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WORLD
Jun 17, 2014

Any airstrikes on Iraq will be risky for Obama

The airstrikes that President Barack Obama is considering against Islamic militants in Iraq could prove as messy and inconclusive as the war the U.S. thought had ended in 2011.
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 17, 2014

Dempsey scores early, Brooks late as U.S. edges Ghana

The U.S. defeated Ghana 2-1 in their Group G match as John Brooks responded with the decisive goal after Andre Ayew had tied the game late in the second half on Monday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 17, 2014

Blonde Redhead gets comfortable with past records

Formed in 1993 by Japanese singer Kazu Makino and Italian twins Simone and Amedeo Pace, and forged in the noisy underbelly of the New York alternative scene, Blonde Redhead has charted a path that has taken it from screeching underground noise rock to fragile, glacial, minimalist melody without ever...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2014

Capitalism facilitates but doesn't ensure freedom

As Democratic experiments in Thailand and Egypt collapse, there seems to be a building consensus among financial and political elites globally that authoritarian rule, rather than pluralism, is the path to happy endings.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO BAR ADVENTURE
Jun 17, 2014

Hack your way into a computerized cocktail

While some bars have live music to bring in customers, newly opened Hackers Bar in Tokyo's Roppongi district holds live computer coding events to bring in the programmers.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 15, 2014

ISIS push lessens chance of detente between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran

Last week's advance by Sunni insurgents in Iraq provides a powerful argument for why Iran and Saudi Arabia should bury their Cold War-style feud, but is nonetheless likely to set back detente between the Persian Gulf's dominant Sunni and Shiite powers.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2014

Giving a resolute pro-India neighbor its due

It's an indication of the ham-handed manner in which Indian foreign policy is managed that even relations with Bhutan have seemed troubled in the past few years.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 15, 2014

Iraq insurgent advance slows, U.S. sends carrier to Gulf

An offensive by insurgents that threatens to dismember Iraq seemed to slow on Saturday after days of lightning advances as government forces regained some territory in counterattacks, easing pressure on the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Jun 14, 2014

Is 'rational' Toru Hashimoto acting irrationally?

Just how little influential political or intellectual opposition in Japan is there to fundamentally conservative politics and economic theories touting the wisdom of the corporate mentality? Well consider this: Toru Hashimoto, the mayor of Osaka and co-founder of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 14, 2014

Vietnam seen as a potential role model for Japan

Although tourism and trade between Japan and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam have expanded rapidly in recent years, when compared with other ASEAN countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, Vietnam has maintained a fairly low profile in the Japanese media. But suddenly the country is being...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 14, 2014

Hadid's curse: Mammoth monstrosity threatens Tokyo's greenbelt

The government needs to pull the plug on the planned new Olympic stadium designed by the celebrity British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 14, 2014

The hormone behind man's best friend

The other day I saw a picture of a dead dog on Twitter. Gross, right? Not at all, for this wasn't just any old dog: This was Hachiko, perhaps the most famous dog in the world, and certainly the most famous in Japan.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / OLYMPIC NOTEBOOK
Jun 14, 2014

USOC chief calls for changes in bid voting

Larry Probst, the United States Olympic Committee chairman, won't win a popularity contest within the IOC anytime soon.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 14, 2014

China says it will never send military to oil rig spat with Vietnam

A Chinese official said on Friday that China will never send military forces to the scene of an increasingly ugly spat with Vietnam over an oil rig in the South China Sea and accused Hanoi of trying to force an international lawsuit.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 13, 2014

South Korean sect raided but Sewol boss eludes nationwide manhunt

South Korea's biggest and most bizarre manhunt, linked to a ferry disaster in which hundreds drowned, has come full circle at the compound of a sect known for its organic ice cream as police on Thursday used earth movers to search for tunnels.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jun 12, 2014

We are the World Cup: anthems from pitches past

Japan plays its first match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, against Côte d’Ivoire this weekend. Although the tournament kicks off two days earlier in São Paulo, for many the Samurai Blue’s opening game ushers in the event, along with the activities that would normally raise eyebrows but get a pass...
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 11, 2014

China seeks UNESCO listing for Nanking Massacre, sex slave archives; Japan protests

The government has filed a protest against China's applications to have what it says are historical documents on the 1937 Nanking Massacre and Japan's wartime "comfort women" brothel system registered in the U.N. archive program, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2014

Abe picks for NRA 'undermine' nuclear watchdog's independence

The Lower House has approved the appointment of a Nuclear Regulation Authority commissioner who has received more than u00a510 million in research funding from nuclear-related entities.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 11, 2014

U.S. foreign policy marked by blatant hypocrisy

It is a truth universally acknowledged that behavior by others inconsistent with social norms is condemned as hypocrisy but similar discrepancies in our own conduct is rationalized as understandable prioritization in the face of multiple goals. When the military deposed Egypt's first freely elected president,...

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