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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 12, 2015

Belle and Sebastian lean toward politics and away from twee on newest album

Belle and Sebastian are headed back to Japan, but are not quite as you remember them. For nearly 20 years the Glasgow indie darlings have been pigeonholed as producers of twee, lovelorn songs for corduroy-clad outcasts, but with their newly released ninth album, that stereotype is in danger of looking...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Feb 12, 2015

Tange's indispensable contacts

If you've ever had the opportunity to stay at the Park Hyatt Tokyo hotel in the Shinjuku Park Tower — I haven't, but I know someone who has — you'll know how looking down from the 52nd floor on the silent city from the hermetic calm of a guest room is mesmerizing. Sofia Coppola used this to good...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 12, 2015

Ketchup-maker Kagome hikes prices but fears consumers aren't ready to pay more

For Tokyo-based condiments maker Kagome, and perhaps for the government, the challenge of breaking with a decade and a half of deflation boils down to the price of a bottle of ketchup.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 11, 2015

Is Japanese cinema sinking into a self-censorship swamp?

One great thing about living in Japan is the consideration, or omoiyari, people here commonly show for others. My newspaper delivery guy climbs the 25 steps to my front door and deposits a copy of The Japan Times in my mailbox every morning, rain or shine. His colleagues in the U.S. — my home country...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / TYSON-DOUGLAS SHOCKER REVISITED
Feb 10, 2015

Douglas reflects on Tyson fight 25 years later

The youngest heavyweight champion in history, making his 10th title defense, entered the fight with a 37-0 record and had never been knocked down during his pro career; Douglas was the 42-1 underdog. Tyson's reign ended 28 minutes, 22 seconds into the fight, at precisely 1:22 into the 10th round.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 7, 2015

The Greening of Asia: The Business Case for Solving Asia's Environmental Emergency

With our planet teetering on a climate crisis, environmentalists have recently started making the case for going green from the perspective that it's good for business.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 5, 2015

Hostage crisis over, Abe looks to 2016 to launch constitutional amendment drive

With the Islamic State hostage crisis over, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says his long-sought goal of revising the Constitution should be chased in summer 2016.
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2015

Better life for dementia sufferers

The government, which recently adopted a new strategy for measures against dementia, needs to follow through on the idea of ensuring a better quality of life for patients by heeding the wishes of sufferers and their families.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 5, 2015

Takata widens annual loss forecast as air bag recall costs mount

Takata Corp., the air bag maker at the center of a safety crisis, widened its loss forecast for this business year as automakers led by Honda Motor Co. expanded recalls to investigate the cause of malfunctions.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 4, 2015

Japan Tobacco to quit drinks business after 26 years

Japan Tobacco Inc. will exit the drinks business that it has built over the past 26 years, as an "increasingly challenging" operating environment in Japan makes it difficult for the unit to turn a profit.
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2015

The ethics of artificial intelligence

The growing penetration of artificial intellence into our daily lives is raising pressing ethical issues.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 3, 2015

Why is America at war with the Islamic State?

The Islamic State group doesn't pose a threat to the United States, so why is the U.S. waging a war against it?
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2015

Abe's farm cooperative reforms

The Abe administration has yet to provide a convincing explanation on how its agricultural reform plan will strengthen Japan's farming sector and enhance consumer interests.
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2015

China's new economic reality

Economic reforms in China will be meaningless unless they are accompanied by political reforms.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 3, 2015

Canadian foreign minister to quit amid talk of tensions with prime minister

Foreign Minister John Baird is unexpectedly set to resign from the federal Cabinet this week amid what sources said had been tensions with the prime minister's office.
EDITORIALS
Feb 2, 2015

Turbulent times for Skymark

Skymark Airlines Inc., the nation's third-largest carrier, which filed for bankruptcy protection last week after its moves to buy a fleet of Airbus A380 superjumbos to expand into the international flight market flopped, should seek to rebuild itself by refocusing on and consolidating its domestic operations....
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 2, 2015

90% of cities failed to meet air standards in 2014: China

Nearly 90 percent of China's big cities failed to meet air quality standards in 2014, but that was still an improvement on 2013 as the country's "war on pollution" began to take effect, the environment ministry said on Monday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 31, 2015

Call to arms: Hunters dwindle as animal numbers explode

Asians who crossed land bridges into today's Ryukyu Islands more than 30,000 years ago encountered plenty of game. In addition to deer and boar, they hunted elephant and steppe bison until the larger mammals were hunted to extinction in Japan about 17,000 years ago.
EDITORIALS
Jan 31, 2015

Japanese talent needs grooming

Japan recently ranked No. 20 worldwide in a business school survey of competitiveness and worker quality. That's not terrible, but it does reveal a lack of readiness for the future global economy.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 30, 2015

Building social change after the earthquake

In 2011, the devastation of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami forced Japanese architects to rethink their understanding of architecture at a fundamental level — to consider closely society's systems and the affect buildings had on not only the life of, but also the psyche of the people.

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