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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Jun 18, 2014

Still dreaming of a Japan with juries — and without U.S. bases

At 84, Chihiro Isa hopes to see two things in his lifetime: the jury system reinstated in Japan and U.S. forces gone from Okinawa.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 18, 2014

Female dramatists dispel gender concern

Last month in Berlin, in a conversation with Annemie Vanackere, artistic director at the city's cutting-edge Hebbel am Ufer company, she was saying how she loved contemporary Japanese theater, and how HAU had worked with several Japanese dramatists. Then she suddenly asked me: "Why were they all men?...
Japan Times
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Jun 15, 2014

'Womenomics' push raises suspicions for lack of reality

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may be a political hawk who believes Japan can once again become a macho state that can hold its own against regional threats, but as he looks for money and muscle he is turning to an unlikely source: women.
Japan Times
JAPAN / FUKUSHIMA FILE
Jun 15, 2014

Fukushima hotline gets record calls

A suicide-prevention hotline in Fukushima Prefecture received a record 18,194 calls in 2013, signaling that scars from the events of March 2011 still weigh heavily on residents' minds.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Jun 15, 2014

True confessions of a bijogā (beautiful jogger)

This is the story of a 39-year-old female runner who works in advertising and runs six times a week.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 14, 2014

Happy endings: foreigners working in Japan's film industry

Film is supposed to be a universal language, but the film business in any given country is usually run by the locals for the locals. The one great exception is Hollywood, which has been making films for the world since the silent days and is open to talent, preferably English speaking, from around the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jun 13, 2014

Okazaki's grapes, Ieyasu legacy reel in tourists

The city of Okazaki in Aichi Prefecture this year is doubling efforts to attract visitors from its neighbors in East Asia, especially China and Taiwan.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 12, 2014

Tiny ancient fish unlocks secrets of Earth's early vertebrates

This is certainly not just another fish tale. A tiny jawless fish that lived more than a half-billion years ago is providing scientists with a treasure-trove of information about the very dawn of vertebrate life on Earth.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 11, 2014

David Bintley bows out with a 'Pagoda' set in Japan

Challenge is intrinsic to artistic creation, but David Bintley relishes it so much that he specializes in conceiving the unlikely.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 10, 2014

Why don't more American soldiers walk away?

American news media portrays Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and his apparent decision to simply walk away from the war in Afghanistan as bizarre and incomprehensible. Yet some wonder why it doesn't happen all the time.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 10, 2014

Five sentenced for slaying of Russian journalist, but mastermind remains unknown

Five men received long prison terms on Monday for the killing of prominent Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya after a trial that failed to reveal who had masterminded the Russian journalist's murder.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 7, 2014

'Battle Royale' wins the game for hungry fans

I should probably start this review with somewhat of a disclaimer. About 10 years ago — not long after Kinji Fukasaku's film adaptation of Koushun Takami's controversial novel "Battle Royale" became a cult hit overseas — I bought a screen-printed poster from a London-based design studio called Airside....
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Jun 7, 2014

BayStars pitcher Ino producing better results

It took Yokohama BayStars pitcher Shoichi Ino five starts before he won his first game in 2013. The rookie then bounced in and out of the rotation, and it wasn't until September that the right-hander took a game into at least the seventh inning for the first time. He posted only five wins and had to...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 7, 2014

Accused Seattle gunman suffering severe mental illness: lawyer

The man accused of killing one person and wounding two others in a shooting spree at a small Christian college in Seattle suffers from "significant and long-standing mental health issues" that were a factor in the tragedy, his lawyer said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2014

Calculating the ethical cost of high-priced art

If artists, art critics and art buyers really had any interest in reducing the widening gap between the rich and the poor, they would spend time in developing countries, where spending a few thousand dollars on the works of indigenous artists can make a real difference to the wellbeing of whole villages.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2014

The unspoken disease that can destroy families

Of the 17,500 cases of uterine cancer reported yearly in Japan, nearly half are cervical cancer, usually triggered by a virus spread by sexual intercourse. Because of this, sufferers often conceal the fact from friends and families and continue working at their jobs as if nothing is wrong — until pain...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 6, 2014

As Ukraine moves on rebel stronghold, residents live with sound of shelling

Only one of the Ukrainian Army checkpoints encircling the separatist stronghold of Slovyansk, where a military operation was in its third day on Thursday, was letting traffic through — most on its way out.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 6, 2014

Bergdahl had left his unit before: reports

A U.S. military investigation of Bowe Bergdahl's capture by the Taliban found the army sergeant had slipped away from his unit on several known occasions but had always returned, raising questions about whether or not he was deserting when he disappeared in 2009, people familiar with the findings said...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2014

Dance pioneer puts homeless back on their feet

While walking on the streets of Tokyo 10 years ago, dancer and choreographer Yuki Aoki encountered a scene that remains indelibly etched into his memory.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 4, 2014

Roberta Marquez: a Juliet to die for

The Royal Ballet, generally considered to be the best classical company in the world, numbers some 100 dancers from teens of countries who are based at its magnificent and newly refurbished Opera House home in London.
Reader Mail
Jun 4, 2014

A coup from a different view

Regarding the May 29 AP article "Thai troops detain Cabinet minister who blasted coup": Over the past week I found myself in the midst of the second coup since I came to Thailand, and the news, as reported by the Western media, has appeared fundamentally flawed. I am hoping that the lack of understanding...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 2, 2014

Freed from captivity, Bergdahl's ordeal continues

In 2008, when he joined the army, he was a bookish athlete from rugged Idaho with a passion for fencing. A year later, he was a captive of the Afghan Taliban. Today, he is on the way home, a free man at last.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 1, 2014

Gourmet comic stokes Fukushima ire

The popular manga series 'Oishinbo' came under fire again on May 12 after a character based on a real-life former mayor refers, in the manga's latest issue, to Fukushima Prefecture as unlivable because of the radiation leaking from the ruined power plant there.
Japan Times
CULTURE
May 31, 2014

Essential summer festivals 2014

A summer without festivals simply wouldn’t be a proper summer in Japan, so now that the humidity has returned, it’s time to slop on an extra layer of sunscreen and line up some outdoor activities.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
May 31, 2014

Almost Transparent Blue

Life around a U.S. base camp in Kanagawa in the 1970s may have mirrored certain aspects of American life, but they were often the most self-destructive elements. Set along the urban border between a military camp and Japan proper, the violent milieu of Ryu Murukami's short novel "Almost Transparent Blue"...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 31, 2014

Former stars in tough times; Osore-zan, "Mountain of Fear"; CM of the week: Mos-Do

Japanese TV is fascinated with the lives of people who were famous in their youth, as shown on "Tama no Koshi ni Notta no ni, Sono Go Donzoiku ni Ochita Onna-tachi" ("Women Who Married Rich But Later Fell to the Bottom"; TV Asahi, Mon., 7 p.m.).
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2014

The ideology of those who kidnap schoolgirls

Until we clean the education soil in which the plants producing the poisonous ideologies enforced by Boko Haram and other extremist groups take root, the life chances of millions of young people around the world will be jeopardized.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 28, 2014

Outdoor kabuki marks Skytree anniversary

To commemorate the second anniversary of the May 22, 2012 opening of Tokyo Skytree, the leading kabuki actors Nakamura Shichinosuke and Onoe Matsuya last Saturday performed the popular dance-based piece "Dango-Uri" ("The Dumpling Sellers") on an outdoor stage in the Sky Arena at the tower's base.

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