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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Apr 30, 2013

Stand up to Abe for the sake of Japan, Asia's future

Life is comparable to a spiritual drama that in retrospect can be recalled as a series of happy, sad and bitter memories
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2013

Anniversaries, talk shows showcase division in Russia

Opposition critics, left and right, of Russian President Vladimir Putin seem to be loud but toothless opportunists. In many cases, they are nostalgic for Josef Stalin.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 29, 2013

Perceptions of brothers don't fit neatly into pre-existing box

Chechen? American? Immigrant? Citizen? Muslim? Boston Marathon bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev may be all of the above, but how Americans attempt to come to grips with the attacks allegedly perpetrated by the brothers has much to do with how Americans identify them.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 29, 2013

Evolutionary biologist says cave-man diet is flawed

Living like cave men — or at least eating like them — is being hailed by some as an ideal lifestyle.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2013

China's stealth wars of acquisition

China is waging stealth wars — without firing a shot — to change the status quo of the South and East China seas, its border with India, and international rivers.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 28, 2013

African elephants pluck at Japan's heartstrings

Next time you attend a shamisen performance, neither you nor most anyone else there will likely notice the elephant in the room. And those who do probably won't have given it much thought.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 28, 2013

A double dose of guidance offers more than usual information

SHINTO SHRINES: A Guide to the Sacred Sites of Japan's Ancient Religion, by Joseph Cali with John Dougill. University of Hawaii Press, 2012, 328 pp., $24.99 (paperback)
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 27, 2013

Poland's young Jews pick up threads of history

It was only after her grandmother's death that Maniucha Bikont discovered the full extent of her secret. Lea Horovitz had decided to escape incarceration in Warsaw's Jewish ghetto in 1940 after overhearing two shopkeepers comment "she doesn't look like a zduva" (a "yid") on spotting the Star of David...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Apr 26, 2013

Katsuo, Japan's ubiquitous tuna

In the world of sushi and sashimi, maguro (tuna, especially bluefin tuna) currently reigns supreme. It's so popular that large specimens of the fish fetch ridiculous, headline-grabbing prices at the Tsukiji wholesale market in Tokyo, and the species is in danger of extinction due to overfishing.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 25, 2013

As U.S. economy picks up, richest get richer

Wealth inequality widened dramatically during the first two years of the economic recovery, as the upper 7 percent of American households saw their average net worth increase 28 percent while the wealth of the other 93 percent declined, according to a report released Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2013

Why people stay scared after tragedies

After a tragedy such as the one last week in Boston, people develop a heightened sense of risk. Often that response is far greater than reality warrants.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 25, 2013

On the mechanics of anime illustration

The 1970s was an important decade for the development of Japanese pop-cultural icons. Kindergarten children back then would likely have been introduced to the characters Doraemon (1969), Anpanman (1973) and Hello Kitty (1974).
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2013

Rape and gender discrimination related in India

It is hard to equate India's rapid technological development with practices such as female feticide, the earliest manifestation of violence against women.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2013

Boston's terrible theater of terrorism

The attack on the Boston Marathon is a reminder of the adage that terror is theater — as is the response to terror. It matters who gives the better performance.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2013

Boston's terror and the children of the fault lines

Civilizational battles were once waged by warriors who donned garments of different lands. Today it is boys with baseball caps who carry death in their backpacks.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2013

Attack will prove urban resiliency

Cities exist to connect humanity and to enable us to work collaboratively. Those connections only strengthen when we are attacked as the Boston Marathon was.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 21, 2013

Slow pace of NPB games an ongoing problem

In response to my column of March 17, a couple of readers have come in with suggestions on how to pick up the notoriously slow pace of Japanese baseball games. From the Bay Area, fan Mike Colegate sent the following e-mail.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 19, 2013

Unique vulnerability of the Boston Marathon

There is something unique about the vulnerability of marathoners and their supporters, emotional and physical, especially at the finish line and especially in Boston.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 18, 2013

Stronger U.S. gun law fails to pass in Senate

The Senate's rejection of a bipartisan bill to expand background checks for gun purchases reveals the difference in power between public opinion and a united minority.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 17, 2013

Kobe's greatness won't let him quit

Well, at least we know Kobe Bryant isn't retiring.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2013

It's the end of everything as we know it (perhaps)

I hope you had it while you could because, last week, sex ended.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 17, 2013

Japan must re-learn its militarist past

Japan's conservative rulers will need a more capacious sense of history if they are to succeed in building new bridges with the country's Asian neighbors.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2013

Taiji dolphin cull inhumane: study

From a cliff above the tiny cove, a stocky, bald man could be seen between tightly drawn lengths of green tarpaulin, a metal rod in one hand, and something long, black and smooth wriggling helplessly under the other.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 16, 2013

When the 'Iron Lady' bent to the will of Beijing

With regard to the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, Margaret Thatcher got some good advice from Singapore: Be neither defiant nor submissive.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 14, 2013

An era of Tokyo art worth another look

Like Britain, Japan is subject to the polarizing forces of the orthodox and radical, the two balancing the flabby middle.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 14, 2013

Casting a little light on fireflies

If dragonflies are the insects of Japan's day, then the mysterious, magical fireflies are its bugs of the night.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Apr 13, 2013

How keeping it real took Matt Damon to the top

In 1987, when Bruce Springsteen wrote the song "Ain't Got You," he was the biggest rock star in the world. He had vast estates in New Jersey and Beverly Hills, and he had not long returned from a honeymoon at Gianni Versace's villa in Lake Como. "Ain't Got You" was Springsteen's attempt to make a self-aware...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 12, 2013

Beware economists who peddle cute models

A study that mimicked the behavior of 2 million potential homeowners makes plausible assumptions about how the U.S. subprime crisis got started.

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