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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 5, 2015

Why the world's largest record label wants to be a movie studio

Amy Winehouse's 9-year-old album "Back to Black" is outselling newer records from Beyonce, Adele and Pitbull, buoyed by critical praise for the documentary about the singer's sudden rise and fall.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jul 31, 2015

Changing the culture of long working hours key to increasing Japan's female workforce

The plight of Japan's working women has improved dramatically over the past two decades. Maternity leave has become the norm, slots at nurseries have increased by more than 340,000 and the percentage of female executives or women serving as department chiefs at companies has tripled.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 31, 2015

Earth believed protected by magnetic field starting much earlier than previously thought

Earth's magnetic field has been a life preserver, protecting against relentless solar winds, streams of charged particles rushing from the sun, that otherwise could strip away the planet's atmosphere and water.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 30, 2015

Despite long odds, independent media battle on in Putin's Russia

Alexei Venediktov, one of Russia's most prominent journalists, doesn't go out without a bodyguard and doesn't answer mobile phone calls for fear of being tracked.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 29, 2015

Obama: Africa's 'Big Men' should quit when time is up

Judging by the applause at the African Union headquarters, Barack Obama hit a chord when he took aim at the continent's "Big Men," telling them they should quit when their time was up — especially since most have the cash to retire comfortably.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 29, 2015

Struggling with images of the wretched and the Earth

Enough with the phoniness of so-called globalism — for something truly pro-Earth and pro-humanity, look at a photo by Sebastiao Salgado. He has been a towering giant on the terrain of modern photography during his 40-year career, producing astonishing black-and-white images of incomparable originality....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 29, 2015

'Love & Mercy' is a biopic worthy of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys

Real surfers don't listen to The Beach Boys. That's one of the first things I learned while hanging out at the ocean toting a surfboard, and it's also one of the lines from "Love and Mercy," a biopic about The Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson. Along with his brothers, Dennis and Carl, and their cousin...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jul 28, 2015

Boy Scouts of America lifts blanket ban on gay adult leaders and employees

The Boy Scouts of America on Monday lifted its outright ban on openly gay adult leaders and employees, rolling back a policy that has deeply divided the membership of the 105-year-old Texas-based organization.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 27, 2015

Senior British lord quits after paper posts alleged drugs video

A senior British lord quit his post Sunday and will face a police investigation after a tabloid newspaper released a video showing him semi-naked and snorting white powder through a banknote while partying with two women.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 26, 2015

La Sera's Katy Goodman extols the benefits of learning skills outside the music world

Katy Goodman loves math, problem-solving and memorization.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 25, 2015

Growing up to the idea of fighting back

Psychologist Toshio Kawai has an interesting hypothesis. We may, he says in an article written for the Asahi Shimbun's Globe, be entering an age when "becoming an adult will not be necessary."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jul 22, 2015

Ashley Madison cheating website hacking 'may affect Japanese users'

Hackers threatening to release details of people using a cheating website may possess the records of toward two million Japanese users, it has emerged.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 22, 2015

'Wild Tales' and black comedy from the dark heart of Argentina

Forget about all the brassy, effects-laden blockbusters crowding the multiplexes this summer: For sheer entertainment value, none are likely to top this Argentine-Spanish anthology of comic shorts. Rich in black humor and satirical invective, "Wild Tales" became the most successful Argentinian movie...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Jul 19, 2015

Women of color bound to Japan by love and family

Part 1 of a series looking at the black women who have taken vows binding their fates — and sometimes that of their children — to Japan, for better or for worse.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 19, 2015

Before Tennessee rampage, gunman texted friend link to Islamic verse

Hours before the Tennessee shooting that killed five U.S. servicemen, the suspected gunman texted a close friend a link to an Islamic verse that included the line: "Whosoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, then I have declared war against him."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jul 18, 2015

'Mystical Realist' Eihei Dogen's 13th-century writings

Eihei Dogen (1200-53), founder of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism, is a key figure in the intellectual history of Japan, but for many centuries his work was not widely read. This changed in 1926, when the publication of Watsuji Tetsuro's "Shamon Dogen" ("The Monk Dogen") reframed him as a philosopher...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 18, 2015

Tales from the crypt: ghost stories from Japan

On a damp afternoon in early July, almost two dozen people sat in silence in a dark room on the sixth floor of a building located right next to Sensoji Temple in Tokyo's Asakusa district. The audience has come to Amuse Museum to hear two presenters — storyteller Chinatsu Ushidaki, who performs under...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 18, 2015

Survivors of Colorado theater rampage want gunman put to death

After all 165 guilty verdicts were read and Colorado's movie massacre gunman was taken back to a cell to await his fate on Thursday, many of his victims smiled and hugged and said James Holmes must be executed for justice to be done.
Japan Times
SPORTS / NOTES ON A SCORECARD
Jul 17, 2015

Return to Japan leaves Matsuzaka a forgotten man

Former superstar Daisuke Matsuzaka, who returned to Japan after mixed results in eight seasons in the majors to sign with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, has not appeared in a single game for the big club this season.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 15, 2015

Walking the Australian Outback in a shirt and undies looks impossibly beautiful

What would compel a young woman to walk almost 1,700 miles across the Australian Outback, with only a dog and a quartet of camels for company? As real-life nomad Robyn Davidson (played by Mia Wasikowska) says at the start of "Tracks" — director John Curran's handsome biopic — "I believe that when...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Jul 15, 2015

The LDP's comic appeal for constitutional change falls flat

I hadn't planned on reading the Liberal Democratic Party's propaganda comic on constitutional change for the same reason I don't watch NHK, listen to AKB48 or use my underpants as an ashtray. Yet, as a piece of Japanese legal cultural history, perhaps it merits comment.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 14, 2015

How to cope with Japan's demographic transformation

Japan must take steps to make it easier for women to work while raising families and to extend the nation's healthy life expectancy.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 13, 2015

Pagasa Filipinos feel threatened as Beijing grows more aggressive

On a clear night, the Filipinos who live on Pagasa Island — a speck in the vast South China Sea — can see the floodlights from giant Chinese cranes working around the clock, dredging sand to build up a nearby reef.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 11, 2015

The ogres of Oga are not as frightening as they may appear

Although surely one of Japan's most scenic areas, the Oga Peninsula in Akita Prefecture is off the beaten track and retains an unhurried vibe, still relatively untouched by commercial tourism. Here, it is still possible to see small fishing hamlets as you drive round the coast, rewarded with stunning...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Jul 8, 2015

Late marine's message lives on in Okinawa and Vietnam

U.S. Marine Allen Nelson first visited Okinawa in 1966 when the entire island was under American control and functioned as its springboard for the war in Vietnam. For two weeks, Nelson and his fellow new recruits spent their days practising guerilla warfare at Camp Hansen, central Okinawa, then in the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 8, 2015

Rural migration, shaved ice and no easy endings in 'Umi no Futa'

Why not abandon your stressed urban existence, move to a picturesque part of the world and live the simple life? An old dream, but still powerful, as shown by the recent spate of Japanese movies about women getting back their grooves by relocating to a beautiful middle-of-nowhere. Usually their dream...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 8, 2015

Possessed by the spirit of Gustave Flaubert's hedonist in 'Gemma Bovery'

Who reads books anymore? Old people, that's who. But it takes a special kind of adult to turn literary passion into obsession, which is exactly what Martin (Fabrice Luchini) of "Gemma Bovery" does. Martin is infatuated with Gustave Flaubert's most famous creation: Emma Bovary, the main character in his...

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