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WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 17, 2013

Stutters in Earth spin change the length of days

Three times in the past decade, the Earth's spin has missed a beat as seemingly random blips cause days to temporarily stretch and shrink. These stutters have emerged from the clearest-ever view of how long a day is.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2013

Pluralism Japan's answer: immigration expert

Japan's leaders need to confront the reality of the rapidly thinning labor force and acknowledge that a more ethnically pluralistic society can help ward off the looming demographic crisis, a British expert on immigration policy says.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2013

Killer octopus not seen posing threat to swimmers

As the hot, humid days lure people to the beaches, some may worry about the deadly octopuses that have been spotted in the Kanto region. To the relief of many, experts say few of them are still alive and beach-goers don't need to worry about the possibility of being bit by the venomous little critters....
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2013

What Egypt can learn from Iraq

While arguing over the merits of continuing U.S. aid to Egypt, commentators and analysts tend to agree on two main points. First, there is a general consensus on what President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood got wrong. Second, virtually all Western observers are stressing the need for an inclusive...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jul 16, 2013

Retailers and restaurants get slippery with unagi prices

Eel is becoming scarce in the wild, but supermarkets are still trying to keep unagi prices down.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: TECH
Jul 15, 2013

Tablet phones and on-the-go iPhone charging, plus handy apps for traveling

Really getting to know local cuisine
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 15, 2013

Russian activist pays high price for actions

After three men in this heavily polluted city west of Yekaterinburg beat Stepan Chernogubov unconscious, fracturing his skull and knocking out three teeth, criminal investigators took him, still bleeding, to a police station where they questioned him for four hours and then threatened to bring charges...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 15, 2013

Kochs use Web to slam critical reports

When environmental journalist David Sassoon began reporting about the billionaire Koch brothers' interests in the Canadian oil industry last year, he sought information from their privately held conglomerate, Koch Industries. The brothers, who have gained prominence in recent years as supporters of and...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jul 15, 2013

Mosquito coils

Dear Alice, I have lived in Japan for almost 30 years, and nothing says 'summer in Japan' to me like the sight and smell of those once-ubiquitous green mosquito coils.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Jul 15, 2013

Bumps in the road that we can afford

Dear Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Akihiro Ota,
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 14, 2013

Somali-American is caught up in U.S. counterpropaganda campaign

Two days after he became a U.S. citizen, Abdiwali Warsame embraced the First Amendment by creating a raucous website about his native Somalia. Packed with news and controversial opinions, it rapidly became a magnet for Somalis dispersed around the world, including tens of thousands in Minnesota.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 14, 2013

'Alarm fatigue' at hospitals poses risks

Walk into a hospital intensive care unit and hear the din: A ventilator honks loudly. An infusion pump emits a high-pitched beep-beep every six seconds. A blood pressure monitor pushes out one long tone after another.
WORLD / FOCUS
Jul 14, 2013

Media outlets rethink news embargo ethics

It's said that the news never stops. But often, its timing is stage-managed.
LIFE
Jul 13, 2013

Gender bending in Japan

Do our genitals define us? Increasingly, they do not. Is sexuality more complicated than male/female? Increasingly, it is.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 13, 2013

Hot weather's cold comfort for eels

In March this year, I spent a week in Taiwan as a guest of the Taiwan Fisheries Agency. My hosts had laid on a relentless daily schedule that took in a complete circuit of the island nation, visiting nearly all the major commercial fishing ports, including Taitung on the Pacific Ocean, Tainan and Kaosiung...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 13, 2013

Effects will become more obvious as Japan's climate changes

Residents of Japan's big cities, and of Tokyo in particular, are well aware of the heat-island effect — especially now with the onset of summer.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Jul 13, 2013

Media barge into royal baby's life before it's born

Outside the private Lindo Wing of St. Mary's Hospital, the global media hordes on Royal Baby Watch have marked their turf with duct tape and stepladders like so many predators. But starved for material in a world where Mother Nature and Buckingham Palace are the last two holdouts from the 24-hour news...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 13, 2013

Kono Statement: Hit-and-run Abe vandalizes 20th anniversary

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pursuing dead-end diplomacy in East Asia at precisely a time when Japan most needs to shore up relations with neighbors so as to position itself well for China's ongoing rise. Alas, he doesn't grasp that regional reconciliation over history should be his calling card, not...
Reader Mail
Jul 13, 2013

Not yet primed for probation

The July 9 editorial "Reducing rate of recidivism" reminds me of American detective movies. Some scenes are very strange for Japanese people. In these films we see narcotic drug users who were made to work in zoos or parks to look after small animals as a means of getting straight, and we learn well...
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 13, 2013

Hong Kong air pollution killed 1,600

Hong Kong's air pollution caused more than 1,600 premature deaths in the first half of the year, almost 40 times the number of fatalities attributed to the H7N9 avian flu virus, according to a study by the Clean Air Network.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 13, 2013

Illuminating the interplay between Japanese poetry and pictures

This cleverly titled book combines two subjects, for the "art" that it describes is not just the art of haiku composition but that of the pictures that frequently accompany the poems, often by the same person. "If haiku is a worldwide phenomenon, haiga (haiku painting) is almost unknown," says the author....
Reader Mail
Jul 13, 2013

Alternative muse for video game

Robert McKinney should be applauded for stretching the meme "Get off my lawn!" into a complete letter to the editor (July 7, "Dumbing down 'The Road").
Reader Mail
Jul 13, 2013

The old man and his reputation

While telling us of the important contributions he has made to the consumption of whiskey in Japan, both by his own efforts in that direction and by the good advice he says he gives its makers, C.W. Nicol, in his July 7 article 'Water of life' helps to keep spirits up," also refers to "good old Bill...
Reader Mail
Jul 13, 2013

New Zealand for whale-watchers

We welcome tourists to our land, but for now we're asking people to please stop coming to New Zealand from Japan. This is our place, we live in the Southern Ocean.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jul 12, 2013

Tweet Beat: #七夕, #鯖アニメ, #愛国競争

Tanabata wishes, political demonstration and a whole pile of anime premieres featured big in last week's Japanese Twitter hashtags! #TweetBeat

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped