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Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 14, 2014

At America's court of last resort, a handful of lawyers now dominates the docket

The marble facade of the U.S. Supreme Court building proclaims a high ideal: "Equal Justice Under Law."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 13, 2014

Generations square off in a battle for the ages

You'd think they owned the planet. They think they do — pushing into line at supermarkets, hogging seats on trains, generally behaving as though no one but themselves existed except to provide the services they need.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 13, 2014

Fight or flight: Narita's history of conflict

The recent increase in international flights in and out of Haneda Airport has clearly pleased Tokyo residents, who, since the late 1970s, have had to trek out to Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture when they wanted to go overseas.
JAPAN / Politics / DECISION 2014
Dec 12, 2014

In Fukui, economy, reactors inseparable in election debate

For most of Japan, the issues of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policies and nuclear reactor restarts are generally separate debates. But not in LDP-leaning Fukui.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / DECISION 2014
Dec 11, 2014

On the campaign trail, ex-minister Obuchi says sorry for scandal

An apologetic Yuko Obuchi reels in her stumping for the Lower House election after being stung by a fundraising scandal that abruptly ended her stint as trade minister.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 11, 2014

'17th Domani: The Art of Tomorrow'

For the past 47 years, Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs has run overseas study programs for young artists, providing opportunities for them to experience new environments and gain different perspectives.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 11, 2014

'Bishojo: Young Pretty Girls in Art History'

Bishōjo (beautiful young girls) are familiar characters of contemporary Japanese pop culture, featured widely in manga and anime, such as "Sailor Moon" and the more recent "Pretty Cure" series. But Japan's fascination with illustrating cute girls has a longer history than you may imagine.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 11, 2014

London's Cereal Killer Cafe serves up breakfast from around the world

Identical twin brothers hope they have ticked the right boxes and bought the right flavors for their new Cereal Killer Cafe in London, serving only cereal.
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2014

Airbus hints it may ditch A380 after finding no takers for superjumbo this year

Airbus Group NV raised the prospect of discontinuing its A380 superjumbo as soon as 2018, the first admission that it may have misjudged the market for the double-decker after failing to find a single airline buyer this year.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Dec 10, 2014

Electoral dysfunction leaves Japan's voters feeling impotent

This Sunday's poll could well prove a high-water mark of pointlessness even for Japan: an election campaign waged against the unelected.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 10, 2014

Real-life Japan caricature cuts to the quick

Tomohiro Maekawa, the 40-year-old playwright, director and founder of Tokyo's Ikiume (Buried Alive) theater company, is acclaimed in Japan's theater world for his groundbreaking sci-fi works sometimes bordering on the surreal.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / DECISION 2014
Dec 10, 2014

Japan's persisting gender gap leaves many single moms in poverty

Yuka Suzuki, 47, has virtually no savings, earns about half the average national wage and cannot see where the money will come from to retire one day.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 10, 2014

CIA eased Poland's qualms over secret prisons with boxes of bank notes: Senate report

Poland threatened to halt the transfer of al-Qaida suspects to a secret CIA jail on its soil 11 years ago, but became more "flexible" after the Central Intelligence Agency handed over a large sum of money, according to a U.S. Senate report.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Dec 9, 2014

Sake specialists give a lesson in culture

In Saijo, Hiroshima Prefecture, the largest room in the home of Hisao Maegaki, president of the sake brewery Kamoizumi Shuzo, is set for a feast.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2014

Xi's cultural revolution looks doomed to fail

China's government has just reserved the right to send film and television actors, directors, writers and producers on all-expenses-paid, involuntary, 30-day sabbaticals to rural mining sites, border areas, and other remote locations.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 8, 2014

Going backward to get ahead with studying Japanese

In his book "Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You," translator and Japanese literature scholar Jay Rubin notes that the Japanese language "works backward."
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 7, 2014

Evidence suggests Keynesianism boosts GDP in recessions, but good luck explaining why

Casual evidence indicates that government spending during recessions (a pillar of Keynesianism) boosts GDP. But we don't have a satisfying macroeconomic model that explains why.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Dec 6, 2014

Obscenity arrest may be hiding dirty politics

What constitutes obscenity in Japan? The term, both legally and morally, has different meanings in Japanese, just as it does in English. In a strictly legal sense, the Japanese word for obscenity, waisetsu, refers to something that maliciously stimulates sexual desire in an inappropriate and immoral...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 6, 2014

Poverty takes on a new look in today's Japan

In the early years of the 21st century, such neologisms as nyū puā (new poor) and wākingu puā (working poor) began appearing in the Japanese media. Like their equivalents overseas, the terms were typically applied to people unable to realize a decent livelihood while holding down a job, or even more...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 6, 2014

On the hunt for Tono's mythical water trolls

Sushi fans will probably know that cucumber rolls are known as kappamaki in Japanese. This is in honor of what is surely one of Japan's strangest mythical creatures — the kappa.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Dec 5, 2014

From umbrellas with feet to miniature ice-fishing polar bears, On: Design goes clever-quirky

Fishing for a good cuppa
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 5, 2014

North Korea's hackers are a hand-picked elite

Despite its poverty and isolation, North Korea has poured resources into a sophisticated cyber warfare cell called Bureau 121, defectors from the secretive state said as Pyongyang came under the microscope for a crippling hack into computers at Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 2014

'Whistler Retrospective'

The Yokohama Museum of Art commemorates its 25th anniversary with this retrospective of James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). Whistler was one of the pioneers of Japonism, taking inspiration from ukiyo-e prints and paintings, as well as from the traditional crafts of Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2014

Bitcoin policymaker tries to gain converts before election

The man who single-handedly made Japan an oasis for bitcoin entrepreneurs was holding court with political supporters. The price of admission: ¥10,000.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2014

Dentsu says it's creating robot entertainers

Dentsu Inc. will launch a new business focusing on developing "humanoid robot entertainers," the major ad agency said.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 3, 2014

Abe shouldn't make his mentor's mistakes

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should keep in mind why voters backed him to begin with: his apparent decisiveness and determination to challenge old ways of doing things.

Longform

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