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COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2014

What UKIP's EU election win means for Britain's top parties

UKIP's gains in local and European elections were not a political mega-quake but rather the result of public anger with established parties the past decade over economic austerity, the Iraq war and the MPs' expenses scandal.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Jun 2, 2014

Generation gaps filled by brick and mortar

Though their numbers have dwindled in the developed world over the past century, multi-generation households are still common, and in fact may become even more common in countries where income gaps are increasing. In Japan, multi-generation households have social relevance owing to cultural norms, the...
BUSINESS / Companies
May 22, 2014

Hirai refuses to pull plug on Sony TV business

Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai said Thursday the company still expects to turn around its loss-making home electronics business, which includes TV sets, this fiscal year after completing restructuring.
Japan Times
WORLD / EU SPECIAL 2014
May 9, 2014

EU continues commitment to security and peace

The European Union is now at its most critical stage ever. It is facing what European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has called "a disgrace in the 21st century."
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2014

Malaysia's jet, Korea's ferry tell larger stories

Tragedy has struck Malaysia and South Korea in recent weeks, with the travails of searching for a lost airliner and of recovering bodies from a sunken ferry played out in horrifying detail on the world's TV screens. Unlike Malaysia, though, South Korea is likely to come out of its crisis stronger than ever.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
May 2, 2014

Toyota gives California push with hydrogen fuel stations

Toyota Motor Corp. is funding a startup led by General Motors Co.'s former marketing chief to accelerate the opening of hydrogen fuel stations in California for zero-emission cars.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2014

LDP mulls reversal on consumer lending; interest rates would soar to 29%

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party may loosen restrictions imposed to block usury and coercive lending in the consumer finance industry.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 25, 2014

BOJ said worried by bond traders' ignoring of inflation

Bank of Japan officials are increasingly concerned the nation's bond market is failing to reflect emerging inflation, raising the risk of a sudden surge in yields, sources said.
Reader Mail
Apr 23, 2014

Muddling past the boomer bump

The line that really jumped out at me from the April 16 story "Japan population drops for third year straight; 25% are elderly" was that "Any suggestion of opening its borders to young workers who could help plug the population gap provokes strong reactions among the public."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2014

New Tepco chief ready to face challenges

Fumio Sudo outlines his goals for embattled Tokyo Electric Power Co.
COMMENTARY
Mar 20, 2014

Recent stimulus setting up debt crisis for China

The idea that China acted in economically rational ways that merit U.S. study and replication, as suggested by two Chinese economists, is just too much. Asia's biggest economy is merely delaying a debt crisis that will be much bigger and more spectacular than it had to be.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 17, 2014

U.S. military report suggests cover-up over toxic pollution in Okinawa

Perhaps the most serious concern raised in the internal U.S. military report is the fear that PCB contamination at Kadena — if made public — would prompt demands for widespread tests on other U.S. bases.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 8, 2014

China calls for calm and restraint in Ukraine crisis

China called for calm and restraint in the Ukraine crisis on Saturday, saying that the issue should be resolved through talks and political means.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2014

Ukraine crisis tests Europe's foreign policy mettle

The international community must balance the need to ensure that Ukraine does not become the site of a proxy battle with the necessity of stopping Russian President Vladimir Putin's destructive ambitions.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 10, 2014

Sony suffering seen as prelude to Loeb-inspired revamp

Sony Corp.'s latest earnings disappointment held a silver lining: the company's willingness to entertain some of activist investor Daniel Loeb's suggestions. And it may be just the beginning.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2014

China's credit boom raises flags on risk levels

The growth of credit in China at a breakneck pace, including the spike in local-government debt by 70 percent since 2009, is raising serious concerns about the level of risk in China's financial system.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 3, 2014

Power companies offsetting reactor closures by hiking electricity rates

Power utilities, including Tokyo Electric Power Co., leaned on customer rate hikes to boost their financial performances in the first nine months of the business year as idled nuclear plants kept fuel costs high.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 4, 2014

Slippery slope to Yasukuni, Nago oiled by lucre

As with the Yasukuni story, most of the commentary on Okinawa base relocation deal focused on its contentious nature, but also like the Yasukuni story, the main impetus behind the actions reported was economic.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 2013

Challenges highlight need for better government

U.S. President Ronald Reagan famously insisted that 'government is not the solution to our problem.' Today we know better: If government is not part of the solution, our problems will only get bigger.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 20, 2013

Target security breach exposed up to 40 million credit, debit cards

Hackers gained access to as many as 40 million credit and debit cards used by customers of Target during the height of the holiday shopping season, the company reported Thursday, in one of the biggest data breaches in history.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 16, 2013

Two U.S. senators vow support in Ukraine

A showdown between Russia on one side and the United States and the European Union on the other drew closer Sunday, as two American senators told a crowd of hundreds of thousands of protesters that Ukraine's future lies to the west, not east.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 3, 2013

FSA ends insider probe; Nomura targets tipsters

Nomura Holdings Inc. said employees who leaked insider information on client transactions three years ago will be punished as the regulator signals an end to a crackdown that roiled the nation's largest brokerage last year.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2013

Let's help the Philippines, just not like we helped Haiti

The international community must embrace the technology available to strengthen disaster preparedness, resilience and aid.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 18, 2013

USPS revenue up but losses linger as overhaul bill appears to stall

The U.S. Postal Service recorded its first revenue increase in five years, but the agency still lost $5 billion in fiscal 2013, making it the seventh consecutive year of red ink, according to figures released Friday.
BUSINESS
Oct 23, 2013

Nuclear industry amalgamation mulled

The government is discussing a radical overhaul of the nuclear power sector that would combine the nation's 50 operating reactors into a single company to rebuild an industry that's been effectively halted by the Fukushima disaster.
BUSINESS
Oct 21, 2013

Green funds aid clean energy effort

Two Japanese clean energy funds plan to raise about ¥1 billion from the public and urge regional financial institutions to provide loans for wind and solar projects to boost the local economy.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 13, 2013

Senate opens talks on end to shutdown

Senate leaders began negotiations Saturday aimed at reopening federal agencies and avoiding a government default after every other effort to end Congress' impasse crumbled in the previous 48 hours.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers