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EDITORIALS
Dec 6, 2014

LDP 'too busy' for transparency

This campaign season differs from others in a disturbing way because of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's refusal to meet with the foreign press.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 3, 2014

Looking Japan's film-industry myths in the eye

Who doesn't love a listicle titled "(X) surprising things you never knew about (Y)"? What surprises me about a lot of commentary on the Japanese film industry — from insiders and outsiders alike — is how it substitutes judgment calls (usually of the "Japanese films are crap" variety) for out-in-plain-sight...
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 27, 2014

Ebola vaccine from Glaxo passes early safety test

An experimental Ebola vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline caused no serious side effects and produced an immune response in all 20 healthy volunteers who received it in an early-stage clinical trial, scientists reported on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 26, 2014

Yokudo: Lingering but confused gaze of indie director

Major film festivals, with their hurry-hurry schedules, are places to polish your sound bites, not launch into nuanced disquisitions. People want your opinion in 25 words or less. When someone asked me what I thought of Kiki Sugino's "Yokudo (Taksu)" after a screening at last month's Busan International...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 15, 2014

Holiday gifts they'll cherish from cover to cover

As the holiday season rolls around, it's time to dash about in a mad panic in search of gifts that say "I've given this one some thought, honest." Or you can just let us do the thinking for you, with gift suggestions from our regular book reviewers — tailor-made for the Japanophile reader.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Oct 26, 2014

Kansai's fears of new law no state secret

With less than two months to go until the new designated state secrets law comes into force, how, exactly, it will work in practice is the subject of extensive debate and concern. Much of the commentary focuses on how the fundamental rights of individuals will be affected.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 23, 2014

Rivalries growing with expansion of teams in Tohoku

Since the start of the 2010-11 season, the league's growth in Tohoku has been significant.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 14, 2014

Japan's Nobel win should spur Abe to action

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been quiet on one reform that truly would encourage the risk-taking culture Japan needs so badly: making sure employees get paid for their inventions.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 25, 2014

China must close suicide 'loophole' for rotten officials: scholar

China must close the "judicial loophole" of suicide for corrupt officials in its ongoing battle against graft, a well-known scholar said in the official China Daily on Wednesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 20, 2014

Glimpses of Lafcadio Hearn's Matsue

The Matsue-bound train I boarded at Okayama Station was pointedly named Yakumo, a reference to its destination's best-known former resident: Greek-Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), whose adopted Japanese name was Yakumo Koizumi.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 20, 2014

China fines drugmaker GSK record $489 million for bribing doctors to use its drugs

Adam Jourdan and Ben Hirschler
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 16, 2014

Worry, mystification in China over Scotland independence vote

As Scotland heads to the polls Thursday to vote on whether to become independent, one country with restive regions of its own is watching the debate unfold with nervousness and some mystification — China.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 6, 2014

Kanazawa City: the architecture of tea

One of the first things you see as you exit Kanazawa Station is a giant brass sculpture of a teapot sunken drunkenly into a mound of grass or, depending on your interpretation, tilting to fill a cup of the refreshing green brew the city is noted for. That a municipal piece of art should be dedicated...
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 4, 2014

New map shows Milky Way lives in Laniakea galaxy complex

The Milky Way galaxy resides on the outskirts of a massive, previously unknown galaxy super-cluster scientists have named Laniakea, from Hawaiian words for "immeasurable heaven."
WORLD
Sep 2, 2014

Pro-government Syrian activist arrested over rare public defiance

Syrian authorities have arrested a pro-government activist who launched a social media campaign calling on officials to provide information about hundreds of missing soldiers, residents and activists said Monday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 25, 2014

The unsung heroes of Fukushima

What really went on among the workers inside the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami should be held up as an epic story with the theme of 'Man Saved in Japan.'
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 21, 2014

Experimental Ebola drugs needed for 'up to 30,000 people'

Up to 30,000 people could have used experimental treatments or vaccines so far in the world's worst outbreak of Ebola currently plaguing West Africa, British scientists said on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 17, 2014

Rising hope for nations with falling birthrates

The lamentations of some economists in the advanced economies would have us believe that a shrinking population is a bad thing. In fact, the benefits of demographic stability, or even a slight decline, outweigh any adverse effects.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2014

Race- and religion-based politics slows Asia's progress

How fitting it would be if, on his next return visit to Asia, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry — on behalf of America's first African-American president — helped to push the region, including China, to move beyond the racial and ethnic stereotypes that are constraining economic growth.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2014

Obama can't afford to wage another Cold War

The U.S. may not be facing a new Cold War, but it will only weaken its position in the world, and especially against Russia, if it fails to heed the lessons of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 12, 2014

China has more than 150 economic fugitives in U.S., daily says

More than 150 people suspected of economic crimes from China remain at large in the U.S., the China Daily said Monday, as officials pledge to step up efforts to hunt down those who take their ill-gotten gains abroad.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 11, 2014

No optical illusion: Obama balances world crises with golf, time off

President Barack Obama gave Americans an update on U.S. military strikes in Iraq on Saturday from a podium on the White House lawn with Marine One, the presidential helicopter, parked in the background.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 2, 2014

A deeper look at Hayao Miyazaki's nature

'The Art of Princess Mononoke' — a deeper look at Hayao Miyazaki's nature
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 30, 2014

Mitani brings new life to a love-suicide

If there's one thing I never expected to see in a bunraku play, it was a disco ball. Similarly, a scene in which the leading lady has her nails done by a bevy of kimono-clad attendants.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Jul 25, 2014

New games to keep you occupied in the summer

These warriors rule
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 16, 2014

Enemy

Very few directors have picked up the gauntlet thrown down by David Lynch's films such as "Lost Highway" and "Mulholland Drive." These are films steeped in mysteries so deep that Lynch himself is positively daring audiences to wrap their heads around them; they are the cinematic equivalent of an M.C....
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 16, 2014

Gaza fighting becomes a lethal reality show for rocket-weary Israelis

Sitting on a leather sofa in flip-flops and shorts, smoking and eating snacks, a group of middle-aged Israeli men look like they are watching a soccer match on TV, but they are perched atop a hill overlooking the Gaza Strip watching a very different kind of contest.

Longform

People in cities across Japan will pop into their local convenience store for any number of products they believe will help them with a night of drinking.
Hangover cures are everywhere in Japan — but do they work?