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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 15, 2015

Iranian Kurdish film 'Rhino Season' is a poetic tale of lust and loss

Unlike Iranian film giants Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iranian-Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi is little known outside Iran and the European film-festival circuit. But that's a huge loss to the movie world, as every single one of his works are unforgettable animals, leaving permanent claw...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2015

India and Israel start to see enemies within

Right-wing demagogues emerging in both India and Israel seek to forge a new national identity by stigmatizing particular religious and secular groups.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 9, 2015

Repairing Japan-China ties

Are the domestic politics of Japan and China antithetical to continued peace between Asia's leading powers?
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2015

Why the euro experiment is destined to fail

The euro is destined to fail because it imposes a common monetary policy on economies that requires different ones.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2015

Is Arab carnage just a taste of what's to come?

Although the Middle East and North Africa is home to just 5 percent of the world's population, it has produced more than one-third of its refugees.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 29, 2015

The kabuki art of public apology

Until Japanese CEOs back up their apologies with concrete action, their words will ring hollow — as will government efforts to improve the sorry state of the country's corporate governance.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 27, 2015

Sri Lanka's memory wars thwart reconciliation

Six years after the end of the civil war that claimed at least 70,000 lives between 1983 and 2009, Sri Lanka appears to have made little progress on reconciliation between its ethnic Tamils and Sinhalese majority.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 25, 2015

A bellicose China only for the foreseeable future

Careful analysis of China's coming demographic changes — rapid graying unprecedented in human history — shows that Beijing's seemingly unstoppable rise is heading for a brick wall.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 20, 2015

Ishin no To tries to quell bickering over lawmakers' alternative security bills

More than 30 members of Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party) gathered in Osaka on Saturday to hash out differences in opinions over three security bills proposed by the party's Diet members.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 19, 2015

Charleston's storied 'Mother Emanuel' grieves loss of gifted pastor-politician

Two months before the Rev. Clementa Pinckney was gunned down during a Bible study at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, he stood before state lawmakers seamlessly blending his faith and politics in urging them to pass a law to protect his community.
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2015

Stop dodging key security questions

The government and the ruling bloc should reflect on why public understanding of its security bills remain elusive.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 16, 2015

Time to hit the reset button on Tokyo-Seoul relations

The chilly relationship between South Korea and Japan doesn't serve either country well in the long run.
LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
Jun 15, 2015

Let's discuss voting age limits in the news

The move to lower the voting age will give an estimated 2.4 million people aged 18 and 19 suffrage.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 15, 2015

Hadi's fledgling ground force faces tall order in halting Houthi advances in Yemen

Crawling under barbed wire and leaping over burning tires, dozens of bare-chested young fighters train in a barren part of central Yemen, preparing to head to the front lines of their country's worsening conflict.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 13, 2015

China's boom in old-fashioned business

There's a reason direct sales have found fertile ground in China: Trust is still a relatively scarce commodity in the country's business world.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 11, 2015

Security bills' credibility hobbled by suspicious explanations and reporting: scholars

As the Diet continues debate over a raft of contentious bills that would upend Japan's postwar security regime, some scholars and experts are noting the need for at least some changes to the nation's defense posture considering the security climate in the region — and a more transparent approach to...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 9, 2015

Managing disputes with China

U.S.-China relations are not a zero-sum game — and that it's dangerous to act as if they are.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 31, 2015

Islam takes center stage as Turkish election campaign enters final week

Evoking the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople and vowing the Muslim call to prayer would forever ring out, President Tayyip Erdogan put religion at center stage on Saturday as campaigning for Turkey's parliamentary election entered its final week.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 30, 2015

The geopolitics of coping with a rising China

Last week I examined the logic and consequences of the "Abe Doctrine," whereby Japan has beefed up its alliance with the United States by agreeing to expand what it is prepared to do militarily in support of U.S. global security operations. This is not a settled issue domestically as few Japanese support...
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 26, 2015

Europe's center-left parties face existential dilemma after string of losses

A crushing election defeat for Britain's Labour party has laid bare the dilemma facing Europe's center-left.
EDITORIALS
May 25, 2015

Ishin no To's future

Ishin no To must establish a clear identity if it is to survive and flourish following the departure of its co-founder Toru Hashimoto.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 22, 2015

Hashimoto likely to continue political career, but in what role?

In the fall of 2007, Osaka's political leaders faced a problem.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 16, 2015

JCP gains ground, but not column inches

Years ago a Japanese acquaintance applied for a green card when her American husband decided to move back to the United States. Someone told her she should not say she once voted for the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) during her interview, otherwise U.S. Immigration would reject it. As far as I know,...
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 14, 2015

Branding Japan beyond Abe

The people of Japan need to be reminded of their value beyond Tokyo's central government, its dominant party, the LDP, and its main leader, Shinzo Abe.
WORLD
May 14, 2015

Prince Charles' letters — the 'black-spider memos' — reveal concern for both troops and toothfish

Prince Charles wrote to ministers on issues ranging from resources for British troops in Iraq to the fate of the Patagonian Toothfish, according to private letters published on Wednesday against government wishes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 9, 2015

Sound waves: the music of Okinawa

How is it possible that a people who have experienced poverty, famine and discrimination, outlasted efforts at cultural annihilation and suffered the indignities of occupation can manage to celebrate life in song and dance with a passion and joy that belies everyday reality?
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 8, 2015

Scottish nationalists crush opponents, setting stage for new independence bid

Scottish nationalists rampaged to victory north of the border in Britain's national election, obliterating their opponents and setting the stage for a new battle over independence.
WORLD / Politics
May 6, 2015

Leader of Australian opposition Greens Party resigns unexpectedly

Australian Sen. Christine Milne unexpectedly resigned as leader of the small but influential Greens Party on Wednesday, raising questions over the future of an important political bloc outside the two mainstream parties.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2015

Obama's absurd response to Baltimore's riots

U.S. President Barack Obama's comments on the riots in Baltimore are not only partisan — they're absurd.

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