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April 16, 2025
 

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Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 12, 2013

Japan's Suzaku satellite shows how all bets are off around Cygnus X-1

This month, the Vermillion bird of the South — which is currently flying 550 km above Earth — meets an astronomical swan some 6,000 light-years away.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 6, 2013

Remembering the awe that is Gettysburg

It was the biggest battle of the war, unequaled in scale and violence by anything seen before or since in North America. Two immense armies collided in the fields and orchards and woods around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 1, 1863, and fought for three days with no quarter given, in arguably the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 14, 2013

Casting a little light on fireflies

If dragonflies are the insects of Japan's day, then the mysterious, magical fireflies are its bugs of the night.
Reader Mail
Mar 14, 2013

The scoop on cherry blossoms

Just a short note of appreciation for The Japan Times columns of Kaori Shoji and Thomas Dillon (When East Marries West). The insight, humor and wit from both are an absolute balance on the daily news from North Korea, Iran, Middle East, Africa, etc.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 10, 2013

Embrace the DNA that makes you a mongrel

This month, we celebrate the mongrel, a word that means different things to different people. For some, it may bring to mind nonpedigree dogs, mutts that don't belong to a specific breed; in Japanese, the word is daken, which has the definite negative connotation of a 'skulking cur.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 10, 2013

Fugu reveals its simple gender switch

It's the most celebrated and notorious fish in the world, certainly in culinary circles. Now the puffer fish — one of Japan's most enigmatic creatures — meets some of biology's deepest questions: Why did sex evolve? Why are there two sexes? Why is the male sex chromosome such a puny little thing?...
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2013

Agura Bokujo victims may sue Kaieda

Investors who were fleeced when the Agura Bokujo cattle farm business went under are threatening to sue Democratic Party of Japan President Banri Kaieda for damages over articles and books he wrote 20 years ago recommending investment in the ranch, according to their lawyers.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 13, 2013

How Japan's teens can avoid sleep demons

Have you ever woken up but been unable to move; felt a powerful pressure holding you down, gripping you tight? Haruki Murakami has, and he describes it like this: "I was having a repulsive dream — a dark, slimy dream. ... After I awoke, my breath came in painful gasps for a time. My arms and legs felt...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jan 1, 2013

The year for non-Japanese in '12: a top 10

Back by popular demand, here is JBC's roundup of the top 10 human rights events that most affected non-Japanese (NJ) residents of Japan in 2012, in ascending order.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 9, 2012

World still waits for Japan to stop being apathetic about whaling

It was hardly the result the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) hoped for, or expected.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 11, 2012

Japan's live organ donors enjoy better health than 'normal' citizens do

At age 56, Toshinobu Horiuchi was a desperate man. He had suffered kidney failure and needed a transplant. As a doctor, based in Tokyo, he knew better than most that he faced a long wait.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 9, 2012

My seminal link with manga god Osamu Tezuka

In this month's column I am going to claim an audacious link with that great "god of manga," Osamu Tezuka.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 12, 2012

Excuse this proud new father — it's time to indulge in some baby talk

I'll preface this column by admitting that it is fairly common, among journalists on the science and health beats, that after they personally reproduce they experience a burning desire to write about the science of childbirth. Seasoned editors know to expect that postnatal reporters will start pitching...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jul 24, 2012

Noriko Hama, Japanese economist and Dean of Doshisha Business School

Noriko Hama, is a Japanese economist, the Dean of Doshisha Business School in Kyoto and a contributor to The Japan Times. Well known for her candid television commentaries, popular columns, she is completely absorbed in the world of economics, and utterly unfazed by its ups and downs. Hama has never...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 8, 2012

How astrology and superstition drove an increase in abortions in Japan

I like to think of myself as a rational human being most of the time, but I have to suppress a shudder if someone opens an umbrella indoors, and I'd probably comment if a black cat crossed my path.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 10, 2012

Is sci-fi becoming sci-fact in Japan, too?

Where is Japan's equivalent of Elon Musk? Where's the young entrepreneur with a huge bank balance and dreams to match? Where is that someone raised in these isles on sci-fi manga and space movies who wants to make human travel in space a reality?
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 8, 2012

Procreation begets problems for pandas

Just how cute are giant pandas? The public can't get enough of them. The star attractions at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo are Ri Ri and Shin Shin, a male and female pair who helped attract some 4.4 million visitors last fiscal year — the highest number for 19 years.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 18, 2012

Quake insurance is but a token offering

As the government continues to push for an increase in the consumption tax, a question related to last year's disaster is still being debated: How much of the burden for rebuilding should be shouldered by taxpayers? We live in a resolutely capitalist country that stresses personal responsibility, and...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 11, 2012

Obesity on the rise as Japanese eat more Western-style food

When Japanese people are ordering food, how many times do you hear them asking for "oomori" (large size)? It's the equivalent of asking for "supersize" in a U.S. fast-food joint.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 12, 2012

