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COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jun 25, 2014

Is Japan a haven for expats with psychological problems? Readers discuss

Readers clash on the merits of William Bradbury's recent Foreign Agenda article, 'Japan: a haven for the psychologically troubled.'
EDITORIALS
Jun 22, 2014

Back to Iraq

A token U.S. force of military advisers will not help Iraq turn the tide against the ISIS siege. Only sweeping changes, including enfranchisement of the Sunni population, will stop the country from disintegrating.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 21, 2014

Kokusai Dori: Getting bitten by Okinawan Culture

Kokusai Dori is the name of a 2 km stretch of shops, hotels, bars and restaurants which cuts through the heart of downtown Naha, the largest city in Okinawa. The street's name in English is International Road, supposedly named after the Ernie Pyle's now-closed International Theater, which was a popular...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 18, 2014

Battling insurgency, Iraq's leaders make rare show of unity

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki broadcast a joint appeal for national unity on Tuesday with bitter Sunni critics of his Shiite-led government — a move that may help him win U.S. help against rampant Islamists threatening Baghdad.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 17, 2014

Blonde Redhead gets comfortable with past records

Formed in 1993 by Japanese singer Kazu Makino and Italian twins Simone and Amedeo Pace, and forged in the noisy underbelly of the New York alternative scene, Blonde Redhead has charted a path that has taken it from screeching underground noise rock to fragile, glacial, minimalist melody without ever...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 12, 2014

'Noah'

Darren Aronofsky has been such a challenging, inventive filmmaker for so long that when I saw the trailers for "Noah," I cringed. It looked like every other formulaic summer blockbuster rather than a film from the guy who brought us sentient refrigerators in "Requiem for a Dream" and paranoia-induced...
EDITORIALS
Jun 11, 2014

Egypt's new pharaoh

Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the former head of Egypt's Army, won a landslide victory in presidential elections held last month. The retired field marshal was sworn in Sunday as Egypt's new president. His job now is to forge unity in a country deeply divided, and restore trust in a political system that has...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Jun 10, 2014

Blue-eyed Austrian finds calling at shrine

Walking through the torii, or gateway, to the quiet and serene Konnoh Hachimangu Shrine in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward — minutes away from the hustle and bustle of Shibuya's main "scramble crossing" — and being welcomed by a blond and blue-eyed Shinto priest seems almost surreal.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2014

What really happened at Tiananmen?

In recent years the Tiananmen Square 'massacre' story has taken something of a beating as people in the square that night, including a Spanish TV unit, have emerged to tell us that there was no massacre in the square.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Jun 1, 2014

NPO Fathering Japan shows men how to be better dads

Tetsuya Ando, founder of the nonprofit organization Fathering Japan, wants to do everything he can for dads in Japan to encourage present and future fathers to play a more active role in child-rearing.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 1, 2014

Bright smiles: Laser light coaxes stem cells to grow new teeth

Scientists have come up with a bright idea to repair teeth And they say their concept — using laser light to entice the body's own stem cells into action — may offer enormous promise beyond just dentistry in the field of regenerative medicine.
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Jun 1, 2014

Watashi-wa Gray-san-no an-ga ii-to omoimasu

Today, we introduce the proper usage of u601duff08u304au3082uff09u3046 and u601du3063u3066u3044u308b, which both mean 'think.' There are some points to consider when using the verb of thought, u601du3046.
EDITORIALS
May 29, 2014

Nigeria under attack

Battling the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram does not burning down the Nigerian forests that it inhabits. It means recognizing the real source of its grievances and addressing them within the Nigerian political system.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
May 28, 2014

Japan: a haven for the psychologically troubled

For the troubled Western expat in Japan, the reality of being on another continent can collide with normalized Japanese antisocialism to form a cocktail effective in tuning out a lot of the 'just be a normal adult' voices.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 27, 2014

Taking aim at Japan's gender problem

Media coverage of the rise and fall of Japanese scientist Haruko Obokata illustrates the problem with the third arrow of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policy — and its otherwise laudable goal of expanding the participation of women in positions of power.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 26, 2014

World Cup 2014 views from Tokyo: Nigeria, Ecuador and Mexico

A Nigerian student, an Ecuadorean diplomat and a self-employed Mexican in Tokyo discuss their national teams' chances in Brazil.
WORLD / Society
May 25, 2014

'Revenge porn' ruling ignites debate

A court in Koblenz, Germany, has ruled that intimate, compromising photographs should be deleted at the end of a relationship if one partner wants it. In this case, the woman wanted the man to delete erotic photographs she had consented to pose for. When he refused, she sought legal help.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 25, 2014

World Cup 2014 views from Tokyo: Ghana and Costa Rica

A Ghanaian academic and a Costa Rican student in Tokyo discuss their teams' chances in the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2014

A right-wing shock for Europe?

A new European Parliament will be elected this weekend on the heels of French poll that says fewer than 40 percent of France's citizens think the European Union is a good thing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2014

'Oh! Father'

Japanese mystery writers have long supplied fodder for TV shows and films, but mysteries of the puzzle-plot sort have reached a saturation point. Or maybe it's just me, fed up with stories that turn on such vital questions as — in the immortal words of Raymond Chandler — "who trampled the jolly old...
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 21, 2014

World Cup 2014 views from Tokyo: Bosnia, Switzerland and Italy

A Bosnian teacher, Swiss student and Italian businessman weigh up their teams' prospects in next month's FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 21, 2014

'Izumi Kato: Soft Vinyl Sculptures'

As someone who liked to play with plastic Ultraman superhero and Kaiju monster toys as a child, Izumi Kato has been long familiar with soft vinyl, and since 2010, the artist has been using it to create sculptures.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 19, 2014

World Cup 2014 views from Tokyo: Brazil, Russia and Japan

A Brazilian translator, Russian student and Japanese singer discuss their teams' prospects in next month's FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 17, 2014

Oya: The town that turned to stone

It's always good to know something about the ground under your feet when you visit a new destination.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
May 17, 2014

Huge expectations for India's Modi, some wariness

About a year ago Narendra Modi sat down with some of India's best and brightest to mount what one election strategist called a "shock and awe" campaign.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2014

A new cold war or a cool power calculation?

Americans understand that if they go too far too fast in pushing sanctions against Russia in the Ukraine crisis, Europe will publicly break with the U.S. approach, because the Europeans have a lot more at stake economically.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 15, 2014

Ryukyu strong bet for return to final

During the six seasons in which franchise cornerstones Jeff Newton and Anthony McHenry have teamed up to lead the Ryukyu Golden Kings to extraordinary success, the Okinawan powerhouse is the undisputed model franchise for the bj-league.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 13, 2014

N.O.R.K. muddies the gap between indie and R&B on 'ADSR'

Japan's electronic-music scene has long seemed to suffer from a stylistic and unbridgeable gap between popular and independent music — one side characterized by overzealous polish, the other by lo-fi charm. In the case of N.O.R.K., the two sides have collided in spectacular fashion.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech / ADVANCES IN PROGRESS
May 11, 2014

High-tech Japan jumps on wearable device bandwagon

Japanese firms are jumping into the race to manufacture a new generation of wearable devices that will link people more intimately with the Internet as they grow more dependent on gadgets to manage their lives.

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.