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CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 23, 2013

Drama celebrates real-life hospital saving abandoned babies; an Olympic thriller; CM of the week: au

It's been six years since a hospital in Kumamoto Prefecture installed its "baby hatch," a compartment where women could anonymously abandon babies with no questions asked. So far 92 infants have been placed in the compartment, which continues to be controversial.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 11, 2013

Ethanol from cellulose falls short of expectations

In Emmetsburg, Iowa, America's largest maker of ethanol for motor fuel is putting the final touches on a manufacturing plant that will rely not on corn, but on the stalks and cobs left behind.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 9, 2013

Robot surgery gripes double

The number of adverse incident reports involving Intuitive Surgical Inc.'s robots has more than doubled this year, according to U.S. regulators, who just released a physician survey showing no consistent training exists for the machines, which are also used in Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 9, 2013

Opponents derail Obama’s dream of high-speed trains, and jobs

The gleaming red-and-white trains sit motionless in a cavernous warehouse in Century City, an industrial neighborhood that cranked out 100 million car and truck frames in its heyday. The seats are draped in plastic; an electronic screen on one reads, "Quiet Car. 11:10 a.m. 000 MPH."
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 6, 2013

Thanks to old law, South Korea stuck as the land of Internet Explorer

South Korea is renowned for its digital innovation, with coast-to-coast broadband and a 4G LTE network that reaches into Seoul's subway system. But this tech-savvy country is stuck in a time warp in one way: its slavish dependence on Internet Explorer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 31, 2013

'Kiyosu Kaigi (The Kiyosu Conference)'

Koki Mitani is one of those very Japanese conundrums: Considered a master of comedy and a box-office king at home, he remains little known abroad — despite a career that spans three decades and includes work as a playwright and scriptwriter, as well as his six films to date as director.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2013

Kodansha manga to get same-day global release

Starting Wednesday, major publishing firm Kodansha Ltd. will make new manga installments digitally available in English worldwide on the same day they're released in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 19, 2013

'GTAV' aggro-risks doubt

In the last week I've been drunk in a strip club, got shot at by gangsters and driven a sports car into the ocean — where, regretfully, my partner drowned. But that's nothing compared to a friend of mine who has robbed a convenience store at gunpoint and broken into a military air base — then stolen...
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN WEB WATCH
Oct 15, 2013

Japan's social-networking pioneer turns matchmaker

There was a time when the only social network that mattered in Japan was Mixi, but these days, after years of stagnation, it is hardly heard of in daily conversation — being replaced in popularity by rivals such as Gree, Mobage, Twitter, Facebook and most recently Line.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 11, 2013

Meet the man who plotted America's shutdown

As an appetizer before helping to send the U.S. government into famine mode, Ted Cruz railed against Obamacare on the Senate floor last month in a publicity-seeking speech that lasted more than 21 hours and included a Darth Vader impression and reading Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham" as a bedtime story...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 5, 2013

Masato Sakai as narcissist attorney; politically-minded Norika Fujiwara interviewed on "Family History"; CM of the week: Meiji Yasuda Link Series

Fresh from his success in the insanely popular salaryman drama "Hanzawa Naoki," Masato Sakai reprises a decidedly different character, the despicably ridiculous attorney Komikado in the second run of "Legal High" (Fuji TV, Wed., 10 p.m.).
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Sep 30, 2013

Law may lead to disparities

Half a century ago, the creation of Medicare and Medicaid was a triumph of American egalitarianism. Within a decade, the United States went from a country where 1 in 3 people lacked health insurance to a nation where just 1 in 10 went without coverage.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 25, 2013

Cruz, party tangle over U.S. shutdown

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz escalated his conflict with fellow Republicans Tuesday when he stepped up his attacks on President Barack Obama's signature health care law, complicating House GOP efforts to pass a funding bill that would avert a government shutdown next week.
EDITORIALS
Sep 16, 2013

Kanebo's costly scandal

Only by fixing the flaws in its corporate culture that caused the skin-blotch scandal can Kanebo hope to regain the public's trust.
Japan Times
JAPAN / INTERPRETATION & TRANSLATION
Sep 2, 2013

Focusing on people, not just words

English interpreters in Japan may often be regarded as those who convert English into Japanese or vice versa. However, Mutsumi Katayama, who has worked for more than 20 years as a freelance professional interpreter, focuses more attention on interpersonal communication.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 1, 2013

Nevada brothels shriveling as Net disrupts oldest trade

In a dim parlor furnished with red velvet couches and a stripper pole, Brooke Taylor is having a sale on herself. "I offer a lot more specials and discounts and incentives for people to come in to see me," said Taylor, 32, a brunette prostitute in a short, green dress at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch outside...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 1, 2013

Power spots of famous shrines; dinosaur drama in Fukui; CM of the week: Fuji-Q Highland

TV personalities with psychic powers used to be all the rage and then they suddenly disappeared because of a few scandals. Who could have foreseen that they'd now be making a comeback? One of the new psychic stars is a young woman named Chie, who suddenly lost her memory when she was 14 and during a...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 26, 2013

Top challenger detained as Moscow's race for mayor heats up

Mayoral Candidate A raises questions about Candidate B's campaign literature. The police, who report to the incumbent, Candidate C, respond by raiding the print shop where the literature is produced. Candidate D raises a stink, because he was using the same printing firm.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 25, 2013

The making of 'Kaze Tachinu'; Japanese 'Up Series' continues; CM of the week: Boss

Nippon TV has the sole broadcast rights for the films of Hayao Miyazaki, which means whenever you watch his movies on TV you have to endure commercial breaks.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 23, 2013

Yahoo gets more traffic than Google for first time since '11

There is some good news for Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer: Yahoo has topped Google in Web traffic for the first time since May 2011. Research firm comScore reported Yahoo logged 196.6 million unique visitors in July, compared with its rival's 192.3 million.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 20, 2013

Frugal German election contrasts sharply with U.S.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's calendar this past week looked like this: unpack from an Italian vacation, catch up with advisers and kick off a campaign with a small-town rally for an election that will be held in just five weeks.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 18, 2013

¥100 store recipes; the 33 steps to Freemasonry; CM of the week: Nihon Seimei Hoken

The government continues to chip away at the welfare state, reducing benefits for poor families and forcing them to find new ways of saving what little money they have. Luckily the variety show "Ikinari! Ogon Densetsu" ("Suddenly! The Legend of Money"; TV Asahi, Thurs., 7 p.m.) is always there to help....
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 17, 2013

Seibu Dome gives fans a fun game-viewing experience

Have you been to a Lions game lately at Seibu Dome?
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2013

How Russia's 'science of sex' threatens gays

Whatever is done to help sexual minorities in Russia, it must be done with an understanding that sex in Russia has a very different history than it does in the West.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 10, 2013

Online firearms loophole 'bigger than gun shows'

The marketplace for firearms on the Internet, where buyers are not required to undergo background checks, is so vast that advocates for stricter regulations now consider online sales a greater threat than the gun show loophole.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?