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Reader Mail
Feb 10, 2013

Crying won't clean the slate

The Feb. 1 article, "AKB48 idol begs for fans' mercy after breaking dating ban" states that Minami Minegishi willingly shaved her head to beg forgiveness for breaking one of the group's rules. AKB48 has a strict rule prohibiting relationships, but Minegishi was reported to have left an actor's house....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 8, 2013

Life under the kotatsu — let the upper body fend for itself

I'll never forget my first winter in Japan when I heard that some Japanese people sleep under the kotatsu.
EDITORIALS
Feb 8, 2013

Mr. Kerry's challenges

Mr. John Kerry has been confirmed as the United States secretary of state and has officially taken office. Although his predecessor, Ms. Hillary Clinton, left a big legacy to live up to, the five-term senator from Massachusetts is well suited for the job. Mr. Kerry's new post caps a distinguished political...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Feb 8, 2013

New lobby at Ritz-Carlton, Osaka; grill your own pancakes; Valentine's Day dinner with roses

Ritz-Carlton, Osaka renews lobby
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 7, 2013

Obama urges deal to avoid 'sequester'

President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged Congress to head off deep, automatic spending cuts set to hit the Pentagon and other federal agencies on March 1 and replace them, at least for a few months, with a new debt-reduction package that includes fresh tax revenue.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 7, 2013

Leak fuels row over U.S. targeted killings

President Barack Obama's plan to install his counterterrorism adviser as head of the CIA has opened the administration to new scrutiny over the targeted-killing policies it has fought to keep hidden from the public, as well as the existence of a previously secret drone base in Saudi Arabia.
EDITORIALS
Feb 7, 2013

Smaller pieces of the pie

The Abe administration is slicing ¥390 billion off last year's budget for central government grants to local governments, and calling for lower wages.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 4, 2013

Cyclists who flout law face charges

Traffic accidents have witnessed an overall decline in recent years, but the percentage of cases involving bicycles is on the rise. National Police Agency data show bicycles were involved in 20.8 percent of all traffic accidents in 2011, up 18.5 percent from 2001.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 4, 2013

Navy SEAL author of 'American Sniper' shot dead

He said he killed 160 people, perhaps many more, making him one of the leading U.S. military snipers of all time. In the course of four combat deployments to Iraq, he said insurgents nicknamed him "the devil of Ramadi" and placed a $20,000 bounty on his head.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 3, 2013

Hidetoshi Masunaga: making revolution through the Constitution

On Dec. 14, 2012, two days before the Lower House election in which the Democratic Party of Japan headed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was eclipsed as the conservative Liberal Democratic Party swept back to power in a landslide, a one-page advert with a huge banner headline appeared in a vernacular...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 3, 2013

All aglow with the 'water of life'

In 1983, I talked myself into a marvelous job with a Japanese magazine. I set off in the early summer, when the days would be long and the nights short, to tour around Scotland with cameraman Moriyama Touru.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2013

Court hands Somali pirates 10-year term

The Tokyo District Court jails two Somali pirates for 10 years for trying to hijack an oil tanker operated by a Japanese company in the Indian Ocean in 2011.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 1, 2013

Your body — not just a temple, but a laboratory too

1. Appendix to life The appendix gets a bad press. It is usually treated as a body part that lost its function millions of years ago. All it seems to do is occasionally get infected and cause appendicitis. Yet recently it has been discovered that the appendix is very useful to the bacteria that help...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 1, 2013

Antigun advocates tackle law shielding arms makers

A legal shield written by Congress to benefit the firearms industry is posing unexpected hurdles for parents in Newtown, Connecticut, and victims of other mass shootings who want to use the courts to hold gun makers accountable and push them to adopt stricter safety standards.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2013

Bidding farewell to Hillary Clinton, for now ...

As Hillary Clinton prepares to step down as U.S. Secretary of State, millions of Americans would like to see her write another political act — as president.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 1, 2013

Some thoughts on the rudiments of rutabaga

I can't wait to see NHK-G's special program to air Feb. 23. They are finally going to address a topic I have harbored secret thoughts about since I came to Japan in 1994. NHK is going to broach the topic in a no-holds-barred documentary. The subject is turnip tossing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2013

Ticket giveaway: Attend an advance screening of 'Silver Linings Playbook'

Ahead of the Feb. 22 Japan release of "Silver Linings Playbook," the acclaimed new film from director David O. Russell and starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro, a special preview screening will be held in Tokyo. The Japan Times has 10 pairs of tickets to give away free to readers...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 31, 2013

Firm seeking to conquer world with translation app

For non-Japanese speakers, services like Google Translate and NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s phones that provide automated translation by speaking into the devices may have made it easier to communicate while in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Jan 31, 2013

The center resurgent in Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected a mandate for his party and him in last week's ballot. Instead, Israeli voters almost split in half.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 31, 2013

Hidden truths laid bare in the details of realism

With a population of around 35 million, Greater Tokyo is the ultimate "modernist" conurbation; a vast megacity, where something as old-fashioned as realist art might seem out-of-date and out-of-place. Maybe so, but on the metropolis' western and eastern extremities stand two museums that, each in their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 31, 2013

February: My Bloody Valentine returns

January featured a ton of great concerts across Japan, but February might be even better — hope your wallet isn't too thin this month.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2013

Cabinet OKs record ¥92.6 trillion budget

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet on Tuesday approved a record-high ¥92.6 trillion initial general-account budget for fiscal 2013, aiming to shore up the economy through large-scale public works projects.
Japan Times
Events
Jan 29, 2013

Preparing the foreign community for Japan's next big natural disaster

For newcomers to Japan, especially those who come from countries that don't experience frequent earthquakes, preparing for natural disasters like the megaquake and tsunami that hit the Tohoku region on March 11, 2011, may not come so easily.

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