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CULTURE / Stage
Oct 15, 2014

'Polygraph' blurs realities in a dark blend of blood and beauty

The 1980s murder at the center of "Le Polygraphe" echoes that of an actress in the Canadian city of Quebec — a killing for which the chief suspect for a time was the renowned Quebecois dramatist Robert Lepage, who cowrote the play in 1987 with actress, author and theater director Marie Brassard. Postmodern...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 15, 2014

Serbia walks an East-West tightrope highlighted by upcoming special parade for Putin

In his 1949 memoir "Eastern Approaches," British officer Fitzroy Maclean wrote of standing on top of Belgrade's fortress and watching the Nazis retreat across the Sava River, leaving the capital to the Red Army and Yugoslav partisan guerrillas.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 14, 2014

Japan's Nobel win should spur Abe to action

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been quiet on one reform that truly would encourage the risk-taking culture Japan needs so badly: making sure employees get paid for their inventions.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN WEB WATCH
Oct 11, 2014

Digital manga giving print a run for it money

Manga is a central part of Japanese pop culture, appealing not only to kids but also to salarymen and women on their daily commute. Even former Prime Minister Taro Aso declared his love for the medium.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Oct 11, 2014

Black Rain

Masuji Ibuse's classic 1965 novel "Black Rain" takes readers into the everyday lives of a family poisoned by radiation sickness. The narrative structure carefully balances between the present time of the novel and journal entries from the bombings of Hiroshima to craft a carefully wrought masterpiece...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2014

Asia's innovation challenge

The West should pay attention to Asia's experiments with creative ways to finance innovation, such as China's intellectual property exchanges and Malaysia's intellectual-property loan programs.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2014

The best interests of the Caucasian talk circle

The Caucasus is among the world's most divided and incoherent regions, as the three republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia have failed to learn, economically or politically, from similarly linked groups of countries such as the Baltic states. Is it too late for the Caucasus to change course?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 9, 2014

Japan's rich heritage of video game music explored in 'Diggin' in the Carts'

With Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) putting its focus on Japan this year, a couple of documentaries have sprung up online that delve into the music scene here.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Oct 9, 2014

Trick or treat; delicious autumn harvest buffet; Austrian take on celebrating season

Trick or treat!
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 8, 2014

Me, Myself and Mum: 'Not only is this guy a total control freak, he looks splendid in drag'

Guillaume Gallienne is little known outside his native France, but pundits inside the Japanese movie industry are predicting that in a year or two, Gallienne will be huge. In 2015, you could be saying to your friends: "Ah yes, Gallienne. Of course, I've followed his work for ages."
Reader Mail
Oct 8, 2014

Protecting kids from predators

Regarding Tomohiro Osaki's Oct. 1 front-page article "Nation reflects on crimes against kids": While recognizing the existing cultural hurdles entrenched in Japanese culture — especially those which pertain to an ingrained work ethic that frowns upon fathers in particular playing a role in parenting...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Oct 8, 2014

Bonding boozily over the pleasure and pain of Bukowski

The embrace of individuality combined with the pain of loneliness could explain why Bukowski's works have been embraced by many of the Japanese men I've met in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 7, 2014

Review: Moshi Moshi Nippon at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium

Offering non-Japanese people free entry to Moshi Moshi Nippon was a risky move on the part of Asobisystem, but it seemed to have paid off.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Oct 7, 2014

Selling the Italians on sake, 'the wine of Japan'

At 4:30 p.m. on a Sunday in Milan — the height of the aperitivo hour — the courtyard of the stately Chiostri dell'Umanitaria building was filled with people sipping drinks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 7, 2014

Dorian Concept to try new live set at RBMA

Each year, thousands of budding musicians and producers vie for a place in the Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA), a globe-trotting workshop sponsored by a company better known for peddling buzz-inducing energy drinks. Over the years, the event has helped nudge a variety of artists toward wider success —...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 7, 2014

Vibraphonist Locke to hit all the right notes

The vibraphone is one of the more unique instruments to infiltrate jazz. A holy mash-up of the piano and the percussive, it's the duck-billed platypus of musical instrumentation. In terms of cool, it's unfairly lodged somewhere between the tuba and the clarinet. Its old-school practitioners now exude...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 7, 2014

Tragic wake-up call as Abe pushes reactor restarts

The tragic eruption at Mount Ontake is a timely reminder that Japan is more blessed than cursed when it comes to natural resources. It possesses an enviable mix of water, wind and, most importantly, geothermal resources to fulfill its energy needs. It still has a chance to change course from the risky nuclear-energy road.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2014

India's nuclear risks and costs

The inevitable conclusion that nuclear weapons cannot help India solve the problems of poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition, and are irrelevant as security against any other country, should at least encourage India to champion the phased and verifiable goal of global nuclear disarmament.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Oct 6, 2014

Frontiers place title hopes in Cameron

In order to finally win the X League championship, the Fujitsu Frontiers have perhaps found the last piece of the puzzle with the acquisition of American quarterback Colby Cameron.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2014

India's illusory nuclear gains

The subcontinent's history since 1998 belies expectations at the time, in both India and Pakistan, that the nuclearization of weapons would prove to be a largely stabilizing factor.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Oct 6, 2014

Range of services rush to fill gaps in Japan's after-school care market

As the government moves to widen access for older children, the private sector offers flexibility and a focus on areas such as English and sports.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 6, 2014

Crime and gangs: the path to battle for Australia's Islamist radicals

The children of refugees who fled Lebanon's civil war for peaceful Australia in the 1970s form a majority of Australian militants fighting in the Middle East, according to about a dozen counterterrorism officials, security experts and Muslim community members.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 5, 2014

Ancient Oregon caves may upend understanding of humans in the Americas

A network of caves in rural Oregon may be the oldest site of human habitation in the Americas, suggesting that an ancient human population reached what is now the United States at the end of the last Ice Age, Oregon officials said on Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 4, 2014

Unburdening oneself of life's possessions

Japanese often cite an old aphorism that goes, "Tatsu tori ato wo nigosazu" ("It is a foolish bird that defiles its own nest"). This can be taken to mean that a departing person should not leave behind a mess.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Oct 4, 2014

Sato shines as role model

With her clumsy but emotional and breathtaking presentation at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires for Tokyo's 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games bid in September 2013, Mami Sato became a household name in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Oct 4, 2014

Pop-idol group debuts in debt

It's not unusual for nine young women to form a new pop-idol group in Japan. Contrary to other groups, though, members of The Margarines were chosen for their personal indebtedness.

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