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LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Jan 26, 2014

Tenkin-de kite, sonomama sumitsuite-shimau hito-mo ooi-sō-desu

Tenkin-de kite, sonomama sumitsuite-shimau hito-mo ooi-sō-desu. (There are many people who settled there after getting transferred, I heard.)
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 25, 2014

Age brings no respite from hard times for the 'lost generation'

Poverty is a relative term. As with age, you're as poor as you feel. Affluence brings with it rising expectations. Failure to meet them feeds the psychology, if not the dire physical deprivation, of poverty.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jan 25, 2014

The Tale of Genji

Recognized as the world's first novel, Murasaki Shikibu's "The Tale of Genji" is a spiraling epic that encompasses a beautifully complex portrayal of 11th-century Japanese Imperial Court life.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 25, 2014

A double dose of Fumiyo Kohinata; arson attack survivor featured on "NHK Special"; CM of the week: Ajinomoto

Well-known character actor Fumiyo Kohinata not only gets a rare opportunity to star in a two-hour drama, but stars twice — playing twin brothers in the mystery "Twins: Saotome Kyodai no Suiri Nisshi" ("Twins: The Saotome Brothers' Deductive Diary"; TBS, Mon., 9 p.m.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2014

'Chiisai Ouchi (The Little House)'

Several veterans of Japan's old studio system are still working, but Yoji Yamada is the only one still directing for the studio he started out with, back in 1954. He has directed 81 films for Shochiku; his extraordinary box-office success with the "Tora-san" series, 48 films from 1969 to 1995 about the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2014
Jan 23, 2014

YGL program inspires, educates

Oisix Inc. President Kohey Takashima's ambition has transformed his online food retail startup into the leading player in the industry in just over a decade, but his nomination as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum has awoken in him another mission: to contribute to society.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 22, 2014

The Onodera enigma

The name of the late great Pina Bausch's acclaimed Tanztheater in the German city of Wuppertal may translate as "Dancetheater," but its works often owe more to abstract emotional action and snatched dialogue than to dance. Over in London, meanwhile, Simon McBurney's Complicite company has long been at...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jan 20, 2014

Expiry dates

It's hard when our children decide we're past our prime. Let's prove we've still got a little shelf life sorting out an admittedly tricky subject.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 18, 2014

Cooperation vs. competition in space

Shadows of winter clouds
EDITORIALS
Jan 18, 2014

More workers taking vacation

A group of companies in Japan are starting to buck the trend of making workers feel guilty for taking the full amount of vacation days to which they are entitled — and for good reason.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 17, 2014

Cultist testifies Hirata knew of kidnap plan

Aum Shinrikyo killer Noboru Nakamura testifies against ex-fugitive cultist Makoto Hirata, saying the defendant, despite his denial, had prior knowledge that he would be involved in the 1995 abduction of a Tokyo notary.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2014

'Bilocation'

"There will never be another you" goes the jazz standard, but is it true? Have you ever thought that your spitting image might be wandering the world somewhere? What if you encountered you on the street? I would make fast tracks in the opposite direction.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2014

'Mud'

Indie director Jeff Nichols grew up in Arkansas, and he has milked that state's ambience in his films: feuding brothers in "Shotgun Stories," survivalist paranoia in "Take Shelter" and now life on a Mississippi delta houseboat in "Mud." Nichols aims for that "Stand by Me" vibe of boyhood friends getting...
EDITORIALS
Jan 15, 2014

The 'Internet of everything'

The advent of the 'Internet of things,' the ever-expanding array of connectedness between computer sensors and consumer devices, promises convenience as well as privacy and security concerns.
EDITORIALS
Jan 14, 2014

Leave those kids alone

The education ministry should rethink its attempt to introduce 'morals' as an official subject of instruction in elementary and junior high schools.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 13, 2014

A hard day's grind for porn's professionals

A day on set with Akira Takatsuki, arguably Japan's most famous porn director in the subgenre revolving around well-endowed female talent, and AV stars Shiori Tsukada and Mumin reveals a world of work like any other — except for the sex stuff.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2014

Inequality nightmare continues to plague world

While demand for private jets is booming, 60 percent of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day. As the world overall grows richer, the benefits continue to flow overwhelmingly to a tiny elite.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 13, 2014

Once veiled, French affairs feed tabloids

On Friday morning, I woke up as my usual French self. Then, from under the duvet, I reached for my smartphone and learned from Twitter that the French edition of Closer magazine had published pictures purportedly revealing an affair between President Francois Hollande and actress Julie Gayet. There had...
COMMENTARY
Jan 12, 2014

Stories that enable us to make sense of our lives

How are we to make sense of ourselves and the world if not by reading stories? For isn't this how we've talked to ourselves — soothed, stimulated and improved ourselves — for thousands of years?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jan 12, 2014

'Tiger mom' author stokes controversy with latest trope

Almost exactly three years ago, the Wall Street Journal published an excerpt from a book that remains its most commented article of all time. Under the fiery title, "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior," Yale law professor Amy Chua set out a manifesto for motherhood in proudly recounting her ironfisted...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 12, 2014

'Architect of 9/11' exchanges letters with pen pal

Details from an extraordinary exchange of letters between a care worker from Nottingham, in England's East Midlands, and the alleged architect of the 9/11 attacks were revealed Saturday, offering an unprecedented insight into the mind of one the world's most notorious Islamic militants.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 11, 2014

Ariel Sharon, Israeli 'bulldozer' who vacated Gaza, dies at 85

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli general and former prime minister as famous for his ferocity in battling Arab foes as for his turnaround decision to evacuate settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip, has died. He was 85.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jan 11, 2014

Kitchen

When "Kitchen," the debut novel by Banana Yoshimoto, was first released in Japan in 1988, it caused such a stir that the media frenzy around her was dubbed "Bananamania."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 8, 2014

New York's Apples make a big impression

In the last three months since I arrived in New York to study American drama with a grant from the Asian Cultural Council, a U.S. nonprofit dedicated to international cultural exchange, I have been to the theater more than 70 times — including at least a dozen visits to somewhere that's been a truly...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2014

Meet the emerging world's vaccine pioneers

More must be done to target the 22 million children, mainly in the poorest countries, who do not have access to lifesaving vaccines that protect against diseases such as measles, pneumonia and rotavirus, writes Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates.
EDITORIALS
Jan 5, 2014

Rising tides and drowning citizens

What does it portend for democratic government when half of the polled respondents in 35 of 39 countries say their economic system favors the wealthy and that the gap between rich and poor is intensifying?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Jan 3, 2014

Economy faces headwinds in 2014

The first stage of the sales tax hike next April will likely put a major drag on growth this year, although the nation will avert an outright recession, economists say.

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