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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 8, 2015

Muslims in Asia denounce Trump's call for U.S. ban

Muslims in Pakistan and Indonesia on Tuesday denounced Donald Trump's call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, dismissing the U.S. Republican presidential front-runner as a bigot who promoted violence.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 8, 2015

French unity against far-right crumbles as National Front rises

When far-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen made it to the second round of the 2002 presidential election, shocked voters and mainstream parties united to keep him out of power.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 8, 2015

Trump's call to close door to all Muslims draws wide spectrum of scorn

Donald Trump is calling for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," his campaign said on Monday, until "our country's representatives can figure out what is going on."
WORLD
Dec 8, 2015

IED tossed at bystanders at downtown Moscow bus stop; three wounded

Three people were injured in central Moscow late Monday after an improvised explosive device was thrown at a group of bystanders at a bus stop, police said, according to Russian news services.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 7, 2015

China tells military officers not to whine about reforms

High-ranking officers in the Chinese army must hold their tongues about concerns over military reform and lead from the front to ensure the rank and file are on board, the People's Liberation Army said on Monday.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 7, 2015

In wake of Paris attack, India risks missing lessons from Mumbai massacre

Last month, during an exercise to test India's readiness for a militant attack, teams of coast guards approached Mumbai and surrounding areas by sea, just as assailants did before deadly strikes in 2008. Several teams slipped through undetected.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 7, 2015

Political correctness, lack of profiling paved way for California massacre, Trump says

Ahead of President Barack Obama's Sunday night speech outlining his plan to fight terrorism, Republican presidential candidates called for more surveillance tools for the intelligence community, while front-runner Donald Trump said political correctness and a fear of profiling may have helped allow last...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 6, 2015

Punk survivor Phew changes direction on 'A New World'

Even as a child, Phew realized she was a bit different. "When I was at school, if the teacher told a joke and everyone else in the class laughed, I was always the one who couldn't see what was funny," she says. "I've always been like that."
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 6, 2015

It should be home sweet home, but not in Japan

The destructive nexus between construction companies, bureaucracy and politicians is largely responsible for Japan's glut of rapidly depreciating houses.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 5, 2015

All set for our woods' own horse power

Over the past three years, the C.W. Nicol Afan Woodland Trust has been bringing down people and horses from Tono and Morioka in Iwate Prefecture to help us take out trees we've been thinning from our woods here in northern Nagano Prefecture — and lately, too, from the adjoining national forest we've...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2015

China's Xi cheers African leaders with pledge of $60 billion for development

Chinese President Xi Jinping told African leaders on Friday his country would pump $60 billion into development projects, cancel some debt and boost agriculture under a three-year plan that will extend Beijing's influence in the continent.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 4, 2015

The Supreme Court and the state of unconstitutionality

Do we want the Supreme Court to violate the Constitution by allowing illegally elected politicians to stay in office, or do we want something closer to real democracy?
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 4, 2015

Forget 'smart' new cities; India needs old ones to be less dumb

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has grand designs to build 100 futuristic "smart" cities in India, but as this week's devastating flooding in Chennai shows, fixing today's accident-prone metropolises appears to be the more pressing task.
WORLD
Dec 4, 2015

Central Europeans set up group to keep Schengen Zone alive

The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland rejected on Thursday the idea of limiting the European Union's visa-free area to a smaller number of countries and will invite other EU members to help them fight for its survival.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2015

The climate-terror connection

Where climate change threatens to lay waste to the environment, fanatics have banded together to lay waste to civilization.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2015

China's 'insane' gamble on nuclear power

If tech-savvy Japan couldn't avoid a nuclear disaster, what hope for a nation known for lax safety and graft?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2015

The first Olympic hurdle should be voter support

Making plebiscites obligatory for all bidding cities could be the first step toward restoring the tattered reputation of the Olympics.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 3, 2015

Aging Spain passes population milestone as deaths surpass births

Spain, long concerned about its aging population and emptying countryside, passed a milestone in population decline on Wednesday when it recorded more deaths than births in the first half of this year.
JAPAN / CHARITY DRIVE 2015
Dec 3, 2015

Group helps asylum applicants who lack access to Japan's social security

The image of a drowned boy washed up on a Turkish beach sparked a global outcry earlier this year amid the largest mass exodus of refugees in the modern era. It spawned a heated discussion in Japan on whether to make room for refugees.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Dec 2, 2015

Life after work in Japan: tackling readers' pension questions

Among the questions that Japan Times readers send to the Lifelines column, a perennial topic is navigating the Japanese pension system. Here are some answers.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 2, 2015

Paris puts seven accused jihadis on trial, including Islamic State executioner in absentia

The trial began in Paris on Tuesday of seven suspected Islamists, including an alleged Islamic State 'executioner' in Syria — the first such case to go to court since the group killed 130 people in the French capital last month.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2015

No time to waste in preparing for retirement

As societies around the world prepare for swelling numbers of retirees, the policy challenge will be to ensure the financial sustainability of pension systems.
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Dec 1, 2015

Hanyu's greatness confirmed at NHK Trophy

Sometimes in life we are in the right place at the right time.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 1, 2015

Reviving Japan Inc.'s entertainment division

If Japan had its own cartoon-and-comics-driven Hollywood, it would increase its global cultural clout and give the economy a much needed boost.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 1, 2015

Otto Kunzli's real 'statement jewelry'

"Cozticteocuilatl is the Aztec term for gold and it literally translates into 'the yellow feces of the gods,' " says Swiss artist Otto Kunzli, who is standing before his work at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. "It's the yellow poops of the gods," he emphasizes as he breaks into a broad smile....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Nov 30, 2015

Japan's tiny refugee community urges Tokyo to open doors wider

Hitoshi Kino, a bespectacled clerical employee at a university near Tokyo, doesn't stand out. Only a slight Vietnamese accent betrays his past as he speaks in Japanese about being stranded on a rickety boat in waters off his war-torn homeland in 1980, starving with 32 others and left by pirates with...
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 30, 2015

Declaring a 'new beginning,' EU and Turkey seal migrant deal

Turkey promised to help stem the flow of migrants to Europe in return for cash, visas and renewed talks on joining the EU in a deal struck on Sunday that the Turkish prime minister called a "new beginning" for the uneasy neighbors.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight