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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 3, 2013

The days may be numbered for English as a universal second language

How long will English last as a major world language? The answer must be: a very long time.
EDITORIALS
Mar 3, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI bows out

Big problems — from child sex-abuse cases to Vatican politics — probably proved too much for an aging academic theologian like the outgoing pope.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Mar 1, 2013

Choral tribute to March 11

Coinciding with the second anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, Tokyo Opera City will be filled with the powerful voices of Japanese choir group Ritsuyukai, featuring new Japanese choral works.
EDITORIALS
Mar 1, 2013

Treat all students equally

The education ministry on Feb. 20 revised an ordinance to exclude so-called Korean high schools or pro-North Korea high schools from the government's tuition-waiver program. This change will cause various problems.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 26, 2013

Firms go abroad by hiring foreign students here

As Japanese companies continue to look overseas for opportunities to expand, an increasing number are trying to hire foreigners — or what they call "global human resources."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / OUR MAN IN TOKYO
Feb 26, 2013

Romania envoy hopes cultural affinity boosts ties

Romanian Ambassador Radu Serban is a veteran diplomat with a mission to promote economic ties with Japan. But the envoy, 61, has another agenda — promoting cultural and educational exchanges, which ties into his personal love of Japanese literature, especially haiku.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 23, 2013

As Africa rises, Europe loses grip on Catholic power base

The muted light of an African sunset filters into the high, pointed roof of Christ The King church in Accra, a wide, understated building just metres away from the seat of government in Ghana's capital city.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 22, 2013

Tokyo literary festival writes its opening chapter

Every time David Karashima took a Japanese author to New York or London to do a reading, the local audiences would ask two questions: "Who's the next Haruki Murakami?" and "Why isn't there an international literary festival in Tokyo?"
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 18, 2013

Americans find taking family leave can poison their careers

Eight weeks before Danelle Buchman's baby was due, an artery ruptured in her uterus, which nearly killed her and her child. Delivered by emergency C-section in 2010, her newborn daughter, Avery, spent one month in intensive care. Buchman survived only after an immediate hysterectomy. When she tried to...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2013

The rise and decline of press freedom in Turkey

If Europe and the U.S. do their part, Turkey's prime minister may be persuaded to resume an earlier push for human rights reform and press freedom.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 17, 2013

Kanai's provocative, textured 'girls' fiction' wistfully surprises

INDIAN SUMMER, by Mieko Kanai, translated by Tomoko Aoyama and Barbara Hartley. Cornell East Asia Series, 2012, 149 pp., $24 (paperback)
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 16, 2013

China digs in history to bolster isle claims

Beneath its bellicose rhetoric, China has been quietly bolstering its territorial claims with ancient documents, academic research, maps and technical data.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2013

U.S. top court to weigh biotech patent limits

Farmer Hugh Bowman hardly looks the part of a revolutionary who stands in the way of promising new biotech discoveries and threatens Monsanto's pursuit of new products it says will "feed the world."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2013

The movie exposing the lies at the heart of U.S. capitalism

In one sense, "Inequality for All" is absolutely the film of the moment. We are living through tumultuous times. The economy has tanked. Austerity has cut a swath through our lives.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 8, 2013

Kansai biz forum hails LDP, frets over nuke plants

At their annual gathering that wrapped up Friday, Kansai's corporate leaders warmly welcomed the Liberal Democratic Party's return to power, vowing to would do whatever they can to assist the new government in enacting a wide range of economic, financial, social and diplomatic initiatives.
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 4, 2013

Composting food waste growing trend in America

Roy Derrick maneuvered his forklift with a pallet of neatly boxed expired produce and flowers and dropped it into an industrial compactor at Safeway's cavernous return center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. As the compactor hummed, compressed food and floral scraps spilled through a chute into a 12-meter...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2013

The up- and downside for the biggest economy

'Is America in decline?' may be the wrong question, as most of the affluent world — including U.S., Europe and Japan — faces similar threats.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2013

Ground conditions favor a conservative revival

The agenda of Barack Obama, whose approval rating scores lower than that of the National Rifle Association, will stimulate a conservative revival.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 30, 2013

Abe adviser Hamada wants more pliant BOJ

With his harsh criticism of the Bank of Japan in the spotlight, Shinzo Abe's economic brain, Koichi Hamada, says it is a big step forward for the central bank to finally adopt the new prime minister's 2 percent inflation target.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 28, 2013

Blame it on the hara: harassment vocabulary makes us all victims

Japan has a new hara. No, the nice couple down the hall didn't just have a baby; according to recent news, yet another form of harassment is supposedly becoming a social problem.
EDITORIALS
Jan 26, 2013

Six days of school not the answer

After reviewing the current five-day school week in public schools, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology says it is again considering holding Saturday classes.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2013

Solar lanterns brighten future for Afghans

Where would we be without light when night falls? It is hard to imagine all of the constraints during the long hours of darkness before the sun rises again — no work, no study and no recreation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 19, 2013

Epiphanies for characters, readers

WE, THE CHILDREN OF CATS, by Tomoyuki Hoshino, edited and translated by Brian Bergstrom with an additional translation by Lucy Fraser. PM Press, 2012, 266 pages, $20 (paperback)
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jan 19, 2013

Kyoto gardens give up all their secrets during intimate guided tours

How do you appreciate a Japanese garden? The typical temple visit — where you ponder a seemingly random assemblage of rocks and raked gravel or push your way through a throng of tourists jostling for camera angles — can leave one confused and underwhelmed.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2013

Japan urged to help build India's infrastructure

India needs to redouble its efforts to develop industrial and urban infrastructure that so far have not caught up with the pace of its economic growth, said Indian scholars taking part in a recent symposium in Tokyo who want Japan to play a key role to support such efforts.
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.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 8, 2013

Xenophobia finds fertile soil in web anonymity

As diplomatic strains with China and South Korea worsen over territorial disputes, more and more Japanese are using the relative anonymity of cyberspace to vent their political spleens online.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jan 8, 2013

From Taiji to Okinawa, readers dissect some issues of 2012

In the first of our new Community Chest letters columns, we bring together a selection of mails received in response to some of the final Community stories of 2012.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 8, 2013

Online English studies benefit Japanese, Filipinos

Mohammad Moin tries to realize what he calls "intellectual fair trade" through his operation of an online English conversation school for Japanese — all taught by Filipino teachers.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.