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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 18, 2021

In meeting today’s great challenges: Think 'moonshot'

There are many potential moonshots, from creating a COVID-19 vaccine to solving global warming. What makes them different is they address extraordinary, if not existential, challenges.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 18, 2021

‘Entire families’ wiped out as COVID-19 ravages rural India

As leaders in Delhi struggle to contain the crisis, horrifying scenes are playing out across the country.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 17, 2021

Japan leads the 'middle powers' in shaping Asia's future

Arguably, no middle power in Asia is as important as Japan, which, as a leading source of infrastructure investments, also enjoys tremendous good will in the region.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 15, 2021

What would George Washington look like today? A pandemic creation draws attention.

A bored musician used Photoshop to depict a modern version of the first president. A Washington biographer and an impersonator had thoughts on its accuracy.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 14, 2021

Time running out for Japanese prosecutors in 'Don Juan' murder case

While police say they have circumstantial evidence against Saki Sudo, no witnesses have come forward and there is an apparent lack of clear evidence.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2021

The Western news media’s lurid Orientalism

Western media have been filled with images of dead bodies and other graphic scenes that generally would not be shown following a similar disaster in a Western country.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2021

China makes us rethink capitalism

Make no mistake: China is in many important ways a capitalist country; but Chinese capitalism is a very different animal from that practiced in the West.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2021

Five things moms gained during COVID-19 — and should refuse to give up

While the pandemic has brought many of us to the brink of our sanity, it has also forced many organizations to give moms long-overdue concessions. We must refuse to give them back.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 10, 2021

China’s much-hyped digital yuan leaves early users underwhelmed

Observers suspect China has high hopes for international use of the digital yuan as Xi Jinping tries to lessen his country's reliance on the U.S.-led global financial system.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2021

Colonization by other means: China’s debt-trap diplomacy

In stark contrast to China's loans, interest rates for Japan's infrastructure loans to developing countries, for example, mostly run below half a percent.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 4, 2021

Biden tax rule would take billions from biggest fortunes at death

Ending the current practice of stepping up the tax basis of inherited assets and raising the capital gains tax rate would amount to the biggest curb on dynastic wealth in decades.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2021

Hard to believe, but we’re running out of sand

Sizzling demand in a post-pandemic recovery will encourage the usual bad behaviors that accompany exploding markets: environmental degradation, forced labor and criminal profiteering.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 3, 2021

Modi experiences setback after loss in key India state poll

The prime minister's party lost big in a state he visited frequently before the recent virus surge forced him off the campaign trail.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 3, 2021

The downside of decision-making practices in Japan

Adherence to the rules is important in Japan. When those rules don't work, it is sometimes easier to make a whole new set.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2021

G.I. Joe Trotsky

According to The Washington Post, of the 380 of the people now facing federal charges stemming from the riot, some 44 are current or former U.S. armed forces members.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 2, 2021

‘Tokyo Junkie’: Robert Whiting recounts a lifelong addiction to his adopted city

The author and longtime Japan resident tackles his hardest writing project ever — “interviewing himself” for a memoir on his life, the changing urban landscape and, of course, baseball.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 1, 2021

‘Now we are united’: Myanmar’s ethnic divisions soften after coup

Amid the resistance to military rule, some are saying that democracy can't flourish without respecting the minorities that have been persecuted for decades.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2021

Biden’s great tax rebalancing act

With U.S. government spending likely to remain high after the COVID-19 pandemic, tax revenues must increase, because additional borrowing can finance only so much.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Apr 29, 2021

Right to disconnect gains ground as pandemic brings work home

Ireland introduced a legal right for employees to not respond to emails, telephone calls or other messages during nonwork hours from April 1.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2021

After three U.S. strikeouts, will Afghanistan be the fourth?

A primary concern is the withdrawal could make the region far more unstable than it was previously — a pattern that the world has seen before.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 29, 2021

Canary in the coal mine: Study finds world's glaciers melting faster

Nearly all of the world's glaciers are losing mass — and at an accelerated pace, according to a new study published Wednesday that could impact future projections for ice loss.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Apr 28, 2021

African samurai earns hero status in new anime ‘Yasuke’

Director LeSean Thomas brings the story of Yasuke, a real-life black samurai, to Netflix as 'a new kind of anime action hero.”
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2021

Social capital: The overlooked variable to economic growth

Social capital is the glue that holds communities together. Under the right conditions, such mutually beneficial social interactions lead to economic growth and better health outcomes.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 28, 2021

Urgent methane cuts needed to rein in climate change, U.N. warns

Methane has a higher heat-trapping potential compared with carbon dioxide and it breaks down in the atmosphere much more quickly, meaning cutting methane emissions can have an impact sooner.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 27, 2021

Economic issues, once divisive, now bind Japan and the U.S.

The two governments' discussion of economic issues is a path to mobilization and cooperation, not contestation (at least between themselves).
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2021

America’s undimmed global cultural reach continues

The influence of American culture remains as strong as ever. The growth of a QAnon movement in Japan is the clearest example that some of its more paranoid ideas are spreading overseas.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / Perspectives
Apr 26, 2021

Afghanistan withdrawal: Reconciling the 'Forever War'

A scholar, negotiator and Afghanistan veteran reflects on what the end of the 20-year conflict means.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2021

The dangers of data-based certainty

But before we entrust more decisions to data-based machine-learning and AI systems, we must be clear about the limitations of the data.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight