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Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2014

North Korean schools in Japan soldiering on despite tough times

Like many students in Japan, Kim Yang Sun cycles to school each morning. Unlike most, she then changes into a traditional Korean outfit and studies under portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 8, 2014

Right-wing witch hunt signals dark days in Japan

Many Japanese and long-time Japan observers have expressed dismay about the recrudescence of self-righteous nationalism under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has emboldened right-wing extremists now threatening democratic institutions and civil liberties.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 8, 2014

Uranium mining stocks jump as Japan clears way to reactors restart

Uranium prices and producers' shares soared after Japan cleared the way for restart of the first of the nuclear reactors shut after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 7, 2014

Shrewd moves benefiting Southampton, West Ham

By the end of this weekend's Premier League fixtures, Southampton and West Ham could both be in the top four. Such a prediction in August would have brought ridicule because both clubs were "in crisis" with West Ham manager Sam Allardyce apparently hanging on to his job by his fingernails.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 5, 2014

Parasyte: Gory invasion of the cannibal body snatchers

The closing film of this year's Tokyo International Film Festival, Takashi Yamazaki's "Kiseiju: Part 1 (Parasyte: Part 1)," arrives in theaters with a lot of hype. Based on Hitoshi Iwaaki's best-selling manga about the stealth invasion of Earth by alien parasites, the film is the first of a two-part...
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Nov 4, 2014

Hanyu looks to continue strong start by Japan men

Often the campaign following an Olympic season can be a letdown.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / IEC GENERAL MEETING IN TOKYO
Nov 4, 2014

IEC evolves in line with technological advancement

The International Eletctrotechnical Commission has a long history going back more than a century. The IEC was officially founded in June 1906, in London, where its central office was set up. Since then, the IEC has continuously evolved, with its role changing as technology advanced.
COMMENTARY
Nov 3, 2014

Avoiding Western networks

All five BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — have vested interests in developing long-term alternative financial institutions for parking their money and moving it internationally, independent of the West's bullying instincts and addiction to sanctions.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2014

Ukraine starves as its leaders play Monopoly

With a new parliament elected last weekend, the Ukrainian political establishment has no more excuses for failing to make vital changes in economic regulation and the way the country is governed. Unfortunately the winners have resorted to their tired political circus.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2014

Why Russian jets are testing NATO's airspace

The danger of the new Cold War is that there is complete disagreement between Russia on one side and the U.S. and EU on the other as to the dividing lines. For most Russians, the borders created by the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 aren't a given.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 30, 2014

To err on the side of caution

It is not fair to underestimate compensation for disaster damage in the name of general interest. This is an area where ordinary cost calculations should be discarded.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 28, 2014

Idol-pop act Necronomidol is taken to the dark side

It's a week until Necronomidol's big show and, practicing at a dance studio in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, the four members make a decision to change one line from "We've come to bring about the Apocalypse" to "We've come to enact Armageddon." Manager Ricky Wilson agrees; another problem solved.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2014

Egypt rebuilding, backstage

Egypt is marching, slowly but surely, away from the omnipresent and omnipotent state that has dominated Egyptian economic life for many decades.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 27, 2014

Air bag maker in crisis used unique chemical explosive

The emerging crisis over air bags traces back to a little-known Tokyo company that for over 20 years has supplied the safety devices to automakers including Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and General Motors Co.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Oct 24, 2014

Disney's 'Big Hero 6' animates a bridging of cultures

This week's Tokyo International Film Festival is hot on animation, featuring screenings of the collected works of Hideaki Anno, creator of the epic franchise, "Neon Genesis Evangelion," and 3-D shorts directed by Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, producer of "Donkey Kong" and "Super Mario Bros." But the festival's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 23, 2014

Lee Mingwei likes getting to know you

The secret to a good public relations interview? Switch on the voice recorder and ask questions — that is all you need to know. Except, of course, it's not. Usually the interviewee has a particular image to maintain and the interviewer is looking for something that hasn't already been said — incompatible...
COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2014

Ebola: a wake-up call for America

The transmission of Ebola to two nurses responsible for the care of an Ebola patient in the U.S. has focused intense scrutiny on U.S. preparedness for a possible outbreak. Robust health agencies should not be taken for granted.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Oct 21, 2014

You say proto-this, I say post-that, let's call the whole thing 'skronk'

A famous quote of mysterious provenance (most likely the American actor and singer Martin Mull) has it that, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture," and anyone who has ever tried to write about music will know that language can be an inadequate tool.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 20, 2014

Subtle humor of haiku's cousin senryū is on a roll

"Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit," philosophizes the long-winded Polonius in Shakespeare's "Hamlet." That's also a fitting description of senryū — a form of short poetry defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as "a three-line unrhymed Japanese poem structurally similar to haiku, but...
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Oct 20, 2014

Kuyashii: a useful word for those of us who frequently fail miserably

Today, we will introduce proper usage of the i-adjective u304fu3084u3057u3044, which is used to show feeling — it can express anger caused by humiliation, defeat or frustration.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2014

North Korea's elites are a threat to Kim Jong Un

North Korea is frequently described as 'the world's last Stalinist state,' but this is no longer the case. The North is now home to a large and growing private economy.
JAPAN / History / IMPERIAL ANNALS
Oct 11, 2014

Selective history: Hirohito's chronicles

Between July 30 and Aug. 2, 1945, when most of Japan's cities, including Tokyo, lay in smoldering ruins from U.S. aerial bombing and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were days away from being incinerated by American nuclear weapons, Emperor Hirohito sent an envoy to several Shinto shrines to pray for the "crushing...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 11, 2014

U.S., U.K. to test big bank collapse in joint model run

Regulators from the United States and the United Kingdom will get together in a war room next week to see if they can cope with any possible fall-out when the next big bank topples over, the two countries said on Friday.
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Oct 8, 2014

Aguirre focuses on team building

Javier Aguirre will be looking for positive performances in Japan's friendlies against Jamaica and Brazil over the coming week, but after failing to register a win in his first two games as manager, positive results would be even more welcome.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 8, 2014

China again comes last in global aid transparency index

China took last place in an aid transparency index of 68 donor nations released on Wednesday, which said the majority of the world's donors were not sharing enough information about their activities.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 6, 2014

Crime and gangs: the path to battle for Australia's Islamist radicals

The children of refugees who fled Lebanon's civil war for peaceful Australia in the 1970s form a majority of Australian militants fighting in the Middle East, according to about a dozen counterterrorism officials, security experts and Muslim community members.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 4, 2014

Inner-city life, and the banal mystery that is other people

Beautifully banal. Perhaps not the most positive-sounding turn of phrase, but the one that best summarizes the appeal of Shuichi Yoshida's interwoven narrative of five young adults and their struggles living in an overcrowded Tokyo apartment.

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.