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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2013

In Europe, pieces are in place for a 'lost decade'

Although investors seem to think that Europe's leaders will do just enough to save their monetary union, the EU is likely to look back on a 'lost decade.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Mar 22, 2013

Why not just add a dollop of mayonnaise?

Newcomers to Japan are often a little taken aback by the many decidedly non-Japanese condiments, such as ketchup and Worcestershire sauce, that are used in everyday cooking. And in particular mayonnaise: Usually reserved for sandwiches, salad dressing and dipping sauces for chilled seafood in the West,...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2013

The roots of Vladimir Putin's authoritarian allure

Far-right parties in Western Europe surprisingly are expressing admiration ? and outright support ? for Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2013

Making sense of North Korea's March madness

It's ironic that tougher U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea are matched by food and humanitarian assistance from U.N. agencies.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2013

Debunking five myths about Iraq

Today a new set of beliefs defines many discussions about the war in Iraq and its aftermath. Are they just as wrong as the 2003 prewar rhetoric
SPORTS / NBA REPORT
Mar 20, 2013

Nuggets may be changing the game

The Denver Nuggets are trying to do what the conventional wisdom says in the NBA cannot be done. Twice. And they may actually be on the way.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2013

'Lost generation' may learn a bit from restraint

This past decade, Americans under 35 have suffered the largest income decline of any age group. Will they view their challenges as useful someday?
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 17, 2013

U.S. drone strikes violate Pakistan's sovereignty: U.N.

CIA drone strikes on targets in Pakistan violate its national sovereignty and have resulted in far more civilian casualties than the U.S. government has recognized, a special U.N. human rights envoy has reported after a secret investigation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 17, 2013

The rising of a nation

This superb book charts the improbable rise of South Korea from the devastation of war and impoverishment to rapid development and prosperity, and from brutal dictatorship to the most vibrant democracy in Asia. It is 'impossible' in terms of its economic and political achievements, 'the most unlikely and impressive story of national building of the last century,' Daniel Tudor writes.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 14, 2013

Miyabi Matsuoka takes an enlightened approach to teaching the harp

To Miyabi Matsuoka, the harp is a mirror that reveals who you really are. She says she can tell the personality of a harp player by the way he or she manipulates the instrument, which affects the sound they create.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 14, 2013

Dreams reveal some of their secrets

The dreams of Mary Shelley, author of "Frankenstein," involved a pale student kneeling beside a corpse that was jerking back to life. Paul McCartney's contained the melody of "Yesterday," while director James Cameron's inspired the "Terminator" films.
Japan Times
LIFE / CULTURE SMASH
Mar 13, 2013

The online anime revolution has finally ignited in Japan

The first question after a panel I once chaired at an anime convention in the United States sounded innocent enough. "So, what do you guys think about Crunchyroll?"
WORLD
Mar 13, 2013

'Vatileaks' report hidden from voting cardinals

It is known throughout the Vatican as the Relatio (Narration). It is contained in two stiff, unmarked red folders and runs to around 300 pages. Lying in a safe in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter's Square, it will be at the forefront of the minds of the 115 cardinals...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2013

Did Rodman lay up a net gain in North Korea?

Clown-job or not, former pro basketball star Dennis Rodman's fast break to North Korea did draw our attention to monstrous problems on the Peninsula.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 10, 2013

Two wide-ranging, informed compilations scrutinize the March 11 disasters

NATURAL DISASTER AND NUCLEAR CRISIS IN JAPAN, edited by Jeff Kingston. Routledge, 2012, 304 pp., £28.99 (paperback)
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2013

Asia's dammed water hegemon

China's announcement of three new dam projects on the Brahmaputra underscores the emergence of water as a new divide in Sino-Indian relations.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 8, 2013

Bite into the journals of a Japanese burger critic

Many Japanese foodies are enamored with the hamburger, in much the same way that their American counterparts are often besotted with ramen. The number of hamburger shops in Tokyo has exploded in the last decade, but there are also signs that the fascination runs deeper: There are books, magazines and...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2013

Are they watching? U.S. court says that's a secret

Think Big Brother is tapping your phone and reading your email? Want to go to court and make the government prove its surveillance program is constitutional?
SPORTS / NBA REPORT
Mar 6, 2013

Pacers best placed to challenge Heat

Donnie Walsh wasn't impressed. The former and longtime Indiana Pacers general manager had returned to his Indianapolis home for the 2011-12 NBA season.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2013

The Vatican needs a mystic to be the next pope

There's no need to rehash the recent disastrous track record of the all-male Roman Catholic hierarchy. The sordid abuse of children by priests, the sinister coverups, the callous treatment of nuns, the deaf ear turned toward Catholics who happen to be gay or divorced — it's all on the front page. The...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2013

Power is increasingly fleeting

In 2009, during his first address before a joint session of Congress, U.S. President Barack Obama championed a budget that would serve as a blueprint for the country's future through ambitious investments in energy, health care and education. "This is America," the new president proclaimed. "We don't...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2013

Democracy votes to kill in Indonesia, Pakistan

The recent slaughter of Shiites in Pakistan is another grisly reminder of the perilous condition of its minorities. Indeed, in Pakistan and Indonesia, the two largest Muslim countries, both of which are in the midst of a fraught experiment with electoral democracy after decades of military rule, murderous...
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2013

Obituary: Michiko Otsuka

Renowned actress and Haiyuza Theater Company leader Michiko Otsuka died of heart disease at her Tokyo home on Feb. 26, the theatrical troupe said Monday. She was 82.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 5, 2013

In Lew of loopy corrections

New U.S. Treasurey Secretary Jacob Lew's, whose mastery of the nitty-gritty details makes him a tough negotiator and a difficult opponent, has won a reputation as unflappable.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Mar 5, 2013

Child's quibble with U.S. 'poverty superpower' propaganda unravels a sobering story about insular Japan

Last November, a reader in Hokkaido named Stephanie sent me an article read in Japan's elementary schools. Featured in a sixth-grader magazine called Chagurin (from "child agricultural green") dated December 2012, it was titled "Children of America, the Poverty Superpower" (hinkon taikoku Amerika no...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 3, 2013

A newspaper editor's year to master Chopin's First Ballade

PLAY IT AGAIN, by Alan Rusbridger. Jonathan Cape, 2013, 416 pp., £18.99 (hardcover)
Reader Mail
Mar 3, 2013

Their likes won't pass this way

In his Feb. 28 letter tribute to the late movie critic and author Donald Richie, "Remembering Donald Richie," Japanologist Karel van Wolferen recalls the weekly lunches that Richie and he had with literary translator Ed Seidensticker. What a magnificent and lively gathering that must have been. It would...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Mar 1, 2013

Iconic Iwojima photo: a survival story

The battle had raged for four days, and would continue for 31 more, a marathon of sand and heat and unrelenting death. But at that moment there was an order from the brass: Get a bigger flag up there. The small American flag fluttering atop Mount Suribachi, the volcanic peak on the island, was too small...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 28, 2013

In New York, the Guggenheim goes Gutai

By now, the looks, character and history of Gutai, the post-World War II Japanese art movement born in 1954 in Ashiya, between Osaka and Kobe, are familiar to regular viewers of modern-art exhibitions in Japan. Last summer's "Gutai: The Spirit of an Era," a survey of the movement's evolution and its...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2013

Leon Panetta: a legacy of the conventional wisdom

Leon Panetta's failure to accommodate a rapidly changing world will be his most important, and disappointing, legacy as U.S. secretary of defense.

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