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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 20, 2014

In the ethnographic realm of the senses: An interview with Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor

You may think you know what a documentary film is — "Life as it is," as Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov once put it — but you probably haven't seen any documentaries like the ones being produced by the filmmakers at Harvard University's experimental Sensory Ethnography Lab.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 20, 2014

No leader of the pack, but still a heartthrob

What is it with women and bad boys on motorcycles — including college boys with pretensions to being bad? A conundrum of my youth. Yes, I understood the appeal of a Marlon Brando or James Dean with a big thrumming machine between his legs, but why did the women I knew prefer riding on a Honda with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 20, 2014

Zulu (Cape Town)

Any movie with Orlando Bloom in it is getting an extra star this month because he recently did what so many of us have longed to do: He took a swing at Justin Bieber. Hell, I'd give him five stars if he had landed that punch, but the Beaver was saved by his entourage before "manning up" and taking the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 20, 2014

Leviathan

One reviewer jokingly suggested that the alternative title of "Leviathan" could be "David Lynch, Gone Fishin', " and there's some truth to that: While the film is a documentary of a New Bedford fishing trawler working the North Atlantic, the disorienting, woozy aesthetic and soundtrack of industrial...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Aug 20, 2014

A high price to pay for a little peace of mind

Sometimes it's hard to believe the American that emerged, naked and naive, from Narita International Airport back in 2004 and the person writing this column are one and the same. Life in Japan has made me, unmade me and remade me. I've unpacked and sorted through all sorts of koto (generally, things...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 20, 2014

Dreaming of shoveling snow in high summer

Yeah, I know. The thermometer is shooting for the moon and the humidity makes each stride forward seem more like a breaststroke.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 19, 2014

As Gaza war subsides, a battle over how it is investigated begins

Even before starting work as chairman of a U.N. human rights commission investigating the Gaza war, Canadian law professor William Schabas has been vilified as an apologist for Iran who is incapable of setting aside his perceived anti-Israel bias.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Aug 17, 2014

Could the lingua franca approach to learning break Japan's English curse?

Learning English as a lingua franca (ELF) involves approaching the language as a tongue shared by non-native speakers around the world rather than as a lingo that must be mastered to native-speaker level.
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Aug 16, 2014

Kepco: the monstrous 500-pound gorilla of Kansai

Last month, Chimori Naito, a 91-year-old former vice president at Kansai Electric Power Co., admitted what was hardly a secret but which put the utility under intense media scrutiny.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Aug 16, 2014

Gomez earning his stripes with Tigers

Mauro Gomez probably couldn't believe his luck when he saw the pitch Chris Seddon threw him.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2014

The bill for Putin's policy will be high

Virtually every retaliatory move against the West proposed by Vladimir Putin as a result of the Ukraine crisis has backfired on Russia and left it in a far weaker financial position.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 14, 2014

'Imari: Japanese Porcelain for European Palaces'

Japan first began producing porcelain during the early 17th century in Hizen Province, now the city of Arita in Saga Prefecture. Techniques from Korea were used with aesthetics influenced by Chinese Jingdezhen porcelain, a popular style at that time. Since many of the products were created for export...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 14, 2014

Megabanks' $800 billion cash pile shows Abe must free up credit

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has succeeded in wrestling down the yen and snapping a 15-year deflationary spiral. The challenge of spurring lending by the country's cash-hoarding megabanks remains.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 14, 2014

Scientists find how Ebola virus disables body's immune response

Scientists studying the lethal Ebola virus have found how it blocks and disables the body's ability to battle infections, a discovery that should help the search for potential cures and vaccines.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 13, 2014

Clowning gets serious in Slava's show

"Slava's Snowshow" feels like a dream — and occasionally a nightmare. Its surreal scenarios play out one after another on a stage set with seemingly oversized, fluffy blankets that give the audience a sense of being tucked inside a child's bed. There's no real narrative — but as in dreams, there...
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Aug 13, 2014

Art from the margins of society

A show of brilliant color combinations, unusual shapes and a creative use of materials, "Art as a Haven of Happiness" at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum showcases the work of artists with Down syndrome and other disabilities. Free of any fixed ideas or concepts that often limit the definition of art,...
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 13, 2014

Japan's economy suffers biggest decline since 2011 as tax hike bites

The Japanese economy suffered its biggest contraction since the March 2011 earthquake in the second quarter of this year as the hike in sales tax to 8 from 5 percent took a heavy toll on household spending, stoking fears that any rebound may be too modest to sustain a solid recovery.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2014

Obama should follow Nixon's lead and do the right thing

Richard M. Nixon's White House efforts to cover up the Watergate scandal in 1972 look positively penny-ante compared to President Barack Obama's coverup of government-approved torture 40 years later.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2014

Obama can't afford to wage another Cold War

The U.S. may not be facing a new Cold War, but it will only weaken its position in the world, and especially against Russia, if it fails to heed the lessons of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 8, 2014

Documents suggest multinationals aided Brazil military regime

When Joao Paulo de Oliveira was fired in 1980 by Rapistan, a Michigan-based manufacturer of conveyor belts, his troubles were only beginning.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 8, 2014

Center in Tokai helps foreigners

A new group has been established in the Tokai region to help foreign residents get educational, medical and welfare services in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 7, 2014

The robots return in 'Transformers: Age of Extinction'

Filmmaker Michael Bay thinks there's something interesting about Japanese samurai that sets them apart from English knights.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 2014

'Tanoshimu Ajiwau: Lyricism of Modern Japanese Paintings'

The Uemura family's contribution to Japanese-style painting spans three generations of talented and important artists — Uemura Shoen (1875-1949), her son Shoko (1902-2001) and her grandson Atsushi (1933-). Known for its collection of Japanese-style paintings by all three, the Shouhaku Art Museum's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 6, 2014

Hyper Japan hails digital-age 'Genji' opera

Modern technology and age-old tradition combined last week for the premiere run of an ambitious Japanese opera with a difference — one with no live singers, musicians or actors.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 6, 2014

'Dead zone' in the Gulf of Mexico is the size of Connecticut: scientists

Scientists say a man-made "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico is as big as the state of Connecticut.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 5, 2014

China probes two Canadians for alleged theft of state secrets

China is investigating a Canadian couple who ran a coffee shop on the Chinese border with North Korea for the suspected theft of military and intelligence information and for threatening national security, China's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 5, 2014

Pension clones with $500 billion await GPIF's asset switch

Where the world's biggest pension fund goes, half a trillion dollars is set to follow.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 5, 2014

Top U.S. neuroscientist arrested after taking loaded assault rifle to Arizona airport 'to get a cup of coffee'

An Arizona medical researcher arrested after taking a loaded assault rifle into Phoenix airport said Monday he was making a political statement and did not intend to harm anyone.

Longform

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