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Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 19, 2014

Plane disaster 'wake-up' call for Europe: Obama

U.S. President Barack Obama said the downing of a Malaysian jetliner in a Ukrainian region controlled by Russian-backed separatists should be a "wake-up call for Europe and the world" in a crisis that appears to be at a turning point and warned Russia of possible tightening of sanctions.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jul 18, 2014

Organ donation

Dear Alice,
EDITORIALS
Jul 18, 2014

More needed than NRA safety nod

Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority has effectively given the green light for restarting an idled Kyushu Electric nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture under safety standards updated a year ago. After a period of public comment and local government approvals, two reactors of the plant, in the city of Satsumasendai, could restart by yearend.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2014

World needs to right Israel's wrongs

The Israeli bombardment of the Palestinians has proven a policy failure, demonstrated by the Israeli government's resumption of bombing. The Israelis tried to give up, but failed.
EDITORIALS
Jul 17, 2014

Silver lining to labor shortage

Labor shortages in Japan are becoming increasingly problematic amid the current economic recovery, particularly for those sectors where rising wage costs result in lost sales and even bankruptcy — despite rising consumer demand.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 17, 2014

Automated cars may boost sprawl and fuel use, Toyota scientist warns

Toyota Motor Corp. is cautioning that the appeal of autonomous cars carries the risk of adding to urban sprawl and pollution, as they may encourage commuters to travel farther to work.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 17, 2014

Sen. Warren sides with loan-strapped students over billionaires as 2016 draft begins

A day after a group formed to draft Elizabeth Warren to seek the 2016 presidential nomination, the Massachusetts senator riled up student activists with a speech on her bill that would let them refinance loans at lower rates.
Reader Mail
Jul 16, 2014

Biggest responsibility for adults

I read with interest Hitomi Nagahashi's July 10 letter, "English for third graders lagging." I agree completely with Nagahashi's statements that "English education is not just about words and grammar" and that English education "at an earlier age is key to globalizing Japan."
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2014

Putin fails as a grand strategist

Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown no sign he recognizes the political threat posed by the growing Chinese population on the Russian side of the Amur River in the Far East.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 15, 2014

Bamboo flute musician Tosha borrows from the modern to teach traditional tranquility

Music changes from generation to generation, which is as true in Japan as it is everywhere else. But how can traditional music manage to keep itself from being forgotten?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices
Jul 14, 2014

Osaka: Do you approve of the recent reinterpretation of constitutional limits on military action?

On July 2, the Cabinet approved a new interpretation of the Constitution that effectively broadens the range of situations in which the Self-Defense Forces are permitted to act militarily. Danny Gong asked interviewees in Osaka what they thought about this change.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 14, 2014

Thai activists decry junta vow to deport Myanmar refugees

Thailand's military government said Monday it would send home 100,000 refugees who have been living in camps for two decades and more along the border with Myanmar, a move rights groups say would create chaos at a tense time for both nations.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 14, 2014

Budget phones challenge the majors

Smartphones may be convenient, but there's one thing about them that bugs many people: their costly monthly data plans.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 14, 2014

Outside investors eye heirless small Japanese firms

Takeshi Kaneko searched for nine years to find someone to take over the dried-food store his parents opened after they fled the rubble of Japan-occupied China at the end of World War II.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ADVANCES IN PROGRESS
Jul 13, 2014

Cyberdyne's HAL suits give lift to mobility-challenged

Robotics engineer Yoshiyuki Sankai, 56, has been driven by his passion for innovative technology for about half a century.
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...
EDITORIALS
Jul 12, 2014

Mood changes from Facebook

Facebook at least learned one thing from its secretive experiment to manipulate users' news feeds to find out how their moods changed. It produced a lot of negative emotions in response.
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
CULTURE / Film
Jul 10, 2014

Angelina Jolie takes evil to new places in 'Maleficent'

Websites such as Buzzfeed have made an art of the "listicle," a news article that comprises a top 10 on a designated topic. Thanks to childhood nostalgia, Walt Disney characters often make their way onto such listicles, and a quick look at the Top 10 Disney villains of all time often ends with one woman...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2014

Japan's massive pachinko industry bets on casinos amid popularity decline

"Welcome!" two young women in shorts and Hawaiian shirts chime over the clatter of pinballs and J-pop music at the Million pachinko parlor in the Tokyo residential area of Suginami.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 9, 2014

China's hottest app inspired by devotion to Japanese manga

Erick Guo left Asia's largest Internet company last year to build a team of artists and engineers who could create smartphone applications inspired by Japanese manga.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 8, 2014

Daymare puts its bands through a hardcore filter for Leave Them All Behind event

"There are people who like aggressive music the way they like sports, but I think 'hardcore' is about being self-aware of what you're doing, about how to create your own space," says Tadashi Hamada, manager of independent music label Daymare Recordings. "That's my first requirement for bands. So hardcore...
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 8, 2014

Amazon rain forest grew after climate change 2,000 years ago

Swaths of the Amazon may have been grassland until a natural shift to a wetter climate about 2,000 years ago let the rain forests form, according to a study that challenges common belief that the world's biggest tropical forest is far older.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jul 7, 2014

Letters: adoption from Japan, book bores, returnees, workers' rights and fleeing U.S. guns

Some letters in response to recent articles in the Community section about a wide range of subjects.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 5, 2014

Shinjuku self-immolation act protests Abe's democracy hijack

Last week a man set himself on fire next to Shinjuku Station to reportedly protest Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's bid to lift constitutional constraints on Japan's military forces. It was a gruesome spectacle captured on numerous smartphone videos and disseminated on social media. Good thing because the...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jul 5, 2014

Entertaining guests with a little horseplay

I had returned from a three-month trip to the Canadian Arctic and was in Vancouver, meeting up with family and friends before returning to Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2014

Rising to the challenge of a Rio house call

A New York physician gets a surprisingly good view of social affairs when he chooses to visit a favela instead of the best places in Rio de Janeiro.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight