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Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 2, 2013

Democrats find rare unity in budget fight

Shortly before the government shut down, House Republicans crafted their final spending offer, including two health care provisions designed to scare red-state Senate Democrats facing re-election battles: one to delay the Affordable Care Act's unpopular individual mandate and another removing subsidies...
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 30, 2013

Hashimoto's Osaka merger dream in jeopardy

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) co-leader and Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto was facing a critical battle. And he lost.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2013

Don't be swayed by skeptics of report on climate change

Expect the fifth assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will be met by a barrage of criticism from the new 'skeptical' environmental movement.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 11, 2013

Why the Syrian crisis matters for Japan

U.S. President Barack Obama's weeks of fumbling during the Syrian crisis may create dangerous uncertainties for Japan during the rest of his presidency.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 6, 2013

U.K.'s response to Syrian crisis

Prime Minister David Cameron badly mishandled the issue of whether Britain should take part in a punitive attack on the Assad government for its alleged use of chemical weapons.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 6, 2013

With too many titles to list on 'meishi,' Amari is linchpin of 'Abenomics'

Akira Amari, minister for economic and fiscal policy, has so much on his plate that all of his titles don't fit on his business card. He's also the minister in charge of economic revitalization and reforming social security and taxes, and the head negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2013

Can Alexei Navalny salvage Russian democracy?

Come Sept. 8, can Moscow mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny and his supporters change Russia's political culture of fear
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2013

The battle for Moscow will shape Russia's future

Win or lose, Alexei Navalny's campaign in the Moscow mayoral election will have a lasting impact on Russia's democratic future.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2013

After Bo Xilai case, China's trial is just beginning

The just-concluded trial of Bo Xilai will be remembered as one of the most critical political milestones in contemporary Chinese Communist history.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2013

The failure of Tahrir Square 2011

Two years ago, when I was in the Occupy movement, my comrades and I argued about revolution. Was revolution necessary? What is it? The split that destroyed our movement — as it did the Left during the 1960s — pitted revolutionaries against reformists. The most frustrating part of the debate, however,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 25, 2013

Challenges are just beginning for central banks

The global financial crisis is for all practical purposes over, but the world's top central bankers think their problems are just beginning.
JAPAN / History / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 23, 2013

Was Fellers friend of Japan or master manipulator?

A Nagoya University professor is working on a book about the life of the late U.S. Brig. Gen. Bonner Fellers, who played a major role in absolving Emperor Hirohito (known posthumously as Emperor Showa) of responsibility for Japan’s wartime aggression across Asia.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 23, 2013

No. 1 plant leak clouds Abe nuke spiel

Radiation spreading from the Fukushima No. 1 plant threatens to derail Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to revive nuclear power and deliver the lower energy prices needed to power his economic reforms.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2013

Capitalism is destroying southern European life

The popular civilizations of Greece, France, Spain and Portugal appear endangered, because of a pincer movement by tourism and the north's economic doctrines.
COMMENTARY
Aug 20, 2013

Learning the lessons of Egypt

I'm not much for sports analogies, but any athlete knows about the home field advantage. It's easier to win if you play your game, not your opponent's.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Aug 9, 2013

Sex addiction? Sorry, chaps, it's just plain old lust

Candidate Anthony Weiner is unlikely ever to trouble British voters, that is not to say Weiner can be filed away, with complete confidence, under the category "U.S. politicians who have incautiously disseminated images of their private parts, using the alter ego Carlos Danger." For one thing, given the...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 4, 2013

Female Democratic contenders emerge in '16 nominee battle

When Hillary Rodham Clinton dropped out of the 2008 presidential race, she famously said that she had put "18 million cracks" in the "highest, hardest glass ceiling" and that her candidacy ensured that "the path will be a little easier next time" for a woman to run.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2013

Can Egypt's past spur respect for plurality now?

One must hope that Egypt's experience of recent decades will induce a broad range of Egyptians to seek an answer based on respect for a plurality of ideas today.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 27, 2013

Hashimoto, Matsui offer to quit but are persuaded to stay

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) co-leader Toru Hashimoto and Secretary-General Ichiro Matsui offer to step down 'to focus on their political agenda in Osaka' but other party executives persuade them to stay on.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2013

Too early to talk about 'Likonomics' in China

Premier Li Keqiang's plans to overhaul the Chinese economy have hardly earned such a grand moniker as 'Likonomics' yet. Cutthroat politics lie ahead.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 22, 2013

Tokyo voters mixed but most seem to want LDP in charge

Many voters appear to be putting their faith in the Liberal Democratic Party despite the lack of 'Abenomics' evidence in their lives, The Japan Times finds.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 14, 2013

Passage of strict abortion bill highlights Democrats' uphill fight in Texas

The politically charged battle over whether to restrict abortions in Texas ended late Friday night when the state Senate passed legislation and sent it on to Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, for his signature. In the end, the fight underscored the challenges Democrats face as they look to break the Republicans'...
JAPAN / Politics / GAME OF NUMBERS
Jul 10, 2013

Pro-nuke LDP's candidate quiet on Ehime reactor restart bid

On the far western edge of Shikoku, Ehime's Sada Misaki Peninsula juts out into the Seto Inland Sea. It's a long sliver of land home to several species of hawk and several varieties of the prefecture's famous "mikan" oranges.
JAPAN / Politics / GAME OF NUMBERS
Jul 4, 2013

Abe camp faces little true opposition, also little mandate

As one expert has it, the July 21 Upper House poll looks to be a cakewalk for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling bloc.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / MAKING THEIR CASE
Jul 3, 2013

Your Party stands against tax hike, nuclear plants

Your Party will stress its call to freeze the upcoming consumption tax hike and promise to abolish all nuclear power plants by 2030 when the campaign for the Upper House officially starts Thursday, party leader Yoshimi Watanabe said.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2013

Can Rudd resurrect Labor?

Even by the standards of a sports-mad country in which politics is a blood-sport, the events leading to the comeback of Kevin Rudd have been extraordinary.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2013

'Stanley Ka Dabba (Japanese Title: Stanley no Obentobako)'

The politics of the bento (lunch box) are embedded in the Japanese DNA and most of us have an ingrained sense of the power play brewing inside one's lunch. Which is why "Stanley Ka Dabba" (international title: "Stanley's Tiffin Box") will strike a chord."Stanley Ka Dabba" hails from Bollywood, but it's...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2013

Turkey's turn to fight over future

The protests in Turkey now involve an extraordinary diverse group. They are said to pit secularists against Islamists and authoritarians against democrats.

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