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BUSINESS
Oct 2, 2014

$617 billion 'fat finger' error raises concern over Tokyo trading controls

The unleashing of ¥67.78 trillion ($617 billion) of mistaken stock orders in Japan is reviving concern about the accountability of brokers overseeing trades in the world's second-biggest equity market.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 2, 2014

In Hong Kong protests, China confronts limits of its power

In the heart of Mong Kok, one of the most densely populated districts on earth, an abandoned Hong Kong police van is enveloped in the student-led demonstrations paralyzing swaths of the city. Along with yellow ribbons and flowers, symbols of the city's pro-democracy movement, protesters have taped a...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 2, 2014

Ditch U.N. temperature target for global warming, study recommends

A temperature goal set by almost 200 governments as the limit for global warming is a poor guide to the planet's health and should be ditched, a study published in the journal Nature said on Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 1, 2014

Conjuring the strange brutality of Agota Kristof

Those who loved poring through Agota Kristof's 1986 novel, "Le Grand Cahier," have been waiting for a film adaptation for almost two decades.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 1, 2014

Frank: Skewering the cult of mental illness as art

Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) is a young man with a dream: He wants to be in a band. He wanders the streets looking for something, anything, to give him some inspiration to write a song, and spends endless hours twinkling at his keyboard. Yet everything he pens is absolute crap and he seems much better at writing...
Japan Times
TENNIS
Oct 1, 2014

Nishikori blazes past Dodig

Kei Nishikori dispatched unseeded Croatian Ivan Dodig 6-3, 6-4 in their first-round match at the Rakuten Japan Open on Wednesday afternoon.
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 1, 2014

Leading group sheds makeweights as season gets down to nitty-gritty

The last few weeks have whittled down the list of genuine contenders for this year's J. League title, but choosing a winner with eight games left is still far from straightforward.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 1, 2014

Singin' ballet star leads top show's Tokyo cast

Any pantheon of classic Western musical comedy films would include 1952's "Singin' in the Rain" starring the legendary actor and dancer Gene Kelly. Set in late- 1920s Hollywood as it was transitioning from silent films to talkies, it depicts a romance between an established leading man named Don Lockwood...
EDITORIALS
Oct 1, 2014

The achievements of Takako Doi

People who respect the ideals of Takako Doi, the former head of the Social Democratic Party who died last month at 85, have a lot to learn from what she achieved and what she could not achieve in Japanese politics,
Reader Mail
Oct 1, 2014

Woman who took on 'dinosaurs'

Regarding the Sept. 28 article "SDP's Takako Doi, first female leader of major political party in Japan, dies at 85": I am sad about Takako Doi's passing probably because she was in her political prime when I arrived in Japan, and so her passing makes me reflect on my own age and mortality.
Reader Mail
Oct 1, 2014

Real learning with fewer tests

Hiroshi Noro makes sweeping generalizations in his Sept. 18 letter "Aim of annual achievement tests," beginning with the notion that the goal of the nationwide tests is ultimately for educators to improve students' abilities.
Reader Mail
Oct 1, 2014

What's Abe been crowing about?

Regarding the Sept. 25 article "20% of college dropouts cite financial difficulties as reason": It's a sad state of affairs when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has fun globe-trotting and lauding himself over what he claims are his great economic achievements while the reality at home becomes more desperate....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Oct 1, 2014

Readers' letters: Ian Thorpe, the Yushukan, racism, teaching English, tipping and sunlight

Some emails received in response to recent Community articles.
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2014

Osaka mayor prepares to tackle anti-Korean group Zaitokukai

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto is finalizing plans for a public debate with the right-wing, anti-Korean group Zaitokukai over the definition of hate speech and the need to balance freedom of expression with others' human rights.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2014

'Abenomics' colors Japan's art market after years of pallid returns

Just a decade ago, a lithograph by artist Yayoi Kusama would sell for several hundred dollars at best. But now her pieces, some just the size of a magazine, can fetch as much as $74,000.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 1, 2014

Rice is nice when the price is right

Is the big drop in rice prices a good thing or a bad thing?
BUSINESS / TRAVEL INSIDER
Sep 30, 2014

Connecting in style; Cathay charity work; new flights to Indonesia

Connecting in style
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 30, 2014

China censors target Hong Kong protests, but don't always succeed

Chinese censors and opponents of the protests sweeping Hong Kong are engaging in a cat-and-mouse game with demonstrators and commentators in a bid to stop news of the unrest spreading online and, in particular, reaching the mainland.
COMMENTARY / World / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 29, 2014

Condemnation attributed to 'utter nonsense'

Were 'comfort women' sex slaves for Japanese soldiers in World War II? If you recognize that prostitution is largely a form of physical bondage, they were. But forcibly rounding up women for the work would be a different matter. Recently the testimony of a man who claimed to have helped with the roundups was judged to be false, after causing Japan consternation for three decades.
Japan Times
JAPAN / AMBASSADOR VISIT
Sep 29, 2014

Arab ambassadors say Japan's media covers region poorly

Members of the Council of Arab Ambassadors in Tokyo said Monday they plan to help Japanese media give a more accurate picture of the region, with a special focus on life in the Arab world and on Arab nations' exchanges with Japan.
EDITORIALS
Sep 29, 2014

The population downtrend

Japan's demographic woes continue as January-June figures indicate that the number of deaths will likely outnumber births at a pace faster than in the previous year.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2014

Criminalizing policy rifts

Criticism of policy decisions should not be allowed to curdle into the hateful vitriol that demeans so much public discourse today. Words have consequences and can inflame thuggery or worse.
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2014

Is the Asahi a scapegoat of nationalist media or victim of own missteps?

One of the nation's leading newspapers has been in crisis mode of late — a situation that may bode ill for liberal journalism at a time when nationalism appears to be making public inroads.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 29, 2014

Mount Fuji finds mixed success with tolls

As the Mount Fuji climbing season drew to a close earlier this month, authorities were assessing the success of a new ¥1,000 voluntary climbing fee, which almost half of hikers skipped paying. It was introduced this year following a trial in 2013.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 29, 2014

Developing countries embracing nuclear energy despite Fukushima woes

Three years after Japan closed all of its nuclear plants in the wake of the Fukushima meltdown and Germany decided to shut its industry, developing countries are leading the biggest construction boom in more than two decades.
Japan Times
TENNIS
Sep 28, 2014

Murray claims first title since Wimbledon win

An emotional Andy Murray thanked his lucky stars after saving five match points before beating Spain's Tommy Robredo 5-7, 7-6 (9-7), 6-1 to win the Shenzhen Open in China on Sunday — his first title since winning Wimbledon last year.

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