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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 8, 2015

Mass murder and Sion Sono

A disturbed individual kills, and the media searches for reasons why. Sometimes, the killer obligingly cites a pop culture phenomenon as inspiration. Mark David Chapman, the man who shot John Lennon, saw himself as the living embodiment of Holden Caulfield, the hero of J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 27, 2015

Humans may face a singular concern when it comes to robot employment

The trouble with machines is, they do things better than we do. "Give me a place to stand and I will move the Earth," said the third-century B.C. Greek inventor Archimedes, lever in hand. The Earth has been moving ever since, ever faster.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 10, 2015

New round of China-bashing

What is altering the status quo and 'destabilizing' the South China Sea? Is it China's reclamation activities or is it the U.S. military rebalance?
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2015

War in the South China Sea?

If Beijing keeps pushing its claims in the South China Sea and Washington continues to challenge them, there really could be a China-U.S. war at some point.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
May 23, 2015

Change trays

Dear Alice,
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 16, 2015

'Kantei Santa' makes himself heard over the din of the election vans

Is crime justified in the service of good?
Japan Times
WORLD
May 14, 2015

Russians quit army over Ukraine

Some Russian soldiers are quitting the army because of the conflict in Ukraine, several soldiers and human rights activists have told Reuters. Their accounts call into question the Kremlin's continued assertions that no Russian soldiers have been sent to Ukraine, and that any Russians fighting alongside...
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 29, 2015

Former Asahi Shimbun reporter says threats against him are getting worse

A former Asahi Shimbun reporter who has sustained a spate of personal attacks relating to his coverage of so-called "comfort women" years ago says the threats against him are growing worse.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Apr 28, 2015

At Harvard, Abe sticks to Kono message when pressed on 'comfort women' issue

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tried to dodge the politically explosive issue of wartime 'comfort women' by reaffirming his earlier stance upholding a key 1993 government apology.
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Apr 20, 2015

Whether or not to use ka-dō-ka

Today we will introduce the proper use of Xu304bu3069u3046u304bY and Xu304bY, which mean 'Y whether or not/if X (or not).'
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Apr 19, 2015

Historically, Japan is no stranger to blacks, nor to blackface

I am a black Japanese half. I was bullied because of my skin color in elementary school, so I have a strong complex about my skin color. If Japanese truly adored blacks, it wouldn't bother me. But do Momokuro really adore blacks? I think if you asked them if they wished they had been born black, they...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 11, 2015

Overseas observers spot something strange

Is Japan a strange country?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 5, 2015

Nigeria's rocky road forward

Even if President-elect Muhammadu Buhari cracks down on Nigeria's endemic corruption, the country's stability and prosperity will continue to be threatened by overpopulation, sectarian violence and falling oil prices.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 21, 2015

Sexual identity isn't as simple as it once was

All societies are repressive — some brutally, others benignly, more or less. No society allows us to fully express our true selves. Some societies squash our true selves. Even those that don't will at least keep them in check to some degree. Society could hardly function otherwise.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Mar 11, 2015

Why robots will be granted a license to kill, in Japan and everywhere else

As long as we feel the need to occasionally harm our fellow human beings, most of us will happily let other people — or things — do the dirty work.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 7, 2015

Where will 'proactive pacifism' lead us?

Seventy years after World War II ended, should we be thinking about war or about peace?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 5, 2015

Parasophia to take Kyoto into the now

What goes through your head when you look at contemporary art? Standing in front of, say, Damien Hirst's shark in formaldehyde ("Is this art or taxidermy?"), Tracey Emin's bed ("Anybody could do that"), Jeff Koon's giant balloon-like poodles ("Kitsch," or "preemptive kitsch," as one critic called them)...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 24, 2015

DPJ's shadow leader stays put

Can new leader Katsuya Okada change the Democratic Party of Japan's losing ways?
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 22, 2015

More tips for filing your U.S. taxes from Japan

With the help of a tax specialist, Lifelines tackles a number of queries in response to the special on U.S. taxation a few weeks back.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 21, 2015

An embattled Japan engages a hostile world

It has been an eventful year for Japan since David Pilling's "Bending Adversity" was published to critical acclaim. For many, including its reviewer in The Japan Times, the book was considered one of the year's — if not the decade's — best books about Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Feb 18, 2015

Time to shut down this modern-day minstrel show

If Fuji TV airs the modern-day minstrel show it has planned for next month, it will shine a national spotlight on Japan's extreme ignorance about issues of race and discrimination.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2015

What U.S. 'upward mobility'? Elites replicate themselves

There cannot be any doubt that America's renowed upward social mobility is a thing of the past. If anything, the U.S. now excels in the self-replication of economic elites — as Europe did in the 19th century.
COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jan 26, 2015

Sex slave wrangling misses human picture

When a dispute arises between the South Korea and Japan, such as the 'comfort women' controversy, the South Koreans who most fiercely criticize Japan are 'liberals' while the Japanese who criticize South Korea are 'conservative rightists.'
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2015

Former Asahi reporter files libel suit over 'comfort women' issue

The former Asahi Shimbun reporter threatened by nationalists and revisionists for covering the “comfort women” issue sues a publisher and a Korea scholar over claims he fabricated his stories.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2015

Inside Obama's secret effort to salvage U.S.-Russian ties

The Obama administration has been working behind the scenes for months to forge a new working relationship with Russia, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin's showing little interest in repairing relations or halting his aggression in Ukraine.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2014

Putin isn't worried, but the West should be

A mere two weeks after delivering a weak, stumbling state-of-the-nation address, Russian President Vladimir Putin makes combative comments on Russian history and the economy that indicate he is still living in a 19th century of his own making.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2014

The man who turned his modernist home into an art museum

It's not all roses being the director of an independent art museum, but for Toshio Hara, the human interaction of the art world is still a more attractive prospect than that of being a businessman. In 1979 he turned the family seat — a small cluster of white modernist buildings in a quiet residential...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 5, 2014

Japan's 'zombienomics'

The hard reality is that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's vaunted economic reforms will not work unless he shows more guts, much more imagination and a lot more humility in dealing with a modern economy that cannot be commanded by fiat.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 13, 2014

Atom Egoyan raises demons in 'Devil's Knot'

When three children were murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1993, the case quickly developed into a massive media spectacle.

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.