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Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 27, 2015

Futuristic hydrogen cars come with a curfew — for now

Hiroshi Matsushita brims with pride about the staring and pointing that goes along with driving his dream car, Toyota's hydrogen-powered Mirai fuel cell sedan. There's just one problem: his new set of wheels came with a curfew.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 26, 2015

Why the Hanshin Tigers play in a stadium named after rats

Exploring the weird and wonderful animal kingdom and the roots of critters' kanji.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 26, 2015

Abe's magic doesn't work

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants Japan to believe there are magic solutions to the complex problems facing society, to the detriment of the nation.
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Oct 26, 2015

JR Tokai begins landowner negotiations for maglev train line

With construction of a magnetically levitated train line connecting Tokyo to Osaka via Nagoya in the works, Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) has started negotiating with landowners for property rights around Nagoya Station.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 24, 2015

Water, water everywhere in Japan, but fewer people to pay for it

Water is relatively abundant in Japan, but there are less people around to pay for the infrastructure that processes it and delivers it to homes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 23, 2015

Courtney Barnett's garden offers up some well-received tracks on 'Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit'

Courtney Barnett lives in Melbourne, Australia, in a house she was cleaning when she answered her phone. She said it was a nice day, "kind of cold," and sounded relaxed and happy to be home after a year of on-and-off touring to promote her album, "Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit,"...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 23, 2015

Toshiba unveils trilingual robot in Odaiba

Toshiba Corp. unveiled a new multilingual android Friday who introduces herself and gives out information in three languages to tourists visiting Tokyo's popular Odaiba waterfront district.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 23, 2015

Japan's so-called visa overstayers tell of life in legal limbo

Eight children petition the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau for clemency to allow their families to stay in the country so they can continue their lives.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 23, 2015

A huge El Nino spreads wide range of mayhem around the world

It has choked Singapore with smoke, triggered Pacific typhoons and left Vietnamese coffee growers staring nervously at dwindling reservoirs. In Africa, cocoa farmers are blaming it for bad harvests, and in the Americas, it has Argentines bracing for lower milk production and Californians believing that...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Oct 23, 2015

Kodo-kai still raking in funds despite tougher yakuza laws

The Kodokai is emerging as Japan's strongest yakuza group, thanks to its prodigious money-making skills.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 21, 2015

Internal mistakes behind S-Pulse's fall from J1 ranks

Shimizu S-Pulse's proud uninterrupted record as a J. League first-division team came to an end last weekend, but after years of muddled leadership, the club has no one to blame but itself.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Oct 21, 2015

Tokyo can feel less than welcoming to food allergy sufferers

Japan needs to improve labeling and education surrounding food allergies, and increase allergen-safe options.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 21, 2015

Join the zombie horde for Halloween this year

Last Halloween I showed up at a nightclub in Shibuya wearing a pair of fangs and a sexy dress and expected to get the costume discount. The doorman laughed in my face.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 20, 2015

Japan Post's IPO might just shake up lagging regional lenders

The nation's regional banks need a little shaking up: There are far too many of them, profits from loans are shrinking, and their customers are disappearing. The enormous privatization of Japan Post, coming up next month, may just help spur them into action.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 19, 2015

An increasingly bitter battle of the ages brews in Japan

The elderly believe that having worked themselves to the bone their entire lives, they deserve to have fun. Society, though, is becoming less sympathetic to this view.
LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
Oct 19, 2015

Let's discuss pressure on university liberal arts education

In June the education ministry sent a directive to national universities calling on them to reorganize their humanities and social sciences departments.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 19, 2015

As winter looms, Germany struggles to find warm homes for refugees

At a sprawling camp in the German town of Celle, refugees wearing thick sweaters sit around a heater smoking cigarettes as rain beats down on the cramped white tent that has become their home. Some of them are ill and worried it will snow.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 18, 2015

Beijing promotes low-paid college graduates to startup CEOs

Quitting her job as receptionist, joining rock bands and chancing her tattoo-sleeved arm at small business ventures would once have branded college graduate Ding Jia as a rebel in China. Now she can claim state endorsement as a "creative."
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Oct 17, 2015

True Edo spirit can be found while soaking in a public bath

"Public baths are the shortest route there is to moral and spiritual enlightenment. Careful reflection shows this."
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Oct 17, 2015

Kyoto forum's leaders warm up to renewables

Each autumn, the world's most influential scientists, engineers, business leaders and science policy experts gather in Kyoto for the Science and Technology in Society Forum. The STS Forum is the brainchild of Koji Omi, a former finance minister and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry bureaucrat and...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 16, 2015

SABMiller, AB InBev merger may reignite Japanese brewers' foreign ambitions

The planned $100 billion merger of Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller will be a wake-up call to the overseas ambitions of Japanese brewers, which are struggling to grow at home in a saturated market with a shrinking population.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2015

Corporations lie, and some get away with it

In the midst of so many contexts where we expect people sometimes to lie — sports, entertainment, certainly politics — it is disturbing that the one place to which we run for truth is private corporations.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 13, 2015

Japan should avoid making suicidal education mistakes

Japan's educational system will suffer greatly if political ignoramuses who know the price of everything and the value of nothing are allowed to have their way.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 10, 2015

Saitama's 'Little Edo' is big on Japan's colorful history

As my smartphone clock flashes from 11:59 a.m. to 12 p.m., I watch the visitors to Kawagoe, in Saitama Prefecture wipe the sweat from their foreheads and direct their attention toward a more primitive form of time keeping — the Toki no Kane (Bell of Time) tower in the middle of the town square.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 10, 2015

'Omotenashi' comes up short on humility

A Japanese friend who used to travel a lot for work told me of a funny thing that once happened to her in a Tokyo hotel. She was checking in when a bellhop came up and, without saying anything, picked up her bag. She resented the presumption and tried to yank it out of his hand. A silent tug of war ensued....
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 9, 2015

NATO backs Turkey as U.S. says errant Russian missiles hit Iran

NATO is prepared to step up support for Turkey and warned Russia against escalating its campaign in neighboring Syria, as U.S. officials said some Russian missiles intended to hit Syrian rebels fell short, landing in Iran.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2015

When you can't see Singapore, it looks like Beijing

Air pollution is getting out of hand in Southeast Asia, and big corporations and small-scale farmers are both to blame.
EDITORIALS
Oct 7, 2015

Retrial system needs revamping

As illustrated by the case of Masaru Okunishi, who passed away after decades on death row without getting the new trial that he deserved, Japan's retrial system is seriously flawed and in need of reform.

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