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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 23, 2022

South Korean support for a domestic nuclear arsenal is growing — for surprising reasons

A new survey has found that a robust majority strongly backs a domestic nuclear program over stationing U.S. nukes in the country, with China cited as a growing concern.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2022

Japan set to fall short of February booster goal

The government plans to give boosters to 37.5 million people by the end of February, but to attain that target the pace of vaccinations would need to more than double.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2022

New COVID-19 variants complicate the question of vaccine mandates

Officials mulling new pandemic policies need to know how quickly vaccine protection wanes. But scientists don't have a clear answer.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 21, 2022

Bond between China and Russia alarms U.S. and Europe amid Ukraine crisis

China and Russia declared that they would work with other countries to 'promote genuine democracy” and counter American-led ideology and institutions.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Feb 21, 2022

Will a presidential election mark the end of South Korea's tattoo taboos?

Almost all of the country's 50,000 tattoo artists are at the mercy of potential police raids and prosecution, facing huge fines as well as prison terms, in theory as much as life.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2022

How China’s 'COVID zero' policy is giving a polish to gold

Gold has mostly traded sideways since the start of the year, and the usual negative correlation between higher U.S. Treasury yields and lower gold prices — and vice versa — has disappeared.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Feb 19, 2022

Bots and fake accounts push China’s vision of winter Olympic wonderland

Inside the Potemkin village of China’s propaganda, the Winter Olympics have unfolded as an unalloyed success, a celebration of sports and political harmony that has obscured — critics say whitewashed — the country’s flaws and rights abuses.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Feb 18, 2022

Kremlin hits back at Olympic chief's criticism of Kamila Valieva coach

'When I saw how she was received by the closest entourage with such a tremendous coolness, it was chilling to see this,' Bach said.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2022

Deriding women’s complaints on equal pay is costly

What should the corporate world take from this judgment? A well-run business should be able to investigate claims of pay discrimination by women and resolve them before they go to a tribunal.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Feb 17, 2022

Hong Kong can’t live with the virus. It can’t stop it, either.

With hospital beds on sidewalks and testing lines winding through parks, the city's flailing response has exposed crucial weaknesses.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 17, 2022

Taiwan sees China's Xi as too focused on party reshuffle for any attack

The Taiwanese government has assessed the current risk of a Chinese attack to be low, regardless of what happens between Russia and Ukraine.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2022

Is the civilian resistance tipping the balance in Myanmar?

'Myanmar has been in a state of civil war for a long time, but until now it has been limited to certain territories and ethnic regions. Now, even the Bamar heartland is in conflict.”
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 15, 2022

‘We need to oppose Russia’: Ukrainians find common purpose

Across the country, Lenin statues and hammer-and-sickle emblems of the Soviet past have been toppled, replaced by monuments to Ukrainians killed in the 2014 uprising.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 14, 2022

How China's cybersecurity laws could backfire

China wants to have control over the information cars have about drivers, roads and the faces and voices they pass, according to a draft law on data-security management issued in May.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Feb 11, 2022

Japan’s entry ban leaves students and universities counting the cost

Restrictions on new entries have seen projects disrupted, scholarships lost, international exchange undermined, career plans left in tatters and much more.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2022

‘Sapiens’? Humans aren’t wise, just too smart for our own good.

Perhaps that's what defines our species — neither wisdom nor folly, but the ability, as F. Scott Fitzgerald put it, to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still function.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2022

Putin faces insurgency nightmare if Ukraine is invaded

The Ukrainians suffered greatly and at the hands of Russians over the past century. They can and will fight, and the Western democracies can help.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 10, 2022

Japan warms up to the potential of cryptocurrencies

Mitsui & Co. is planning a cryptocurrency linked to the yen-denominated price of one gram of gold.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 10, 2022

South Korea’s nuclear energy future is a new election battleground

South Korea's top presidential candidates are offering diverging visions on nuclear power, though both agree the nation must soften its plans to phase it out to meet climate targets.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Feb 10, 2022

Mikaela Shiffrin under same spotlight Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles faced at Tokyo Games

'It's been an OK couple of days but still tough because you feel like this moment is building and building and building and you feel a bit weighed down by it but I'm OK to feel that way.'
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2022

America’s frackers are back, and they’re looking leaner

Oil production this month will rise to 8.54 million barrels a day — just 730,000 barrels below the record in November 2019.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 9, 2022

The rise and fall of Japan's ski industry

Japan Times contributor Francesco Basetti joins Deep Dive to discuss the rise and fall of the Japanese ski industry, and how resorts are faring with so few people able to enjoy them.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2022

Is Britain really the world’s least racist country?

This new U.K. report on racism is different, as the reactions show. It was commissioned with a clear objective to 'change the narrative” and 'stop the sense of victimization.”
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 8, 2022

America's bitcoin miners have Georgia on their minds

Hundreds of thousands of mining machines worth billions of dollars are plugging into electrical grids across America, spawning an entirely new industry.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2022

Watch out for the facial recognition overlords

As the technology advances, today's gatekeepers of facial recognition are promising stringent security to protect the data. But is that a promise they can keep?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2022

Facebook has probably peaked. What can mark Zuckerberg do now?

With its long-term inability to build attractive new services in the face of growing competition, a new reality is sinking in: Facebook looks like a company in decline.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan