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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 22, 2015

Improv pioneers Pirates of Tokyo Bay plan big bilingual birthday bash

The Pirates of Tokyo Bay, who claim to be the capital's only bilingual comedy group, have been bridging cultures through humor since 2010.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 12, 2015

DPJ on the rocks amid calls for merger with Ishin no To

Japan's largest opposition party appears to be in danger of falling apart as some core members demand it merge with Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party).
EDITORIALS
Nov 7, 2015

Child porn law remains too lax

Despite revisions last year, Japan's child pornography laws remain weak and their enforcement lax.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 2, 2015

A pocketful of Japanese immersion is just a few key taps away

Changing your phone into Japanese will drastically increase your exposure to the written language.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 26, 2015

Why the Hanshin Tigers play in a stadium named after rats

Exploring the weird and wonderful animal kingdom and the roots of critters' kanji.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2015

Tokyo film festival ups its domestic fare

The 28th edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival, which began yesterday, is the biggest event on the Japanese film calendar. And like any such event, TIFF has had its share of critics over the years.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 14, 2015

Israel's house demolitions a human rights abuse

Israel's practice of demolishing the homes of Palestinians has no deterrent value and denies their residents the basic right to live in peace.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2015

War on Islamic State has given Jordan new life

Tiny, oil-poor Jordan has parlayed the war against Islamic State into tangible gains.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 7, 2015

Detective mystery in Tokyo; child soldiers of World War II; CM of the Week: Toyota

Actor Sho Aikawa used to be the king of straight-to-video movies. He's now all over the place, and stars as officer Ken Kobayashi in the occasional mystery series, "Setagaya Chuzai Keiji" ("Setagaya Police Substation Detective"; TBS, Mon., 9 p.m.).
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 28, 2015

Henoko base eventually will be used by the SDF

Japan's Self-Defense Forces are drawing up a plan that would eventually turn the planned Henoko base in Okinawa into an SDF facility.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2015

America can learn from Israel's gun culture

Despite the hundreds of thousands of guns legally and illegally owned in Israel, Israelis kill each other with firearms at a small fraction of the rate of Americans.
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Jun 29, 2015

Sitting on the fence in Japanese depends on these sentence patterns

Sore-wa ashita-no tenki-ni yorimasu-ne (It depends on tomorrow's weather.)
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2015

Defining the contribution of engineering to society

Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 23, 2015

Young British directors take Tokyo by storm — but why?

This year it's quite noticeable how many non-Japanese are directing plays in Tokyo — not frequent and famed visitors such as David Leveaux, Robert Lepage and Simon McBurney, but relative unknowns here making their debuts at two leading large commercial theaters that almost always feature Japanese dramatists....
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 22, 2015

When too much is not enough, just dial up the 'sugiru'

When something is in excess, English commonly uses the adverb 'too.' Japanese expresses similar things with the verb 'sugiru.'
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jun 19, 2015

Age no obstacle as Wakisaka chases dream

Four years before Japan midfielder Homare Sawa became the first player in soccer to appear in six consecutive World Cups, Yasuo Wakisaka was the only player to participate in all four world championships of another version of football, American football that is.
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Jun 10, 2015

Halilhodzic looking to build on strong start as qualifiers begin

It would be unthinkable for Japan to begin its 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign with anything other than a win at home to Singapore next Tuesday, but manager Vahid Halilhodzic will be looking for more from his team than just three points.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Jun 8, 2015

Though you may think you don't need to know mono-no, you do

Today we will introduce the proper use of 'Xu3082u306eu306eY,' which is used to connect contrasting phrases.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 22, 2015

Hashimoto likely to continue political career, but in what role?

In the fall of 2007, Osaka's political leaders faced a problem.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 20, 2015

Keiichi Hara's new animation honors Hokusai's daughter

Ukiyo-e master Katsushika Hokusai is one of Japan's best-known artists. His print "The Great Wave off Kanagawa," with its giant blue wave curling over a tiny Mount Fuji, is seen on T-shirts and coffee mugs around the world. Given his multifarious talent, vast energy and long life — Hokusai died in...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 18, 2015

With yoji jukugo, four little characters can say so much

Saying it in four characters seems to be a pervasive stylistic device permeating all areas of life in Japan, from the pedestrian to the profound.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 14, 2015

Maya Inoue makes a play to refine her father's theatrical legacy

Hisashi Inoue's death at the age of 75 on April 9, 2010, at his home in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, was a major event in the postwar Japanese theater world. It moved many dramatists to stage works by the great author and playwright who combined comedy and searing social and political commentary into...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
May 8, 2015

Bite-size orchestra gets a standing ovation at Savory in Kyoto

Restaurants tend not to encourage you to play games while you eat. Customers usually pay for a solemn experience that includes an unwritten rule: The more expensive the meal, the more solemn the experience.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
May 2, 2015

Garden states: looking good on the outside

One problem with designing your own house is that you don't necessarily know what it's going to be like until it's finished. The company we hired to build ours doesn't make model homes the way some housing companies do. It's one of the reasons we chose them, since models add to the price of the product....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Apr 19, 2015

Historically, Japan is no stranger to blacks, nor to blackface

I am a black Japanese half. I was bullied because of my skin color in elementary school, so I have a strong complex about my skin color. If Japanese truly adored blacks, it wouldn't bother me. But do Momokuro really adore blacks? I think if you asked them if they wished they had been born black, they...
LIFE
Apr 18, 2015

State of the reunion: Evaluating the Hague pact's success

As most parents know, there is nothing quite so life changing as having children. Imagine the pain a parent feels, then, if their children are taken from them. Now imagine the shock a parent feels if the person who abducted their children was their own spouse, a trusted partner who fled the country and...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2015

Why economic sanctions on Russia don't work

The more the West increases its economic pressure against Russia, the less likely it becomes that Russians will engage in dissent against the Putin regime.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 23, 2015

Any attempt to scale Japan's mountain of rules is doomed

In England of the distant past, the word "doom" was a legal term, referring to a judgment imposing a punishment. Some etymological sources suggest it has common roots with the Sanskrit "dharma," a deeply complex word that can refer to customary social duties or divine law, depending upon the religious...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Feb 7, 2015

Dice-K could face rocky transition

Video of Daisuke Matsuzaka pitching in the bullpen on Thursday, posted online by the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, revealed nothing spectacular or particularly revelatory. If anything, Matsuzaka resembled the pitcher he's always been.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.