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EDITORIALS
Mar 11, 2014

No need to break the budget

Consumers would be wise to resist the urge to break their household budget with high-end purchases before the sales tax rises by three percentage points April 1. That's because manufacturers are likely to remain as keen as ever to keep their prices competitive after the tax hike.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2014

Ukraine batters a broken world

Surely the prize for the most cynical news item of the month should go to the announcement from Oslo that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2014.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Mar 11, 2014

Ristorante t.v.b: Italian fare worthy of affection

Lunch at Ristorante t.v.b is a measured and timely affair. While it wasn't as long as an opera, it was lengthy, stretching to nearly two hours. This is slow food; I mean that in the flattering and not the pejorative sense. Good food takes time.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2014

The charge of the lightweight brigade

Would America's late right-wing hero and former President Ronald Reagan have confronted a heavily nuclear-armed Russia's move to retake Crimea — 'gifted' to Ukraine by Nikita Khrushchev in 1954 — any differently than U.S. President Barack Obama? Not a chance.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2014

Putin can afford the cost of annexing Crimea

Russian President Vladimir Putin has probably considered that the costs of absorbing Crimea and its roughly 2 million inhabitants will be high but not unbearable.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2014

Obama gambles by slashing defense spending

The Obama administration's 2015 military budget cuts may embolden potential adversaries and abet miscalculation.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 11, 2014

JAFA names candidates for worlds

The Japan American Football Association began the first step for the 2015 world championship in Stockholm, announcing the 85 candidates to make the national team on Monday night.
Japan Times
JAPAN / THREE YEARS AFTER 3/11
Mar 10, 2014

Tohoku kids stressed, haunted by trauma

Almost every day around a dozen students seek out nurse Akemi Idogawa at their temporary junior high school in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, hoping she will help ease their trauma.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 10, 2014

There is a giant serving of culture in one bowl of rice

Rice. A bland, white carbohydrate? Staple food that forms the nourishing core of every meal? A crop that has molded culture and society? Or primal sustenance imbued with mystic life force of the gods?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 10, 2014

Stakes high as ailing U.S. Navy sailors take on Tepco over Fukushima fallout

If successful, this U.S. court case opens up the possibility of Fukushima-related claims from not just American military personnel and their dependents but potentially thousands of Japanese who experienced the fallout.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEDGE
Mar 9, 2014

Nursery school push hobbled by lack of workers

Many government-certified nursery schools are scheduled to open in April, but some are questioning whether some of them actually will open their doors on time.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 8, 2014

Farmers not waiting for politicians

When it comes to trade policy, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faces a choice between the fears of an aging farm lobby and the hopes of suburban families.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 8, 2014

Still hunting shadows three years after 3/11

One of the great statistical mysteries that persist several years after a natural disaster is the figure that appears without fail each month in columns representing the number of people that are still missing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 8, 2014

Island hop to friendly Okinoerabu

At the end of March, having reached the age of 70 three months ago, I'll retire from my post as a lecturer at Okinawa Christian University — mandatory retirement.
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 8, 2014

A Strange Tale from East of the River

Kafu Nagai was an unapologetic sentimentalist, always an era out of step with the times. Born in the Meiji Era (1868-1912), he lamented the good old days of the Edo Period (1603-1867); once in the Taisho Era (1912-1926) he looked plangently back on the qualities of Meiji. The Showa Era (1926-1989) brought...
COMMUNITY / Voices / OVERHEARD
Mar 8, 2014

Unclear on the concept

My 5-year-old kid has just been diagnosed with asthma.
EDITORIALS
Mar 8, 2014

Sixty years since Bikini's sacrifice

It has been 60 years since the U.S. tested a hydrogen bomb — a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima — in the Bikini Atoll, destroying an island and exposing thousands of people to deadly radiation.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 8, 2014

China signals tougher stand on territorial rows

China is beefing up spending on high-tech weapons and upgrading combat readiness as it throws its military weight behind territorial claims that have stirred tensions with Japan and its Southeast Asian neighbors.
EDITORIALS
Mar 7, 2014

Don't reopen old wounds

If the Abe administration tries to weaken or scrap the 1993 'Kono statement,' the perception is likely to strengthen in the international community that it is bent on whitewashing Japan's wartime behavior and, even today, lacks respect for the honor and dignity of women.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2014

China gains from U.S.-Russia face-off

The clear geopolitical winner from the U.S.-Russian face-off over Ukraine will be an increasingly muscular China, which harps on historical grievances — real or imaginary — to justify its claims to territories and fishing areas long held by other Asian states.
EDITORIALS
Mar 7, 2014

Enormous tasks ahead for China

As Premier Li Keqiang kicks off the National People's Congress, Japan, for its part, needs to think about developing a coolheaded strategy for dealing with perceived Chinese territorial and political provocations.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2014

What U.S. media won't say about Russia's actions

If America's foreign correspondents only knew that millions of ethnic Russians in former Soviet Republics have suffered widespread discrimination and harassment since the 1991 Soviet collapse — beginning with laws eliminating Russian as an official language — maybe they wouldn't be falling down on the job in Ukraine.
BASKETBALL
Mar 7, 2014

Gunma thumps Nara in series opener

Friday's series opener against the visiting Gunma Crane Thunders started off well, but finished poorly for the Bambitious Nara.
BASKETBALL
Mar 7, 2014

Walters, USF's Japanese-American sideline supervisor, named WCC Coach of the Year

For six seasons, head coach Rex Walters has worked to build the University of San Francisco men's basketball team into a bigger, better program. There have been setbacks and disappointments, but also accomplishments and success stories.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 7, 2014

Aum victim Kariya's son not seeking vengeance for death

He says he isn't seeking vengeance on those who tortured and killed his father. Nor does he intend to hate them forever. The only thing Minoru Kariya wants is the simple truth about how exactly his father, Kiyoshi, died nearly 20 years ago.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2014

'Deaf' composer Samuragochi says he's sorry for deceiving

A month after the shocking revelation by his ghostwriter, the supposedly "deaf" composer Mamoru Samuragochi apologized Friday for deceiving people with his lies.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Mar 7, 2014

Era of personal genomic medicine dawns at last

When President Bill Clinton announced in 2000 that Craig Venter and Dr. Francis Collins of the National Human Genome Research Institute had succeeded in mapping the human genome, he solemnly declared that the discovery would "revolutionize" the treatment of virtually all human diseases.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 6, 2014

East Asia should build resilience through disaster-relief cooperation

The president of Soka Gakkai International urges Japan, China and South Korea to take the initiative in building a model of cooperation that will serve to mutually strengthen regional resilience to extreme-weather events and other disasters.
EDITORIALS
Mar 6, 2014

Trimming U.S. military spending

The headline-grabbing cuts in America's 2015 fiscal budget, unveiled by President Barack Obama this week, involve the downsizing of the U.S. military. The plans are controversial in light of recent events on the Crimean Peninsula and the so-called rebalance of U.S. forces to the Asia-Pacific region.

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