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BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Apr 8, 2013

Apps bring opportunities, transform lives of Africans

For generations, breeding cows in the rural highlands of Kenya has hinged on knowledge and experience passed down from parents to children. But Mercy Wanjiku is unlike most farmers. Her most powerful tool is her cellphone, and a text messaging service called iCow.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 29, 2012

From an underdog in the U.S. to Japan's top dog

Two years ago, 32-year-old director/translator Eriko Ogawa returned to Japan after 10 years in New York and presented a riveting production of "The Late Henry Moss," Sam Shepard's 2000 Pulitzer prize-winning tale of loves and hatreds in a frontier family way out West.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 13, 2010

'Sambo' racism row reignites over kids' play

"Little Black Sambo, Sambo, Sambo/His face and hands are completely black/Even his butt is completely black."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 7, 2008

Multiple interpretations of a tale told in many forms

ENVISIONING "THE TALE OF GENJI": Media, Gender, and Cultural Production, edited by Haruo Shirane. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008, 400 pp., 11 color plates, 66 b/w illustrations, $32.50 (paper) "The Tale of Genji," Murasaki Shikibu's long monogatari, upwards of a thousand pages in translation,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 29, 2006

A reliquary for the story of Buddha

BUDDHISM: On the Path to Nirvana, by Swati Chopra, foreword by Lokesh Chandra, photo editor Lance Dane. New Delhi: Brijbasi Art Press, Ltd., 2005, 160 pp., 200 color photos, $35 (cloth). The true accomplishments of any leader are often compromised when legend wraps itself around the man himself. This...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 17, 2003

Lost in translation

A few summers ago, while on an obligatory trip back to my homeland, I found myself at the center of the attention of a small crowd of curious Canadians.
CULTURE / Books
May 13, 1999

Miyazawa comes to life for young English readers

GAUCHE THE CELLIST; SNOW CROSSING; THE STORY OF THE ZASHIKI BOKKO and Three Poems; THE RESTAURANT OF MANY ORDERS (4 vols. with four CDs and read-along booklet in English and Japanese), by Kenji Miyazawa, translated by Roger Pulvers, illustrated by Osamu Tsukasa. Tokyo: Labo Teaching Information Center,...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2023

Dreams of replacing humans in finance may come true

We’re a long way from AI taking over Wall Street, but two credible studies suggest there’s no reason to think it can’t.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 18, 2023

Alarmed by AI chatbots, universities start revamping how they teach

In response to the increased student use of ChatGPT, colleges and universities are restructuring some courses and taking preventive measures.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 16, 2022

When breaking up in Japanese, be sure to give up the ghosting

It's hard to break up with someone in any language, but the inclination toward “ghosting” may make one side feel even worse.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 8, 2022

Judge slams Elon Musk for not handing over texts in Twitter fight

Delaware Chancery Judge Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick said in a ruling there there were 'glaring deficiencies” in how Musk responded to Twitter's request for text messages.
A Ukrainian soldier stands guard next to Odesa's famous statue of the city's founder, Duke de Richelieu, in March 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2023

Russia should be expelled from UNESCO

UNESCO has condemned Russia’s attacks across Ukraine. It should go further, expelling Russia for as long as the Kremlin continues its criminal behavior.
New Paraguayan President Santiago Pena (left) shakes hands with Taiwanese Vice President Lai Ching-te at the presidential residence in Asuncion, Paraguay, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Aug 16, 2023

Lai’s Paraguay trip shows Taipei’s embrace of diplomatic partners

The visit has also reignited a hotly debated topic in Taiwan — whether the struggle with China over diplomatic recognition is still worth it.
If you've come to the realization that divorce is the only way forward, there are a host of details about the Japanese marriage system to confirm before you're finally ready to cut ties.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Aug 21, 2023

Navigating the notorious gauntlet of divorce in Japan

Everyone wishes for “happily ever after” no matter where you’re from, but Japan recorded 1,671 bicultural divorces in 2021.
A screen shows an image of Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers in Beijing in August last year. The PLA's newspaper recently explained to its readers how ChatGPT can be used for military purposes.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Sep 12, 2023

Will generative AI hold power in international relations?

