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Reader Mail
Aug 28, 2013

'Gainsaying' by no man's leave

Father Peter Milward, in his Aug. 22 letter, "Legacy of Christian humanism," would appear to have no idea what I'm talking about.
Reader Mail
Aug 28, 2013

Encounters of the foreign kind

Chavez's article left me with mixed feelings. Living in foreign countries, everybody will have certainly felt that he or she is supposed to be discriminated against to some extent, but according to Chavez and the opinions of my foreign friends, they tend to feel this way more often in Japan than in other...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2013

Asia's real problem is boosterism, not Fed policy

Asia has come a long way since 1997. But rapid growth and its unquestioned success in surviving the global meltdown has revived a hubris that policymakers need to own and analyze.
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Aug 28, 2013

Air gun noise sparks alarm in war over offshore drilling

The use of "seismic air guns" to determine how much oil and gas lies beneath a vast swath of the ocean floor off the southeast coast of the United States is provoking an early skirmish in a battle over oil drilling that is still years away.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 28, 2013

Gaffe-shy Hashimoto keeps media at bay

With a critical local election looming, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) co-leader and Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto declares that a fundraising event and strategy session Friday will be closed to the media.
EDITORIALS
Aug 27, 2013

Reducing food loss

More than 30 Japanese food companies, wholesalers and convenient store chains are testing a way to reduce 'food loss' caused by strict obeisance to expiration dates.
LIFE / Digital
Aug 27, 2013

Banish trolls but the Net needs anonymity

So the proprietor of the Huffington Post has decided to ban anonymous commenting from the site, starting in mid-September. Speaking to reporters after a conference in Boston, Massachusetts, Arianna Huffington said: "Trolls are just getting more and more aggressive and uglier and I just came from London...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2013

Power is fragmenting, but what is the true cost?

Political parties are succumbing to the rise of uncompromising single-issue pressure groups, and the corresponding decline of supporters who want common values expressed.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 27, 2013

Girl-recruiting teacher in hot water

Police have handed prosecutors their case against a 59-year-old Iwate University professor who arranged for four foreign students to work as part-time nightclub hostesses.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 27, 2013

Chemical attack weakens drive to destroy world stockpiles

The shelling of suburban Damascus with a suspected nerve agent last week was potentially the third large-scale use of a chemical weapon in the Middle East and may have broken the longest period in history without such an attack.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Aug 27, 2013

Slew of arrests in China show Xi is consolidating his power

The trial of Bo Xilai may have divided the Chinese Communist Party and hogged the media spotlight, but, outside the courtroom, President Xi Jinping is continuing his steady efforts to consolidate control, clean up the party and sideline opponents, with a series of detentions and arrests.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2013

'Whack-a-mole' Tepco can't cut it, so state steps in

The government will lead "emergency measures" to combat the radioactive water leaks at the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, wresting control of the disaster recovery from the besieged Tokyo Electric Power Co.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Aug 26, 2013

Plugging Tepco's brain drain

One reason Tepco paid a uniform ¥100,000 special summer bonus to each of some 5,000 managerial employees is to plug a brain drain. Core workers are quitting.
EDITORIALS
Aug 26, 2013

Poisoned mongooses in Okinawa

Japanese researchers have detected high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in mongooses found near two U.S. military bases in Okinawa.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Aug 26, 2013

Of nuclear village idiots and radiation scare-mongerers: letters

Nab Tepco execs, take over the clean-up
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 26, 2013

Teens held in mugging needed cash for AKB48 garb

Four teenage boys were arrested earlier this month for allegedly robbing and injuring a man on a Tokyo street because they needed cash to buy custom-made outfits to sport in a handshaking event involving the pop idol group AKB48, police said Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 26, 2013

The age of 3-D printers has arrived, for better and worse

The 3-D printer boom in the United States is spreading to Japan as prices decline, but some fear the devices could break the mold, jobwise.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2013

Outside help offered to deal with Tepco debacle

Russia repeated an offer first made two years ago to help Japan clean up its radiation-ravaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear station, welcoming Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s decision to seek outside help.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2013

ALPS filter off till at least September

Tokyo Electric says the advanced liquid processing system at Fukushima No. 1 was closed Aug. 8 due to corrosion, compounding concerns it is losing its battle against radioactive water.
COMMENTARY / World / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Aug 25, 2013

Still dreaming of a level field after all these years

Wednesday will mark the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington that soon came to be equated with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech, "I Have a Dream."
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 24, 2013

Long-gone writer tells it how it is

When Kenji Miyazawa was writing his stories and poems nearly a century ago, Japan was a country with a two-pronged mission: To become the first non-white, non-Christian nation to create a modern prosperous state — and to be the leader of an Asian revival.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Aug 24, 2013

Only in Japan could a sword be 'life-giving'

Few countries have broken with their past as sharply as Japan did. That was the price it paid for modernity.
Reader Mail
Aug 24, 2013

Respect life at the seashore

If you have been at the beach during these hot weeks, you have surely noticed that there are less and less fish in our seas.
Reader Mail
Aug 24, 2013

Giving pet adoption a chance

The Aug. 18 editorial "Too many abandoned animals" caught my attention because it refers to the Feb. 19 article "Millions of dogs, cats coddled, 200,000 gassed each year in pet-mad Japan."

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic