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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 30, 2013

Delving into Ethiopia's ancient past and present

I'm edging my way through a long tunnel in pitch darkness, feeling for the roof so I don't hit my head, waving my trusty flashlight around to scan the walls and sandy floor and check for any unwelcome wildlife. I feel like Indiana Jones but a lot less brave.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2013

A defeat for DOMA, and the end of the 'ick' factor

Future generations will shake their heads at how fearful Americans sounded today debating same-sex marriage. At least most of the Supreme Court justices get it.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 30, 2013

Constitutional revision: Proposed Abe-rights look to be all wrong

After the Upper House elections on July 21, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may try to revise the Constitution. This longstanding agenda is now within reach because the Liberal Democratic Party he heads might be able to rally the necessary two-thirds of votes in both chambers of the Diet.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 29, 2013

Opposition slams ruling bloc on jobs deregulation

Major party leaders held their first online debate Friday ahead of the July 21 Upper House election, with opposition chiefs voicing concern that ruling bloc-proposed employment deregulation may further worsen the working conditions of younger generations.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2013

Deepening, revising ties with Southeast Asia

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Japan mark the 40th anniversary of their cooperative relations this year. ASEAN and Japan's partnership, which began with the establishment of the ASEAN-Japan forum on synthetic rubber, has evolved over the 40 years. The two parties have formed close cooperation...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 28, 2013

Marc Rich, fugitive financier pardoned by Clinton, dies at 78

Marc Rich, a fugitive financier who made deals with shady international regimes and was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list before his controversial presidential pardon on Bill Clinton's final day in office in 2001, died Wednesday at a hospital in Lucerne, Switzerland. He was 78.
WORLD
Jun 28, 2013

Snowden had contempt for leakers

When he was working in the intelligence community in 2009, Edward Snowden, the U.S. National Security Agency contractor who passed top-secret documents to journalists, appears to have had nothing but disdain for those who leaked classified information, the newspapers that printed their revelations and...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2013

U.S. corporate tax whinge

If the U.S. tax code is broken, then Congress should fix it, simplify it. But don't let the big corporations avoid paying their fair share of federal revenue.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2013

'Chronicle of My Mother'

Director: Masato Harada
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2013

JAEA map shows early iodine fallout

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency discloses a radiation map showing how iodine-131 likely spread in the early stages of the Fukushima meltdowns, a development that could help doctors locate unsuspecting cancer victims.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 27, 2013

Diet closes on nonbinding Abe censure

The Diet's 150-day regular session ends in turmoil as the opposition passes a non-binding censure motion against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — and scraps four government-sponsored bills.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 27, 2013

Art that bloomed with the Feinbergs

As a simple matter of economic convenience, some of the best art collections in the world started out going against established taste. By avoiding what was already highly valued — and therefore expensive — collectors could build up impressive collections that could then help to dictate future tastes....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 27, 2013

Sincerity is the new ecstasy in Funkot's 'Summer of Love'

At the end of the 1980s, British DJs imported a potent new style of house music from the Spanish party island Ibiza in what came to be known as the ecstasy-fueled "Second Summer of Love." Inspired by this trade route two decades later, Katsumi Takano, aka Mandokoro or DJ Jet Baron, hopes to launch a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 27, 2013

What provoked Japan's contemporary photography?

In 1968, as the world reeled from The Prague Spring, the turbulent union and student strikes in France, and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Japan, like so many other nations, found itself in the midst of social unrest. Citizens questioned the West's involvement in the Vietnam...
Reader Mail
Jun 27, 2013

Responsibilities toward the state

The June 23 Bloomberg article by Peter Gumbel, "French high school curriculum includes pitfalls U.S. should try to avoid with its Common Core," talks about the relatively high standard of the French baccalaureat secondary school graduation exams, and a corresponding dropout rate.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Jun 26, 2013

Drumming helps those with dementia reconnect

Standing in a room full of lined faces, Alan Yellowitz held up an orange drum shaped like a wineglass. "This one's called a djembe," he said. "It's from Ghana."
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2013

Why Rand Paul won't be GOP savior

The more people see of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, the more they're drawn to his talent, but his libertarian narrative won't be enough to save the Republican Party.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2013

James Gandolfini and the art of 'The Sopranos'

James Gandolfini's legacy will remain a cascade of popular television programs that people who search for quality aren't embarrassed about to watch and debate.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jun 24, 2013

LDP win mimics December election

The Tokyo assembly election resembled the decisive contest that returned the Liberal Democratic Party to power in December and raised its chances of taking over the Diet in July.
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 24, 2013

Migratory birds starving to death

At the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, the tiny bodies of Arctic tern chicks have piled up. Over the past few years, biologists have counted thousands that starved to death because the herring their parents feed them have vanished.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 23, 2013

The 'barbarians' were coming — like it or not

'Sonnō jōi!": "Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians!"
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 23, 2013

NHK discusses gender with a fresh openness

Two weeks ago, the nightly series "Heart Net TV," which is broadcast on NHK's educational channel, repeated a program about a 35-year-old Japanese man who married a 70-year-old Dutch man in the Netherlands. The series dedicates several programs a month to sexual minorities, and there was a sidelight...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years