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BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 19, 2014

Abe's target for women managers won't be met, say Daiwa, Goldman

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. and Goldman Sachs Japan Co. said they will fall short of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's goal of having women in 30 percent of management jobs by 2020, citing a lack of candidates.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 19, 2014

Spike in conflicts sees 'global peace' eroding fast

World peace has deteriorated steadily over the last seven years, with wars, militant attacks and crime reversing six earlier decades of gradual improvement, a global security survey reported Wednesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jun 18, 2014

Japan's 'no immigration principle' looking as solid as ever

In contrast to Hidenori Sakanaka's unbridled optimism, I argue that Japan has little prospect of becoming a 'migrant nation' anytime soon.
EDITORIALS
Jun 18, 2014

New Komeito shouldn't cave in

New Komeito's most important party ideal — pacifism — is being tested by the Abe administration's efforts to allow Japan to engage in collective self-defense.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 18, 2014

Female dramatists dispel gender concern

Last month in Berlin, in a conversation with Annemie Vanackere, artistic director at the city's cutting-edge Hebbel am Ufer company, she was saying how she loved contemporary Japanese theater, and how HAU had worked with several Japanese dramatists. Then she suddenly asked me: "Why were they all men?...
WORLD
Jun 17, 2014

Any airstrikes on Iraq will be risky for Obama

The airstrikes that President Barack Obama is considering against Islamic militants in Iraq could prove as messy and inconclusive as the war the U.S. thought had ended in 2011.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 14, 2014

Ghostly footprints of the 'modern girl' along Kamakura's coastline

There's a scene in Junichiro Tanizaki's serialized novel "Naomi" (originally titled "A Fool's Love") from 1924 where the besotted protagonist, Joji, watches his wife, Naomi — part Lolita, part Madame Bovary, all trouble — through the pine trees. Having just emerged from a seaside villa, she is sashaying...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 14, 2014

Iraq's top Shiite cleric issues call to fight jihadist rebels

Iraq's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric urged followers to take up arms against a full-blown Sunni militant insurgency to topple Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a conflict that threatens civil war and a possible break-up of the country.
EDITORIALS
Jun 13, 2014

Iraq collapsing

Islamic militants have overrun northern Iraq, taking control of the country's second-largest city and sparking fears of the collapse of the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 11, 2014

Top young dramatist urges theater toward key role in nation's cultural life

Fifteen months ago, when I interviewed Takahiro Fujita as the most prominent newcomer in Japan's contemporary theater world, the playwright and director declared, "I'm always looking for something new, and I suppose I will always carry on doing that."
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 10, 2014

Will host Brazil win the World Cup?

For most people, Brazil is favored to win the World Cup as it's the country organizing the competition this year. But if history is any indication, a different outcome could be in the making.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 10, 2014

Boris sums up its sonic spectrum with 'Noise'

Trying to define the sound of Tokyo-based experimental trio Boris is like asking someone their favorite kind of music. It's everything, it's nothing in particular ... it's definitely not country.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 10, 2014

Five sentenced for slaying of Russian journalist, but mastermind remains unknown

Five men received long prison terms on Monday for the killing of prominent Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya after a trial that failed to reveal who had masterminded the Russian journalist's murder.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 10, 2014

Syria's Assad announces wide-ranging prisoner amnesty

Syrian President Bashar Assad announced an unprecedented prisoner amnesty Monday, less than a week after his re-election, the most wide-ranging since the revolt against him began.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 9, 2014

As talks kick off, Ukrainian leader says violence must end this week

New Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko said the violence that has rocked the former Soviet republic's easternmost regions must end this week as peace talks began involving an envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 7, 2014

Accused Seattle gunman suffering severe mental illness: lawyer

The man accused of killing one person and wounding two others in a shooting spree at a small Christian college in Seattle suffers from "significant and long-standing mental health issues" that were a factor in the tragedy, his lawyer said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jun 6, 2014

Fans go nuts for Shiga banana carver

An electrician by day and banana artist by night, Keisuke Yamada has attained renown at home and abroad for his banana sculptures.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2014

Calculating the ethical cost of high-priced art

If artists, art critics and art buyers really had any interest in reducing the widening gap between the rich and the poor, they would spend time in developing countries, where spending a few thousand dollars on the works of indigenous artists can make a real difference to the wellbeing of whole villages.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 6, 2014

As Ukraine moves on rebel stronghold, residents live with sound of shelling

Only one of the Ukrainian Army checkpoints encircling the separatist stronghold of Slovyansk, where a military operation was in its third day on Thursday, was letting traffic through — most on its way out.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 6, 2014

Top General Motors executives spared in internal report on safety failure

General Motors Co. on Thursday issued a report detailing how for 11 years it turned a blind eye to an ignition-switch problem that has been linked to at least 13 deaths but it largely pinned the blame on incompetent lower-level employees, leaving top brass untouched.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2014

772 Fukushima No. 1 interviews slated for release

The government says it will release the transcripts of interviews with 772 people involved in the Fukushima meltdowns but might redact some parts for secrecy reasons.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 5, 2014

SoftBank unveils 'historic' robot

SoftBank Corp. unveiled on Thursday what it says is the world's first humanoid robot that can communicate and read people's emotions, and said it will go on sale to the general public next year.
EDITORIALS
Jun 5, 2014

Political reform overdue in China

Twenty-five years after the protests at Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Communist Party continues to try to erase the memory of a movement that called for elimination of corruption, government accountability, freedom of speech and expansion of workers' rights.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 5, 2014

Assad declared landslide victor in Syrian presidential election

Syrian President Bashar Assad has secured a landslide victory in a wartime election that was condemned as a sham by his opponents but demonstrated his tenacious hold on power after three years of brutal civil war.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 5, 2014

Amid fierce backlash, Berghdahl's Idaho hometown cancels rally

U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's hometown, feeling a backlash over allegations that he was a deserter, has canceled a rally planned for later this month celebrating his release from five years of Taliban captivity, city officials said on Wednesday.

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