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EDITORIALS
Mar 17, 2017

Step to trim overtime falls short

A new legal cap on overtime will hardly serve as a guarantee to stop the excessively long work hours from causing the deaths and suicides of overworked employees.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 17, 2017

Craft beer collaboration celebrates shared values of three very different businesses

A newspaper and a pub chain walk into a brewery...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 16, 2017

Radwimps were the perfect choice when it came to soundtracking 'Your Name.'

Yokohama Arena feels special on this chilly Tuesday night in early March. It's here that Radwimps — a rock outfit from Kanagawa Prefecture whose members could bike to this very venue when they were teens — are playing the first of two sold-out shows.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 16, 2017

U.S. group Sierra Club seeks probe of EPA's Pruitt over CO2 comments

U.S. environmental group the Sierra Club has asked the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general to investigate whether the agency's head, Scott Pruitt, violated internal policies when he said he did not believe carbon dioxide was a major contributor to climate change, according to a letter...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2017

Tokyo lost and found included ¥3.7 billion in cash last year

In addition to keys and eyeglasses and other commonly lost objects, millions of dollars worth of cash reaches the Tokyo police's lost and found department every year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 15, 2017

The unintentional causes of 'abandonment'

Six years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated the Tohoku region, leaving more than 18,000 people dead or missing, and triggering meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant that has left a deeply embedded mistrust of nuclear power in the Japanese consciousness....
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2017

Vienna again tops list of nicest cities as Baghdad comes in last

Vienna, Austria's grand capital on the Danube river, has topped consulting firm Mercer's list of cities offering the highest quality of life for the eighth year in a row, while Baghdad is again considered the worst place to live.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2017

Huge number of articles on DeNA info websites found to have plagiarism, copyright issues

A three-month probe uncovers problems with around 20,000 articles uploaded on 10 health and lifestyle information websites run by DeNA Co.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2017

Seoul gets the impeachment process right

The removal from office of South Korean President Park Geun-hye is a remarkable outcome for a relatively new democracy.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 12, 2017

Populism versus prosperity

The battle that will define this century will pit long-term thinking against short-term thinking.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 12, 2017

Corruption cases in China jumped one-third in 2016

The number of corruption cases heard by Chinese courts jumped by about one-third last year, as the country's top prosecutor vowed on Sunday there would be no let up in China's campaign against deep-seated graft.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 11, 2017

'Japandemonium Illustrated: The Yokai Encyclopedias of Toriyama Sekien': Excavating Edo's ancient memes with the power of 'yokai'

Beginning with 2008's "Yokai Attack!," translators Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt have been on a quest to bring an aspect of Japanese culture that has lurked in the shadows to the world at large.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Mar 10, 2017

Hidehiko Ishizuka takes his love of sake on tour in streaming TV series

Gourmandizing television personality Hidehiko Ishizuka has a famously large appetite. Apparently, the portly comedian also has a taste for Japanese sake. On a clear February afternoon in the sake-producing region of Fushimi, just south of Kyoto, a camera crew forms a tight circle around Ishizuka as he...
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2017

Japan's border islands to get ¥5 billion boon for tourism, defense

The government has earmarked ¥5 billion in increased economic assistance to 71 islands off the coast of eight prefectures, as concerns over declining populations are compounded by recurring intrusions into sovereign territory by foreign vessels.
Japan Times
BASEBALL
Mar 8, 2017

China aims for incremental improvements on global baseball stage

China manager John McLaren starts each day by having his players remember their team motto: "Get better every day." He'll then pick out a player, who will then belt out a tune of his choice for the room, "they're lacking there a little bit," McLaren said with a grin.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 7, 2017

A gently explosive 'Blossom Blast'

Beware the loan word "feminizumu." If you ask accomplished, educated and gainfully employed Japanese women whether they are feminists, the adverse reaction can be confusing. I first came up against this in a seminar of women art-history students, who unanimously, and vehemently rejected the idea of being...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 7, 2017

'10th Anniversary of the National Art Center, Tokyo: The Year of Czech Culture 2017 — Alfons Mucha'

March 8-June 5
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 7, 2017

Abe's nationalism hurts Japan

Shinzo Abe spends too much time thinking about 1940 rather than making Japan great again in 2040.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 6, 2017

South Korean prosecutor paves way for charges against Park if impeachment upheld

South Korean President Park Geun-hye colluded with a friend to take bribes from Samsung Group aimed at cementing Samsung Chief Jay Y. Lee's control of the conglomerate, the special prosecutor's office said Monday, paving the way for Park to be prosecuted if removed from office.
EDITORIALS
Mar 6, 2017

A heavy hand in Xinjiang

China is quick to argue that the best way to fight terrorism elsewhere in the world is to address root causes; it is not exempt from that same diagnosis.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 5, 2017

Liberal democracy in retreat?

Having already come under siege in many of its outposts around the world, is liberal democracy now at risk of losing its citadel, too?
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 5, 2017

Demands for return of land block German effort to atone for African genocide

Namibia's Herero people are heartened that Germany is keen to atone for the genocide of their ancestors, but they expect something that Berlin says it cannot give.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Mar 4, 2017

Learning to stand up to domestic violence in Japan

Satoru Tanaka tentatively pulls from his briefcase a well-thumbed sheet of plain paper, onto which has been sketched three smiling faces along with a simple but astute message: "Daddy's promise," it begins. "Always smile, and if you feel the urge to fight, take a deep breath."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Mar 4, 2017

Will we ever see no obstacles in our way?

Infrastructure in Japan is up to world standards in most areas, and in terms of public transportation it often surpasses those standards — but there's one field it falls way behind: utility poles and overhead cables that carry electrical power and telecommunications.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 4, 2017

'Comfort women' in South Korea who serviced U.S. forces seek justice

Historical 'comfort women' cases involving Japanese and U.S. forces should be mutually reinforcing and underscore the ongoing need to hold Tokyo, Seoul and Washington accountable in ways that address the traumas and indignities endured.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 3, 2017

Japan's culinary professionals rank high at Asia's 50 Best Restaurants awards

On the evening of Feb. 21, chefs from nine of Japan's top restaurants ascended the stage to receive honors at the fifth Asia's 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony in Bangkok.

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