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The head of an official inquiry into the deadly collapse of a Bangladesh factory complex said the building’s owner was the “main culprit” for the disaster because he violated construction codes. The cave-in of the eight-story Rana Plaza outside the capital last month killed ...
Throughout most of Japan, June is the rainy season. While all that rainfall is great for rice paddies so that we can have delicious new harvest rice in the fall, it makes it a rather dull month for seasonal produce: The summer’s bounty of ...
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...
Claude Regy says the team at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) threw him the “best birthday party ever” when he arrived in Japan just days after the actual May 1 occasion. The 90-year-old French director is hoping for an even better birthday gift, ...
As far as debuts go, Shohei Otani's delivered. The celebrated rookie pitched fairly well on Thursday night, and though he finished outside the decision, he left the mound with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters well within striking distance of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, where two men lay. I couldn’t ...
Japan's decision to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade negotiations shows that at least some in government have accepted the fact ...
In 2012, Japan had 51.73 million workers, of which 33.3 million were regular employees, or seishain, according to the latest ...
"Stupid", "shockingly provincial" and "a sign of how little Japanese people really understand that part of the world" were among the reactions of Turkish residents in Kansai to Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose's comments about Turkey and the wider Muslim world.
It's prayer time at Tokyo's biggest mosque and the congregation is pondering God, community and Naoki Inose, the city's governor, who many here say has revealed himself to be, well, a bit of a bigot.
A national media exerts a powerful influence over the lives of members of its society. For example, rumors or untruths disseminated through print or broadcast can destroy livelihoods and leave reputations in ruins. This is why judiciaries provide mechanisms to keep media accountable. In ...
May in Japan is the perfect month for mothers. Wreathed in the fertile blooms of spring, bolstered by days of absolute perfection, May is also a month of muddy contradiction.
After spending 2½ years living the quiet life in Shiga Prefecture, Ryukoku University student Victor Rosenhoj was looking forward to moving to Kyoto, where things promised to be more lively and international.
Things were going well for Patrick after a year in Japan. He had found a job he liked, met a girl he planned to marry and was ready to move out of the small room his older brother, a longtime resident, was letting him ...
As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Cabinet rush to diminish the Bank of Japan’s bothersome independence, join the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations (sort of . . .), start pouring lovely, popular concrete before the summer House of Councilors elections and (sotto voce) maybe even ...
In February 2012, a small band of sacked workers in Japan took on one of the world’s biggest investment banks, Goldman Sachs, unionizing in a bid to keep their jobs and win a better deal from a firm they believed had treated them unfairly. ...
Crucial to any public discussion is defining the terms of debate. However, often those terms must be redefined later because they don’t reflect reality. One example is Japan’s concept of “foreigner,” because the related terminology is confusing and provides pretenses for exclusionism. In terms ...
The story reads like a New Zealand news editor’s wish list: Celebrity, dangerous weapons, bizarre behavior, death threats, Brazilian street gangs and a mysterious love interest.
In the final scenes of Aaron Sorkin’s powerfully written film “A Few Good Men,” one of the U.S. Marines on trial for the murder of a fellow serviceman is bewildered as to why he has not been cleared of all charges after his commanding ...
In rock mythology, John Lennon was the cynical, acid-tongued Beatle, Paul McCartney was friendly and open, George Harrison was the quiet one and drummer Ringo Starr was the group’s clown, always joking around. Satoko Condon remembers it a bit differently. “Ringo was a bit ...