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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 1, 2014

St. Mary's International School in Tokyo rocked by sexual abuse claims

After Catholic boys school responds to account from 1960s, other former pupils allege systematic abuse by another teacher during the 1970s
JAPAN / INTERPRETATION & TRANSLATION
Aug 31, 2014

Connecting two cities beyond interpretation

Interpreters and translators facilitate communication and understanding between people who speak different languages, which sometimes is instrumental in bridging two distant cities.
JAPAN / Politics / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Aug 24, 2014

Nippon Ishin, Yui no To take second shot at dethroning LDP

With their recent “political remarriage,” Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) and Yui no To (Unity Party) enter the union more experienced, and perhaps more wiser, than the first time around
WORLD
Aug 20, 2014

Scene of fighting, grandiose Mosul Dam always beset with problems, threat of collapse

The Mosul Dam was always meant to be a symbol of Iraq's grandiose ambition to escape poverty and underdevelopment.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 19, 2014

Critics of Tokyo 2020 venues misguided

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are still almost six years away, but in many ways the games have already begun.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2014

Power play: the debate over renewable energy

On Aug. 26, 2011, the same day that Prime Minister Naoto Kan resigned after widespread criticism of his handling of the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant that followed the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, the Diet passed legislation that created a new feed-in...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2014

Never trust a realist when it comes to politicians

If you're looking for one big reason the U.S. seems to be on the wrong track, try the marginalization of idealism that coincided with the collapse of the peace movement and the American Left at the end of the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 2014

The back story to Taiwan's treasures

The artworks and objects on display at the Tokyo National Museum's latest show, "Treasured Masterpieces from the National Palace Museum, Taipei," have had something of checkered history. A large part of this was due to the efforts of the Japanese Imperial Army to get their hands on the collection, which...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 30, 2014

R-18 to G: Are pink films losing their potency?

Yuji Tajiri and Shinji Imaoka were two of the “Seven Lucky Gods of Pink” — a group of young pinku eiga (erotic film) directors who were hailed as the genre’s hope after they rose to prominence in the 1990s and early 2000s.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 25, 2014

Governors tell Abe to get real on fixing economy — outside Tokyo

A long-sought response from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is finally listening to the problems faced by the other Japan — the one outside Tokyo — or a cynical attempt to rally the Liberal Democratic Party before key local elections next April?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 19, 2014

Yabusame archers of the lonely Chugoku Mountains

What are those peculiar scarecrow figures, lolling about the villages of the Chugoku Mountains?
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2014

Can't win by ravaging Gaza

Israel's targeting of Hamas is an attempt to distract from the slowly building collective sentiment among Palestinians throughout Palestine and among Palestinian citizens in Israel.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2014

Thomas Piketty with Chinese characteristics

As property prices have risen faster than wages and profits in manufacturing, China's top 1 percent income earners are accumulating wealth significantly faster than their counterparts in the rest of the world — and far faster than the average Chinese.
EDITORIALS
Jul 5, 2014

A new map for the Middle East

The military advances of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant have eroded the fragile equilibrium that held Iraq together, and may spur the Kurds to declare their own long-sought state of Kurdistan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Jun 2, 2014

Generation gaps filled by brick and mortar

Though their numbers have dwindled in the developed world over the past century, multi-generation households are still common, and in fact may become even more common in countries where income gaps are increasing. In Japan, multi-generation households have social relevance owing to cultural norms, the...
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 27, 2014

Recent events in Asia could be tipping points

Russia's struggle to conclude a long-term gas-supply deal with China seems to suggest that China is happy to see Russian President Vladimir Putin poke his finger into the West's eye but that China is more interested in turning Russia into the sort of vassal state that Putin seeks for Ukraine.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
May 26, 2014

Letters: Kikokushijo encounter trouble upon re-entry

Japanese returnees and others discuss the trials and tribulations facing those educated abroad if and when they attempt to settle back in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2014

Opportunity for U.S. to extricate itself from Korea

The U.S. should reduce the possibility of impoverished, remote North Korea interfering with its own peace, stability and prosperity by simply going home: Terminate the defense treaty with South Korea.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: TECH
May 19, 2014

Robots, video, skincare and even nail art — all enhanced by your smartphone

Robotic fun
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2014

Is it right to describe Israel as an apartheid state?

Although a de facto apartheid already exists in the West Bank, one of reasons to avoid using the term apartheid is that it doesn't start conversations. It ends them.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 4, 2014

Drinking in Japan: Sober words to help you socialize

Drinking in the United States is so relaxed and so much fun that sometimes I forget how important it is as a social ritual in Japan. And like any good Japanese ritual, drinking has a bevy of lovely words that float around it, providing a lesson in language as well as culture.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 1, 2014

China says three killed in attack at Xinjiang train station

Three people were killed and 79 wounded in a bomb and knife attack at a train station in the far western region of China on Wednesday, state media said, as President Xi Jinping was wrapping up a visit to the area.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 29, 2014

Cells cloned from diabetic make insulin

And now there are three: In the wake of announcements from laboratories in Oregon and California that they had created human embryos by cloning cells of living people, a lab in New York announced on Monday that it had done that and more.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 28, 2014

Wireless is way forward for Internet

The Internet may feel like it is everywhere, but large pockets of sky, swaths of land and most of the oceans are still beyond a signal's reach.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2014

Late but handsome apology to Sephardic Jews

Spain isn't just saying sorry for expelling its Jews 522 years ago; it's offering to give their descendants back their citizenship. And Spanish citizenship is practically citizenship in all 28 EU countries.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 23, 2014

PUK's children's puppet shows suspend disbelief for all ages

Parents around the capital seeking entertainment options for young children over the next several weeks could do a lot worse than check out Puppet Theater PUK, where old and new stories will come to life in the hands of seasoned puppeteers.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2014

Europe lacks leadership over Ukraine

The sad truth about February's revolution in Kiev is that the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych ended the regime of one-clan dominance, but not the oligarchical system of governance that underpinned it.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami