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JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 23, 2013

The 'barbarians' were coming — like it or not

'Sonnō jōi!": "Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians!"
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 23, 2013

Temples, dragon boats and fireworks in Chinese Nagasaki

There was a time when the journey from East China to Nagasaki was a long and treacherous one across an unpredictable sea. Once a ship entered the verdant hill-sheltered bay that led to the city, the passengers thanked the gods for their safe arrival. After anchoring in the harbor, a procession accompanied...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / Japan Pulse
Jun 22, 2013

Euglena — the little single-celled organism that could save the world

Look in that pond! It's a wonder organism! A CO2 killer! a biofuel! A latte! It's euglena!
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 22, 2013

Old school potter goes native in the wilds of southeast Okinawa

It took a devil of a time before finally managing to locate the home of potter Paul Lorimer, the building tucked into a rural lane on the fringes of the Sashiki community on Okinawa Island's southeast coast.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jun 22, 2013

Participants ease stress levels at crying events

Most people know what it is like to have a good old cry and to get the feeling of having a huge weight removed from their shoulders.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 22, 2013

The death of civilization

I once had this Japanese student who told me he could tell a book's publisher from the smell.
EDITORIALS
Jun 22, 2013

Putting their heart into tourism

How can Japan be serious about attracting foreign tourists when website promos have to be dropped because the computer translations are so poor?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jun 21, 2013

Beer garden in Shiba Park; Turkish cuisine at Hilton Nagoya; photo exhibit at ANA Tokyo

Prince hotel beer garden in Shiba Park
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / ABE'S PROMISES
Jun 20, 2013

Dilemma: How to shed white elephants' red ink?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing for an alternative type of public works project that allows private-sector entities to finance, construct and then operate infrastructure facilities.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 20, 2013

'Special exhibition on the 120th anniversary of Ryukyu Shimpo; 42 tumultuous years in Okinawa, as seen through the eyes of photojournalists'

Hiroaki Yamashiro, three-time winner of the Kyushu-Okinawa photojournalist association award, has been documenting Okinawa's history, its vanishing culture and rare aspects of its nature for more than 40 years.
Reader Mail
Jun 20, 2013

Globalization? So much blather

Regarding the June 16 editorial, "Too many inward-looking students": As a retired professor, I still teach part time at two supposedly elite institutions. Frankly I am looking forward to giving it all up so that I will no longer have to gnash my aging teeth over students who seem to cultivate blissful...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 18, 2013

'Big data' — a digital sea of personal info ripe for the taking?

Shop at Amazon.com and one automatically receives recommendations on books and other items based on previous queries and purchases. Similarly, checking a Facebook entry causes ads for local products and services to pop up.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jun 18, 2013

Finnish diplomat pushes child-rearing for dads

For Finnish diplomat Mikko Koivumaa, being an ikumen (men who take an active role in ikuji, or child rearing) comes naturally.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 17, 2013

After Newtown shooting, mourning parents enter into the lonely quiet

They had promised to try everything, so Mark Barden went down into the basement to begin another project in memory of Daniel. The families of Sandy Hook Elementary were collaborating on a Mother's Day card, which would be produced by a marketing firm and mailed to hundreds of politicians across the country....
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 16, 2013

Occasionally Japan's glass ceiling is smashed

Someday people will look back in astonishment at the way society treated women.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 16, 2013

Family-crest master fears he's one of a dying breed

Dressed in a black kimono and wearing a pair of eye-catching black, triple-framed spectacles, Shoryu Hatoba straightens his back as he sits on the tatami floor of his quaint studio in Ueno, central Tokyo, holding a pair of bamboo compasses fitted with a brush dipped in ink in place of a pencil.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 16, 2013

Humble true tales of a 'good man'

The journals of Kenjiro Setoue, a doctor at a clinic on a small Kyushu island, chronicle a life that is, as the doctor himself notes, for the most part, unexciting. It is difficult to believe that a version of this life has been retold — and, one has to believe, embellished — in an ongoing series...
Reader Mail
Jun 16, 2013

'Mysogynists' hijacking Japan

Regarding the June 8 Kyodo article "Forcibly recruited Korean sex slaves a myth: lawmaker": Swarms of Japanese misogynistic morons seem to inhabit the Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party). Is there something in the water?
Reader Mail
Jun 16, 2013

Condition of the Crown Princess

The June 11 Kyodo story "Crown Prince marks two decades of marriage, happy wife is on the mend" continues the parade of euphemisms about the Crown Princess and the Imperial Household Agency.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 16, 2013

Real-life celebrity drama; the Akihabara idol underground; CM of the week: Asahi Soft Drinks

The Takashimas were once the first family of Japanese show business. Tadao Takashima was a popular stage musical actor in the 1960s and Hanayo Sumi a star in the Takarazuka all-female musical revue company. They married and were celebrated as a "sweet couple," producing two sons who went on to acting...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2013

Snowden Web manga profile still online

Edward Snowden has become the world's hot-button item since divulging that the U.S. National Security Agency has engaged in a massive spying effort targeting Americans and individuals overseas, touching off one of the country's most explosive intelligence scandals of recent years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 15, 2013

Time for a fresh look at the life and art of L.S. Lowry

In a somewhat stark meeting room at Tate Britain, the curators of its forthcoming L.S. Lowry show, T.J. Clark and Anne M. Wagner, are attempting, at my request, to extol the artist's virtues to me. It's a complicated business. For one thing, I have the impression that they regard enthusiasm as infra...
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2013

Reconstruction official canned, blasted for tweets

Disaster victims and Diet lawmakers vented their outrage Friday over disparaging comments by a senior Reconstruction Agency official via his Twitter account that got him the sack.
Events / KANSAI: WHO & WHAT
Jun 15, 2013

Enjoy a Zimbabwe lecture-concert combo

A lecture and concert related to Zimbabwe will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Nagoya on Saturday.

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