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Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 23, 2013

Can social media boast an antidote for bragging?

Social media has conquered the world, racking up more than a billion users and even helping to unseat governments. The one thing it can't topple, though, is human vanity.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2013

Shift from early retirement impacts the young

The transition in many industrialized countries from retiring early to working longer is happening at an awful time. Without stronger economic recoveries, jobs taken by older workers contribute to the high unemployment of the young.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2013

How the Federal Reserve was created

A century ago this week, Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act, creating a central bank for a nation that was only beginning its economic ascendance. This is the story of how it came to be, from a nearly catastrophic financial panic to secret meetings of plutocrats on the Georgia coast to the pitched...
Figure Skating
Dec 22, 2013

Mao stays on target for seventh national title

Mao Asada moved within grasp of her seventh national title with a fine short program on Sunday in the All-Japan Championships at Saitama Super Arena.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 22, 2013

Champion of women's rights reportedly underpaid nanny

A week after the arrest and strip-search of an Indian diplomat in New York caused a international firestorm, new details are emerging about the woman at the center of the controversy, a seemingly contradictory figure who advocated for women's rights in public but is accused of underpaying and overworking...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 22, 2013

Danish PM's 'selfie' snapshot of her credibility crisis

When Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt took a "selfie" on her smartphone on Dec. 14 — like millions of people do every day — she doubtless had little idea of the commotion that would ensue. In the photograph, taken at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, the most admired political...
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 22, 2013

Ghana's electronic graveyard gives, takes

The orange flesh of a papaya is like an oval gash in the landscape at Agbogbloshie, Ghana's vast dumping site for electronic waste, where everything is smeared and stained with mucky hues of brown and sooty black.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2013

Xi factor may not influence contentious issues

The Chinese president's authority has certainly increased under Xi Jinping, but Xi is powerful only when he has the votes. On contentious issues, he is but one of seven top leaders.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA / HOOP SCOOP
Dec 21, 2013

Major coaching changes defined 2013

Taking a (recent) trip down memory lane. . . .
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 21, 2013

Protecting nature to protect ourselves

This month's column takes an intrepid look at efforts to expand protected areas in Japan and worldwide, areas that are essential to conserve biological diversity and mitigate natural disasters.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 21, 2013

For the love of haiku

"Haiku," edited by haiku practitioner David Cobb, and "Haiku Love," edited by Japanese language scholar Alan Cummings, are both fun books. Originally published by the British Museum, they are sumptuously illustrated with nihonga (Japanese-style painting) and ukiyo-e (woodblock prints) from the museum's...
EDITORIALS
Dec 21, 2013

Students neglect physical exercise

A government survey conducted from April to July this year of more than 2 million children finds that Japanese students are doing less physical exercise than ever. The results could signal a looming health crisis.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 2013

Challenges highlight need for better government

U.S. President Ronald Reagan famously insisted that 'government is not the solution to our problem.' Today we know better: If government is not part of the solution, our problems will only get bigger.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Dec 20, 2013

Odds on Ando making Olympic team for Sochi very long

"Do you believe in miracles?"
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2013

Is wife Abe's main opposition rival?

Akie Abe is Japan's first lady of conviction and action, describing herself as an 'opposition force at home' who doesn't shy away from speaking out in public against the policies of her husband, Shinzo.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2013

'Cutie and the Boxer'

When 59-year old Noriko Shinohara calls herself "Cutie," you'll want to take her word for it. She grabs the viewer at the opening scene of the documentary "Cutie and the Boxer," which plays out like something from an early Jean-Luc Godard movie: It's early morning, and she's brushing out her long, silvery...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2013

'Matsuri no Uma (The Horses of Fukushima)'

The earthquake, tsunami and reactor meltdowns of March 2011 may have faded from the world's consciousness, but for many Japanese filmmakers, both young and old, it has been a life- and career-defining event. Documentary makers, especially, have gone north by the dozens to film the aftermath and interview...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 19, 2013

Acura gets U.S. twist in bid for pizazz

Honda Motor Co.'s No. 2 executive, asked to identify the automaker's weak spot, spoke bluntly: Acura luxury sedans have to get better.
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2013

Heavy tax hit on households

Japan's tax guidelines for fiscal 2014 again reflect the Abe administration's apparent emphasis on providing economic benefits to corporations at the expense of households.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 2013

Some of the year's best music was free

Variety wasn't something the Oricon Charts delivered much over the course of 2013. With few exceptions, the biggest sellers were the same as they ever were — Johnny's boy bands such as Arashi, Kanjani 8 and Kis-My-FT2; AKB48 and their affiliated projects; and a variety of rock 'n' roll fossils. Not...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2013

Pyongyang could be in store for destabilization

The defenestration of Jang Song Thaek shows that no longer can even Pyongyang's putative second in command expect to be pensioned off to some posh inconsequential place once his services are no longer needed.
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN WEB WATCH
Dec 17, 2013

Looking at 2013's Japanese social-media scene

In the Japanese social-networking scene, Facebook still isn't dominating the way it does in the United States and many other countries. There are several other networks in Japan, both old and new, that occupy unique positions, though 2013 was an unusually quiet year, with no big takeovers among social-networking...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Dec 17, 2013

A museum where kids can play out fire-fighter fantasies

Last month I recommended the Tokyo Rinkai Disaster Prevention Park — a place where both children and adults can learn about earthquake safety in an enjoyable way. Maintaining that theme, this month we move to the other side of town to the Fire Museum in Shinjuku.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2013

Hapless qualities for which Obama will be remembered

The wars that he has not ended and the moral climate he has sustained in American government will be the remembered qualities of Barack Obama's presidency. This seems a disheartening.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2013

The rights of those detailed in cyber-perpetuity

There is the need to ensure that, in a world where many, if not all, of the important details of our lives exist in cyber-perpetuity, people reclaim some level of control over their online selves.

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