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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 20, 2014

Singer Mayu Wakisaka takes inspiration from the TV drama boom

Singer-songwriter Mayu Wakisaka harbors dreams of Hollywood, but she's not about to enroll at drama school.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 17, 2014

Insufficient Direction

Moyoco Anno's manga "Insufficient Direction" is the, perhaps, inevitable result of what happens when a legendary anime director marries a well-known manga artist.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2014

The once-mighty U.S. is in decline: Get used to it

Like fourth-century Romans, Americans are beginning to realize that they are no longer citizens of an unrivaled superpower. And they're kind of freaking out about it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 15, 2014

'Wood Job!'

Shinobu Yaguchi has become a consistent hit maker by following a simple formula: generate laughs from the stumbles and mistakes of heroes learning a new job, art or sport. This formula usually results in audience cheers and tears when triumph finally arrives after many ups and downs. Examples include...
Japan Times
WORLD
May 14, 2014

Kiev forces suffer heaviest losses yet as separatists ambush, kill troops

Pro-Russian separatists ambushed Ukrainian troops on Tuesday, killing seven, in the heaviest loss of life for government forces in a single clash since Kiev sent soldiers to put down a rebellion in the country's east.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 13, 2014

Country boy Jonny Fritz set for a wander in the big city

Jonny Fritz is used to being out of his element. The Montana-born country music performer has spent a good chunk of the past decade touring, but his stops aren't the usual destinations for someone calling Nashville home. He has played every state in America, as well as shows across Europe, Argentina...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 10, 2014

Bringing the wisdom of samurai into the modern world

The astrophysicist Carl Sagan famously called writing "perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs." "Books," he said, "break the shackles of time." In that sense, reading "Hagakure: The Secret Wisdom of the Samurai" lets the...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
May 10, 2014

New York City man named world's oldest at 111

The world's oldest living man is a 111-year-old scholar of the occult who calls New York City his home.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 7, 2014

As Ukraine burns, Putin tightens screws on dissent

While all eyes are turned to Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has quietly enacted laws that opponents say will strengthen his hand in a battle against dissent in Russia.
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2014

Phones may not have the right to remain silent

The U.S. Supreme Court has just heard arguments over whether police should be allowed to search a person's smartphone without a warrant to find evidence relevant to the crime for which he or she is being arrested.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 4, 2014

In your wildest lucid dreams: scientists' interest in sleep world grows

One of our most mysterious and intriguing states of consciousness is the dream. We lose consciousness when we enter the deep waters of sleep, only to regain it as we emerge into a series of uncanny private realities.
Japan Times
LIFE / ADOPT ME!
May 4, 2014

A dog named Oboro: Tell me about it

When life weighs heavy and you're tired of two-way talk, there is nothing better to come home to than someone you can throw your arms around, snuggle up against and talk your heart out to. This golden retriever is perfect for just that.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 1, 2014

'Live'

When I was 12 I thought the movie parodies in "Mad" magazine were hilarious. Now I suppose I'm harder to please — or just older — but parodies that self-consciously mock their source, while cutely paying homage to it, quickly put me in a trance.
Reader Mail
Apr 30, 2014

Growing more women scientists

The April 16 AFP-JIJI article "Japan's scientists: just 14% female" must be frustrating for the Japanese government, but nowhere near as frustrating as it is for the women trying to mark their way in a field traditionally dominated by men.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 26, 2014

Aloha gozaimasu: Japan's influence on Hawaiian culture

In 1868, the first year of the Meiji Era, 148 Japanese men, mainly from the Kanto area, set sail from Yokohama on the British ship Scrito, bound for Honolulu in the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 24, 2014

'Omamamia'

Let's get one thing clear: Women want to lose weight. Even if they're rail thin, women still want to be skinnier than they are. That is, everyone except German actress Marianne Sagebrecht, who wears every one of her pounds with regal grandeur and walks into each scene as if she owns the movie.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 24, 2014

The amazing thing about a modern Spider-Man

Too often, superheroes are clueless about what women want. Sure, they can catch the villains and save the world, but when it comes to relationships, they stink.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 23, 2014

French to the fore on SPAC's 2014 festival menu

It is often said that "variety is the spice of life," but in the multifarious world of theater it is more a staple than a special condiment. That said, "variety" is the keyword chosen by Satoshi Miyagi, artistic director of the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC), to capture the upcoming and especially...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
Apr 22, 2014

Japan's freshest ready meals can be found in the basement

If there's one thing all Japanese guidebooks, concierges and expats can agree on, it's that tourists from overseas should make an effort, at some point during their stay, to visit the basement food floors of a major department store.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Apr 20, 2014

Dog days of summer await golden retriever Suehiro

Golden retriever Suehiro, who was first featured in The Japan Times in March 2013, has found a loving home in Connecticut.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 20, 2014

The one that got away

In 2004, the job of looking after the local foreigner went to Rikimatsu-san, a 75-year-old fisherman intent on teaching me the ways of the Seto Inland Sea.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 17, 2014

Divers struggle in search for Korean ferry survivors

Rescuers struggled with strong waves and murky waters on Thursday as they searched for hundreds of people, most of them teenagers from the same school, still missing after the South Korean ferry Sewol capsized 36 hours ago.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 2014

Roppongi Art Night 2014: Get ready for a 32-hour art marathon

Art needn't be strictly visual. That's how Katsuhiko Hibino sees things.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2014

'The Railway Man'

Speaking as a Japanese, "The Railway Man" is extremely difficult to sit through, as it deals with the treatment of British POWs by the Japanese Army after they took Singapore during World War II.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 16, 2014

Time slips quietly by for Austria nun resort

Being blasted with jets of hot and cold water by a 70-year-old nun may not be everyone's idea of fun, but it has some devoted fans. They return year after year to Marienkron, an Austrian health resort 3 km (2 miles) from the Hungarian border.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 16, 2014

All aboard the art train to Ichihara

Just after the train departs, a passenger falls to the floor. Further down the small train carriage another person follows suit. "Ma'am, are you sane?" questions a female announcer over the loudspeaker. The diesel train chugs forward. A young man asks, "Mom where did you go?" The mother responds, "The...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 16, 2014

"Nobuyoshi Araki Ojo Shashu: Photography for the Afterlife — Faces, Skyscapes, Roads"

For renowned photographer Nobuyoshi Araki, a photograph is a way of expressing his thoughts on life, processed by taking snapshots of everyday moments. Through his fight with prostate cancer, however, along with the loss of his beloved cat Chiro — his only companion after the loss of his wife — and...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 15, 2014

Immigration reform will benefit both U.S. and Asia

If there was bipartisan support in Washington to focus first on immigrant integration — rather than immigrant admissions — it would at least address the brain waste of America's underutilized college-educated immigrants.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Apr 12, 2014

Jun Nakayama: 'Don't think about it, just do it'

Jun means 'charm,' 'profit' and 'moisture.' I think it matches my personality perfectly!

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