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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 23, 2014

Satellite images show North Korea nuke test unlikely

North Korea is unlikely to be ready to stage a nuclear test timed to coincide with U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Asia, a respected think tank said on Wednesday, based on its assessment of satellite imagery.
BASEBALL / MLB / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Mar 25, 2014

The buzz is gone, but Matsuzaka continues to battle on

Under a cloudless sky the color of his old powder-blue Seibu Lions uniform, Daisuke Matsuzaka and his fellow New York Mets pitchers are being put through their spring training paces here.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 15, 2014

1866 and all that: the untold early history of rugby in Japan

The history of rugby in Japan is arguably longer than that of every major rugby-playing country in the world outside of the British Isles and Australia. Very sorry France, New Zealand and South Africa! Regarding early documented rugby history, Japan wins. Until the recent discovery of an 1864 article...
EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 2014

Regulating bitcoins

Japan will have to cooperate with other countries to prevent the use of bitcoin for illegal purposes. Some people, though, look forward to the convenience of bitcoin.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 20, 2013

Femen to take topless protests to United Kingdom

They started out in Ukraine, established a thriving headquarters in Paris and last year succeeded in ambushing a startled Vladimir Putin during a visit to a German trade fair. Now the controversial activists of Femen, notorious for their topless protests on issues such as prostitution, abortion and the...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 2, 2013

How economically effective are the Olympics?

The so-called economic boost of the Olympics is mostly speculative.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Jul 22, 2013

Bizarre merchandising, tabletop Nintendo and new releases for Wii U

Gangsters. Hostesses. And lots and lots of street fighting. No, this isn't a night in Shinjuku's Kabukicho red-light district. It's an evening with 'Yakuza,' Sega's crime opus on the Wii U.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Apr 24, 2013

Edoya Nekohachi entertains with animal voices

Animal mimicry artist Edoya Nekohachi, 63, is a third-generation Japanese performer whose precise renditions of hundreds of bird species' songs, as well as frog croaks, dog barks and dolphin whistles have been amusing audiences of all ages for more than 40 years.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 13, 2013

Golf and Japanese mania for order and rules

If you haven't noticed, the most popular sports in sports-zany Japan are imports. Homegrown offerings — sumo, judo, karate and so on — rank more like your mom's oatmeal cookies.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 31, 2013

The 'eternal modern' gardens of Matsuo-taisha

When new buildings were constructed in 1971 at Matsuo-taisha in Kyoto, one of Japan's oldest shrines, the largely self-taught landscape master Mirei Shigemori was commissioned to create a series of gardens on the site.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2013

Kim's second test is Xi's first

North Korea's new supreme leader Kim Jong Un conducted two missile tests last year. The first, in April, failed. The second, in December, was by all accounts a huge success. But it was not just a test of North Korea's ability to put an object into space. Kim's second test was also the first test of the...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 19, 2013

Impossible forests where tides ebb and flow

A ripple flows gently inland across an expanse of dark-gray mud. It washes in, then drains back, dampening the surface; it briefly fills, then empties from, tiny holes made by innumerable small crabs. The ebb is over, and the flow tide has begun.
EDITORIALS
Sep 12, 2012

Turkey's troubles

Like Japan, Turkey sees itself as a bridge between two worlds — in this case, between Europe and the Middle East. Not only does geography enable Turkish leadership, but its successful combination of Islam and democracy is seen as model for the Middle East as well.
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2012

Latest DPJ defectors to join Nagoya force

Two more Diet members bolted Friday from the Democratic Party of Japan and announced they were joining Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura's local Genzei Nippon (Tax Reduction Japan) group with the aim of taking it national and vying for seats in the next Lower House election.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2012

Ozawa vows new party will dethrone Noda's DPJ

Ichiro Ozawa vowed Wednesday to devote himself to expanding the support network for his new party to knock the ruling Democratic Party of Japan off its throne in the next Lower House general election.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 20, 2012

The wonder of feathers

A soft flake of seeming sky falls, wafts and floats earthward catching the light. Lightly, and soft as gossamer, it lands to add a splash of color to the greenery of spring. It may be no more than a tiny feather that's fallen from a passing bird, but it carries with it a message of mystery and miracle...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Apr 20, 2012

Government shows awareness of something called 'child support'

New divorce notification forms finally acknowledge that some couples have kids.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Apr 16, 2012

U.S. digs in to hold Futenma

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has asserted that a Japan-U.S. agreement struck in February will help resolve the issue of relocating U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which now sits in the middle of densely populated Ginowan City in the central part of Okinawa Island.
LIFE / Longform
Feb 26, 2012

Danger zones: What are Japan's coastal communities doing to avert a disaster like March 11?

Teruo Saito has lived most of his 79 years within a couple of hundred meters of the Pacific, in an area that has been overwhelmed by massive tsunamis twice in the last 600 years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 18, 2011

Education for all from '60s Tokyo tale

J-BOYS: Kazuo's World, Tokyo, 1965, by Shogo Oketani. Stone Bridge Press, 2011, 211 pp., $9.95 (paperback) Like an affliction that allows you to function in an apparently normal manner but seditiously disables the sufferer, the dark legacy of war, never far from the minds of the adults in the story,...
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 3, 2011

Chelsea's season in jeopardy

Roman Abramovich is unlikely to have been particularly bothered by Chelsea's exit from the Carling Cup at the hands of Liverpool. The competition remains fourth on the list of Stamford Bridge priorities, but elimination next week from the Champions League, the Russian's Holy Grail, could see the twitchiest...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 12, 2011

Warp-drive quest for the Big Bang's 'lost' material

What do these three things have in common: a mysterious, donut-shaped belt of plasma wrapped around the Earth; the warp engines on the starship USS Enterprise; and a laboratory at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) outside Geneva, Switzerland?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 9, 2011

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy: ahead of his time

The profound influence of the Bauhaus School, which included training in crafts and fine arts, is inestimable. Over a 14-year period, its innovative methods, utilitarian philosophy and utopian social vision transformed art, architecture and design for the modern age.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 25, 2010

Happily lost in the 'empire of signs'

Signs and symbols play an ever-growing role in our increasingly complex society. In this respect, Japan — the "empire of signs," as French semiologist Roland Barthes called it back in 1970 — strikes and confounds the foreign visitor with a vast array of alphabets, shapes and designs.
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 21, 2010

Relegation battle heats up as title race cools down

An unexpected defeat for Nagoya Grampus has reined in the J. League's one-horse title race — for now at least — but the competition at the other end of the table is just getting started.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Sep 3, 2010

Hill, Apache set to open training camp in Texas

Before a single shot is taken in the season's first game, every team knows the following:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 20, 2010

'Colorful'

One of the iron rules for Hollywood scriptwriters is that the audience must root for the hero. Character flaws and bad behavior are permitted, but, in the final analysis, the hero should not be a jerk.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 13, 2010

Synthetic life zaps 'the soul'

I remember a couple of years ago the Vatican made a curious announcement about the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Clearly,the Roman Catholic Church was getting worried that any discovery of evidence of life on other planets would undermine its authority on Earth. It wanted to head off the impact...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 1, 2010

Gunma city does battle with beards

I would like to draw readers' attention to the outstanding work of the municipal government of Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture. After receiving complaints that citizens find bearded men unpleasant, Isesaki — just as all levels of Japanese government often do — took decisive action to address an important...
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2010

Democratic sidebar to U.K. polls

Britain is on the brink of its biggest political upheaval in a century. The general election that takes place this week has become an unofficial referendum on the electoral system itself. Britain's first-past-the-post (FPTP) system discriminates against small parties, wastes votes and encourages politicians...

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.