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SPORTS
Dec 25, 2014

Top world sports news of 2014

The Japan Times editors selected these world sports stories as the most important of 2014.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 24, 2014

Top 10 films of 2014: the year of the brilliant bad girls

This was the year of the bad girl, in a manner of speaking. The best movies featured women who went outside the cinematic box of how women should behave and did all sorts of interesting and/or inexplicable things. As for men, their stories were locked into classic modes of masculinity, and in this sense,...
Reader Mail
Dec 24, 2014

Who'll pay off the national debt?

Japan's national debt, including local debt, apparently amounts to ¥1.2 quadrillion. This astronomical figure continues to expand at this moment. It is such an enormous sum that the government has no concrete repayment plan yet, and has left this problem to fester. It would not be an exaggeration to...
Reader Mail
Dec 24, 2014

Thumbs up for decontamination

Three years and nine months after the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor explosions, finally our house, about 65 km away from the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant in Okuma-machi, was decontaminated. It took a whole week to clean our piece of land and house.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 24, 2014

Mastering the art of incense takes longer than you think

If you find all this incense as intriguing as I did and are ready to sign up to become a master in the Way of Fragrance, then I suggest you start right away, if not 20 years ago.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 24, 2014

Mitani sidelined by Abe as GPIF pension fund enters new era

When Takahiro Mitani's term as head of the world's largest retirement fund finishes in March, so too will the old era of Japanese pension management.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Dec 24, 2014

Early morning sushi in Osaka that's a cut above the rest

If someone were to ask me where the best place in Osaka to go for sushi at 5 a.m. is, I would answer — immediately and unequivocally — that it's Endo's. Of course, it might also be the only place open at such an ungodly hour, owing to its location at the Osaka central market.
BASKETBALL
Dec 23, 2014

Fukuoka fires Duncan after 6-16 start

The Rizing Fukuoka, who gutted their roster of several prominent bj-league veterans in the offseason, made another big move on Monday.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 23, 2014

First Air Jordans were banned by NBA for clashing with team colors

This is the third installment from Hall of Fame writer Sam Smith's new book "There Is No Next: NBA Legends on the Legacy of Michael Jordan."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Dec 23, 2014

Who was music being made for in 2014?

When looking back on the year in music, the big question music fans should be asking themselves is, "Who was music being made for in 2014?" Looking at the broader picture, we can find the answers writ large across the Japanese music scene.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 23, 2014

South Korea shows the way on 'womenomics'

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he wants to put more women to work to help make up for the country's shrinking population. Yet, of the 1,093 people who ran for office in recent snap elections, a mere 169 were women. Abe might want to study neighboring South Korea.
EDITORIALS
Dec 23, 2014

Protecting sexual minorities' rights

A Japanese civic group survey has the ruling Liberal Democratic Party standing out from other parties in its failure to view issues involving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual people as human rights problems.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 23, 2014

North Korean Net access restored after long outage amid hacking dispute

North Korea's limited access to the Internet was restored after being cut off for hours, days after the U.S. government accused the country of hacking into Sony Corp.'s files.
WORLD
Dec 23, 2014

Russia in grips of 'full-fledged economic crisis,' ex-minister says

Russia's government has pushed the country into an economic crisis by not tackling its financial problems fast enough, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin said on Monday, as evidence mounted of trouble spreading through the economy.
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2014

Gucci to check Chinese suppliers after TV exploitation charges

Italian fashion house Gucci said on Monday it would strengthen controls on its suppliers after a television program showed Chinese employees working more than three times their official hours to assemble its handbags.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2014

U.S. sanctions are a tragedy for Cuba, farce for Russians

Western leaders imposing sanctions on Russia need to ponder whether they really want to turn Vladimir Putin's Russia into something like Castro's Cuba — only far bigger and more dangerous.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2014

Conservative Abe's secrecy law doesn't hold a candle to Seoul's press suppression

For people concerned with the weakening of press freedoms under the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, its criticism of Asahi Shimbun and the new state secrets law, there should still be a sense of relief that media suppression in Japan has not quite reached the levels now being seen in South Korea.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 22, 2014

India tables nuclear power insurance plan, hoping to attract U.S. firms

India is offering to set up an insurance pool to indemnify global nuclear suppliers against liability in the case of a nuclear accident, in a bid to unblock billions of dollars in trade held up by concerns over exposure to risk.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 22, 2014

Florida police officer killed; suspect in custody

A Florida police officer was killed in a shooting early on Sunday and a suspect was in custody, according to a sheriff's office and local media reports.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Dec 21, 2014

Joho sparks Toyama in victory over rival Iwate

Star guard Masashi Joho's return to the Toyama Grouses lineup this weekend delivered what the team has come to expect during his tenure with the franchise: victories.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 20, 2014

Soaking up the very best of Wakayama's hot springs

The two sounds occur almost simultaneously: Just as my cellphone alarm begins its melodious chime to rouse me from sleep, the dark clouds above my guesthouse in the town of Tanabe on the Kii Peninsula burst forth with a pounding rain. Within minutes, it's clear that my plans of spending three days hiking...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 20, 2014

The good, and not-so-good, reads from 2014

I was lucky enough to read a number of good and informative books on Japan in 2014, but also read my share of clunkers.
COMMUNITY / Voices / OVERHEARD
Dec 20, 2014

Christmas spirit

Is Christmas celebrated to mark the birth of Jesus or his death?
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Dec 20, 2014

Little sizzle found during NPB winter

Where will Chihiro Kaneko and Takashi Toritani be playing next season?
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2014

Vexed Riken halts Obokata's bid to prove stem cell discovery

Discredited scientist Haruko Obokata's quest to prove her stem cell discovery comes to an end as Riken halts a monthslong attempt to verify the “STAP cell” phenomena.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 19, 2014

Ex-boxing champ Terrell dead at 75

Former heavyweight boxing champion Ernie Terrell, best known for his punishing loss to Muhammad Ali in the famed "What's My Name?" fight in 1967, has died at the age of 75, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Wednesday.

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