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Japan Times
BUSINESS / IEC GENERAL MEETING IN TOKYO
Nov 4, 2014

IEC evolves in line with technological advancement

The International Eletctrotechnical Commission has a long history going back more than a century. The IEC was officially founded in June 1906, in London, where its central office was set up. Since then, the IEC has continuously evolved, with its role changing as technology advanced.
Japan Times
JAPAN / FUKUSHIMA FILE
Jun 15, 2014

Fukushima hotline gets record calls

A suicide-prevention hotline in Fukushima Prefecture received a record 18,194 calls in 2013, signaling that scars from the events of March 2011 still weigh heavily on residents' minds.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 4, 2014

Chocolatecake are no sweeties

Its name translates as Chocolatecake Theatre Company, but there's nothing self-indulgent about topics Gekidan Chocolatecake gets its teeth into.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 12, 2014

Capturing Contemporary Japan: Differentiation and Uncertainty

With subjects ranging from consumerism to female farmers, 'Capturing Contemporary Japan: Differentiation and Uncertainty' is a book that's geared toward students.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 28, 2014

Residents of Nagoya get disaster info maps

Officials in Nagoya are distributing seismic and tsunami hazard maps based on the damage the city is projected to take from an earthquake in the Nankai Trough.
COMMENTARY
Mar 8, 2014

A student's responsibility for education

It's good that Japan is open to improving its system of education, but it may want to consider the disadvantages of the American approach that practically exempts students of responsibility for their education.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEDGE
Feb 9, 2014

Eco-labels urged to save endangered marine life

2013 highlighted the decline in Japan's fishery resources, with baby eel trading at ¥3 million per kilogram — more expensive than silver — and the catch quota of bluefin tuna being slashed at the December meeting of the Commission for the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks...
Japan Times
JAPAN / GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT ENGLISH
Dec 31, 2013

English to get 2020 push but teachers not on same page

A reform plan released in mid-December by the education ministry looks to bolster English study from elementary to high school from the 2020 academic year to pursue globalization.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2013

English education set to get serious

Junior high school English teachers should conduct classes exclusively in English and be periodically tested on their skills, and formal English instruction should start in the fifth grade from 2020 under education reforms.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 2013

Art fiction that keeps our thinking adept

What is the connection between Kampala in Uganda, Fukushima in Japan and New Orleans in America? Tsuyoshi Ozawa links these seemingly disparate places in his ongoing series "Vegetable Weapons". The shape of a gun is formed out of local vegetables and photographed, before it's taken apart and the same...
LIFE / Digital
Jul 16, 2013

A different metaphor for China's firewall

Two years ago, when it was discovered that a U.S. intelligence agency was pouring millions of dollars into a research project on "metaphor," some people thought it was a delayed April Fool's joke. This columnist begged to differ, on the grounds that metaphors are the way that most of us make sense of...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jul 12, 2013

Students dealt real-life problems to broaden outlook

The School of Foreign Studies at Aichi Prefectural University in the city of Nagakute invited Tatsuo Hirase, the head of the business promotion office at the Chubu branch of Mitsui & Co., to hold a special two-day marketing session in June.
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Jun 5, 2013

China constitution debate hits nerve with ruling party

After a country's new leader proclaims the overriding authority of the constitution — a document that guarantees freedom of speech and press — it's worth noting afterward when the same government heavily censors all discussion about that constitution.
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
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
May 11, 2013

Rise and study: Nagoya school helps workers to help locales

A new type of school for office workers, Nagoya Morning University, was established in mid-April in the city's business district.
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 24, 2013

An inclined view: The life and work of Donald Richie

It was with a heavy heart that I heard from Donald Richie's longtime friend and editor Leza Lowitz that he had passed away on the morning of Tuesday, this week. He was 88.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Feb 4, 2013

Puppy Bowl grows in leaps, bounds

When reporters from The New Yorker, "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams," "Good Morning America," The Associated Press and The Washington Post, have all converged upon one event, it must be important. An appearance by the president. A press conference about dignified matters, with plenty of throat-clearing...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 23, 2012

Doctors discuss a face-lift for Japan's plastic surgery societies

Though it's hardly talked about in public, cosmetic surgery appears to be an increasingly popular option in Japan for people trying to enhance their looks and defy the signs of aging.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 20, 2011

Japanese arts course opens door to English speakers

There is a small slither of land in Tokyo's Kita-Aoyama district that is wedged between the rolling grounds of the grand, neo-Baroque-style Akasaka Palace state guesthouse and the equally expansive, tree-lined grounds of the granite-constructed Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery. Given the nature of the...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 16, 2011

Dance piece examines future without morals

Arguably Japan's foremost boundary-pushing dance group — Dance Hardcore — led by dancer and choreographer Kakuya Ohashi, will be putting on their latest performance, "Outflows," in Tokyo this weekend.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Sep 4, 2011

Alfons Deeken: Priest-philosopher makes death his life's work

On Friday, July 22, as the stifling heat and humidity of summer relented for just a fleeting few days, hundreds of people filled a hall at Enkakuji Temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, to listen to a lecture by philosophy scholar Alfons Deeken.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 20, 2011

'Freakonomics'/'The Red Baron'

Darren Aronofsky, whose "Black Swan" is now showing here, debuted with the cult flick "Pi" (1997), about a slightly mad math whiz who was convinced there was a pattern in stock market fluctuations that could reveal the markets' movements. As the film's hero put it, "Mathematics is the language of nature;...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 17, 2011

Print is suffering, but English readers have never had it so good

Returning to Osaka after several years, James wonders what became of Kansai Time Out, the magazine that served the English-speaking community in that region and beyond:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 16, 2011

Quest to gain, impart knowledge drives expat

The importance of education informs Aileen Kawagoe's life view, although early on she turned down the chance to become an educator like her father.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 27, 2011

Don't give up on Japan's kids

Last March, the president of Harvard University, Drew Gilpin Faust, visited Japan to find out for herself what has become of Japan's once-vibrant contribution to American academia. The numbers of Japanese students enrolling in Harvard have declined steadily over the past decade, and in September 2009...
JAPAN / Media
Dec 26, 2010

Arashi get advice from their 'honey man'

What do you get when you combine the Wales-born, dyed-in-the-wool outdoorsman C.W. Nicol with the five squeaky-clean members of Japanese boy band Arashi? Good television, that's what.

Longform

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