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COMMENTARY / World
Jan 2, 2015

Still no insurance for mental illness

The U.S. remains a country in its infancy when it comes to mental health care, despite the undeniable turning point marked by the enactment of the Affordable Care Act in 2013.
WORLD
Dec 23, 2014

Russia in grips of 'full-fledged economic crisis,' ex-minister says

Russia's government has pushed the country into an economic crisis by not tackling its financial problems fast enough, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin said on Monday, as evidence mounted of trouble spreading through the economy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Dec 22, 2014

Jeers, apologies and silence: Japan's 2014 in quotes

First of all, we're sorry. Everybody is sorry. This was the year that everyone apologized and everyone was sorry about something. The Asahi Shimbun was sorry so many times (even when maybe they shouldn't have been) that we're omitting them from the list. There's not enough space.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2014

Conservative Abe's secrecy law doesn't hold a candle to Seoul's press suppression

For people concerned with the weakening of press freedoms under the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, its criticism of Asahi Shimbun and the new state secrets law, there should still be a sense of relief that media suppression in Japan has not quite reached the levels now being seen in South Korea.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Dec 20, 2014

Little sizzle found during NPB winter

Where will Chihiro Kaneko and Takashi Toritani be playing next season?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / DECISION 2014
Dec 15, 2014

Abe claims mandate for economic, security policies despite lowest turnout ever

Emerging as the big winner in the Lower House election, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declares he has a renewed mandate to keep pushing his policy agenda.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 14, 2014

American in North Korea reportedly denounces U.S., seeks asylum in Venezuela

A U.S. citizen who illegally entered North Korea delivered a lengthy denunciation of U.S. domestic and foreign policy Sunday and said he was seeking political asylum in Venezuela, the North's official media said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Nov 28, 2014

A world away from Ferguson but feeling the flames

I went through an entire day in Yokohama without a single person mentioning that my country was on fire. Of course, they knew, but what could they have said, anyway?
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Nov 26, 2014

FIBA bans Japan from international competition

Although nearly a month passed since FIBA's Oct. 31 deadline for the Japan Basketball Association to present a merger plan for the bj-league and the NBL, among other demands, basketball's world governing body delivered the expected news.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Nov 19, 2014

San Francisco's huff with Hashimoto over 'comfort women' reveals double standards

San Francisco's reaction to Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's comments about 'comfort women' says much about equality between nations, about how we judge each other through cultural lenses and blinders, and how we have to keep finding ways to address grievances from our past.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 10, 2014

GOP takeover could mean trouble for Japan

Perhaps no one in Asia is happier than Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party to see Republicans take over control of the U.S. Congress. In fact, Japan's plummeting currency and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal put Abe in a tough corner.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets / ANALYSIS
Nov 6, 2014

After BOJ shocks market, some ask why it gave no warning

Hours after the Bank of Japan caught central bank watchers off guard by boosting stimulus, officials were fending off complaints about its communications.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 1, 2014

Media whips up fuss over S&M bar claim

First came what the tabloids referred to as "W-jinin," the resignations of two female Cabinet members — Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yuko Obuchi and Justice Minister Midori Matsushima — on the same day.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 28, 2014

New environment minister admits discrepancies in funding reports

Adding to the rash of scandals suddenly plaguing the Abe Cabinet, another new minister admits there are accounting discrepancies in the political funding reports of one of his support groups.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 26, 2014

Double-edged media sword

What was not widely known about the late Benjamin C. Bradlee, the Washington Post editor during the Watergate Scandal of the early 1970s, was that he was quite sensitive to the risk of the news media abusing its power when it came to presidential politics.
JAPAN / History
Oct 16, 2014

Government requests revision of 1996 U.N. sex slave report

The Abe administration asks the author of a U.N. report that accused Japan of wartime military sexual slavery to amend the 1996 document.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 16, 2014

China blocks BBC website as Hong Kong tensions rise

Chinese censors have blocked the website of Britain's national broadcaster, the BBC said in a statement late on Wednesday, as tensions rise in Hong Kong between pro-democracy protesters and police.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Oct 7, 2014

Gay couples cheer U.S. Supreme Court move, make wedding, family plans

Marina Gomberg was in bed on Monday morning when she heard the news that the U.S. Supreme Court had effectively made gay marriage legal again in Utah and she immediately started dreaming that she and her wife could become mothers.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Oct 4, 2014

Yakuza do what Abe Cabinet pick can't

In most countries, police officers and criminals are supposed to be on opposite sides of the law, especially the higher up the chain of command you go, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe doesn't appear to think this is necessary.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 4, 2014

U.S. defends response to Ebola case; about 50 people under observation

U.S. officials Friday broadly defended the response to the country's first case of Ebola, although one acknowledged that while the government is confident of containing the virus, it had been "rocky" in Dallas where the patient is in serious condition.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2014

A serial intervener, after all

In launching his presidency's seventh bombing campaign, Barack Obama has shown himself to be one of the most militarily aggressive U.S. presidents since World War II.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 30, 2014

Chinese receive limited coverage of 'illegal' Hong Kong protests

On a day when front pages of newspapers in Hong Kong and around the world carried stories on prodemocracy protesters confronting riot police in the city, the lead article in China's official People's Daily focused on a new book of President's Xi Jinping's speeches.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2014

Daily Asahi Shimbun retracts faulty Fukushima story, sacks top editor

The Asahi Shimbun on Friday carried front page articles and an apology concerning an erroneous article that alleged workers fled the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant during the meltdown crisis in March 2011, retracting the scoop story that drew strong criticism from the public, lawmakers and government...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Sep 3, 2014

Fan-favorite Inaba jumping into sunset

Atsunori Inaba may have been Japan's most popular player among foreign fans during the 2013 World Baseball Classic. The quadrennial competition doesn't just bring 16 nations together, it allows the baseball cultures of various nations to come together. Prominent among these is Japan's ouendan.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami