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ENVIRONMENT
Jul 12, 2014

Rising tide: long-term ramifications of global warming on the country's coastline

It's a scenario we're all familiar with: Unequivocal climate change warms our oceans, which in turn causes ice sheets at either pole to melt and sea levels worldwide to increase. Citizens of low-lying nations such as Tuvalu, much of which is less than 1 meter above sea level, are forced to relocate as...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 12, 2014

The high cost of peace and quiet

Peace and quiet! How rare it is, how precious. Why rare? Because a full-blooded modern economy is no monastery, no "ancient pond" into which a frog may jump, producing the hushed "sound of water" immortalized by the haiku poet Basho (1644-94).
COMMUNITY / Voices / OVERHEARD
Jul 12, 2014

Unclear on the concept

Twenty-something man: There's three lanes. Over there is a cycling lane.
Reader Mail
Jul 12, 2014

Article 9: dead at 67 from fever

It is with great sadness that we announce the recent death of Article 9 of Japan's Constitution. The cause of death was attributed to a long-term struggle against a persistent military fever aggravated by nationalism and the malignant growth of Chinese territorial expansion.
Reader Mail
Jul 12, 2014

Japan can deal with birth dearth

Every day, those who follow Japanese news are bombarded with stories of its increasingly severe demographic situation: Japanese are getting older and there are too few youth to replace retirees from the workforce. Make no mistake, the negative side of this situation that we've heard about is real. However,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 12, 2014

SoundCloud music service said to near deals with record labels

The largest record labels are closing in on a deal for a stake in buzzy digital-music service SoundCloud Ltd., in exchange for an agreement not to sue the startup for copyright violations, according to people with knowledge of the plans.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 12, 2014

Ex-South Korean 'comfort women' for U.S. troops sue own government

Cho Myung-ja ran away from home as a teenager to escape a father who beat her, finding her way to the red light district in a South Korean town that hosts a large U.S. Army garrison.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jul 11, 2014

Restorer in tsunami-hit Sendai reunites photos with owners

If a stray photo has an owner, Kaori Nose will try to reunite them.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 11, 2014

Japanese firms near crisis point as labor shortage deepens

Japan's labour shortage is nearing crisis in some key industries as it spreads from construction to services, curbing companies' operations, pushing up wages and potentially crimping a tentative recovery in the world's third-largest economy.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 10, 2014

Sapphire Slows, Haioka and Albino Sound to represent Japan at Red Bull Music Academy

Sixty musicians have been chosen to take part in this year's Red Bull Music Academy, with Japanese artists taking three of the available spots.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 10, 2014

Cost of passive power struggles

The chairman of the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation recalls how the failure of the navy minister to express a truthful personal opinion within a group closed the window on Japanese doves' hopes of averting war months before the Pearl Harbor attack.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 10, 2014

Abe's defense policy from a historical perspective

Since Japan, unlike China, neither possesses nor desires nuclear weapons, Japan's use of military power in East Asia has its limits. Therefore, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision to let Japan exercise the right of 'collective self-defense' is limited in scope and should not alarm countries that have no intention of attacking Japan or the U.S.
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 10, 2014

Argentina advances to final with dramatic shootout win

Argentina's Sergio Romero launched himself left and right to save two penalties in a 4-2 shootout win over the Netherlands on Wednesday that sealed the South Americans' first World Cup final appearance in 24 years.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jul 10, 2014

Kyoto brings back All-Star forward Warren

With a veteran-dominated roster responding to the arrival of a new head coach, the Rizing Fukuoka found a way to salvage their topsy-turvy 2013-14 season after the All-Star break and earn a trip to the playoffs.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2014

Composer Sakamoto has cancer, cancels all engagements

Musician Ryuichi Sakamoto announces that he has throat cancer and is canceling all engagements to focus on battling the disease.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 10, 2014

Obama-Perry Texas talks fraught over migrant children crisis

As a measure of how politically fraught President Barack Obama's Texas trip is Wednesday, Republican Gov. Rick Perry reluctantly agreed to a ritual public greeting of the nation's chief executive.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2014

North Korea list of Japanese abductees contains some 30 names: report

North Korea has given Japan a list of some 30 missing Japanese still living in the country, the Nikkei daily reported Thursday, citing sources — three times as many names as the paper reported a week ago.
Reader Mail
Jul 9, 2014

The problem with change is Abe

I'll add my two pence worth on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Liberal Democratic Party and LDP coalition ally New Komeito changing the interpretation of the Constitution's Article 9 so that the ban on collective self-defense is dropped.
Reader Mail
Jul 9, 2014

Selling out a postwar conscience

Japan's current prime minister is now officially the man who sold out Japan's postwar pacifist conscience. In his own personal second coming to the position of premiership, and surrounded by the most bellicose Cabinet in 70 years, Shinzo Abe has rammed through a pacifist-piercing package despite majority...
Reader Mail
Jul 9, 2014

A great nation must face its past

I'm a visitor from the United States who has resided in the Philippines for 12 years. Japan is the friendliest and most well-run country on Earth; however, the constant denials of Japan's brutality during the "East Asia co-prosperity" years are disheartening, damaging and unnecessary.
Reader Mail
Jul 9, 2014

Mindset that favors fascism

Regarding Barry Andrew Ward's June 26 letter, "Scare tactics from the EU tribe": Leaving aside Ward's naive view that workers' rights would be safe under politicians who regard Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron as lily-livered lefties, I would like to focus on his misunderstanding of German fascism....
Reader Mail
Jul 9, 2014

An impossible radiation level

Regarding the July 4 editorial, "Questions about nuclear safety": There was no reason to evacuate Fukushima. The evacuation was caused by overly strict laws, not by radiation. The 1,600 deaths cited in the editorial should be blamed on the overly strict laws that forced the unnecessary evacuation.
Reader Mail
Jul 9, 2014

Disturbing SDF recruiting drive

Regarding the July 5 article "Timing is everything in the SDF's recruitment drive": The recruitment tieup between the Self-Defense Forces and the all-girl pop troupe AKB48 is awkward. Could it mean Japan will have conscription in the future?
Reader Mail
Jul 9, 2014

Media lap up the North's drivel

Regarding the June 26 AFP-Jiji article "Poking fun at Pyongyang: Movie about plot to kill Kim angers North": North Korea, which has launched numerous diatribes against U.S. senior officials, has again demonstrated its usual anachronistic behavior by threatening to "mercilessly" target the United States...
Reader Mail
Jul 9, 2014

English for third graders lagging

Since the education ministry announced its plan in October 2013 to start English education from the third grade of elementary school, more than half a year has passed and the ministry still has not decided when to start. Ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, Japan faces the problem of how to improve and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 9, 2014

Lessons of suicidal Cowra breakout remain unlearned

At around 2 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 5, 1944, 1,104 Japanese soldiers and sailors armed only with knives, forks and a few baseball bats poured out of their huts at the Cowra prisoner-of-war camp 300 km west of Sydney in the Australian state of New South Wales. Charging through a hail of machine-gun fire,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 9, 2014

'Blast!' comes marching back with a '' from its Tokyo drummer

"It was my hugely fortunate destiny to come across 'Blast!' and, as I am 39 this year, I would like to perform it with a heartfelt '39' message [because, in Japanese, three is san and nine is kyu, which is phonetically 'thank you']," Tokyo-born percussionist, composer and performing director Naoki Ishikawa...

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