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Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 23, 2017

What to prepare for when you're expecting one of Murakami's mammoths

Haruki Murakami has put scientists to shame. Harvard geneticists recently announced that they are two years away from bringing the wooly mammoth back from extinction, while Murakami is releasing his latest mammoth tonight: His novel "Kishidancho Goroshi" will be published in two 500-page volumes via...
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 17, 2017

Air pollution is linked to 2.7 million premature births a year

Curbing outdoor air pollution may help prevent 2.7 million premature births a year, a condition that threatens children's lives and increases their risk of long-term physical and neurological problems, scientists said on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2017

Another move in the North Korean chess game

It seems Kim Jong Un is tying up loose ends, eliminating a family heir who might have been used to legitimize a successor regime.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 4, 2017

Does contemporary Japan need religion?

“God, Buddha — where are they?” asks Aera magazine.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jan 21, 2017

'Wrong About Japan': A travelogue from the home of anime, manga and 'otaku'

"Wrong About Japan" was not universally appreciated when it was first published in 2005, but time has proven it to be a small, highly original contribution to books on this country. In it, author Peter Carey, recipient of two Man Booker prizes, traipses through urban Japan in the company of his son Charley,...
Reader Mail
Jan 20, 2017

The beauty of country living

Regarding the story "Country life holds growing appeal for young people" in the Jan. 4 edition, the author has described an extraordinary community. It's an incredible story, especially that of a Tokyo University graduate who bravely took the less-trodden path by giving up an offer of an advertising...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 14, 2017

Mishima and the maze of sexuality in modern Japan

In June 1948, novelist Osamu Dazai committed suicide. The 38-year-old, who had just completed his masterpiece, "No Longer Human," and whose fame was peaking, jumped into Tokyo's Tamagawa Canal with his mistress, Tomie Yamazaki, and drowned.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2017

China's free ride set to end once Trump is president

After relishing the Obama administration's unremitting obsequiousness toward it, Beijing must now brace up and face an assertive new U.S. team that is unlikely to put up with its covert territorial expansion and trade manipulation.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2017

Kissinger's Washington is coming back around

Let's take a moment to savor what looks to be Henry Kissinger's final act. The man is 93 years old. At that age, most people are lucky to have enough energy for "Wheel of Fortune" and a few Facebook posts. Not Kissinger. These days, he's playing the influence game against insiders who hadn't even been...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 24, 2016

Tales from the cracks: 10 of the best books about Japan released in 2016

It's been a difficult year — one that felt like humanity was living on a fracturing ice shelf. That uncertainty came from our exposure to wars and natural disasters, and even our struggles with "truth" itself. The best Japan-related books released in 2016 seemed to channel this feeling of instability...
LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
Dec 19, 2016

Let's discuss the Soseki robot

An android version of literary giant Natsume Soseki has been unveiled in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 17, 2016

Love, obsession and perverted desires in Japan's age of steam

Japan began to open its doors to the West in the 1850s, after centuries of remaining closed. In the following decade, foreigners' "concessions" were established in port cities such as Yokohama and Kobe to cope with the new visitors. The Japanese, with their characteristic desire to extend guests every...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 6, 2016

Ex-referee Vanak helped improve job with courage

John Vanak was a quiet revolutionary.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Nov 12, 2016

'Gardens of Gravel and Sand': The skeletal remains of Japan's ornamental landscapes

There are only a handful of foreign writers on the Japanese garden that can really be taken seriously. Among those who have applied their erudition and insight to the subject are Loraine E. Kuck, Gunter Nitschke, Marc P. Keane and David A. Slawson. Leonard Koren joins this exalted group with "Gardens...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2016

China's sole ally in Asia might get more than it wished for

The implications of China's growing strategic penetration of Pakistan are ominous for the region and for Pakistan's own future.
EDITORIALS
Oct 17, 2016

The times they are a-changin'

Throughout his career, Bob Dylan's songs have struck a chord with the young and young at heart around the world. It is hard to imagine a 'purer' or more deserving form of literature.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 14, 2016

Civil-military chasm deepening in Islamabad

Pakistan's civilian government may be living on borrowed time.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 8, 2016

The 'onsen' retreat that transformed Natsume Soseki

Shuzenji, an onsen (hot-spring) town in the heart of the Izu Peninsula, is a little piece of heaven. Nestled in the densely wooded hills of Shizuoka Prefecture, its collection of baths, guesthouses and shops line up on either side of the rushing Katsura River, with historic temples, shrines and bamboo...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2016

Meet the machines that know what's funny

Algorithms are outperforming human beings in a variety of unexpected contexts.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2016

Why biologists don't put too much stock in race

Race is a scientifically indefensible concept with no biological basis as applied to humans.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2016

Kim is challenging the U.S., not the entire world

If Washington and its allies hope to halt the North Korean nuclear program, they will have to address the actual purpose of the North's activities, and not blame them on some mythical attack on the world.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Oct 3, 2016

BOJ seen adopting American WWII rate-pegging ploy to spark inflation

In deciding to target bond yields, Japan is deploying a monetary strategy to combat deflation used by its former enemy in World War II. The trouble is that America's experience back then suggests the tactics probably will not work on their own.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 1, 2016

Who advises Japan's business leaders?

Take a wild guess: Who's the second most influential management guru in Japan, after — it almost goes without saying — Peter Drucker?
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Sep 17, 2016

Emoji: The evolution of emoticons

The ideograms that were once eyed with skepticism have transformed into a universally accepted part of daily communication.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 17, 2016

Okinawan chronicles: 10 books that show the many faces of Japan's 'island paradise'

Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Sep 17, 2016

The rise of a toxic machine named fascism

Why not fascism?
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 14, 2016

Quest for a moral compass

The Cultural Revolution tore China's social fabric and transformed the society into a dog-eat-dog world, the vestiges of which are still felt today.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 13, 2016

America should exit the Korean imbroglio

A U.S. withdrawal from South Korea would undercut Pyongyang's justification for its massive military spending.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2016

Seaweed farming, a sudden slimy success, needs greener rules, U.N. study finds

Seaweed farming needs tighter regulation to limit damage to the environment after booming into a $6.4 billion business with uses in everything from sushi to toothpaste, a United Nations study said Sunday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 1, 2016

Global warming exposes fossils in Greenland from time Earth was like Mars

The earliest fossil evidence of life on Earth has been found in rocks 3.7 billion years old in Greenland, raising chances of life on Mars aeons ago when both planets were similarly desolate, scientists said on Wednesday.

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.