A future free from nuclear energy? Yakushima may be ready

I once took a ferry from Kagoshima on the southernmost tip of Kyushu to Amami Oshima, halfway to Okinawa. Just 60 km out from the massive Sakurajima volcano that dominates Kagoshima City, our ship passed a huge granite hunk of rock some 50,000 hectares, covered in forest.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 11, 2011

It takes a supersize brain to drive a London taxi

Visitors to Japan often comment on the way taxi doors open as you approach — at the touch of a button by the driver; and that those drivers generally wear smart white gloves. I apologize for the competitive tone, but there is something far more remarkable about London taxis: their drivers.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE MONTH
Dec 10, 2011

Hamamatsu's Dixon recognized for leadership as team climbs in standings

With floor leader Jermaine Dixon providing inspired, smart leadership, the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix rediscovered their mojo in November, winning seven of their eight bj-league games.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 13, 2011

'Calamity' awaits those unready for climate-change refugees

There is a wonderful expression in Japanese: Fūdo ni nareru, which means something like "to become acclimatized to natural conditions."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 9, 2011

Like Astro Boy, humans may be able to live with radiation

"It makes good media. It's the emotional pulling on the idea that radiation kills you. But you talk to our cancer patients: Radiation cures you."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 14, 2011

Delving into 'white matter'

Last week I watched "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," a new film about superintelligent chimps that bust out of captivity and rampage across San Francisco in a bid for freedom.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 10, 2011

Up close and personal with MIT robots

I'm in a lab surrounded by computer and video equipment, toys, and robots. Lots of robots. I'm like a kid in a candy shop. It's the modern equivalent of an Aladdin's cave for otaku (geeks).
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 26, 2011

Readers offer 3/11 insights, valuable resources

As Japan has struggled with the physical and emotional challenges of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 11, and the ongoing nuclear crisis that resulted, I have written three Our Planet Earth columns related to those events: one on Japan's response (March 27); one on alternative...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jun 7, 2011

'Flyjin,' 'sheeple,' angry people: readers' views

Debito Arudou's May 3 Just Be Cause column, headlined " Better to be branded a 'flyjin' than a man of the 'sheeple,'" provoked an online skirmish between contributors to the columnist's blog, Debito.org, and its self-proclaimed "debunker" site. Here are just some of the mails received at The Japan Times...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 8, 2011

'Transcendent Man' denies life ends with death

When Ray Kurzweil was a child he tried to invent a homework machine: He didn't accept that he had to waste time doing his dumb school assignments. Half a century on, nothing much has changed, though the authority Kurzweil challenges has got loftier: Now, says the American futurist and inventor, he doesn't...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 29, 2011

Hamamatsu's Parmer named season MVP

When a team goes 40-6 in the regular season, its players deserve recognition for their success.
In a first, Japan issues cease-and-desist order against Google
The Google logo is seen at the company's Bay View campus in Mountain View, California. Japanese authorities on Tuesday issued a cease-and-desist order to Google over an alleged violation of the country's anti-monopoly law.
'Chikan' incidents rise as Japan grapples with mental health and cultural challenges
Overcrowded trains and a lack of legal consequences for groping in Japan have led to a rise in "chikan," or groping, which has been linked to a mental condition and compounded by cultural stigmas.
China halts critical rare earth exports as trade war intensifies
Workers transport soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, in China's Jiangsu province, in October 2010.
A new tour of Tokyo’s most underground attraction
When you stare into the abyss at the bottom of the No. 3 shaft of the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, the abyss stares back.
Japan’s population shrinks for the 14th consecutive year
Japan’s population has been falling year on year since 2011 after peaking in 2008.
Why Ishiba became the first prime minister to hold talks with Rengo in 16 years
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Japanese Trade Union Confederation chief Tomoko Yoshino in a meeting Tuesday at the Prime Minister's Office
In a first, Japan issues cease-and-desist order against Google
The Google logo is seen at the company's Bay View campus in Mountain View, California. Japanese authorities on Tuesday issued a cease-and-desist order to Google over an alleged violation of the country's anti-monopoly law.
Sumo's throwback regional tours offer glimpse into sport's heart and history
Kirishima (behind) battles Atamifuji during a regional tour event in Hyogo Prefecture in 2023.
China’s new bridge-forming barges offer new options for Taiwan invasion
This satellite image taken on March 25 shows three Chinese barges connected via extendable bridges in waters off Zhanjiang, in southern China's Guangdong province. Experts say the new barges could be used to land heavy equipment and thousands of personnel in a possible invasion of Taiwan.
The man who helps Japanese figure skaters stay sharp
Kimitaka Sakurai displays a sharpening stone for working on skate blades, in Yokohama on March 28. Regular sharpening is crucial for maintaining optimal performance and reducing skaters’ risk of injury on the ice.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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.
By Tomoko Otake

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