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JAPAN
Oct 28, 2013

Suga downplays LDP loss in Kawasaki poll

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Monday downplayed the significance of an independent candidate winning the Kawasaki mayoral election the previous day after boasting no affiliation to the political machine, and the defeat of the presumed front-runner, a Liberal Democratic Party pick he campaigned...
COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 28, 2013

It's risky business updating authorities on intelligence

Updating the authorities with knowledge of their Western enemies led to the death by disembowelment of one of the more farsighted Japanese intellects in 1841.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2013

Measure of mismeasure confounds free choice

It's important to help people think clearly about why they might choose something less desirable than what they now have to avoid the risk of getting something even worse next time.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Oct 28, 2013

Getting published is easy; getting noticed is trickier

How can writers make themselves heard in the age of blog and self-publishing saturation? Japan-based authors offer a diverse range of views
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2013

Half of public opposes secrecy protection bill: poll

A government bill aimed at toughening penalties for leaking state secrets is opposed by 50.6 percent of the public, a survey says.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 27, 2013

Taking count of the sufficiency of Japanese suffixes

One of the first things new learners of Japanese must struggle with is the amazing variety of classifiers for numbers. When counting books, for instance, the number is followed by 冊 (satsu, volumes, as in issatsu, nisatsu etc.); for thin, elongated objects such as pencils it's 本 (hon, as in ippon,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 27, 2013

MasterCard debit card holders shouldn't panic

A reader from Australia, JF, contacted Lifelines with a question about using her MasterCard debit card here. She is coming to Japan soon and was concerned about a notice she had seen on MasterCard Japan's website, indicating that certain types of cards issued overseas could not be used in ATMs here:...
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 27, 2013

Hitler escape book's authors in plagiarism row

The notorious claim that Hitler escaped his Berlin bunker to live incognito in Argentina first gained popular currency in 1945, when Stalin spoke of it. Since then the idea has resurfaced occasionally, with alleged photographic and documentary evidence pored over by conspiracy theorists. Now the theory...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 27, 2013

White House rallies Democrats in effort to shore up health site push

By the time President Barack Obama acknowledged on Monday that his signature health care program had serious problems, it was clear the political stakes had escalated for the White House.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 26, 2013

Get Koizumi: Nuclear village goes on offensive

This is a first for Japan: A political figure who not only undergoes a change of mind in public, but tries to make a difference after giving up the political power to do so.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Oct 26, 2013

Twitter users find out the hard way that anonymity is just fleeting

In the ego-driven game of Twitter, Jofi Joseph was, for a while, one of the winners.
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 26, 2013

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo: Bold direction

Just as Tokyo is synonymous with manga, sushi and cute robotic playmates, so has fashion been a reigning symbol of the city's creative prowess.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 25, 2013

Veteran skipper Hoshino continues quest for elusive title

Senichi Hoshino isn't ready to give up the fight.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Oct 25, 2013

Space trash tax eyed

Space is getting awfully messy. The amount of debris in Earth's orbit keeps multiplying each year, damaging satellites and putting astronauts in harm's way. If the problem gets severe enough, it could eventually make low-Earth orbit unusable.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 25, 2013

Man who burned White House in 1814 feted

Francis de Courcy Hamilton looked askance at the informational sign near the base of the Robert Ross monument, a 30-meter granite obelisk on a hill overlooking the majestic waters of Carlingford Lough.
WORLD
Oct 25, 2013

Foreign services told that Snowden has files on cooperation with U.S.

U.S. officials are alerting some foreign intelligence services that documents detailing their secret cooperation with the United States have been obtained by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, according to government officials.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2013

'Le Fils de l'Autre'

You'd think it would be impossible to make a movie about Israeli-Palestinian issues that was not mired in political arguments. But filmmaker Lorraine Levy ("London Mon Amour") has done just that. In a simple, lovingly shot film about two families, Levy gently takes the bull by the horns and has it sit...
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 24, 2013

U.S. keeps Pakistani officials in loop on drone strikes

Despite repeatedly denouncing the CIA's drone campaign, top officials in Pakistan's government have for years secretly endorsed the program and routinely received classified briefings on strikes and casualty counts, according to top-secret CIA documents and Pakistani diplomatic memos obtained by The...
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 24, 2013

German leader calls Obama about alleged cellphone tapping

Furious German officials said Wednesday that U.S. intelligence agencies may have been monitoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone, creating a fresh diplomatic headache for President Barack Obama after a week in which other close allies condemned his administration over allegations of other...
BUSINESS
Oct 23, 2013

Nuclear industry amalgamation mulled

The government is discussing a radical overhaul of the nuclear power sector that would combine the nation's 50 operating reactors into a single company to rebuild an industry that's been effectively halted by the Fukushima disaster.
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2013

Territorial talks with Russia

Japan needs to develop a long-term strategy for maximizing its leverage with Russia as negotiations on resolving the Northern Territories sovereignty issue appear set to resume.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers