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Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Oct 30, 2014

Thai junta's focus on school reforms raises eyebrows

Sixteen years old and studying 13 hours a day, high school pupil Worapot doesn't have time to waste meeting a military-led government's idea of what makes a good Thai.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 29, 2014

It's touring for two in 'From the Sea' feature of festival's new Asia Series

Last October I partook in a tour-style play in Yokohama that was titled "Tsurenakumo Aki no Kaze" (quoted from Basho's haiku on autumn wind) and directed by 49-year-old South Korean artist Seo Hyun-suk.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 29, 2014

Millepied's L.A. Dance Project arrives with a triple bill of disparate delights

Two years after its inaugural performance, L.A. Dance Project is already a must-see company. In part that's because its founder and artistic director is the legendary French-born ballet dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied — but also because of its trendy innovations in contemporary dance and...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2014

A hobbit won't help with your emergency oxygen

Placing a priority on entertainment in preflight safety videos may not be the best way to teach first-time fliers emergency procedures.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Oct 29, 2014

Kansai: Who would you like to see replace the scandal-hit female ministers who quit?

Views from Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo Prefecture about who, in an ideal world, should have been given the jobs vacated by two female ministers on Oct. 20.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 28, 2014

OK Go shares a love of Japan with fans

'Sharing' used to be a dirty word in the music industry, but OK Go have been instrumental in changing that.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2014

Young protesters rap state secrets law as movement gains rhythm

"Don't give up the fight! Stand up for your right!"
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 25, 2014

Blondes have more fun in NHK's morning drama

Two weeks ago I received a message from a reader who asked me to ask NHK why the public broadcaster had changed the name and the hair color of the female protagonist of its new daily 15-minute asa-dora (morning drama series) "Massan," which is based on the life of Masataka Taketsuru, the first person...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 25, 2014

Spooky tales from beyond the grave

Ghost stories are universal, but Japanese ghost stories, argues Zack Davisson in "Yurei: The Japanese Ghost," are unique. So much so that Davisson, a translator and essayist who is something of a specialist in the supernatural, uses yūrei, the Japanese word for spook, throughout the text. He also makes...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 25, 2014

Air bag crisis may shift auto market to Daicel, Autoliv

The defect in Takata Corp. air bags linked to four deaths in Honda Motor Co. cars opens the supplier to the risk of losing business in a crucial portion of the market for the safety devices.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / ROBERT WHITING'S 1964 OLYMPICS RETROSPECTIVE
Oct 24, 2014

Negative impact of 1964 Olympics profound

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics had a profound impact on the capital city and the nation. In the final installment of a five-part series running this month, best-selling author Robert Whiting, who lived in Japan at the time, focuses on the environmental and human impact that resulted from hosting the event....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Oct 24, 2014

Nico Nico moves into Ikebukuro

Since launching in 2006, online video-sharing service Nico Nico (originally Nico Nico Douga) has become one of Japan's central hubs for aspiring artists and entertainers to share their talents with users across the country. They've fostered a millions-strong community capable of influencing mainstream...
Japan Times
JAPAN / HOTEL SPECIAL 2014
Oct 24, 2014

One-of-a-kind Pokémon Hotel Experience

For young "Pokémon Trainers" around the world, The Peninsula Tokyo is now the newest hunting field to test their skills.
Japan Times
JAPAN / HOTEL SPECIAL 2014
Oct 24, 2014

Renovating an iconic hotel

One of Japan's — if not the world's — most iconic hotels, and a member of the select luxury hotel collection, The Leading Hotels of the World, the venerable Hotel Okura Tokyo will from September 2015 embark on a renovation of its main building with completion of the new facilities scheduled for spring...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 24, 2014

Give Abe a break on 'womenomics'

What matters for Japan — after two female ministers resigned this week from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet — is not the number of women in the Cabinet, but whether Japanese women get good jobs en masse.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 23, 2014

Tokyo Designers Week plays artistic matchmaker to attendees

Someone needs to designate October as "culture month" in Tokyo. Almost every artistic discipline has offered up a major event in the capital this month: Tokyo Fashion Week, Tokyo International Film Festival, Red Bull Music Academy — day planners are full.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 23, 2014

Lee Mingwei likes getting to know you

The secret to a good public relations interview? Switch on the voice recorder and ask questions — that is all you need to know. Except, of course, it's not. Usually the interviewee has a particular image to maintain and the interviewer is looking for something that hasn't already been said — incompatible...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2014

Vision of anime's future at Tokyo International Film Festival

The Tokyo International Film Festival, running through Oct. 31, is no longer Asia's biggest or most important festival — that honor is now claimed by the recently held rival Busan film festival. But its 27th edition — the first to reflect the full influence of TIFF's current director-general, Yasushi...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2014

TIFF Critic's Picks: Films from countries famed for unrest and oppression

According to TIFF's visual programming director Yoshihiko Yatabe, the semiofficial theme for this year's festival is "People on the Edge." They may be pursued, stuck in a rut, in dire trouble or just plain confused, but their stories are some of the most compelling at this years festival. These films...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 21, 2014

The battle to boost universities

The government should consider the latest lackluster global rankings for Japanese universities and undertake a fundamental review of its university education policies.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2014

Uneaten food threatens China's environment

Despite the fact that 11.5 percent of the China mainland's population was undernourished between 2010 and 2012, Chinese still manage to waste more food grains than Americans on an annual basis.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2014

If growth is not the priority

Both President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany defy their critics by continuing to pursue policies that are bad for economic growth.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2014

Do some citations rank academic stupidity?

The admonition 'cite your sources' rings in the ear of every slapdash undergraduate and corner-cutting postdoc. But have we taken the emphasis on citation so far that we've ended up ranking academic stupidity?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 18, 2014

Hideaki Anno: emotional deconstructionist

With dozens of the renowned filmmaker's works scheduled to be screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival over the next two weeks, we speak to the man behind the 'Evangelion' sci-fi franchise about his apocalyptic influences and prod him on the question that is on every fan's lips
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 18, 2014

If you'd nuked a city, you'd feel guilty too

The author T.C. Boyle in the preface to his book "Stories II" published last year made a convincing argument that runs counter to the conventional wisdom to "write what you know." Boyle said: "A story is an exercise of imagination — or, as Flannery O'Connor has it, an act of discovery."
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2014

Barriers to economic progress for women

New evidence is emerging of the lingering cultural barriers to women's economic advancement, which must be addressed if the world is ever to attain its goal of gender equality.
EDITORIALS
Oct 17, 2014

Promoting women at work

Draft legislation prepared by the Abe administration would require large companies as well as the national and local governments to set targets for promoting women in their organizations, beginning in fiscal 2016.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 15, 2014

Minuscule: 'A refreshingly different approach to animation'

Most children's animation these days is motor-mouthed to the extreme and larded with snarky pop-culture gags, but French film "Minuscule" takes a refreshingly different approach. Filmmakers Helene Giraud and Thomas Szabo honed their skills on animated shorts over the past decade and now drop a full-length...

Longform

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