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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 17, 2014

From 2015, you may not have to work 25 years to draw a pension

The period you have to pay into the system to be eligible to draw a pension is supposed to be cut down to 10 years in October 2015, but this is inextricably linked to a planned consumption tax hike.
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Aug 16, 2014

Kepco: the monstrous 500-pound gorilla of Kansai

Last month, Chimori Naito, a 91-year-old former vice president at Kansai Electric Power Co., admitted what was hardly a secret but which put the utility under intense media scrutiny.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 16, 2014

What kind of life could live in the clouds?

Do you remember seeing clouds from an airplane for the first time? Even if that first time was as an adult, you were probably struck by the appearance of solidity. Seen from above, a cloudscape looks like a landscape — it looks like a place where things might live.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 16, 2014

Missouri protests reignite over shot black teen

Protesters clashed with riot police in the U.S. state of Missouri overnight after police reports released earlier on Friday said a black teen was a suspect in the theft of cigars from a store minutes before an officer shot him dead.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Aug 15, 2014

Wakayama negotiating to bring back Pavlicevic

After a complete organizational shake-up that included a planned switch to a new coach, veteran bench boss Zeljko Pavlicevic is in discussions with Wakayama Trians ownership to return to lead the team for the 2014-15 season, The Japan Times has learned.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2014

China outsourcing its dirty work to U.S. military

There's little that the Chinese government likes less than the projection of U.S. military power, yet Beijing offers grudging support for U.S. efforts to safeguard Iraqi sovereignty with airstrikes against Islamic State jihadists.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 15, 2014

GPIF law change may be shelved, Kihara says

A law to transform how the world's biggest pension fund is run can wait and may even be shelved, said a ruling party official, contradicting his deputy policy chief who called it the top priority.
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2014

Abe-Xi summit may hinge on marking of WWII defeat at Yasukuni

Any chance that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will get his wish for a summit with China may hinge on the commemoration of the 69th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II at Tokyo's contentious Yasukuni war shrine.
BUSINESS
Aug 14, 2014

Eurozone growth grinds to a halt

The eurozone's economy unexpectedly stalled in the second quarter of the year, dragged down by shrinking growth in Germany and stagnant France, ringing alarm bells about the health of the bloc's economy as it braces for impact of sanctions against Russia.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 14, 2014

Brazil presidential candidate Campos reported dead in plane crash

Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos died Wednesday in an airplane crash in the southeastern city of Santos, Globo News and Folha de S. Paulo reported. He was 49.
Reader Mail
Aug 13, 2014

Ignorance putting us in danger

People sometimes say, "Ignorance is bliss." It is true that innocent children who don't know the despair of modern society seem to live a happy life. Nevertheless, we should stop being fatalistic and see the truth in society because, currently, our safety is being jeopardized due to our ignorance.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 13, 2014

Robin Williams fondly remembered by Japan's film industry

It was an open secret among Japanese film distribution companies that Robin Williams, who died at his California home on Monday in an apparent suicide, was a "yobitai sutaa" ("a want-to-invite star").
WORLD / Politics
Aug 13, 2014

Obama adviser Axelrod fires back at Clinton over 'stupid stuff' remarks

President Barack Obama's longtime political adviser fired back at Hillary Clinton over her recent criticism of the commander-in-chief's foreign policy doctrine of avoiding messy entanglements.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 13, 2014

Japan's GDP set to fall sharply; stimulus expectations may surge

Japan's economy likely shrank sharply in the second quarter, which would be bad news for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's growth policies, but it could raise market expectations of further stimulus.
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2014

Homebuyers in Japan seen at risk amid floating-rate loan rush

Japanese homebuyers are piling into floating-rate mortgages, stirring debate over whether they are too complacent as Bank of Japan stimulus revives inflation.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 12, 2014

Russia sending aid convoy to Ukraine despite Western warnings of 'invasion pretext'

A Russian convoy of 280 trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Ukraine set off Tuesday amid Western warnings against using help as a pretext for an invasion.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 12, 2014

U.N. names panel to investigate alleged war crimes in Gaza

The United Nations on Monday named three experts to an international commission of inquiry into possible human rights violations and war crimes committed by both sides during Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past