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Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 28, 2017

Bee research may redefine understanding of intelligence

The brain of a honeybee is tiny — the size of a pin head — and contains less than a million neurons, compared to the 85 billion in our own brains. Yet with that sliver of brain, bees can do some extraordinary things. They can count and interpret abstract patterns. Most famously, bees have the ability...
Japan Times
CULTURE
Nov 25, 2017

Japan's geisha battle to protect their future

A handful of traditional female entertainers across the country are experimenting with innovative ways of preserving their culture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Nov 25, 2017

Designer Takeshi Nishio prefers 'cute' to 'cool'

'Kawaii' has more sense of affection than 'kakkoii,' says designer Nishio.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2017

How would the U.S. look built from scratch?

Our leaders fail us in innumerable ways, but perhaps their worst sin is to accept things the way they are simply because that's the way they have always been.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 23, 2017

A ruff guide to Seeing Eye dogs in Japan

Ariel is a devoted labrador. Named after the title character in Disney's "The Little Mermaid," Ariel can’t get enough of her user, 37-year-old Kanako Suzuki. Ariel rolls on her back, begging to be petted, and when Suzuki joins her on the floor, the animal jumps onto her lap — all 24 kilograms of...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Sep 6, 2017

Views from Tokyo: Will Mike Pence soon replace Donald Trump as U.S. president?

Americans in Tokyo were asked if their vice president might soon be forced to step up and take the helm, as Gerald Ford did in 1974 when Richard Nixon resigned.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 6, 2017

Documentarian Megumi Sasaki hopes to bring balance to the story of Taiji in 'A Whale of a Tale'

At the 2010 Academy Awards, a film titled "The Cove" won the Oscar for best documentary. It was a proud moment for producers Fisher Stevens and Paula DuPre Pesmen, director Louie Psihoyos and activist Ric O'Barry, all of whom got on stage to accept the award. It was also the start of an onslaught of...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 9, 2017

Budding inventors find encouragement in Sony's Seed Accelerator Program

Sony Corp., which is emerging from five years of brutal restructuring that gutted its workforce and product lineup, wants to show off a few new things.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 7, 2017

J-pop duo Scott & Rivers on writing Japanese lyrics

When American musician Scott Murphy first came to Japan in 2001, he could only say a few phrases in Japanese.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Jul 17, 2017

NPB should do more to spice up All-Star experience

The final round of the Home Run Derby that preceded Game 1 of the NPB All-Star Series on Friday ended with a 4-4 tie and the player declared as the winner, via tiebreaker, looking around in confusion. It was yet another example that Japanese baseball needs to head back to the drawing board in its approach...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jul 9, 2017

Tokyo filling the shoes of European artisans

While Yohei Fukuda was learning the art of shoemaking in London in the early 2000s he applied to work at John Lobb, one of the oldest and most prestigious footwear firms in the world. He was offered a position, but was asked if he would accept payment in shoes — not money. Somewhat taken aback, Fukuda...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2017

Foreign IT workers seen as solution to industry shortage

There is a rising demand for IT engineers in Japan as many point out there is a shortage of such professionals domestically. An estimate shows that Japan will face a shortage of close to 600,000 IT-related professionals by 2030.
Japan Times
Rugby
Jun 24, 2017

Ireland routs Japan for sweep

Ireland beat Japan 35-13 on Saturday to sweep their two-game series despite a rousing second-half performance by the 2019 Rugby World Cup hosts.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 16, 2017

Quantum computing, the machines of tomorrow

It is a sunny Tuesday morning in late March at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center. The corridor from the reception area follows the long, curving glass curtain-wall that looks out over the visitors' parking lot to leafless trees covering a distant hill in Yorktown Heights, New York, an hour north...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 8, 2017

Ginza's new noh theater seeks to break down cultural barriers

The Kanze Noh Theater reopened in April in Ginza Six, a new upscale shopping complex in central Tokyo that seeks to attract domestic and foreign audiences to a wide range of the country's traditional performing arts.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jun 4, 2017

JBA creates support system for national squad

Having missed out on the chance to play in its first Olympics in over four decades in 2016, and with the Summer Games heading to Japan in 2020, the Japan Basketball Association has made it a priority to do whatever possible in order to restore the strength of the men’s team.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2017

Dustin Wong is open to opinion on his latest album with Takako Minekawa

Musician Dustin Wong returned to Japan five years ago and, despite having grown up here, he encountered a few cultural differences after coming back.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Apr 17, 2017

Carp fireballer Jackson keeping eyes firmly on prize

Jay Jackson went through a lot in 2016. The reliever pitched in more games than he ever had in his professional career and experienced the highs of helping the Hiroshima Carp win the Central League pennant and the lows of falling short in the Japan Series.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Apr 8, 2017

Suzuki shines for South Georgia Tech

The South Georgia Technical College women's basketball team has quietly built a stellar program in recent years. With a vision and purposeful planning, coach James Frey, in his fifth season at the helm, and his staff have recruited smartly and found players, from near and far, including Japan, who fit...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Apr 5, 2017

AI will never replace human interaction, forum speakers say

Will there be a time in the not-so-distant future when people won't need to learn a second language — instead relying on machine translation powered by artificial intelligence to interpret real-time conversations?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 4, 2017

Envy, Mono and Downy devise a dream lineup for After Hours music festival

It's no secret that the Japanese music industry has a hollowing-out problem; you are either a pop act on a major label with high levels of exposure or an obscure underground act for whom not losing money on a show is a major success. Guitarist Nobukata Kawai of hardcore band Envy knows the latter reality...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2017

For Britain, the real work on Brexit starts now

On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May began Britain's exit from the European Union by invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Feb 22, 2017

Standing up to alienation on Tokyo's comedy scene

Japan is an easy place to foster self-delusion, and a failure at comedy is like a bucket of ice water to the face.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jan 28, 2017

Photographer John Paul Foster: 'Little details separate a good photograph from a great one'

American photographer on geisha cluture and the art of taking a great picture.
Japan Times
Rugby
Jan 15, 2017

Rugby star Pocock preparing to swap Japan for African wilderness

Australian rugby star David Pocock has enjoyed locking horns with the big beasts of Japan's Top League since joining the Panasonic Wild Knights in December.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 31, 2016

New year, new you: What to expect personally and professionally in the Year of the Rooster

If you haven't made a New Year's resolution or have been too busy for the customary ōsōji (big cleanup) this holiday season, there is still time, according to feng shui. Under the Chinese philosophical system, the new year is marked by the lunar, rather than Gregorian, or solar, calendar, giving us...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Dec 21, 2016

Quotes of 2016, from 'Die, Japan' to 'Trump shock'

Some of the good, bad and ugly of what various people said or shouted out loud in 2016.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / B. League / B. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 8, 2016

Teamwork has Tochigi flourishing

Camaraderie pays off for successful teams.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Dec 7, 2016

So you want to write about Japan?: the 10 essential tips

Having taken the daring — not reckless or avoidant — step of leaving your home country, you now have a million stories to tell.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 6, 2016

Thank God it's Wednesday: Kom_I and her band are shaking up Japan's pop scene

Kom_I, the lead singer of electro-pop trio Suiyoubi no Campanella, could very well be the personification of the term "free spirit."

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