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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2018

As two rule breakers gave the Japanese film world hope in 2018, elsewhere eyes turned to China

The Japanese movie business is something like a restaurant where new cooks and waiters arrive as old ones retire or die, but the menu remains much the same, decade after decade.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 18, 2018

Music in 2018: Saying goodbye to Heisei with 'U.S.A.'

The final full year of the Heisei Era was one of the most discombobulating for Japanese music this decade. Nostalgia for the soon-to-end era clashed with efforts to figure out where J-pop goes moving forward. Tunes covered in cobwebs suddenly became the soundtrack for viral dances on trendy video apps....
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / B. League / HOOP SCOOP
Dec 18, 2018

Ehime's Andrew Fitzgerald looks back on record-setting scoring performance

Andrew Fitzgerald scored the Ehime Orange Vikings' first two points on an outside jumper on Sunday, and never stopped scoring.
Japan Times
Qatar report 2018
Dec 18, 2018

International expansion: a cornerstone of QNB Group’s 2020 strategy

Abdulla Mubarak Al Khalifa, acting chief executive officer of Qatar National Bank (QNB) Group shares insights and strategies with Synergy Media Specialists.
Japan Times
Qatar report 2018
Dec 18, 2018

Delivering executional excellence across the entire life cycle

Qatar’s oil and gas, petrochemical, industrial and infrastructure sectors continue to show healthy signs of growth. 
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2018

Hagoita paddles featuring big names from the Heisei Era on display in Tokyo

Traditional doll-maker Kyugetsu Co. opened a special exhibition in Tokyo on Monday featuring 30 kawari hagoita wooden paddles depicting standouts of the Heisei Era.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2018

Urban-rural chasm defines new Western political divide

Left-right populism is fueling the Western political divide.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 17, 2018

Lion Air founder and Boeing heading into a $22 billion feud

The crash of a Boeing Co. plane that killed 189 people in Indonesia is spiraling into a $22 billion feud between the aircraft maker and one of Asia's most influential aviation bosses.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Dec 15, 2018

Gohei Nishikawa: Music as a salve for the challenges of life

Nothing, not even dystonia, could make Gohei Nishikawa turn his back on the piano.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 14, 2018

India's central bank coup a sign of Modi's authoritarian ways as 'Indira Gandhi 2.0'

When Reserve Bank of India Gov. Urjit Patel abruptly resigned this week, it stunned many people in government and business circles.
Japan Times
UAE report 2018
Dec 14, 2018

Year of Zayed: Continuing Sheikh Zayed’s legacy of collaboration

This year marks the 100th anniversary since the birth of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the revered former ruler of the United Arab Emirates.
Japan Times
UAE report 2018
Dec 14, 2018

‘Together We Shine’

2018 marks 100 years since the birth of the founding father of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. This year also sees Japanese trading company ITOCHU celebrating 160 years. Today, ITOCHU has become a trusted partner in the United Arab Emirates.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Dec 13, 2018

Mitsuki Kimura and her film award without the film

Year-end awards season is in full swing, which means a lot of looking back on the past 12 months. Part of the fun of best-of lists and 2018-in-a-minute thinkpieces is arguing about placement and positioning: Did X really deserve to get so much love? Was Y not actually bloated and overrated?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 12, 2018

Will population decline create a richer society?

Inviting more highly talented and skilled workers from overseas will be crucial to raising Japan's productivity in the future.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 12, 2018

Eight decades on, no end in sight to Nanjing toll row

A mutually acceptable accounting of the Nanjing controversy is a matter perhaps best left to wiser generations to resolve.
EDITORIALS
Dec 11, 2018

A public-private investment fund grinds to a halt

The future of the Japan Investment Corp. and other public-private funds will remain in doubt until differences over how such entities are run are resolved.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 11, 2018

Google's China problem is America's China problem

How Beijing pressures and deploys Chinese citizens abroad to expand its power and influence is an issue of grave concern.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 11, 2018

2018 was the year in Japan that saw the stage sing, while contemporary drama barely made a squeak

Musicals have flourished in 2018, with many young stars also helping to sell out straight plays in which they appeared. However, the contemporary drama scene in Japan has been unusually quiet this year in terms of new works and writers.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / FOCUS
Dec 11, 2018

Climate change creates mutant fugu, a deadly Japanese delicacy

The road, hemmed in on one side by empty warehouses and the other by a concrete seawall, ends abruptly in a desolate parking lot. Men step out of their cars and into the darkness, then slip behind the sliding doors of a warehouse. Inside, they huddle under floodlights and wait. A clock on the wall ticks...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2018

New Zealand grapples with China's influence and intimidation

In April 2010, there was a scandal over the Confucius Institute at Osaka Sangyo University in Osaka. During meetings discussing a proposed relocation of the institute between campuses, the director of the University Affairs Board denounced it as a "cultural spy agency" for China and "a 'soft landing'...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Dec 10, 2018

The third-wave coffee boom has resulted in a new wave of java-related Japanese vocabulary

Coffee talk is more than just cream and sugar when it comes to cafes that specialize in third-wave coffee.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Dec 8, 2018

Machiko Yamashita: A Japanese breadwinner in Berlin

Former art historian and butoh dancer Machiko Yamashita brings Japanese bread buns to Berliners.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS ABOUT JAPAN
Dec 8, 2018

Tadao Tsuge's 'Slum Wolf': A gritty, discomfiting yet necessary manga

Tadao Tsuge's 'Slum Wolf,' a collection of nine of the artist's short stories translated into English, deals with difficult topics in a gritty, yet dynamic, art style.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / A Weekend In
Dec 8, 2018

A weekend in Saitama: Coffee, temples and a spot of river rafting

Kick off a weekend in Saitama Prefecture in Kumagaya, an excellent starting point for a trip that will take you all across the region — from river rafting in the forested mountains of Chichibu to the historical alleys of Kawagoe.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Dec 7, 2018

George Foreman became business giant after boxing career

Third in a three-part series
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Dec 6, 2018

Bridges built by the power of K-pop and J-pop

This year hasn't been a particularly warm one for the relationship between Japan and South Korea. Ongoing tension stemming from Japan's colonization of its neighbor up to the end of World War II — and efforts to complicate what happened during this period — have bubbled up once again, affecting everything...

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