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Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 9, 2016

Beijing to shut 2,500 firms this year to fight pollution

Beijing will close 2,500 small polluting firms this year in its latest effort to combat pollution, state news agency Xinhua reported on Saturday, citing the municipal government.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 9, 2016

Japan policymakers fearful of constantly dodgy data

Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida joked almost 70 years ago that if Japan had kept better data, it might never have started a war with the U.S. His grandson, Finance Minister Taro Aso, worries about flawed statistics that could mislead economic policymakers today.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 9, 2016

Gunman citing Islamic State shoots Philadelphia policeman

A gunman claiming to have pledged allegiance to Islamic State militants shot and seriously wounded a Philadelphia police officer in an ambush on his patrol car, the city's police commissioner said on Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 8, 2016

U.K., Japan condemn fourth North Korean nuke test, urge stronger military cooperation

The Japanese and British foreign and defense ministers on Friday issued a joint condemnation of North Korea's nuclear test and pledged to strengthen military cooperation between Japan and the United Kingdom.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 8, 2016

North Koreans face renewed ban on travel as Japan considers penalties

The revival of a ban on travel from North Korea is high on the list of possible punitive steps following Pyongyang's nuclear test, informed sources say.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2016

Why North Korea's latest blast isn't a game-changer

Ultimately, North Korea's latest nuclear test is a status-quo event.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 8, 2016

Tokyo joins Washington in doubting Pyongyang H-bomb claim

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe questions Pyongyang's claim that it tested a hydrogen bomb, saying the blast appeared to be too small.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health / FOCUS
Jan 8, 2016

Tracing the origin of North Korea's nuclear weapons program

The godfathers of North Korea's nuclear weapons program were an elderly trio: a nuclear physicist, a military general and a broker with contacts in Pakistan.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 8, 2016

Republicans want more naval muscle as deterrent in South China Sea dispute

Tension over the South China Sea highlights the need for the United States to maintain a strong Navy to serve as a deterrent, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday, criticizing the Obama administration for proposals he said would reduce the U.S. naval fleet.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2016

Saudi Arabia's perilous divides

Saudi Arabia's execution of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr has exposed the dangerous political, religious and socioeconomic fault lines that run through the kingdom and the Gulf.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2016

LDP lawmaker faces off against his party's old guard over child care leave plan

Liberal Democratic Party Lower House lawmaker Kensuke Miyazaki wanted to do something to change the nation's declining birthrate, so he announced last month he planned to take child care leave after his wife gives birth.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 7, 2016

Florida woman died after hospital thought she was faking: lawyers

A Florida woman who collapsed and later died after being arrested for refusing to leave a rural hospital emergency room may have lived if medical staffers and police had not assumed she was faking illness, her lawyers said on Wednesday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 7, 2016

China again lands planes on disputed island in South China Sea

China on Wednesday landed two test flights on an island it has built in the South China Sea, four days after it angered Vietnam with a landing on the same runway in the disputed territory, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 7, 2016

Already under sanctions, adding more poses dilemma, especially for China, over Pyongyang nuke test

U.S. presidential candidates and members of Congress demanded more sanctions on North Korea on Wednesday after its latest nuclear test, but major powers will likely be reluctant to take the tough steps necessary to force Pyongyang to abandon its weapons program, former U.S. officials and analysts said....
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 7, 2016

Pyongyang's nuclear strides all Obama's, Clinton's fault, Republicans claim; Trump vows to lean on China

Republican U.S. presidential candidates on Wednesday faulted President Barack Obama's "feckless" and "failed" foreign policy for letting North Korea bolster its nuclear arms capabilities, while also blaming Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
Jan 6, 2016

For Japan's English teachers, rays of hope amid the race to the bottom

The major economic engines of Japan Inc. — car manufacturers, appliance giants and the like — have often been caught price-fixing: colluding to keep an even market share, squeeze competitors out and maintain "harmony." Similarly, the commercial English-teaching business could be accused of wage-fixing:...
EDITORIALS
Jan 6, 2016

Much at stake in Upper House poll

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appear ready to amend the Constitution if the LDP and its allies can secure a majority in the upcoming Upper House election.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 6, 2016

'Miss Doc' shows the struggles of a lone female doctor in rural Japan

Change comes slowly to the Japanese film industry. The hagiographic biopic about a doctor, scientist or similarly distinguished personage — rarely seen in Hollywood since the days of Jack L. Warner and Louis B. Mayer — is still alive and well here.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 6, 2016

Stephen Bosworth, former U.S. envoy to North Korea, dies at 76

Stephen Bosworth, a veteran U.S. diplomat who for many years headed Washington's engagement with North Korea, has died. He was 76.
WORLD
Jan 6, 2016

Obama's move to control gun sales turns on a murky definition of who is a dealer

What makes a gun dealer?
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 5, 2016

Free Japan's universities so they can flourish

If Japan's bureacracy really loves the country's universities, it should end its micromanaging and set them free.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 5, 2016

The ghosts of North Korea

Will North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ever be able to act in his country's real interests, and not those of his fantasies?

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