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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Jan 23, 2020

Hoping for a Japanese society in which all of its members can shine

Black Eye columnist Baye McNeil opens the new year with an email from a reader that illustrates the importance of language in dealing with multiracial individuals.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Jan 8, 2020

Carlos Ghosn and the 99.9% who don't escape Japan

If I had to identify one event in the Carlos Ghosn case indicitave of concern for foreign perceptions of Japan's criminal justice system, it would be the decision to grant him bail.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 5, 2020

Heli-skiing in Japan: The joys of big-mountain powder

From December to March, Hokkaido Backcountry Club runs heli-skiing tours to Mount Shiribetsu near the Niseko and Rusutsu ski resorts. Clip in for the ride.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Dec 23, 2019

The Reiwa Daijosai: Pomp, circumstance and litigation

The separation of church and state in Japan comes under scrutiny in the new era. However, we've been down this road before.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Dec 2, 2019

Gkids brings anime's best to big screens in the U.S.

Though relatively unheralded, Gkids scored the rights to U.S. re-releases of the work of anime giants — including Isao Takahata and Makoto Shinkai — by only showing them in cinemas.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2019

Green markets for equitable growth

Any realistic solution to the climate crisis must keep the engines of economic growth running. A global carbon market would do just that.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 2, 2019

Portals of the past: Peering into Tokyo's traditional kissaten coffee shops

"Sorry, we're full," I hear someone say as I open the door to Ladrio, a pre-eminent kissaten (traditional coffee shop) situated in a tumbledown alley in Tokyo's Jimbocho neighborhood.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / 2010S: DECADE IN REVIEW
Nov 2, 2019

Our critics' favorite Japanese books of the decade

As 2020 approaches, The Japan Times' book reviewers look back at a decade of literature and their favorite and most impactful books written about Japan or by Japanese writers.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2019

The Asianized world has arrived

By 2040, Asia is likely to generate more than 50 percent of world GDP, and could account for nearly 40 percent of global consumption.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Sep 29, 2019

The Tepco verdict is predictable but not insignificant

Three Tepco executives are acquitted of criminal negligence in the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant disaster. Did the court recognize the unfairness of holding only three people responsible for a crisis that had much broader causes?
Japan Times
CULTURE
Sep 28, 2019

Go for it: Ancient board game holds logical and artistic appeal for players worldwide

The master enters the room several minutes after the scheduled 9 a.m. start.
Reader Mail
Sep 27, 2019

Chellaney wrong on Kashmir issue

In the opinion piece "Dispelling the myths of Kashmir" by Brahma Chellaney in the Sept. 10 issue, the author incorrectly claims that the violence in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir has been perpetuated by Salafist- oriented "jihadists" while conveniently overlooking the fact that the actual perpetrators...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Sep 1, 2019

Making sense of the oppressiveness of summer in Japan

Japan has a venerable tradition of quirky and inventive means of escape from the oppression of summer, as well as from rigid social constraints and conventions. Some of them take distinctly weird forms. In Edogawa Ranpo's classic story, "The Stalker in the Attic" (1925), for example, the eccentric protagonist...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2019

Is peace in Afghanistan possible?

A pact with the Taliban is unlikely to bring any respite from the ongoing violence.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Aug 17, 2019

Hong Kong's 1960s chaos holds lessons for city's besieged leaders now

It was a 5-cent fare hike for Hong Kong's iconic Star Ferry that set off the protests. Cars and buildings were set on fire. Riot police patrolled the streets. Tear gas was fired — and still the crowds kept coming.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Aug 7, 2019

Seven lessons from a Japanese morality textbook

The textbooks students in Japan use to learn wrong from right are filled with stories of invoices, citizen committees, petitions and other cool stuff kids like.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 2, 2019

South Korean petition to ban imports of sex dolls forces government response

A petition calling for a ban on importing life-size sex dolls into South Korea has gathered nearly a quarter of a million signatures as of Friday, passing a threshold that requires the president's office to respond to the matter.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 2, 2019

Astronomers find that Milky Way is a warped and twisted galaxy

Astronomers have created the most precise map to date of the Milky Way by tracking thousands of big pulsating stars spread throughout the galaxy, demonstrating that its disk of myriad stars is not flat but dramatically warped and twisted in shape.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 19, 2019

Gulp! Jurassic mammal was the first one able to eat politely

A shrew-like primitive mammal that inhabited China 165 million years ago represents a milestone in mammalian evolution, scientists said on Thursday, boasting a key anatomical trait in its throat that helped usher in the era of polite table manners.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 5, 2019

Quiet luxury in lesser-known Kansai

The Kansai area — think Kyoto, Osaka and surrounds — has some of the country's best anaba (little-known spots) where you can encounter the rich depths of Japanese culture, minus the crowds. Reserve one of these nine luxuriously uncrowded options to take your travels to new levels.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 29, 2019

'Gentle Black Giants': Diplomacy, sport and Japan's early love for baseball

'Gentle Black Giants' reveals a little-known chapter of Japanese baseball's early years and the impact that a collection of Negro Leagues players had on its development.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 20, 2019

Building bridges to Bangkok through stage

Never at risk of being run of the mill, Chelfitsch — which took its name from a baby's pronunciation of the English word "selfish" and usually stylizes itself with a lowercase "c" — is one of Japan's foremost contemporary theater companies, despite only rarely performing here. Instead, it can mostly...
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Jun 19, 2019

With changes in emperors come amnesties, so who will benefit?

One convenient thing about Japanese law for those of us who are professors of it is that it is quite modern. Virtually all Japanese laws and institutions antedate the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and, of those, most have a 20th-century provenance. Compared to Anglo-American law with Magna Carta, bewigged...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2019

Which Tiananmen narrative is true?

There is little doubt about the Beijing spring of 1989 that called for greater openness, freedoms and democracy in China, or about its suppression. But there is a counter-narrative that receives no mention in the China-bashing mainstream media.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / Children's Literature in Japan
May 25, 2019

Poop, realism and Ghibli: Enter the world of children's literature

To introduce our readers to this special subsection of Japanese literature, for the next 12 months, we'll be featuring one children's writer or illustrator on these pages each month.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
May 5, 2019

Iwo Jima: Where Japan rules but the memory of war dead still reigns

It is odd to stand at an iconic place few can ever visit. There on Mount Suribachi where the American flag was raised over Iwo Jima, I am embarrassed to report my first thought on looking out across at the military airport we landed at that morning was, "I have to walk back there in the next two hours."...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 28, 2019

San Diego-area synagogue shooting leaves one worshipper dead, three wounded

A gunman walked into a San Diego-area synagogue crowded with Sabbath worshippers on Saturday and opened fire with an assault-style rifle, killing one woman inside and wounding three others in a hate crime carried out on the last day of Passover, authorities said.
CULTURE / Film / Heisei Icons,Heisei Icons
Apr 19, 2019

Hayao Miyazaki: Universally acclaimed weaver of unforgettable anime worlds

Animators and live-action filmmakers around the world acknowledge his influence. His talents have even been described by fans as “godlike.”

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.