in the Emirates Airlines Cup of Nations with a 37-3 loss Friday to champion Hong Kong.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 18, 2011

Their spirit seems willing but young Japanese are hesitant to get hitched

Back in the days of "there's gold in them thar hills," one of the prospectors' doleful refrains boasted the title "My Girlfriend's a Mule and a Mine." Across the Pacific and some 150 years on, I wouldn't be surprised if an echo of that plaintive air were not about to catch on among young Japanese males...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Dec 18, 2011

Lone holdout's first nuclear winter looms in Tohoku

As bitter winds blow around cesium and other radioactive particles spewed from the nearby Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's reactors, Naoto Matsumura lights a cigarette, which he considers relatively good for his health.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Dec 18, 2011

Don't expect Japanese basketball to embrace a real, workable plan

Every few months a false sense of hope surfaces on the blogosphere and in the mainstream media, where optimists peddle the message that Japan's basketball "leaders" finally have their act together, that a new men's pro league will, ahem, finally replace the outdated, increasingly irrelevant JBL and the...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 11, 2011

Japanese 'good-for-nothings' heart Bhutan

Japan is in love — with Bhutan, a supposed Shangri-La of a country nestled in the Himalayas, famous for deemphasizing gross domestic product (GDP, the standard measure of well-being) in favor of a more abstract, possibly more human metric known as gross national happiness (GNH).
Reader Mail
Dec 1, 2011

Don't count on a reformation

I have been following the Olympus scandal with interest as it contains parallels to experiences I had in Japan's courts over corporate malfeasance. The Nov. 26 article "Woodford: Board must be purged" suggests that Michael C. Woodford, the former CEO of Olympus, is concerned because the Olympus scandal...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 27, 2011

Viral entertainment at full throttle

REAMDE, by Neal Stephenson. William Morrow, 2011, 1042 pp., $35 (paperback). Neal Stephenson's novels can be counted upon to offer two things: a lot of information and a lot of pages.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Nov 27, 2011

Dr. J sale conjures up memories

For someone who did Julius Erving's bidding for almost three decades, it warmed my innards to see so many others still have the touch.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 25, 2011

'Crazy, Stupid, Love'

Crazy, Stupid, Love" — how could you not love a movie with a title like that? Well, if you're the film's distributor, maybe: Warner tamely re-titled it "Love Again" for the local market (just as "Friends With Benefits" was neutered into "Stay Friends"). Clearly they want it to seem more like a love-conquers-all...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 18, 2011

Pitching carries Hawks to third straight win

For three nights, the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks were extremely rude house guests to the Chunichi Dragons.

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