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Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Jan 19, 2013

Hague treaty not priority, past bill needs study: Tanigaki

Although the Liberal Democratic Party-led government is moving toward signing the Hague Convention on cross-border parental child abductions, the issue may not be a priority in the next ordinary Diet session, Justice Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 19, 2013

Israel prepares for next act in the great moving right show

Dalya Steinberger's journey across Israel's political landscape began more than 20 years ago when she cast a vote for Labor, one of almost a million people who helped propel Yitzhak Rabin to the leadership of the Jewish state. A year later, in 1993, Rabin signed the historic Oslo Accords, shaking hands...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jan 19, 2013

Lance Armstrong and the art of public confession

There are no free rides out of paradise. As a disgraced sporting legend, Lance Armstrong, who for the most part came clean to Oprah Winfrey on American television this week, could be forgiven for thinking he has trespassed in the Garden of Eden, or perhaps gone sunbathing on the rock usually occupied...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 19, 2013

Democrats no longer gun-shy on restrictions

For the first time in more than a decade, Democratic presidential aspirants see a political advantage in championing far-reaching restrictions on guns.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 19, 2013

Why spider's silk is becoming man's best friend

Up on the roof of professor Fritz Vollrath's lab in the zoology department at Oxford University, there is a makeshift greenhouse in which he nurtures his favorite golden orb web spiders. Walking into the greenhouse is a little like finding yourself inside one of those Damien Hirst vitrines that dramatize...
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2013

Nation's firms lured by Algeria's resources

Engineering firm JGC Corp., whose employees are believed to have been taken hostage Wednesday by Islamist militants in Algeria, is just one of many Japanese companies making inroads in the resource-rich country.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2013

Moscow's not-so-friendly environmental quirks

Moscow, they say, "wasn't built at one go" — in contrast to St. Petersburg, which emerged laid out, as if by magic, in strict conformity to Peter the Great's plan — and it has been growing chaotically for more than 800 years on seven gently sloping hills surrounding the river of the same name.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Jan 17, 2013

Tango orchestra to tour country

A renowned Argentine tango orchestra and dancers will bring their passion for the art to audiences in more than 30 cities across Japan through March.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 17, 2013

When the connections are as crucial as the art

Amid the hurry of daily life it is easy to forget what lies below our feet. To most of us, it may appear to be just cement or dirt, but to artist Kenji Yamada there are profound mysteries contained on the ground, in things as simple as our own footprints in the snow. His installation artworks are born...
CULTURE
Jan 17, 2013

Audie Bock interviews Oshima at Cannes

The award for "Best Direction" at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival actually caps the achievement of a decade for Japan's Nagisa Oshima. His latest film, "Ai no Borei (Empire of Passion)," a ghostly story of doomed love, saw its world premiere as Japan's official entry in the most important international...
Reader Mail
Jan 17, 2013

Corporal punishment common

The Jan. 11 Kyodo analysis article, "Physical punishment at elite school shows limits of ban," is unfortunately not surprising. I have seen firsthand as well as heard from others how sadly common the practice of corporal punishment is.
Reader Mail
Jan 17, 2013

Ridiculous hypothetical question

In his Jan. 10 letter, "Jet scramble all huff and puff," Robert Thornton asks what Japan would have had its scrambled F-15s do if the Chinese aircraft that approached the Senkaku Islands recently had entered Japanese airspace completely and then done dives and other provocative maneuvers?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 17, 2013

Patti Smith hopes 2013 is about rebuilding

By the time you read this, Patti Smith will have been in Japan for nearly a week. The iconic poet, author, painter and "Godmother of Punk" hasn't yet played a gig with her band; that will come later. First, Smith is reconnecting with a country with which her affinity runs deep.
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 17, 2013

Promoted teams hoping to buck trend with J1 survival

Teams around the J. League have been busy parading their winter recruits this week, but if the recent travails of several promoted sides are anything to go by, this year's J1 new boys will need all the reinforcements they can get.
BASKETBALL
Jan 16, 2013

Burns, Kennedy carry Yokohama past Akita

Draelon Burns and Thomas Kennedy both made 9 of 14 shots from inside the 3-point arc and led the Yokohama B-Corsairs to a 92-81 victory over the Akita Northern Happinets in their bj-league series opener on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 16, 2013

Agricultural land grabs in developing countries?

Should rich countries — or investors based there — be buying agricultural land in developing countries?
EDITORIALS
Jan 16, 2013

Chinese media test their limits

Recent protest, including strikes by some reporters, against Chinese authorities' heavy censorship of new year articles by the Southern Weekly, a Guangdong newspaper known for its hard-hitting investigations, points to Chinese people's strong desire for freedom of speech and expression.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2013

METI taps foreign students as content envoys

Foreign students studying in Japan can be a great help in promoting the nation's strong points overseas.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2013

Agricultural land grabs in developing countries?

Should rich countries — or investors based there — be buying agricultural land in developing countries?
EDITORIALS
Jan 15, 2013

Chinese media test their limits

Recent protest, including strikes by some reporters, against Chinese authorities' heavy censorship of new year articles by the Southern Weekly, a Guangdong newspaper known for its hard-hitting investigations, points to Chinese people's strong desire for freedom of speech and expression.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 15, 2013

Tokyo hopes this Olympics bid wins

Tokyo's quest to host the 2020 Olympics entered a new stage last week when it presented its candidature file to the International Olympic Committee in Switzerland.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2013

The untamed health care monster

Is the United States finally controlling health spending?
EDITORIALS
Jan 14, 2013

Sports training violence must end

Osaka City's Board of Education announced Jan. 8 that a 17-year-old, second-year senior high school boy hanged himself at his home on Dec. 23. He was the captain of a basketball team at the municipally run Sakuranomiya Senior High School.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 13, 2013

Beate Sirota Gordon: An American to whom Japan remains indebted

Beate Sirota Gordon passed away on Dec. 30. She was 89.
Reader Mail
Jan 13, 2013

Some might find it shallow

In my opinion, Roger Pulvers' Dec. 30 Counterpoint article, "Is juggernaut Japan being driven to destruction (and no one's to blame)?," lacks the power to persuade because it comes off as another stereotyped view of social trends by a foreign journalist.
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Jan 13, 2013

Reform minister may target power monopolies

The government plans to set up a panel this month to review regulations that may be blocking industrial growth, especially in the fields of energy, environmental technology and medical care, said Tomomi Inada, state minister in charge of regulatory reform.

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