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Events / Events In Tokyo
Jun 21, 2013

Irish poet to be focus of Yeats Day at Waseda

One of the first attempts to combine the literary traditions of the English and Japanese languages occurred in 1916, when Irish poet William Butler Yeats tried his hand at a noh play. The result, "At the Hawk's Well," tells the story of a mythological hero Cuchulain, but it's best known for its masked...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2013

Gene patent decision on shaky scientific ground

In its split decision over gene patents, the U.S. Supreme Court was trying to protect big pharma and the U.S. economy without offending basic principles of ethics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 20, 2013

'Let's go to the museum'

Miffy — the iconic cartoon rabbit — is Dick Bruna's most famous character to date and is the the focus of the Himeji Museum of Art's exhibition, which aims to introduce visitors to modern art in a fun way.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2013

Putting to rest five myths about personal privacy

Americans don't have to choose between privacy and terror prevention. They do have to decide how much accountability to demand of government surveillance.
WORLD
Jun 18, 2013

U.S. shad catch limited in bid to restore stocks

If things were this bad in the late 1770s, George Washington's starving Continental Army might never have made it out of Valley Forge.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2013

Southeast Asian leadership without hegemony

Whether it is the United States now, or China later, Asia is searching for a model of regional leadership that goes beyond the hegemony of any one power.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 12, 2013

Erving as responsible for NBA's success as anybody

The legendary Dr. J left a lasting impression on the NBA.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2013

Syria bleeds as West watches

The only proper response to those who fret about 'where do you stop?' if the international community intervenes in the Syrian conflict is 'when do you start
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Jun 12, 2013

Once a young phenom, Matsui now a veteran leader for upstart Eagles

The plays aren't as flashy or spectacular as they used to be, but Kazuo Matsui still makes them.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2013

U.S. intelligence is too dependent on technology

The National Security Agency, now constructing a massive data-storage facility that presumably will chew through everything we say, needs to be reined in.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 11, 2013

Five myths about the legalization of marijuana

With 16 U.S. states having decriminalized or legalized cannabis for non-medical use and eight more heading toward some kind of legalization, federal prohibition's days seem numbered.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 9, 2013

Dark sides of Toyota's drive to be No. 1

Like most corporate giants, Toyota isn't all squeaky clean. Yet in their book 'Toyota no Shotai' ('The True Colors of Toyota') published in Japanese in 2006, Hajime Yokota and Makoto Sataka catalog the Japanese media's timidity when it comes to covering the nation's top advertiser.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 9, 2013

Unraveling the mystery of male birds' missing members

How the chicken lost its penis: It sounds like a weird cousin of one of Rudyard Kipling's 'Just So Stories for Little Children' from 1902, which featured 'How the Leopard Got His Spots' and 'How the Camel Got His Hump.'
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jun 9, 2013

Data-mining soars even as 9/11 fades

Expanded surveillance by the U.S. government was cast as a price of war in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Yet nearly a dozen years later, the war on terrorism is showing signs of ebbing while the surveillance systems crafted to fight it continue unabated.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 9, 2013

A world of flowers and willows in Kyoto's geisha districts

'No matter what happens / I am in love with Gion. / Even when I sleep, / Beneath my pillow / The waters ripple.'
WORLD
Jun 8, 2013

Data-mining claims denied

The top executives of Google, Facebook and other Silicon Valley firms fiercely deny giving intelligence officials broad access to data about their users.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 8, 2013

U.S. taps servers in vast data-mining program

The National Security Agency and FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet firms, extracting audio and video chats, photos, emails, documents and connection logs. U.S. taps firms' servers, mines Internet data
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 8, 2013

How did Germany become the new champion of Europe?

Sitting in his brightly lit office overlooking the green hills of rural Westphalia, surrounded by photographs of aluminium and titanium castings, Phillip Schack has drawn a blue triangle on a piece of paper. Pointing to a small shaded section at its apex, he says: "Look. If that's your market, up at...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2013

Iran is outmaneuvering U.S. in Syrian proxy war

Syria is now a proxy war, and when U.S. officials say their options for intervention are constrained by Syria's air defense systems, they are also saying they fear Iran's.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 7, 2013

From Björk to Kyary, festival season has arrived

Summer means a lot of things in Japan: stifling heat and humidity, fireworks and the Bon holidays, nagashi-sōmen noodles and chilled barley tea. For music fans though, the season brings a different kind of to-do list: booking cheap train tickets in advance, stocking up on essential supplies — and...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 7, 2013

British, U.S. music no longer dominates world

When John Lennon declared that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, it didn't seem that far-fetched. It was 1966, and rock 'n' roll was the new religion sweeping the globe.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 7, 2013

'Hakoiri Musuko no Koi (Blindly in Love)'

In a recent interview, Steven Soderbergh complained that critics are "too easily fooled." "Their reading of filmmaking is too superficial," he added. While I am as much a fan of deep insight as the next guy, I am also perfectly happy to be fooled. That is, if a director manages to salvage his pig of...
WORLD
Jun 6, 2013

Vegetarians live longer, study suggests

A vegetarian diet may help people, particularly men, live longer than those who regularly eat meat, according to a study of more than 70,000 Seventh-Day Adventists.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2013

The link between austerity and demoralization

High unemployment in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere is also tragic because of the emotional cost to the jobless of not being part of working society.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 5, 2013

Abenomics cannot succeed without cheap nuclear power

Everybody knows that Japan has an energy crisis. We also know that the yen has greatly depreciated, by some 20 percent in just a few weeks. It's time to put these two facts together.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2013

What Bismarck can show Red China

More than a century and a half after it was published, Alexis de Tocqueville's "The Old Regime and the Revolution" has become an unlikely best-seller in China.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2013

China's rise doesn't have to mean U.S. decline

Someone steals your most sensitive secrets. Then, planning a face-to-face meeting, he says he wants to develop "a new type" of relationship with you. At what point, exactly, would you start thinking he was planning to drink your milkshake?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 4, 2013

As evidence of Agent Orange in Okinawa stacks up, U.S. sticks with blanket denial

In April 2011, these Community pages published the first accounts of sick U.S. veterans who believe their illnesses were caused by exposure to Agent Orange on Okinawa during the Vietnam War era.
WORLD
Jun 4, 2013

U.K. lawmakers rebuke Cameron

Lawmakers in Prime Minister David Cameron's coalition this week plan to rebel against the government in favor of setting pollution targets earlier, a measure industry groups say will hurt the economy.

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