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Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 2, 2013

Man uses thought to control robotic leg via rerouted nerves

A man missing his lower leg has gained precise control over a prosthetic limb just by thinking about moving it — all because his unused nerves were preserved during the amputation and rerouted to his thigh, where they can be used to communicate with a robotic leg.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 2, 2013

U.S. shutdown damages political system, but Republicans seen at greater risk

There will be plenty of collateral damage from the government shutdown that began early Tuesday — from federal workers to ordinary citizens — but the most serious effects are likely to be felt inside a Republican Party that appears divided and in need of leadership.
LIFE / Digital
Oct 1, 2013

Apple has a secret weapon in iOS7, iPhone5s

When Steve Jobs was still with us, many commentators — yours truly included — used to complain about the "reality distortion field" that surrounded Apple's charismatic leader. Those in attendance when Jobs launched the devices and services (iPod, iTunes, OS X, iMac, MacBook, iPhone and iPad) that...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 1, 2013

World perplexed by U.S. shutdown

As the U.S. government creaked toward a shutdown Monday, the world looked on with a little anxiety and a lot of dismay, and some people had trouble suppressing smirks.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2013

China to foil skeptics again

China's eagerly anticipated 'hard landing' hasn't happened yet, and recent indicators make one wonder if it ever will. Maybe China's skeptics should be viewed more skeptically.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 30, 2013

Foreign iPhone fans, be aware of Softbank's two-year visa rule

Softbank requires that you have at least two years remaining on your visa if you wish to pay for a new iPhone handset in monthly installments rather than fork out for the whole lot up front.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Sep 30, 2013

Troop command top issue as Hagel visits South Korea

Sixty years after the end of the Korean War, the United States and South Korea still cannot agree on who should take charge if another war breaks out with the communist neighbor to the north.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2013

Best, brightest and least productive?

Financial traders and speculators help to allocate society's resources to the most promising businesses. But these people's activities also impose costs on the rest of us.
BASKETBALL
Sep 28, 2013

Alvark beat Brex to get NBL up and running

The Toyota Motors Alvark Tokyo got off to a strong start in the inaugural National Basketball League as they prevailed both offensively and defensively in a 86-78 victory over the Link Tochigi Brex at Yoyogi National Gymnasium No. 2 on Saturday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Sep 28, 2013

Solitude is where you find it

Under cartoon-blue skies washed by early-autumn typhoons, I stand at Sendaizaka-ue (summit of Sendaizaka Slope) in Tokyo's Minato Ward. Sendaizaka was named for daimyo lords from Edo Period (1603-1867) Sendai, now in Miyagi Prefecture, who maintained a yashiki (suburban home) on the slope that today...
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2013

Where's the sense of duty?

Amid reports of track repairs left untended for up to a year, one wonders whether employees of JR Hokkaido have a clear sense of duty to protect the lives of passengers.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 27, 2013

Nippon Ishin's future seen riding on Sakai mayor race

Sunday's mayoral contest in Sakai, one of Japan's most independent-minded cities, is expected to decide not only the fate of a plan to merge Osaka prefectural cities into a single administrative entity, but also the fate of national-level efforts to create a new opposition party.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 27, 2013

'There will be people who walk out of the cinema, I'm sure'

In a drab building in central Scotland, one afternoon in the armpit of winter, an actor who looks a lot like nice-guy James McAvoy is persuading a room full of blokes to — I'm paraphrasing here — Xerox their cocks.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2013

Tepco finds chinks around two bolts in leaky tank

Tokyo Electric manages to uncover bolt chinks in the storage tank from which 300 tons of highly radioactive water escaped with barely a trace last month.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2013

Chawan: Simply, some of the hardest works of pottery to create

In the world of Japanese traditional ceramics there is not one form held in higher esteem than a chawan, a "mere" bowl used to serve whipped green tea.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2013

'Tokyo Art Meeting: Bunny Smash — Design to Touch the World'

As part of the Tokyo Culture Creation Project, this exhibition focuses on how expressions in contemporary art and design can inspire each other and society. It spotlights 21 groups of artists, designers and architects from around the globe, all of whom create works inspired by the information-saturated...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 25, 2013

Dommune takes a new direction with My Bloody Valentine gig

Noise — vast, enveloping noise — is at the core of My Bloody Valentine's music. Halfway through "You Made Me Realise," the quartet lands on a single chord that proceeds to suck the entire song into a gawping, sense-scrambling maw of distortion. On the 1988 recorded version of the track, this "holocaust...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2013

Odds for Assad spike higher

It was already looking likely that President Bashar Assad's regime would survive. But the events of the past two weeks have made it virtually certain.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 23, 2013

Smells can help dispel fear factor

It can take only an instant for fear to take hold in the brain — a fear of snakes after being bitten, or of water after witnessing a drowning — and overcoming that fear can take a long time. But now researchers are saying it can be done in your sleep.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2013

Balancing freedom, security

The U.K. is not anywhere near George Orwell's 'big brother society,' but we all need to be alert to maintaining a fair balance between security and of freedom.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 22, 2013

Computer pioneer getting a reboot

A founding father of the modern computer, Alan Turing devised a machine that unraveled Nazi codes and aided the defeat of Adolf Hitler. Convicted of homosexuality after World War II and sentenced to chemical castration, Turing — an avid fan of the film "Snow White" — was found dead in 1954 from cyanide...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 21, 2013

After the bid, critics sound off on Olympics

During the week following the announcement in Buenos Aires that Tokyo would host the 2020 Olympic Games, the Japanese media was saturated with news of the capital's celebratory reaction. NHK, which will broadcast the Games, was particularly enthusiastic, leading every news report with a long Olympic-related...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2013

How poverty harms people's mental resources

In a series of U.S. studies, it's been found that being poor, and having to manage serious financial problems, can be a lot like going through life with no sleep.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 21, 2013

Protagonist returns with the burdens of later life

In popular Irish mythology it's often said that the seeds of the Celtic Tiger were sown shortly after Italia '90, when the country's team reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup soccer tournament for the first time.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 21, 2013

Savvy pope wooing the Catholic middle

On Thursday, Pope Francis said in a historic interview that the Catholic Church talks too much about abortion. The following day, he gave his most forceful anti-abortion comments to date. What's the strategy here?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 20, 2013

DoCoMo's entry ups iPhone frenzy

The latest iPhone models hit store shelves Friday in Japan, drawing hordes of fans to retailers nationwide, while mobile giant NTT DoCoMo Inc. started selling the iconic handsets for the first time.

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