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Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Jun 30, 2013

Cultural agency doles out awards to those promoting Japan

Twelve distinguished figures, including eight foreigners, received awards Friday from the Cultural Affairs Agency for their efforts in cultural exchange and promotion of Japanese culture abroad.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 29, 2013

Opposition slams ruling bloc on jobs deregulation

Major party leaders held their first online debate Friday ahead of the July 21 Upper House election, with opposition chiefs voicing concern that ruling bloc-proposed employment deregulation may further worsen the working conditions of younger generations.
Events / KANSAI: WHO & WHAT
Jun 29, 2013

Yoshino temple to hold pair of ceremonies

Visitors to Kimpusenji Temple in Yoshino, Nara Prefecture, will be able to enjoy two ceremonies next Friday: "Renge-e," the offering of lotus flowers to the temple's principal image, and "kaeru tobi" frog-jumping.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jun 28, 2013

Nash set for second season at Toyama

The Toyama Grouses solidified their chance of being a quality playoff contender again next season by securing the services of head coach Bob Nash and veteran guards Masashi Joho and Takeshi Mito for the 2013-14 campaign.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2013

Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki adventure still inspires

In 1947, Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl was a 33-year-old anthropologist and marine biologist who had recently finished a stint fighting in World War II (he served in the Free Norwegian Forces).
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 28, 2013

Reptiles take center stage at scaly sale

Going to the zoo is a great way to spend time with the family, but in this season the idea of trudging through the heat to stare at exhausted animals may be taxing. The annual Reptiles Fever, however, will be like going to a zoo indoors — and you could bring home one of the animals.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 27, 2013

Sincerity is the new ecstasy in Funkot's 'Summer of Love'

At the end of the 1980s, British DJs imported a potent new style of house music from the Spanish party island Ibiza in what came to be known as the ecstasy-fueled "Second Summer of Love." Inspired by this trade route two decades later, Katsumi Takano, aka Mandokoro or DJ Jet Baron, hopes to launch a...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 27, 2013

Abe's fixations threaten newfound unified approach on North Korea

Just as U.S. President Barack Obama seeks a united front to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe threatens to go rogue.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 26, 2013

Disaster-relief volunteer networks are essential

Takashi Yamamoto, 42, president of Peace Boat Disaster Relief Volunteer Center, is Japan's leading expert on volunteer disaster-relief activities. In 1995, when he was a staffer of the educational cruise ship Peace Boat, Yamamoto began working on disaster relief for Kobe after the Great Hanshin Earthquake...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 25, 2013

Authors take polar-opposite tacks as they try to decipher Japanese women

It's an all-too-familiar story: On the romantic front, foreign ladies living in Japan have it bad while the guys do unbelievably well. For every woman who complains about Japanese men's aloofness and lack of communication skills, there is a man who boasts about all the local chicks he's had.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 25, 2013

Tokyo: Do you think conscription — in Japan or elsewhere — is a good thing or a bad idea?

I think conscription is a bad idea because we always say people are equal and can do what they want, and I myself am all for liberty and freedom of choice. To that end, people, whoever they are, must be able to do what they want, and if they don't want to [join the military], that is quite alright.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 25, 2013

'Yellow fever' and the fantasy of the Asian female

Here is a dumb thing you should never do: watch the 007 caper "You Only Live Twice" with your feminist American girlfriend — a woman of color to boot. In a series renowned for its sexism, the Japan entry takes the biscuit.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 25, 2013

Tweak the Constitution now, think later?

Whether it happens or not depends heavily on the results of the upcoming House of Councilors elections, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has clearly announced his intention to make amending the Constitution a campaign issue.
COMMUNITY
Jun 25, 2013

Western men, on Japanese women: book excerpts

• From "Understanding Japanese Women: Taking the Mystery Out of the Mysterious Women of Japan" by David J. Radtke:
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 24, 2013

State photo-ID databases become troves for police

The faces of more than 120 million people are in searchable photo databases that state officials assembled to prevent driver's license fraud but that increasingly are used by police to identify suspects, accomplices and even innocent bystanders in a wide range of criminal investigations.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 24, 2013

Is Rand Paul going mainstream, or is mainstream going Rand Paul?

Rand Paul seems to be crossing over to the mainstream — or maybe it's the other way around. When Kentucky's junior senator arrived in Washington just over two years ago, he seemed destined to inhabit the role of perpetual outlier. But now, he's in the mix on just about everything that is happening,...
EDITORIALS
Jun 24, 2013

A moderate wins in Tehran

Hassan Rowhani's victory in Iran's presidential election was a surprise, but don't expect this 'moderate' to radically alter the country's course.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2013

Asia's developing frontier with Latin America

As the U.S. economy struggles, trade within the Forum for East Asia and Latin American Cooperation has grown 20% on average in a decade.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 23, 2013

North Korea occupies Fukuoka in Murakami's alternate world

Not to be confused with another famous Japanese novelist who has the same surname, Ryu Murakami is known for being an overtly political, even subversive, writer. "From the Fatherland, With Love," his latest novel to be translated into English, cements that reputation. Taking place in an alternate world...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 23, 2013

Happiness: Abenomics falls short

What makes people happy? The global trend toward quantifying happiness certainly got a big boost from Bhutan, the tiny Himalayan kingdom that has championed and made a cottage industry out of the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH).
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 22, 2013

Vienna embraces the culture of the bicycle

On the Praterstern, where cars, buses and trams converge from several busy streets on a road that loops around Vienna's central train station, a new digital counter stands under the eye of the Riesenrad Ferris wheel.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 22, 2013

Black Cubans still struggle against discrimination

An independent movement for racial equality in Cuba is a refutation of the idea that, after a half-century in power, communism has delivered equality.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 21, 2013

In electronic snooping, level of oversight is key

Americans are learning what electronics whizzes and hackers have known all along — that computers and smartphones, which make our lives more productive and entertaining, have at the same time ended privacy as most of us have understood it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 21, 2013

'Gone'

The conceit of this movie is that an entire community and police force refuse to believe the gorgeous Amanda Seyfried when she tells them an abductor and killer of women is in their midst. What is wrong with them? Maybe Seyfried is just too gorgeous to take seriously, what with her perfectly streaked...
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2013

Global warming danger zone

The Japanese general public's interest in the global warming issue has been sagging of late, and few LDP government leaders appear ready to try to prop it up.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / IN THE RECORD
Jun 20, 2013

In the record bag: Mark Birtles

Born in Nottingham, England, Mark Birtles began DJing in Leeds before coming to Japan in 2008. He is one half of the Tokyo Indie events team, which has hosted DJ gigs with touring bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Metronomy, Mystery Jets and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He let us have a look in his record bag and...

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