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Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 30, 2014

Kiun-Kaku: a garden of elegant period taste

Despite the seasonal limitations for visiting, the Atami Baien, a plum garden, is a better-known sight that the Kiun-Kaku garden, which is an all-seasons landscape also found in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture. Perhaps it is the thirst for scale that has prioritized the plum trees in their large hillside...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 30, 2014

Australia seeks Thai help for Aussie couples, surrogate babies

Australia urged Thailand on Friday to allow Australian couples with babies born by Thai surrogate mothers to return home with their children following a crackdown on commercial surrogacy that has left many couples in limbo.
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 29, 2014

Gifu mover gives forgotten temples new life in new places

Due to the decline in Buddhist worshippers and the population in general, the number of empty or abandoned temples has been growing in recent years.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2014

Will South Korea's tax on cash bring prosperity?

South Korean President Park Geun-hye's idea of taxing companies for holding on to excessive cash piles is one that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would do well to consider.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2014

Creative diplomacy required to resolve territorial disputes

The coastal states around the South and East China Seas will have to agree to divide, share or pool their sovereignty in the interests of security and to permit the peaceful exploitation of the resources.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 29, 2014

After a 35-year interlude, Kate Bush wows fans with comeback gig

Kate Bush mixed note-perfect renditions of her biggest hits with two visually stunning interpretations of her longer conceptual works on Tuesday to delight fans who had waited 35 years for the British singer and songwriter to return to the stage.
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2014

Kookmin Bank's Japan branches suspended for making improper loans

Kookmin Bank, South Korea's largest lender, was suspended from conducting new transactions at its branches in Japan for improper lending.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 28, 2014

Nearly 50 years on, Bradley recalls 1964 Tokyo Games

As Bill Bradley remembers an unforgettable time in a life filled with extraordinary accomplishments, national pride as a collective experience remains a cherished memory from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2014

Two-headed Russian eagle mulls moves at crossroads

The bicontinental nature of Russia is reflected in its national symbol, a double-headed eagle looking in two directions. That eagle finds itself in a precarious spot now that it must look around for as many non-Western partners and openings for business as possible.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2014

Corporate blowback builds from Minamata treaty

The Japanese government lobbied hard for a global pact that limits mercury use and to name the resulting treaty after Minamata, the site of a homegrown industrial disaster from the 1950s when the toxic metal poured into a river, poisoning thousands.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 28, 2014

China moves to limit polls in Hong Kong

China moved on Wednesday to limit 2017 elections for Hong Kong's leader to a handful of candidates loyal to Beijing, local media reported, a move that is likely to escalate plans by pro-democracy activists to blockade the city's Central business district.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Aug 28, 2014

Somali users of amphetamine-like 'paradise flower' khat enjoy low prices after Britain bans its import

"The president has arrived, the president has arrived," chant youths in Mogadishu's Beerta Khaatka market as armed men in trucks mounted with machine guns escort trucks with horns blaring through the throng.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2014

India's Modi eyes breakthrough nuclear pact on Japan trip

Indian leader Narendra Modi will try to assure Japan it will not conduct weapons tests or divert fuel when she visits Tokyo to sign a nuclear energy pact.
BUSINESS
Aug 28, 2014

Ebola causing huge damage to West Africa economies: development bank

The worst-ever Ebola outbreak is causing enormous damage to West African economies as foreign businessmen quit the region, the African Development Bank said, while a leading medical charity branded the international response "entirely inadequate."
EDITORIALS
Aug 27, 2014

Deng Xiaoping's lasting legacy

Seventeen years after his death, Deng Xiaoping's grip on China remains as tight as ever.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2014

The difference between good and bad equality

The 'old' theory about inequality was that redistribution via the tax system weakened incentives and undermined economic growth. But the relationship between inequality and growth is far more complex and multi-dimensional than this simple trade-off suggests.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 27, 2014

Poroshenko to seek cease-fire after ‘very tough’ talks with Putin

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko promised after late-night negotiations with Russia's Vladimir Putin to work on an urgent cease-fire plan to defuse the separatist conflict in the east of his former Soviet republic.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2014

Grading the Modi government

By the way he talks, new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi might appear to be replicating his Gujarat state model of learning to walk before starting to run with headstrong solutions to the big problems facing the country. Even so, he will have to walk the walk sooner than later.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2014

A transformative global agenda for development

Following a year and a half of twists and turns, U.N. member states have completed a proposal for sustainable development goals to steer the international agenda once the Millennium Development Goals expire at the end of 2015.
EDITORIALS
Aug 25, 2014

The municipal survival cluster

Japanese ministries are floating the idea of creating regional clusters of financially strapped municipalities to support each other so that they can keep delivering a full range of services to residents and businesses.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 25, 2014

Arming yourself with the legal system's greatest weapon

For American lawyers accustomed to struggling with massive walls of law books and expensive database services, one of the great things about Japanese law is that it is so compact and accessible.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 25, 2014

Roche said to have decided against bidding for rest of Chugai

Roche Holding AG decided against bidding for the almost 40 percent of drugmaker Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. that it doesn't already own and is instead focused on its $8.3 billion acquisition of InterMune Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 25, 2014

Strong quake rocks California wine country, injuring dozens

A 6.0 magnitude earthquake rocked wine country north of San Francisco early on Sunday, injuring more than 100 people, damaging historic buildings, setting some homes on fire and causing power outages around the picturesque town of Napa.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 24, 2014

Japan's universities can't win

In view of the disparity in professors' pay between Japanese and American universities, the notion of elevating Japanese universities' global rankings simply by bringing in outstanding 'foreign talent' as instructors and researchers is a castle in the sky.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 24, 2014

Tire-makers race to turn dandelions into rubber

Dutch biologist Ingrid van der Meer often meets with disbelief when she talks about her work on dandelions and how it could secure the future of road transport.

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