The technology has the ability to create influential text and imagery, giving it power to potentially sway public opinion.
Split over the leadership of Sam Altman, board members and executives at OpenAI turned on one another. Their brawl exposed the cracks at the heart of the artificial intelligence movement.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 11, 2023

Inside OpenAI’s crisis over the future of artificial intelligence

From the moment it was created in 2015, OpenAI was primed to combust.
A woman who is against the proposed new constitution holds up a banner as she reacts to results of the referendum on a new Chilean constitution, in Santiago on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 18, 2023

Weary Chileans reject second proposed constitution

With 99% of votes counted in the referendum, 56% rejected the text while 44% backed the document.
A pedestrian walks past a theatre promoting the "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" show in the West End district of London in 2020.
WORLD / Society
Dec 27, 2023

Researchers draw on Harry Potter to magic future AI into our world

The books’ enduring influence, wide range of language and complex wordplay make them particularly valuable for work on generative artificial intelligence.
Rie Qudan speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday after being awarded the Akutagawa Prize.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 19, 2024

Akutagawa Prize draws controversy after win for work that used ChatGPT

Rie Qudan won Japan’s most important prize for early career writers for “Tokyo-to Dojo-to,” a novel that “exposes the prophecy of the AI generation.”
From sending too many emojis than your partner might be expecting to delaying a response in order to avoid seeming overeager, the texting portion of a young relationship is unexpectedly fraught with peril.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 23, 2024

The subtle art of texting your crush for the first time

Gen Z dating app users are 50% more likely than millennials to delay responding to a message "to avoid seeming overeager.”
Since the original 2010 release, visual novel series Danganronpa has spawned eight mainline games (and several other titles) for a total 5 million copies sold worldwide.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Apr 6, 2024

Are visual novels ready for a great leap forward?

Where reaction time and manual reflexes are in other genres, visual novels prize critical thinking and the ability to interpret characters’ motivations.
Ippei Mizuhara and Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani attend a news conference ahead of MLB's season-opening series in Seoul on March 16.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 12, 2024

Texts between Ippei Mizuhara and bookie show the walls closing in

Federal prosecutors say Ippei Mizuhara stole $16 million from Shohei Ohtani from November 2021 to January 2024.
Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks stand on a log as plastic bottles and trash float on the the El Cerron Grande reservoir in Potonico, El Salvador, in 2022.
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 22, 2024

Negotiations on global plastic treaty to resume in Canada

After promising to finalize a treaty by the end of this year, 175 countries are meeting in Canada from Tuesday to hammer out the details.
A man walks next to an office building of FSD (Fondation Suisse de Déminage), a nongovernmental humanitarian organization, damaged during a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on July 24.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 1, 2024

Russia vs Ukraine: the biggest war of the fake news era

More than three-quarters of the Ukrainian population get their news from social media, far more than any other source of information.
California Assemblymember Dr. Jasmeet Bains, the first Sikh-American politician to be elected in the California State Legislature, poses for a picture with fellow assembly member Sharon Quirk-Silva while attending a luncheon gathering in Artesia, California, on June 8.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 13, 2024

Some U.S. Sikhs fear Modi government is threatening them

Some Sikhs in the U.S. described experiencing online harassment and surveillance at their homes.
Google is appealing an Aug. 5 ruling that it illegally monopolized the markets of online search and search text ads but the presiding judge has ordered the start of plans for the second phase of the case, which will involve the government’s proposals for restoring competition, including a possible breakup request.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 14, 2024

U.S. considers a rare antitrust move: breaking up Google

If the breakup plan proceeds, the most likely units for divestment are the Android operating system and Chrome web browser.
In Hiromi Kawakami’s novel “The Third Love,” modern-day Tokyoite Riko travels between life in 19th-century Edo (old Tokyo) and the courts of the Heian Period, examining her relationship with her husband in the process.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 6, 2024

'The Third Love' is a time-bending meditation on romantic love

Hiromi Kawakami's novel draws from “The Tales of Ise" and “Takaoka’s Travels” to immerse readers in an intertextual exploration of who we are in and out of love.
A smartphone running ChatGPT4o as it tries to solve a geometry problem in San Francisco on May 28.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 20, 2024

OpenAI unveils new ChatGPT that can reason through math and science

The new technology is part of a wider effort to build AI that can reason through complex tasks.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?