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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
May 26, 2013

Wisteria wanderings in Kameido

Each year, I tell myself I have to make time to enjoy the famed trellises of wisteria blossoms at Kameido Tenjin in Tokyo's eastern Koto Ward. Then, I blow it. This year, I enlist my mother-in-law, who's savvy about such things, to get the timing just right. "It'll be really crowded," she warns.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
May 26, 2013

Sato aiming to return Japan spikers to glory

The Japan Volleyball Association appointed 58-year-old Gary Sato as the men's national team head coach in February. Sato is a fourth-generation Japanese-American and is the first foreign volleyball coach for Japan, men or women.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 26, 2013

Xenophobia stretches from the street to the dinner table

The territorial disputes between Japan and its nearest neighbors over the islands of Takeshima (Dokdo in Korean) and the Senkakus (Diaoyu in Chinese) have gradually faded from the front pages; but this does not necessarily mean there have been no repercussions.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 25, 2013

DoCoMo counting on R&D to stay ahead

NTT DoCoMo Inc., despite being Japan's biggest mobile phone carrier, has been struggling against tough smartphone competition from KDDI Corp. and Softbank Corp., which is leading in that area.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 25, 2013

Angelina Jolie: a brave woman and a role model

An article written by Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie provoked headlines around the world when she chose "not to keep my story private" and revealed she had undergone a double mastectomy to lower her risk of breast cancer, which was high due to her genetic inheritance. The impassioned letter, published...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
May 25, 2013

Geary's vision, drive keyed Yokohama's title run

There was something refreshing, interesting and fun about the Yokohama B-Corsairs from the beginning. It wasn't always the easiest thing to explain in a few short words.
JAPAN
May 25, 2013

People facing deportation file petition to stay

People who overstayed their visas in Japan, along with their families and supporters, submitted a petition Friday to the Justice Ministry asking that it refrain from deporting those who have established their lives here.
EDITORIALS
May 25, 2013

Challenge of a lifetime, again

Having conquered Mount Everest for the third time, Yuichiro Miura, 80, demonstrates the physical possibilities of human endurance while inspiring Japan's elderly.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
May 24, 2013

Fighting for their lives, local governments shell out for matchmaking services

In Itoigawa, Niigata, the government has begun subsidizing online dating service membership in an effort to pair up more locals.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
May 24, 2013

Chomp your way through spring

It's no surprise that the Japanese get serious about eating and drinking come late spring, as yatai food carts roll out, a bevy of fresh vegetables appear on restaurant menus and the annual festival season begins to heat up. This year is no different, with offerings that include a fried-chicken collaboration,...
JAPAN / Politics
May 23, 2013

Pyongyang aid hinged to abductees; report hints Noda was told of survivors

Tokyo will never provide economic aid to North Korea unless Pyongyang safely returns all the Japanese nationals its agents abducted to North Korea, the Cabinet minister in charge of the issue said in a written statement Wednesday released after a report surfaced suggesting some victims may still be alive....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
May 23, 2013

Nationalism rearing ugly head with greater frequency

Angry protesters took to the streets Sunday in Tokyo's Shin-Okubo district, home to many Korean shops and restaurants, describing the Korean residents there as 'cockroaches' and calling for their immediate 'extermination.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 23, 2013

June: Taicoclub, Tokyo Camp kick off festival season

Students are counting down the days till school lets out, while urban commuters are starting to sweat the impending heat. Summer is coming, and a sure sign of that is that music festivals are starting to kick up around the country.
Reader Mail
May 23, 2013

Inventors of human rights?

Jennifer Kim, in her letter of May 16, seems to be doing a bit of an Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto special. She appears to be suggesting that the mass murder of heretics [Cathars] was necessary at the time. She seems to take the apparent wrongness of their teaching — which supposedly took the anti-life...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
May 22, 2013

Apple used 'complex web' to avoid taxes, Senate inquiry finds

Apple used a "complex web" of offshore entities — with no employees or physical offices — that allowed it to pay little or no taxes on tens of billions it earned overseas, according to a Senate investigation unveiled Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2013

Five myths about Benghazi

The events surrounding the deaths of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, look dramatically different depending on your politics. Republicans tend to see a cover-up and a scandal. Democrats see an attempt to damage President Barack Obama and...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
May 21, 2013

Visa violators stage sit-in to stay

Visa violators kick off a five-day protest at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau to protest plans to deport overstayers en masse on planes.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 21, 2013

Avoid excuses, man up, Obama tells black graduates

President Barack Obama on Sunday summoned the graduates of historically black Morehouse College to "transform the way we think about manhood," urging the young men to avoid the temptation to make excuses and to take responsibility for their families and their communities.
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2013

Turkey's Erdogan undone by Obama and Assad

The car bombs that killed more than 40 people on May 11 in a town in southern Turkey are a reckoning for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 20, 2013

The rifleman: behind assault weapons' rise

Rene Carlos Vos, an arms dealer in Alexandria, Virginia, began hanging around the Washington headquarters of the National Rifle Association in the mid-1980s. The NRA's staff were intrigued to see the garrulous, back-slapping Vos in the group's seventh-floor suite, home to its lobbying operation and the...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 20, 2013

Yokohama captures first-ever bj-league title

One team's quest for a first title has ended. The other team's fight will continue next season.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 20, 2013

Captain Kabaya picks up MVP award

Masayuki Kabaya, the Yokohama B-Corsairs captain, knocked down five 3-pointers — all five attempts — in a mesmerizing 35-point performance that had fans from both teams dropping their jaws in astonishment.

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