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Japan Times
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Mar 1, 2014

Fat men frolic, Jews to be treated equally, U.S. ambassador stabbed, new sales tax a headache

Twenty-five fat members of the House of Representatives with two Government delegates and two journalists, each of whom weighs more than 165 pounds (75 kg), sat at a dinner at the Fukuiro, Yanokura, Ryogoku, on Monday evening.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 1, 2014

J. League seeks to widen scope in Asia

As two decades have now elapsed since its inception, the J. League is entering a new era.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2014

Warming or not, this is the best climate for liberals

Bleak judgments about stimulus spending in the U.S. miss the main point of it, which was to funnel a substantial share of the money to unionized, dues-paying, Democratic-voting government employees. In this way, the stimulus succeeded.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Feb 27, 2014

'Walking Dead' explores a world of gore and order

When it comes to crack TV, AMC's massively addictive series "The Walking Dead" reigns supreme. The shorthand description would be "zombie-apocalypse survival thriller," and that's true enough, but it goes deeper too. If you take away law, religion and society — what's left? Can such things as compassion...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 26, 2014

Get into 'Gear' at an immersive Kyoto theater show

Art Complex 1928, a contemporary performing-arts venue in central Kyoto, used to be a regional office of the Mainichi Shimbun national newspaper.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Feb 26, 2014

Reed finding niche in Yokohama

Shooting guard Omar Reed is one of the top newcomers in the bj-league season.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 23, 2014

Plans don't make the grade

Don't count on the education ministry's plan to hire more foreign teachers and students to have much effect on its goal of getting at least 10 Japanese universities to place among the world's top 100.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2014

U.S. media losing credibility

The U.S. media's reduction of the recent diplomatic row between New Delhi and Washington to India wrong, America right, is an indictment of their professional integrity.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2014

Abe adviser says WSJ article on military buildup is false

Etsuro Honda, a key economic adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, denies stressing that one of the main goals of 'Abenomics' is for Japan to build up a more powerful military and stand up to China, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
COMMENTARY
Feb 20, 2014

Legacy of carnage and ruin

This is probably, but not certainly, the year that sees the end to the United States' three-decades-long effort to establish permanent American strategic bases in the Muslim Middle East and in Muslim Asia.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2014

McConaughey, Leto transform for roles in 'Dallas Buyers Club'

Acadamy Award nominee Jared Leto, who plays a transgender person with AIDS in the film "Dallas Buyers Club," says he was recently called a shape-shifter.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2014

Disaster prep to be 2020 focus: Masuzoe

To help ensure that foreign visitors can enjoy the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics without concern, Tokyo Gov. Yoichi Masuzoe says he will focus on making the city safer from disasters, improve access to public transportation and even encourage residents to brush up on their English conversation skills....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 17, 2014

Abe put Japan on back foot in global PR war with China

Japan is losing its global PR war with China because it can't muzzle its nationalist leaders, hide their revisionist agendas or stop them from visiting Yasukuni Shrine.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 16, 2014

Playing the Japanese name game

Once, when telephoning the international PR office of a major electronics manufacturer, I got lucky. Without my even asking, the young woman who picked up the phone volunteered her name, saying 私は青木と申します (Watashi wa Aoki to mōshimasu, My name is Aoki). Actually it sounded more like...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 15, 2014

'The Fed' closing an end of an era

Of the many Western-style hotels that mushroomed across Bangkok in the 1960s, principally to accommodate large numbers of U.S. servicemen on leave from the Vietnam War (which was raging about 1,000 km to the east), the Federal Hotel was considered the granddaddy of them all.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2014

A butler who brought color to the White House

"The Butler" director Lee Daniels didn't start out as a filmmaker but as an owner of a nursing agency in Los Angeles. "So I know how to gather funds, get the people, and treat filmmaking like a business," he tells The Japan Times. "At the same time, once the filming starts, I can't be just a businessman...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2014

'Iya Monogatari: Oku no Hito (The Tale of Iya)'

Cycling in the mountains near Tokyo, I often have two thoughts: First, I feel sorry for big-city denizens missing all the natural beauty so near. Second, I wonder how the locals can wrest a living from their tiny fields and orchards, perched precariously on the slopes.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2014

President Obama’s magic words and numbers

President Barack Obama's critics should reconsider their assumption that he is cynical. It is his belief in magic words and numbers that is scary.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 8, 2014

Drawing on the past reveals the Showa Era

The rest of the world knew him as Hirohito, but to his subjects he was always just "the Emperor." Known posthumously as Showa, Japan's 124th monarch reigned for over 60 years, during which he would be witness to both the best and worst of times.
Reader Mail
Feb 8, 2014

Saddest word in the language

For a while my least favorite Japanese word was gareki (debris), because for ages after the 3/11 tsunami, the talk was about cleaning up all the irradiated debris. The instant mental associations were pretty sad. Then, for a short time, my least favorite word was omotenashi (a term that expresses the...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2014

Sochi's toilet saga is a lesson in truthfulness

If the tandem-toilet incident is any indication, the organizers of the Sochi Olympics could end up flushing way any ambitions of giving an enormous boost to Russia's global image.
EDITORIALS
Feb 7, 2014

NHK's credibility at stake

Two of the more recent appointees to the NHK Board of Governors show their stripes so to speak by denying that the 1937 Nanjing Massacre happened, on one hand, and writing an essay in praise of the Emperor as a 'living god' on the other. Might employees for Japan's national broadcaster start to feel pressure to develop programs from a particular perspective?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2014

Could 'Snowpiercer' be Bong's ticket out of Korea?

There's a scene in the dystopian, post-apocalyptic sci-fi fable "Snowpiercer" that turns the tables on how Western audiences perceive non-English-speaking Asian characters in what is — for all intents and purposes — a Hollywood production.
Reader Mail
Feb 5, 2014

Japan's democratic credentials

Regarding Hugh Cortazzi's Jan. 25 article, "Playing with fire is dangerous": With all due respect, Cortazzi seems misinformed about the history of Japan. In the interests of a balanced view, let me point out one crucial misunderstanding that prevails in English-speaking media: that after World War II...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Feb 5, 2014

Watanabe opts to go to George Washington U.

Japanese basketball phenom Yuta Watanabe will commit to George Washington University next season, he revealed on his Twitter account on Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 4, 2014

Glasgow's Chvrches score a hit with debvt albvm

Scratch beneath the surface just a little and Chvrches' electro-pop becomes something of real substance. The Glasgow trio's songs, which recall that genre's golden era in the 1980s reimagined through meticulously modern production, initially appear throwaway in the truest sense but later reveal themselves...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2014

Parents of mixed kids look abroad for high schools

College preparation for bicultural young adults may include seeking out international as well as domestic opportunities. Some youngsters, however, are heading abroad much sooner — for high school or junior high school.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2014

Momii's rise tests NHK's reputation

For millions of Japanese, and even Japan-watchers abroad, NHK is a trusted source of information: gray in tone perhaps, but neither black nor white on the issues. This assumption has been put to the test by new NHK Chairman Katsuto Momii, whose recent remarks have led many to wonder whether the public...
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Feb 1, 2014

Steamer surveys new island; Forces land on Hainan Island; Kyu Sakamoto profiled; Leftists suspected in shrine bombing

The N.Y.K. Bonin liner Chefoo, which returned to Yokohama yesterday, gave an interesting account of her exploration of the newly formed island near Minami Iwojima.

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