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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 7, 2014

Japan's Hutterites hold on to a dream for community

Otawara — yes, that's spelled with a "t" — is one of those places few people know and most confuse with somewhere else (in this case with Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture).
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 5, 2014

Reinventing the wheel: the future of cycling in Tokyo

On Jan. 24, a full-page advert appeared in the Tokyo edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun for a petition on behalf of the capital's cyclists. "Join the new governor in making Tokyo a bicycle city," read the headline for the ad, which reeled off a series of suggested improvements: more extensive cycling lanes,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 5, 2014

Cycling Sayama

A forested area bordering western Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture offers day-trippers a chance to experience the great outdoors on two wheels.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Apr 5, 2014

Horses power across time and places

As a wee nipper I'd sometimes be treated to donkey rides on our local beach at Port Talbot in South Wales, but the first time I sat astride a pony was near my home in Neath when I was 8. Around then, the old dairyman occasionally let me join him as he made his daily rounds with his horse-drawn cart collecting...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Apr 4, 2014

Foreign coaches making impact in revamped NBL

While the National Basketball League of Japan is essentially the rebranded Japan Basketball League, there's one distinguishing aspect that is different from before — it's a foreign coach-filled league.
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2014

African e-money is the next currency killer

All the talk of bitcoin in recent years has overshadowed the e-finance revolution in Africa, India and eastern Europe, where a service called M-Pesa has replaced banking for millions of people who don't have a bank account.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 2, 2014

Brown, Toyama aspiring to capture bj-league crown

If your only task during a basketball game involved jotting down Ira Brown's statistics, you'd stay pretty busy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2014

Only a third of nuclear reactors may be restarted

Three years after the Fukushima disaster prompted the closure of all of Japan's nuclear reactors, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is moving to revive atomic power as a core part of the nation's energy mix, but many of those idled reactors will never come back online.
Reader Mail
Apr 2, 2014

Most restaurants still don't get it

Regarding the March 31 article "Airports eager to cater to Muslims' needs": It is good to see that Japan is catering to Muslims at airports and a few other places. But as a regular visitor to Japan, I am astounded that Japan is doing nothing for the millions of global tourists who are used to enjoying...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 2, 2014

When political agenda hinders aesthetic pleasure

The title of this exhibition is a clear attempt to evoke the idea of 'magical realism,' a literary genre that has been particularly associated with Latin American literature.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 1, 2014

Worst mass die-off pinned on microbe

Sometimes bad things come in small packages.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 1, 2014

Where to sip on sakura this hanami season

While sakura are definitely a beautiful sight, their subtle flavor can also be enjoyed in a cocktail. ANA Intercontinental Tokyo (1-12-33 Akasaka, Minato-ku; 03-3505-1111; www.anaintercontinental-tokyo.jp) in Akasaka is among the best places in the capital to find such a creation.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2014

The bitcoin rhapsody to continue

Attempts to save on remittance fees by using bitcoins could lead to an addiction, which in turn risks the loss of one's savings.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2014

Tokyo Metro unveils subway navigation app for visitors

Tokyo Metro Co. is providing a free smartphone application to help foreigners navigate the capital's subway system.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Mar 31, 2014

Call the sitter: Parents resort to online services out of economic necessity

Most Japanese parents who use babysitters do so because of work obligations.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 30, 2014

Japan might win more friends if it just shuts up

Although there's plenty of blame to go around for the sorry state of relations between Japan and its neighbors, there's something Abe could do to ratchet down tensions: Tell people in his inner circle to clam up.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Mar 29, 2014

North Korea realty market soars

One of the world's fastest developing property markets is also in one of its least likely places: North Korea.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 29, 2014

Under the beat of the Taiko in Kyoto

Kyoto's long history has ensured that it has seen its fair share of giants. Yet few of these legends have marked the city's physical appearance to the extent of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, despite the man's reputedly smallish stature.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 29, 2014

Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands

This extensive travel book by lecturer and Okinawa expert Robert Walker is billed as "the first comprehensive guide to the entire Ryukyu Island chain." With 25 years experience traveling throughout the region's 150-islands Walker has amassed a huge amount of information — condensed here into 290 pages...
Japan Times
JAPAN / SYMPOSIUM ON ASEAN AND GLOBALIZATION
Mar 28, 2014

ASEAN works to overcome challenges

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations will continue to accelerate integration while it works to overcome challenges such as disparities in the levels of development among member countries, academic experts of some ASEAN countries said at a symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 27, 2014

Finding Japan's hidden punk scenes in their natural environments

Finding music in Japan can be a nightmare, and the live-music scene in particular is notoriously difficult to penetrate. Tucked away in the basements and upper floors of anonymous buildings, often in seedy parts of town, where the neighbors will be less likely to raise complaints against noise and loitering,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Mar 26, 2014

Japan's Constitution: never amended but all too often undermined

If Japan's unwritten constitution is already so flexible, why are Abe and his party so bent on amending the written one?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / NOTEBOOK
Mar 25, 2014

European design; Animation station; African Festival

exhibitions
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 24, 2014

Top NATO official warns of Russian threat to separatist Moldova region

NATO's top military commander said on Sunday that Russia had built up a "very sizable" force on its border with Ukraine and Moscow may have a region in another ex-Soviet republic — Moldova — in its sights after annexing Crimea.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Mar 21, 2014

Have once-welcoming Urawa Reds matches changed that much?

Some responses to Debito Arudou's March 13 Just Be Cause column, 'J. League and media must show red card to racism.'
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Mar 21, 2014

Cracks in the ruling coalition

The exercise of Japan's right to collective self-defense has become Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's political creed, but ruling coalition partner New Komeito wants Abe to slow his approach, and others close to Abe have grown apprehensive about the rise of anti-American conservatism within Abe's Liberal Democratic Party. The ruling coalition is showing cracks.

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