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Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 10, 2015

'Red purge' during MacArthur era hurt unions now pushing on wages

As annual wage talks climax this month, one of the obstacles to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's campaign for outsize pay raises has its roots in the 1940s: a stunted union movement.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2015

Abe's robot panel aims to give drone industry an edge

The Abe administration is looking to fast-track industry-friendly regulation to give Japan's drone sector an edge over the United States.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 9, 2015

Tohoku pins rebound hopes to atom smasher

As the disaster-hit Tohoku region struggles to recover from the deadly tsunami four years ago, many residents have hopes for what is considered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to galvanize the area's resurrection.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Japan Pulse
Mar 9, 2015

Will Line put the brakes on Uber with its taxi app?

Line is expanding its smartphone messaging platform by letting users book cabs in Tokyo via its app.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 8, 2015

Labor of love left to wither and die in Fukushima

Forced to abandon his life's work, the 72-year-old creator of a renowned rose garden in Fukushima wants Tepco to compensate him and allow him to start over.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 7, 2015

Rikuzentakata looks to future with new tourism ventures

The coastal town of Rikuzentakata in southeastern Iwate Prefecture became an international symbol of the devastation wreaked by the tsunami that followed the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. Lashed by waves up to 13 meters high in places, the sections of the town closest to the sea were...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2015

Public investment can bring sustainable growth

The best way to avoid the risk of an extended period of weak economic growth is to fuel productivity growth by improving human capital and innovation through properly targeted public investment.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Mar 7, 2015

Nemtsov's friends ask: Where were the police when he was shot?

When Boris Nemtsov was shot dead as he walked across a bridge next to the Kremlin, it took 11 minutes before a police car arrived at the scene, according to the time stamp on closed-circuit television footage.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2015

Little Estonia did its post-Soviet homework

There aren't many European leaders who take a harder line on Russian President Vladimir Putin's aggression in Ukraine than Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves. But Ilves' sympathy for Ukraine is tempered by his belief that it didn't do enough in advance to protect itself.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2015

Emerging economies' demographic challenges

As the era of 'easy' GDP growth driven by a massive army of young workers draws to a close, emerging economies must face the resulting growth challenge head-on by pursuing sweeping changes in established practices to boost productivity.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 6, 2015

Man finds girl of his dreams in the mirror

Keisuke Jinushi was tired of seeing social-networking snapshots of his friends with their girlfriends, at weddings or with their newborn children. He was single and felt like time was slipping away for him while everyone else was happily moving on with life. He wanted what they had, and to flaunt it...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / FOCUS
Mar 6, 2015

In North Korea's war on smoking, Kim is no poster boy

North Korea executes officials and arbitrarily imprisons those seen as enemies of the state. Its citizens struggle to put food on the table.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2015

Arts book publisher Bijutsu Shuppan-sha files for court protection

Bijutsu Shuppan-sha Co., a publisher of art books and magazines, including the widely acclaimed Bijutsu Techo magazine, has filed for court protection from creditors after being in business for more than a century.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 5, 2015

Takeda gains first foreign chief as Weber is appointed CEO

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. has named Christophe Weber chief executive officer as part of a planned succession that makes the French national one of the few international executives to lead a Japanese company.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2015

Court battles are sole remaining obstacle to nuclear restarts

The fight over Japan's nuclear industry moves to the courts, where utilities face the risk of further costly delays if judges side with residents worried about nuclear safety.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 5, 2015

Roberts, Obamacare savior in 2012, seems inscrutable this time

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, who cast the decisive vote in 2012 to beat back the first major challenge to President Barack Obama's health care law, kept his cards close on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 5, 2015

U.S. House committee subpoenas Clinton emails on Benghazi

A congressional committee investigating the 2012 attack on a U.S. Consulate in Libya issued subpoenas on Wednesday for former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's personal emails, which have created a political storm for the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2015

No, Obama, Russia's economy isn't in tatters

It's time to bury the expectation that Russia's economy will fall apart under pressure from falling oil prices and Western sanctions, and that Russians, angered by a drop in their living standards, will rise up and sweep President Vladimir Putin out of office.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 4, 2015

John Caird delivers home truths with 'Twelfth Night'

As an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, John Caird may be one of the leading pillars of the English theater establishment, but in a recent interview with The Japan Times, this acclaimed director of plays, musicals and opera declared, "In a sense, some part of me is becoming...
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 4, 2015

China investigates second top military officer for gaft

China is investigating a second former top military officer on suspicion of corruption, two independent sources said, as President Xi Jinping widens his campaign against deep-rooted graft in the country.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / NOTES ON A SCORECARD
Mar 3, 2015

Moving 2020 hoops to Saitama latest blow for game

The IOC's decision last week to allow the organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to move the basketball competition out to Saitama Super Arena puts an end to any hope the sport ever had of becoming high profile in Japan.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2015

Joining Islamic State is stupid, but why is it illegal?

As with so many other basic legal precepts, the right of Americans to serve in a foreign army has been eroded since 9/11.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2015

The mystery of Nemtsov's murder

Russian President Vladimir Putin disliked and despised Boris Nemtsov, but he had nothing to gain from the opposition leader's death.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 3, 2015

Abe property boom spurs REITs to favor stock sales

Real estate investment trusts are raising more funds from shares and avoiding a volatile bond market, as investors bet "Abenomics" will boost property prices.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 3, 2015

For North Korean defectors, fame brings cash — and suspicion

Kang Myung-do, then son-in-law of North Korea's premier, made a spectacular claim about Pyongyang's nuclear capability when he defected to the South over two decades ago, asserting the secretive country had built five atomic bombs.

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