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BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 30, 2015

For Japan, lesson from Greek crisis is to keep on spending

As one of the most indebted countries in the developed world, the crisis unfolding in Greece is causing a moment of self-reflection for Japan.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 30, 2015

New economic growth plan adopted but some economists unconvinced

The Cabinet on Tuesday adopted a revised policy to rehabilitate the budget, saddled with the world's biggest debt burden. It also accepted a strategy to boost economic growth, but economists and an opposition leader warned that snowballing social security costs need further belt-tightening.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 30, 2015

Don't take everyday objects at face value

Atsushi Okabe's graduation work is an experiment with Rubik's Cubes and abstraction. The result is graphic, colorful and pleasing to the eye. By zooming the lens of his camera while the shutter is open, Okabe creates latticed images that seem to plunge away from the viewer into geometric and unearthly...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 29, 2015

Striking a balance between food and biofuels

Given the right conditions, biofuels can be an effective means to increase food security by providing poor farmers with a sustainable and affordable energy source.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jun 29, 2015

Good-looking gorilla has crowds going gaga at Higashiyama Zoo

A western lowland gorilla from Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Chikusa Ward, Nagoya, is becoming a celebrity, thanks to Twitter.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 28, 2015

Rap gets a new delivery from a wave of female artists

Hip-hop is a major force on the American music charts, but its presence has been less prominent in Japan. Elements of the wider culture have found their way into teenage wardrobes and pop-video dance routines, but even Japanese rappers admit they have a hard time grabbing the attention of new fans.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 27, 2015

Sri Lanka's memory wars thwart reconciliation

Six years after the end of the civil war that claimed at least 70,000 lives between 1983 and 2009, Sri Lanka appears to have made little progress on reconciliation between its ethnic Tamils and Sinhalese majority.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 27, 2015

'Aperture' magazine comes to Tokyo

Think photography and its history, and it's easy to recall iconic images of New York, Paris or London — cities whose buildings and street life have long provided compelling subjects. Constantly changing, Tokyo is now securing its place in that history of urban images.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 25, 2015

Diamonds not forever as Japanese offload jewels for cash

Diamonds aren't necessarily forever. At least not in Japan, where jewelry owners are unloading unwanted jewels for cash at a record pace and shipping them off to buyers in China and India.
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2015

More time won't justify security bills

Even if the Abe government extends the Diet session to ensure passage of its security legislation, it still must pass constitutional muster to be legitimate.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2015

Julianne Moore shines as Alzheimer's patient in 'Still Alice'

Flashback to 1995 when a new actress named Julianne Moore was beginning to get noticed for her work in the Todd Haynes film "Safe," where she played an affluent Southern California suburbanite who becomes afflicted with a mysterious environmental illness. Some 20 years and four Oscar nominations later,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2015

Attire of Korea's last princess to be returned to Seoul

In a bid to help repair strained bilateral ties, a Tokyo university that had for decades stored traditional attire worn by the last princess of Korea's Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) donated the clothing to Korea's Cultural Heritage Administration on Wednesday.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2015

Hard questions for candidate Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton's reticence is drowning out her message, which is that she is the cure for the many ailments that afflict America during a second Democratic presidential term.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 24, 2015

Newspapers play a critical role in education

Attempting to shield students from the realities of life that newspapers cover on a daily basis is an exercise in futility.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 24, 2015

BOJ's 2015 stimulus reluctance spurs debate over tapering

With its reluctance to add to record monetary stimulus even as inflation remains well below its target, the Bank of Japan has stoked speculation about it scaling back its asset purchases as soon as early 2016.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jun 24, 2015

Story of Japan's industrial rise deserves to be told, forced labor and all

Proposed Kyushu UNESCO sites could be a showcase for East Asian cooperation or festering points of contention.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 24, 2015

Slowing a spiral of negativity in Mipo Oh's 'Being Good'

When I was a student teacher at an elementary school in Livonia, Michigan, I saw some things that shocked me. Once I watched a male teacher grabbing a disruptive fourth-grader by the neck and forcing his head toward the floor, while pouring out a stream of sarcastic abuse upon him.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 24, 2015

Turkey's master of slow-boil cinema keeps his characters simmering with tension in 'Winter Sleep'

This may seem an odd form of praise, but Nuri Bilge Ceylan does boredom awfully well. The Turkish director's last film, "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" (2011), was a police procedural that had been denuded of the drama you'd normally expect from the genre. Yet as its protagonists trudged fruitlessly from...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2015

Canadian sailor has Japan solo circumnavigation in sight

A Canadian ex-executive who once served as dean and president of Temple University Japan is getting closer to making history — as probably the first foreigner to sail solo around Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 23, 2015

Toyota finds air bags in demand on India's deadly roads

Toyota Motor Corp. has found that customers don't mind paying more for safety on the world's deadliest roads.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Jun 21, 2015

Governance guru pushes Japan Inc. to open up and diversify

Former trailblazing dean Christina Ahmadjian finds her balance between the classroom and boardroom.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 21, 2015

Charleston shooting echoes 1963 Birmingham church murders that helped galvanize civil rights movement

Half a century ago in the deeply Southern city of Birmingham, a racially motivated attack on a black church left four young girls dead and helped galvanize a civil rights movement that changed voting laws across the United States.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past