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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2017

Putin's Russia: the enigma continues

In the end Vladimir Putin will be gone and Russia will return to a different kind of greatness.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 4, 2017

McDonald's opens shop near Vatican, upsetting purists, cardinal, but not nuns

McDonald's has opened a franchise just steps away from the gleaming white marble dome of St. Peter's Basilica, giving indigestion to some cardinals and local business owners.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jan 3, 2017

Karl up to old tricks with new book

Many who know George Karl will tell you there's a good side, welcoming, generous, warm and funny, though George works very hard to hide it.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 3, 2017

How ties to an 'equestrian princess' landed Samsung at the center of the Park scandal in South Korea

Samsung Electronics' sponsorship of the equestrian daughter of a longtime friend of President Park Geun-hye has helped to land South Korea's top company in the center of the country's influence-peddling scandal.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 2, 2017

Democrats: Stop the fear and loathing of 2017

Democrats need to stop wallowing in misery and start planning on how to take America back.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / 2017 NEW YEAR SPECIAL
Jan 1, 2017

Big changes likely in '17

A year of surprises has come to a close, but its unresolved questions will generate many more quakes in 2017. Where are the fault lines, what about President-elect Donald Trump, and what does all this mean for Japan?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 31, 2016

Japan and the world enter a long night of 'post-truth'

In an essay titled "The Future of Mankind," British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) laid out three possibilities: "The end of human life," "a reversion to barbarism" or "unification of the world under a single government." He saw the third as the only alternative to either of the first two....
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 31, 2016

Miyagi school opening aids 3/11 recovery

The official opening of Miyanomori Elementary School on Jan. 10 represents an important stage in restoring some normalcy to the city.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Dec 31, 2016

'The Teahouse of the August Moon': a subversive comedy in postwar Okinawa

Published in 1951 and later adapted for a movie and Broadway play, Vern Sneider's "The Teahouse of the August Moon" is a satirical take on the U.S. Occupation of Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 31, 2016

'Tokyo Poetry Journal': an experimental space for Japan's English-language poets

The third issue of the "Tokyo Poetry Journal" takes music as its central theme and, rather in the manner of the Nobel Committee for Literature, has chosen to blur the lines between poetry and songwriting. The first half of the new volume features song lyrics accompanied by QR codes that, once scanned,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Dec 31, 2016

Hot-spring developer to open a facility that caters to all — even visitors with tattoos

Freelance editor Lauren Hardie applied to join a fitness center when visiting Tokyo last summer but, before her membership was accepted, she was asked to sign a special contract that began with the following condition: "I am not a gangster."
Japan Times
CULTURE
Dec 30, 2016

The top entertainment stories of 2016

The Japan Times newsroom selected these culture stories as the most important of 2016.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 29, 2016

Five dead in attack in China's Xinjiang

Attackers drove a car into a government building in China's unruly far western region of Xinjiang on Wednesday and set off an explosive device, killing one person, the regional government said. All four of the attackers were shot dead.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 27, 2016

Following unruly passenger incident, Korean Air to get tough and ease stun gun rules

Korean Air Lines said it will allow crew members to "readily use stun guns" to manage violent passengers and will hire more male flight attendants after coming in for criticism from U.S. singer Richard Marx over its handling of a recent incident of in-flight violence.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 24, 2016

Japan's first Christmas

In a letter home to Portuguese brethren, Jesuit missionary Pedro de Alcacova writes of singing a Mass to Japanese believers in 1552: "Our voices weren't good," he recalls, "still the Christian believers rejoiced."
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / B. League / HOOP SCOOP
Dec 24, 2016

Toyama coach Nash persevering through challenges

The Toyama Grouses have experienced both ends of the emotional spectrum over the past seven-plus months.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 23, 2016

Ad giant Dentsu declared Most Evil Corporation of the Year

Advertising giant Dentsu Inc. has won the Most Evil Corporation of the Year Award in recognition of its culture of overwork and harassment, journalists and rights activists announce.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / EXPLAINER
Dec 23, 2016

Overwork deaths put spotlight on Japan's 'black companies'

The Japanese have no clear term to describe the concept of work-life balance, but they do have one to describe the notion of dying for your company: karoshi.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NEIGHBORHOOD HOP SPORTS
Dec 23, 2016

Sugar, spice and all things nice in Roppongi's craft beer bars

Depending on who you ask, Roppongi is either Tokyo's most sophisticated neighborhood or its seediest. Yet everyone can agree it's one of the city's most international. Each night, expats, emigres and immigrants wend their way through a landscape of restaurants, hostess bars, art galleries and nightclubs....
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Dec 21, 2016

Tokyo's international community needs a voice — and places to call its own

Let's pull together as a community and return to our once-confident roots.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 20, 2016

Raku: A traditional contemporary art form

At the opening of "The Cosmos in a Tea Bowl: Transmitting a Secret Art Across Generations of the Raku Family" at The National Museum of Modern Art, in Kyoto, the current head of the Raku family, Kichizaemon XV (b. 1949), explained that the event would be "an unprecedented and once-in-a-lifetime exhibition...

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