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COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2017

The media must embrace a new mission

Trump's much-derided, frequently written off and ultimately successful candidacy has exposed the intellectual inadequacies and political perils of mono-journalism.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 19, 2017

China's growth obsession leaves toxic legacy

China's addiction to stop-go economic policies is leaving a legacy of environmental destruction.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jan 18, 2017

Re-entry to U.S. can be tough for a Tokyo Man drunk on white privilege

There is a price this former Tokyoite pays for being home. Because in America, being white can be less than a privilege — it is part of a complicated history.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jan 17, 2017

Rose vilified for absence while LeBron given a pass

Derrick Rose last week missed one game, distraught and leaving suddenly without telling anyone after Knicks practice to attend to a family emergency back in Chicago. He returned the next day to team practice and to play the next game, was fined $200,000 and made public apologies to his teammates, the...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2017

Three rules of resistance against the new regime

It's time for Americans who oppose the Trump administration to get serious.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / DAVOS SPECIAL 2017
Jan 17, 2017

Shaping the future via collaborative efforts

Global events in 2016 have reminded decision-makers that the more complex a system, the greater a community's concern about its future. The weakening of multiple systems has eroded confidence at the national, regional and global levels. And, in the absence of innovative and credible steps toward their...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / DAVOS SPECIAL 2017
Jan 17, 2017

A future of promise and pitfalls as AI technology advances

On a Sunday afternoon in 2035, a man in Tokyo is consulting a robot as to what he should eat for dinner.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 16, 2017

Open society needs defending

Open societies are in crisis, and various forms of closed societies — from fascist dictatorships to mafia states — are on the rise.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / B. League
Jan 15, 2017

First-ever B. League All-Star Game delivers high-octane thrills

Entertainment was the name of the game on Sunday evening.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jan 15, 2017

Turning YouTube into yen: Can vloggers become the new foreign correspondents?

In 2015, Sharla of the YouTube channel Sharla In Japan found herself juggling two careers. Since 2011, the Canadian-born creator had been making videos about her life here to a quickly growing audience. But actually making them was tough, as she also had a day job.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 14, 2017

The little black screen we just can't take our eyes off

A great weight sits perched on us. It's called a head. It houses our brain and presents our face to the world. It comprises roughly 10 percent of our body weight. Heavy enough at the best of times, it grows heavier as it inclines forward. Held high, it's a 5.5-kilogram burden on the neck of a person...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 14, 2017

Recalling the ins and outs of our memory

In the Harry Potter films, Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore shows the young wizard memories that he keeps in glass vessels. The franchise portrays memories as things that possess a physical structure that can be moved around. Although they appear to look like wispy bits of fluff, they are given...
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.
Japan Times
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Jan 14, 2017

Kansai sizes up ways to work with a Trump administration

In 3½ weeks, Kansai's business leaders will gather in Kyoto for their annual summit. Some of the world's most recognizable firms will send their top executives to the two-day retreat. There, they will rub shoulders with local politicians, academics, and "business consultant" types who, like fortune...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jan 12, 2017

Aid agencies alarmed over reports of migrants freezing to death in Balkans

Dozens of migrants are at risk of freezing to death in Europe after heavy snowfall and bitterly cold temperatures hit Greece and the Balkans, aid agencies said on Wednesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 11, 2017

Views from Nagoya: What are your resolutions and/or hopes for 2017?

Stephen Carr asked people in Sakae, the entertainment district of Nagoya, what their resolutions and/or hopes were for 2017.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 9, 2017

Japan's zero growth nightmare

It's the rare economic tale that involves suicides, robots and arms dealers. Welcome to Japan, where science fiction may begin to trump economic fact in ways the global audience has yet to realize.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jan 8, 2017

Japan's human rights issues fared better in 2016

Welcome back to JBC's annual countdown of the top issues as they affected Non-Japanese (NJ) residents of Japan. We had some brighter spots this year than in previous years, because Japan's government has been so embarrassed by hate speech toward Japan's minorities that they did something about it. Read...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 6, 2017

Chatty and funny, elite North Korean defector becomes media star in South

South Korea's newest celebrity took an unusual route to the nation's TV screens — years spent working his way up through the ranks of North Korea's diplomatic corps, followed by months secluded in the custody of the rival South's spy agency.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 4, 2017

'Wiener-Dog': Todd Solondz is always painfully funny

Trigger warning: I am about to discuss a Todd Solondz film.
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
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
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 2, 2017

Japanese is affecting the English lexicon in new ways

From 'emoji' to 'KonMari,' the English langauge is getting a pleasant dose of Japanese culture.
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....
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 28, 2016

U.S. posts rules for addressing cyberbugs in medical devices

The U.S. government on Tuesday issued rules for addressing cybervulnerabilities in medical devices, providing manufacturers with guidelines for fixing security bugs in equipment, including pacemakers, insulin pumps and imaging systems.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Dec 27, 2016

Modern Japanese men dogged by stoic salaryman stereotype

During the Showa Era (1926-1989), men were the mainstay of families, working for 40 or so years until retirement to better the lives of their wives and children. They were expected to be tough, stoic and competitive.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 27, 2016

In China, George Michael had his own cultural revolution

It was strangely muted when George Michael, as part of the British pop duo Wham!, took the stage at the Workers Gymnasium in Beijing in April 1985, recalled one of those who attended that now legendary first Western pop act in Communist China.

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