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Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Aug 21, 2014

Pachinko parlors bet on tidiness to reverse decline

The once-booming pachinko industry, grappling with a graying customer base and the threat of new competition from casinos, is adopting a softer touch and smoke-free zones to lure a new generation of players, particularly women.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 21, 2014

In case of slain journalist Foley, negotiations, silence — then a chilling warning

After months of silence from the captors of American journalist James Foley, his family received a chilling message on the night of Aug. 13: Foley would be executed in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes on the militant group Islamic State.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 21, 2014

Prosecutor in Ferguson police shooting tells governor to decide if he stays on case

The St. Louis county prosecutor in charge of investigating the police shooting of an unarmed suburban teenager called on Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to promptly decide whether he should remain on the case.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 20, 2014

No leader of the pack, but still a heartthrob

What is it with women and bad boys on motorcycles — including college boys with pretensions to being bad? A conundrum of my youth. Yes, I understood the appeal of a Marlon Brando or James Dean with a big thrumming machine between his legs, but why did the women I knew prefer riding on a Honda with...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Aug 20, 2014

Japan rallies past Russia at World Grand Prix Finals

Japan came from behind to defeat Russia in four sets (22-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-17) on the first day of play in the FIVB World Grand Prix Finals at Ariake Colosseum on Wednesday night.
WORLD
Aug 20, 2014

Gaza war rages on; Hamas says Israel tried to kill its military chief

Israeli airstrikes killed 11 Palestinians in Gaza, including the wife and infant son of Hamas' military leader, Mohammed Deif, in what the group said Wednesday was an attempt to assassinate him after a cease-fire collapsed.
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2014

U.S. ice bucket challenge picked up by Japan's movers and shakers

A U.S.-based social media challenge daring people to douse themselves with buckets of ice water spreads to Japan, with celebrities from billionaire Masayoshi Son to singer Ayumi Hamasaki taking up the gauntlet to boost awareness of what is known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Reader Mail
Aug 20, 2014

Japan paid its Pacific War debt

I read recently in my hometown newspaper that Korean and Chinese officials were upset over Japanese officials visiting the shrine to Japan's war dead.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Aug 20, 2014

As Missouri violence flares, fingers point to outsiders

As darkness fell on Ferguson, Missouri, the crowd of several hundred people protesting the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teen quickly and radically changed.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 20, 2014

U.S. government's nuclear watchdog victim of cyberattacks: report

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission was "successfully hacked" three times in recent years in attacks involving tainted emails, according to an internal investigation on cyberattacks at the agency, Nextgov.com reported on Tuesday.
WORLD
Aug 20, 2014

Scene of fighting, grandiose Mosul Dam always beset with problems, threat of collapse

The Mosul Dam was always meant to be a symbol of Iraq's grandiose ambition to escape poverty and underdevelopment.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 20, 2014

Skepticism over Abe's inflation goal grows as price gauge retreats

Traders are growing more skeptical Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will achieve his 2 percent inflation target after a sales tax increase derailed growth.
EDITORIALS
Aug 19, 2014

Higher standards for assemblies

Recent instances of strange or illegal behavior on the part of municipal and prefectural assembly members, including a bawling jag by a Hyogo assemblymen whose hand was caught in the cookie jar, have given many citizens cause to suspect that the overall quality of their local lawmakers is deteriorating.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 19, 2014

Old and new mingle sweetly at Summer Sonic

After Queen finished "Another One Bites The Dust" — 10 minutes before 8 p.m. on the Sunday of this year's Summer Sonic in Chiba — hundreds of fans darted for the exits of QVC Marine Field Stadium. Security guards and staff with megaphones tried to direct them as some dashed to the left for Kraftwerk,...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2014

U.K. should stay in EU until they beg it to leave

The European Union moves under a seemingly irresistible momentum to strengthen its institutions even as it fails to integrate in ways that a well-run single-currency area needs. The best course for Britain is to continue as an EU member for the economic benefits until other members beg it to leave.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 19, 2014

As Gaza war subsides, a battle over how it is investigated begins

Even before starting work as chairman of a U.N. human rights commission investigating the Gaza war, Canadian law professor William Schabas has been vilified as an apologist for Iran who is incapable of setting aside his perceived anti-Israel bias.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 19, 2014

Obama sending Holder to Ferguson; National Guard deploys

President Barack Obama said he has dispatched Attorney General Eric Holder to meet with federal and local authorities in Ferguson, Missouri, where the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by police has sparked days of protests and violence.
WORLD
Aug 19, 2014

Betrayal, desertion could mean execution, Ukraine rebel leaders warn fighters

Under growing pressure from a government offensive, the rebel leadership in Ukraine's battle-torn east warned its fighters on Monday that desertion and betrayal could be met by execution.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Aug 18, 2014

Challenges can't compare to the rewards of cross-cultural adoption in Japan

Five years ago, my Japanese husband and I adopted a 3-year-old boy who had been placed in an orphanage when he was a month old. His birth mother, too young to care for him, had likely decided that giving him up was his only chance for a better life. After we first took him home, he would barely acknowledge...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2014

Make no mistake about Thailand's problem

The Thai military has not played the role of 'democratic defender' following its recent coup. Instead, its intervention shows its desperate move to maintain power ahead of the imminent royal succession.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 17, 2014

Tokyo combats flood threats with second mammoth reservoir

Below the condos and boutiques of Tokyo's upscale Minato Ward — which includes Roppongi Hills, home to Goldman Sachs Group's Japan headquarters — a boring machine has carved out the city's newest defense against floods.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 17, 2014

Scientist weighs homecoming risks in Fukushima

When scientist Junko Nakanishi stepped into radiation-contaminated towns and villages in Fukushima Prefecture 10 months after the nuclear power plant meltdowns of 2011, she realized how difficult the job of decontamination would be.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 17, 2014

Small-minded leaders flirt with a 'sunlit picture of Hell'

One hundred years later, we Americans, Australians, British, Chinese, Europeans, Indians, Japanese, Koreans and Russians still have leaders with the same narrow chauvinist mind-set that sparked World War I, supposedly the war to end all wars.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 16, 2014

Chasing the ghost of Musashi in Kyushu

In the spring of 1645 a man lay dying in Kumamoto, on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. He sensed that his time was near, asked for someone to help him into a seated position and tucked his short sword into his belt. This way he could greet death with dignity. The dying man was the celebrated swordsman...

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person