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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 7, 2015

Aomori's moving castle and other architectural tales

Once every century, Hirosaki in Aomori Prefecture experiences an unusual event — the Hirosaki Moving Castle Project — when the city relocates an entire castle using manpower only.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 7, 2015

Cheers to Hirosaki's latest use of its apples

If you ask someone about Aomori Prefecture, it is likely that the subject of apples would pop up in conversation sooner or later. The city of Hirosaki boasts the title of holding the highest apple crop yields in Japan, producing 160,000 tons of apples per year, and being home to more than 6,000 orchards...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 7, 2015

TV Asahi gets 'The Scoop' on false convictions

Last week the Tokyo Shimbun ran an article about Keiko Aoki and Tatsuhiro Boku, the couple convicted of murdering Aoki's 11-year-old daughter in 1995 and sentenced to life in prison. The upcoming retrial, which will likely reverse the guilty verdict, may reveal that the Osaka pair were coerced into making...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 7, 2015

South Korea's new state textbook 'corrects' history

South Korea recently announced plans for a revisionist textbook that will whitewash that country's history and has the academic community outraged over political meddling. At least the move gives South Korean President Park Geun-hye something in common with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
WORLD
Nov 7, 2015

U.S. task force expected to recommend free Web-based drone register

A federal task force is expected to recommend a Web-based registry for drone owners that will impose no registration fees, two people familiar with the matter said Friday.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 7, 2015

Titanic menu, JFK limo license plates head to auction block

A menu from the last dinner served to first-class passengers aboard the Titanic before it sank in 1912 is among a few surviving artifacts from the ill-fated ship's journey that were to be auctioned off on Saturday.
WORLD
Nov 7, 2015

U.S. to open new screening centers for Syrian refugees

The Obama administration is moving to increase and accelerate the number of Syrian refugees who might be admitted into the United States by opening new screening outposts in Iraq and Lebanon, administration officials told Reuters on Friday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 7, 2015

U.S. jobs report bolsters case for Fed rate hike

U.S. job growth surged in October and the unemployment rate hit a 7½-year low of 5 percent in a show of economic strength that makes it much more likely the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in December.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 7, 2015

Key senator says White House may have to renegotiate parts of TPP pact

A key U.S. senator said Friday the Obama administration may have to renegotiate parts of the recently concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, heralding a tough battle to win support in Congress.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Nov 7, 2015

Large-scale sexting at Colorado high school results in criminal probe, suspensions

Widespread circulation of hundreds of sexually explicit photos among students at a Colorado high school via text messages has triggered a criminal investigation, multiple suspensions and the forfeiture of a football game, officials said on Friday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 7, 2015

Nissan joins Toyota, Honda in ditching Takata's air bag inflators

Nissan Motor Co. says it will no longer use key air bag components made by Takata Corp., whose defective devices are behind the biggest-ever automotive safety recall.
WORLD / Society
Nov 6, 2015

Irish women tweet details of menstrual cycle to PM in abortion row

Irish women are tweeting details of their periods to Prime Minister Enda Kenny to help publicize a campaign to repeal restrictive abortion laws.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 6, 2015

Shigeto holds his audience over with electronic 'Intermission'

Zach Saginaw's recording moniker, Shigeto, has been with him literally since the day he was born in Michigan.
Reader Mail
Nov 6, 2015

The refugee crisis: What about Japan?

Regarding the article "UNICEF chief urges Japan to open its doors to more refugees" in the Oct. 19 edition, if the Japanese are truly "very good global citizens," as UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake says, surely my fellow countrymen would agree with Lake's appeal? After all, the refugee crisis...
Reader Mail
Nov 6, 2015

Racist drawing of Syrian girl

Regarding the article "Manga artist removes illustration mocking Syrian refugee" in the Oct. 8 edition, as a citizen of Japan I felt disgusted looking at this racist drawing by Toshiko Hasumi that used an innocent child to represent such perverse prejudice.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 6, 2015

China-Taiwan summit was two years in the making as leaders eye legacies

Saturday's historic summit in Singapore between the presidents of China and Taiwan may have surprised many, but the sides first broached the subject about two years ago, and the leaders had their legacies very much in mind.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 5, 2015

Japan Post's epochal IPO

Japan Post's $12 billion listing is a symbol of the bold change that needs to be embraced to rejuvenate Asia's second largest economy.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Nov 5, 2015

Revolution in space technology evolution awaits launch in New Zealand paddock

The next revolution in space, making humdrum what was long the special preserve of tax-funded giants like NASA, will be launching next year from a paddock in New Zealand's remote South Island.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 5, 2015

Power from human waste could light millions of homes: U.N. University

Biogas from human waste has the potential to generate electricity for millions of homes while improving health and protecting the environment, a United Nations University institute has said.
BUSINESS
Nov 5, 2015

Musk's made-in-USA SpaceX vies in crowded, Russia-powered field for $3.5 billion NASA contract

Less than a decade after its first rocket launch, Elon Musk's SpaceX finds itself in an unfamiliar position.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 4, 2015

Director Kazuaki Kiriya struggles to be taken seriously in Japan

Forty-seven-year-old filmmaker Kazuaki Kiriya is as famed for being a tall, flamboyant loudmouth — he married Japanese diva Hikaru Utada when she was 16 years old (and he was 35) — as he is for making sleek CG-heavy extravaganzas that never manage to do well at the box office. Now Kiriya has directed...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 4, 2015

Jill Soloway's bittersweet 'Afternoon Delight'

'Afternoon Delight" is one of those ex post facto releases in Japan that arrives riding the wake of another hit. It won a best director award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013, but is only now getting released because writer-director Jill Soloway and actress Kathryn Hahn are in the spotlight for...
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 4, 2015

Citizens group sues California agency over nuclear waste burial

A civilian watchdog group sued a California coastal agency on Tuesday, seeking to overturn its decision to allow 1,800 tons of radioactive waste from a closed nuclear power plant to be buried in containers not far from a beach.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 4, 2015

Sharp bond risk jumps as losses over 4½ years top $10 billion

Sharp Corp.'s default risk jumped to a two-year high as losses in the past 4½ years topped ¥1.2 trillion ($10 billion).

Longform

Pedestrians commute through Shibuya Station in central Tokyo, an area that is almost never devoid of people.
As the rest of Japan shrinks, Tokyo grows