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Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 27, 2016

Shiraishi isn't afraid to ask the tough questions about life

August honors the dead in Japan, so it's fitting that Kazufumi Shiraishi's raw discourse on mortality makes its English debut this month. Originally published in 2008, "Me Against the World" breaks from Shiraishi's fictional works, offering the author's undiluted musings on life. As told The Japan Times...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 22, 2016

In the electronics doldrums

The main culprit of Japan's economic doldrums during the past quarter century is the stagnation of its electronic equipment manufacturers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 20, 2016

From My Grandmother's Bedside: Sketches of Postwar Tokyo

Academic Norma Field spent the summer of 1995 in Tokyo, observing the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. This is the book that came out of that experience, a compilation of observations, snatched dialogues, musings, anecdotes, fragments and ruminations. The author had already published the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 12, 2016

California roll creator Hidekazu Tojo's continuing quest to broaden palates overseas

A namigai (geoduck pronounced gooey-duck) is not a pretty creature. Native to North America's west coast, it looks like a beige slug that has outgrown a clam shell. Hidekazu Tojo is about to convince an audience to eat it.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 7, 2016

Exquisite dolphin fossils provide insight into evolution of ultrasonic hearing, echolocation

Fossils unearthed in a South Carolina drainage ditch are providing insight into the development of ultrasonic hearing in prehistoric whales, a trait closely linked to their uncanny ability to hunt and navigate using sound waves and echoes.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Aug 3, 2016

Where's the money?

Hillary Clinton's long march to the U.S. presidency continues unabated, and many voters are so scared of the idea of President Donald Trump, they'd vote for Clinton even if she sprouted fangs and hissed like a cobra. But anyone who's all comfy with the idea that voting for Clinton as the "lesser of two...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 22, 2016

Hillary Clinton, the candidate we know so well — and don't

When she was about 14, Hillary Clinton says, she wrote to NASA volunteering for astronaut training.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2016

Bushido: The awakening of Japan's modern identity

Opinions are divided when it comes to Japan's current Constitution, issued during the U.S. Occupation of 1945 -52: Is it an American imposition that unfairly refuses to recognize the nation as a "normal country" or a precious war-renouncing document that reflects Japan's unique status as the only country...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2016

New sanctions won't hurt Kim

The U.S. decision to impose personal sanctions on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looks like an act of desperation and may make things worse.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 2, 2016

'A Quiet Place': One of Japan's great crime writers turns pale

Celebrated crime writer Seicho Matsumoto penned hundreds of works in his lifetime but so far only a handful have made it into English, which means the publication of a new novel should be cause for celebration.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 25, 2016

Gary Snyder: Asia's heavy toll on nature

Enter the mind of American poet and scholar Gary Snyder and watch as time pulls back, perspectives shift and an epoch passes in a single blink. His newest book of prose, "The Great Clod," is a series of essays on Asia's ecological history, combining culture and politics in a way that is, unsurprisingly,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2016

Trump's economic policies a recipe for disaster

Some politically neutral economists have looked at Donald Trump's economic policies. What they found should scare the daylights out of you.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2016

How Trump gets away with no actual policies

Who needs detailed policies when name-calling works just fine? For Donald Trump, this has worked so far.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 16, 2016

Few 'bright spots' may offer clues to protecting threatened coral reefs

Some coral reefs are thriving and scientists say they may guide efforts to curb threats such as overfishing and climate change, which are blamed for widespread global declines.
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2016

Android version of literary giant Natsume Soseki to return to alma mater to lecture

An android version of the noted scribe is slated to visit Nishogakusha University next year and deliver lectures.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 7, 2016

How a bizarre 'bout of the century' between Muhammad Ali and Antonio Inoki led to a firm friendship

Of all the episodes in the iconic boxing career of Muhammad Ali, who died Friday at age 74, perhaps the most curious came in a Japanese ring.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 4, 2016

The struggles of a local sumo hero

An oft-repeated question these days, and one not necessarily confined to sports media, is whether 29-year-old wrestler Kisenosato will make it to sumo's highest rank. Or is he destined to remain a perennial bridesmaid?
CULTURE / Books
Jun 4, 2016

Black Illumination: Haruo Sato's lush, gloomy landscapes

Most of us, when we feel sad, assume there is a cause for our sadness. Often there is, and the feeling can then be addressed, diagnosed, resolved. But what about sadness without a cause? This is the terrain of melancholy and, while melancholy has a rich and varied history in the West, it takes on unique...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 3, 2016

Einstein may have been off as astronomers say universe expanding faster than forecast

The universe is expanding faster than previously believed, a surprising discovery that could test part of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, a pillar of cosmology that has withstood challenges for a century.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 1, 2016

Why was Nagasaki nuked?

Hiroshima and Nagasaki will remain a burden on American conscience — Hiroshima because it was the world's first atomic bombing, setting a precedent, and Nagasaki because it was a blatantly wanton act.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 1, 2016

There’s a real story behind the ‘Fake’ documentary

Everybody loves a good scandal, and they don't come much riper than the tale of Mamoru Samuragochi. The public unmasking of "Japan's Beethoven" — a celebrated "deaf" composer who turned out to be neither completely deaf nor the main author of his work — was one of the biggest domestic news stories...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / OLYMPIC NOTEBOOK
May 28, 2016

Experts decry bringing pro boxers to Rio

Whether or not the International Boxing Association (AIBA) allows professional boxers to compete at the Olympics for the first time at the upcoming Rio de Janeiro Games, the idea has sparked widespread criticism.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 23, 2016

What's mine is yours: build bridges by sharing cultures

Saying Japanese culture can only be experienced by the Japanese inhibits cross-cultural exchanges and ignores the fact that Japan has borrowed liberally from other cultures.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
May 14, 2016

Viz's 30 years pack a punch in the U.S.

This summer, Viz Media, LLC, North America's first-ever distributor of Japanese popular culture, turns 30. Founded in 1986 by the intrepid Seiji Horibuchi, who has since moved on to other projects, the company is now housed in the so-called Twitter building in downtown San Francisco and boasts the largest...
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2016

Andrew Jackson's reckoning with paper money

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew's decision to replace Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 bill reminds us of a delicious historic irony: He was an ardent critic of paper money.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2016

A chance for engagement with North Korea?

Since nothing else yet has worked, Washington and its allies should greet North Korea's first party congress in 36 years by expressing a willingness to talk to Pyongyang.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 30, 2016

'Tailless comet' found to be a pristine asteroid, offering clues about origins of the solar system

Astronomers have found that a first-of-its-kind "tailless comet" may offer clues into long-standing questions about the solar system's formation and evolution, according to research published Friday in the journal Science Advances.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 24, 2016

How the World Health Organization's cancer agency confuses consumers

Thanks to scientists working under the auspices of the World Health Organization, you can be fairly sure your toothbrush won't give you cancer. Over four decades, a WHO research agency has assessed 989 substances and activities, ranging from arsenic to hair dressing. It found only one that was "probably...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 16, 2016

Donald Richie: The legacy of an entrenched view

The late Donald Richie lived at apartment number 804 in a block directly facing Shinobazu Pond in Tokyo's Ueno Park. The writer would lead visitors through his home's dimly lit entrance area — crammed with bookshelves — and his minuscule living room to the balcony, beneath which a vast lotus pond...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 9, 2016

The unbelievable true story of a Japanese family that went to war with itself

During the endgame of World War II, Harry Fukuhara, a member of a Japanese-American unit of the U.S. military, was tasked with teaching new recruits about the enemy. The servicemen training to invade Kyushu asked how to distinguish the Japanese from Chinese.

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.