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Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
May 18, 2014

Japan's working poor left behind by 'Abenomics'

Last Christmas Eve, Ririko Saito and her 11-year-old daughter gathered some plastic bottles, pots and a kettle and made several trips to a nearby park to get water. Their utility had just turned off the tap after months of unpaid bills.
WORLD
May 18, 2014

Children in targeted city defiant in face of Boko Haram

It is like schools the world over: ebullient children hurtle up and down the stairway as teachers try to keep some semblance of order. There are satchels and lunch boxes, colorful art, rows of wooden desks carved with graffiti by pupils. There is also a school motto: "Knowledge for success." This is...
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
May 18, 2014

Japan scores high on lies but U.S. is in a league of its own

Are Japanese just more honest about lying? Perhaps. But when it comes to the Big Lie, America is in a league of its own.
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2014

Class of 2014: Thank you for not disinviting me

Are today's graduating college students too eager to ban commencement speakers whose views they reject?
EDITORIALS
May 18, 2014

Protecting the water cycle

The Diet has enacted a basic law on the water cycle, but the law falls short of meeting local governments' demand to legally define underground water as common public property.
SOCCER / World cup
May 17, 2014

Blatter admits FIFA mistake in Qatar

Awarding the 2022 soccer World Cup to Qatar was a "mistake" and the tournament will may have to be held in the winter because of the heat, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has said.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 17, 2014

The 'variety' of reasons foreigners come to Japan; profiles of Senshin Settlers; CM of the week: Kellogg's

The "You" in the title of the variety show "You wa nani shi Nihon e?" (What Are You Doing in Japan?; TV Tokyo, Mon, 6:57 p.m.) is fluid, since it can be used as both a second person and a third person pronoun. In both cases, "you" always refers to foreigners who are visiting Japan.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 16, 2014

Aging, crowded China instigates funereal revolution: burial at sea

Before Li Zhenxuan died at the age 101, the former chief officer of a Chinese riverboat told his son he wanted his ashes to be scattered at sea along with those of his mother, who passed away in 1965, and his wife, who died in 1995.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 16, 2014

Osaka museum offers Big Bang for your buck

Tokyo is teeming with opportunities for families to learn and play, but the nation's capital doesn't have a monopoly on educational fun.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
May 16, 2014

China's hunger for sea cucumbers reaches African islands

As evening falls over Sierra Leone's Banana Island archipelago, bats stream from their beachside roosts to circle in their thousands over the jungle village of Dublin.
JAPAN / Politics
May 15, 2014

Panel lists steps for bypassing Article 9

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's security panel proposes revising Japan's interpretation of the Constitution to circumvent Article 9 and risk war in the name of collective self-defense.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 15, 2014

Blanchett channels Blanche for Oscar-winning role in 'Blue Jasmine'

When actress Cate Blanchett took to the stage at this year's Academy Awards, winning the best actress Oscar for her performance in "Blue Jasmine," she delivered a memorable and eloquent speech.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
May 15, 2014

'Only God Forgives'

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
JAPAN / Politics
May 15, 2014

Key Abe panel says Japan should exercise right of collective self-defense

A key security policy advisory panel to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe publicized its much-awaited final report on Thursday and — as expected — pushed for a change in the government's constitutional interpretation to allow Japan to use the right to collective self-defense, at least in some limited cases....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 14, 2014

Nagoya hosts works from one of the largest collections in the U.S.

For Malcolm Rogers, the Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), visiting Japan in mid-April had a special resonance. The MFA this year celebrates its 15th anniversary of ties with what is not only its very first sister museum, but also its sole sister museum in Asia: the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 14, 2014

Before the vividness of France came the simplicity of Holland

It must be something of a Faustian bargain buying a Post-Impressionist painting for a record-breaking price. In 1987, Yasuo Goto, president of Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Co., bought Van Gogh's "Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers" (1888) for $39 million. Perhaps due to that daring purchase, his company,...
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2014

Nigeria's kidnapped girls and Iran's brave women

Both Turkey and Iran have seen a big expansion in the number of women going to university in recent years. The demand by women to decide their own cloethes and fates will surely grow in tandem.
Reader Mail
May 14, 2014

Effects of bullying as bad as ever

Regarding the May 9 article "LGBT bullying rife in schools": Bullying is something that many people who are reading this can relate to. It's not limited only to children in schools, because it can easily transition into the workplace.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 13, 2014

Population panel draws line in sand

To prevent a crisis, Japan should try to keep its population at 100 million for the next 50 years by devoting more resources to child-rearing, a panel says.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 13, 2014

El Nino-induced weather raises concern at BOJ

Bank of Japan officials are concerned that cooler-than-normal weather triggered by El Nino will curb spending this summer and weigh on an economic rebound after April's sales tax increase, according to people familiar with the matter.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
May 13, 2014

Activist seeks to tap power of youth for political change

The world's top economies and financial watchdogs have repeatedly warned Japan to take action against its snowballing debt, but it's the younger generations of Japanese who stand to be most affected by the repercussions as a shrinking and rapidly aging population bleeds social security dry.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
May 12, 2014

Weak exports, not tax hike, could shake BOJ

The Bank of Japan is increasingly confident that the economy is weathering the recent tax increase and on its way out of deflation, but another threat to that optimistic scenario is lurking in the form of weak exports.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 12, 2014

After ASIJ admission that teacher abused kids, ex-students demand inquiry

Alumni from the American School in Japan are demanding an independent inquiry into whether school officials covered up knowledge of sexual abuse committed by teacher Jack Moyer.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 11, 2014

Eternal City celebrates legacy of first emperor

Rome, a city that thinks in millenniums, is going through a bout of "Augustus fever" to mark the 2,000th anniversary of the death of its first emperor, who left his mark on Rome and Western civilization like few others.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / SYMPOSIUM ON SOUTH KOREA
May 11, 2014

S. Korea's economy and the elderly

The South Korean economy has shown positive signs recently, but prospects may not be so bright due to the increasing costs of handling an aging society, five South Korean think tank researchers met at a recent symposium in Tokyo to discuss issues facing South Korea.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 11, 2014

On drinking, May and battling the blues

According to T.S. Eliot, April is the cruelest month. But in Japan May ushers in some pretty heavy blues, too. The dual combination of haru no megumi (春の恵み, spring blessings) and haru no utsu (春の鬱, spring depression) makes for a challenging 31 days.

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