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Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 10, 2014

Fashion, cosmetics, sweets, music and more at Japan Girls Expo

There is no absolute standard of beauty, but that doesn't stop people trying to attain it, and Japan has plenty of beauty secrets that might help some of us feel better about the way we look.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 9, 2014

Art on the brink of fragmentation

You can't go wrong by calling a show "Fragments," as the curators of this year's "MOT Annual" exhibition have done. With a name like that, whatever bits and pieces visitors encounter at the annual group show of Tokyo's Museum of Contemporary Art, they can't say they were cheated because a name like that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 9, 2014

Edo-Tokyo Museum maps out the history of Japan's capital

The transformation of Edo from a mosquito-infested fishing village to seat of power and cultural center has endlessly fascinated lovers of history. After the imperial capital Kyoto fell to military rule in 1185, ensuing battles for power saw the capital move to Kamakura, then Muromachi, Azuchi, and Momoyama...
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2014

Obituary: Peter Martin

Peter Martin, former director of the British Council who was also a Japan-inspired detective novel writer known as James Melville, died recently. He was 83.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2014

Want to be happy when you're old? Get a job

A Brookings Institution researchers has found 'well-being' benefits to voluntary part-time employment as well as to remaining in the workforce beyond retirement age.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2014

Language of Indian politics

Even those Indians who are assumed will automatically vote their caste in the current election have choices and will make a number of fairly sophisticated mental trade-offs.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Apr 7, 2014

A day-trip date with the virtual romantics of 'New LovePlus+'

While Japan's video-game industry no longer dominates the world, there is still one niche of digital entertainment that this country does better than any other: romantic man-machine interaction. Love with a virtual being is something plucked straight out of science-fiction.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 7, 2014

Japan's Hutterites hold on to a dream for community

Otawara — yes, that's spelled with a "t" — is one of those places few people know and most confuse with somewhere else (in this case with Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Apr 6, 2014

Read up on ways that can help us learn English

Public libraries are important community resources across Japan, but while English is taught from fifth grade, those hoping to find a ready stash of English-language reading material may be disappointed.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 5, 2014

Reinventing the wheel: the future of cycling in Tokyo

On Jan. 24, a full-page advert appeared in the Tokyo edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun for a petition on behalf of the capital's cyclists. "Join the new governor in making Tokyo a bicycle city," read the headline for the ad, which reeled off a series of suggested improvements: more extensive cycling lanes,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Apr 5, 2014

Horses power across time and places

As a wee nipper I'd sometimes be treated to donkey rides on our local beach at Port Talbot in South Wales, but the first time I sat astride a pony was near my home in Neath when I was 8. Around then, the old dairyman occasionally let me join him as he made his daily rounds with his horse-drawn cart collecting...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2014

The New Yorker is bad for cartooning

Writer-cartoonist says The New Yorker magazine prints a lot of awful cartoons, yet uses its reputation in order to elevate terrible work as the profession's platinum standard.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 4, 2014

Abe's immigrant dream is a wage nightmare

Prime Miniser Shinzo Abe wants to import 200,000 foreign workers a year into Japan to counter the decline in the population. But the gambit might work at cross-purposes with his push to get companies to increase wages.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Apr 3, 2014

Luxurious lodging in heart of city; running around central Tokyo; not dead yet; disco lives on

Luxurious lodging in heart of city Andaz, Hyatt's upscale, boutique-inspired lifestyle hotel, will make its Japan debut in June, in one of Tokyo's newest and most distinguished business towers, Toranomon Hills.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 3, 2014

Polish history captured by a man who was there

He may be 88 years old and the director of 54 films, but Polish film giant Andrzej Wajda is still evolving as a storyteller. His latest, "Wałesa: Man of Hope," opens in Tokyo on April 5 (as "Wałesa: Rentai no Otoko") and marks his further foray into the realm of history as entertainment, following...
Reader Mail
Apr 2, 2014

Homework for Japanese leaders

Regarding the March 27 front-page article "Abe, Park focus on North to stop ties going south": If it had not been for the urging of U.S. President Barack Obama, the meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye, on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit, probably...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 1, 2014

Jackson's stay with Warriors may be nearing the end

The Golden State Warriors are having one of the most successful seasons in franchise history.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 1, 2014

Ostü: Great Italian across the way from Yoyogi Park

The only drawback to the sakura season is that no matter how beautiful the blossoms, the celebrations can get very chilly. You need somewhere you can repair to for warmth and sustenance. If you're anywhere near Yoyogi Park, you won't do better than Ostu00fc.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2014

Airports eager to cater to Muslims' needs

Motivated by a surge in Islamic visitors, Japan's major airports are falling over themselves to capitalize on the trend by installing prayer rooms and offering halal meals.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 29, 2014

Fashion Week Tokyo: opposites attract womenswear designers

Collections reflect the antithetical nature of fashion in Japan
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 29, 2014

Fashion Week Tokyo: menswear's mixed messages

Designers continue to break new ground
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 29, 2014

The truth is, we have gotten too used to lying

Philosophers love truth — that's a truism. What about the rest of us? Do we love truth or falsehood? Truth, we naturally affirm. So why are we swimming in falsehood?
Japan Times
JAPAN / SYMPOSIUM ON ASEAN AND GLOBALIZATION
Mar 28, 2014

ASEAN works to overcome challenges

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations will continue to accelerate integration while it works to overcome challenges such as disparities in the levels of development among member countries, academic experts of some ASEAN countries said at a symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 28, 2014

Spending decades in Japan has made a mascot out of me

Japan loves mascot characters, part of its unholy obsession with anything "cute."

Longform

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