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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2017

What exactly is bitcoin good for anyway?

Perhaps it's a payment system. If so, it's inferior to credit cards and grossly overvalued.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2017

What makes 'The Last Jedi' so fascinating

'The Last Jedi' is an awful lot of fun, and it's that rare blockbuster that makes you think.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2017

Technophobes and the future of jobs

What if your profession has never required much computer literacy — and then all of a sudden it does. Should you be fired?
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2017

A glimmer of good news about fake news

Some people just might be more open to changing their minds than we thought.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2017

Will the Doklam standoff lead to a second Sino-Indian war?

While domestic calculations hold New Delhi back from going to war with Beijing, in China's case it is its international image that prevents it from doing so.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 6, 2017

'Gloomy Japan' highlights a loss of hope

"In recent times, reflections on the future of Japanese society have not generally been couched in optimistic terms," says Yuji Genda, a professor of Labor Economics at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Social Science.
EDITORIALS
Feb 8, 2017

Limiting the right to be forgotten

According to the Supreme Court, search results can be ordered deleted only when the value of privacy protection clearly surpasses that of information disclosure.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2016

CIA should come clean about Russian 'hacking'

If the CIA has indisputable evidence that Russia threw the U.S. election, it should put up or shut up.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 16, 2016

The best way to beat Islamic State in Iraq

The idea of a 'Sunnistan' isn't new, but as American advisers and their Iraqi allies prepare for the crucial battle of Mosul, now is the time to revisit it.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 21, 2016

Wrath awaits Japanese women who shun their childbearing 'destiny'

Back in the 1990s, actor Tomoko Yamaguchi often appeared in trendy dramas — TV shows that portrayed the lives of middle-class people who, whether married or not, only worried about what to buy and who to love. Once she turned 35, Yamaguchi was no longer considered suitable for such roles, but trendy...
COMMENTARY / World / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
May 4, 2016

The complexities of 'they' versus 'xe/him/xir'

The long search to find a way to refer to people in English without relying on gender won't be ending anytime soon.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Oct 21, 2015

Three cases of whine offer lessons in how not to criticize Japan

Novelist John Updike famously declared America to be "a conspiracy to make you happy." I wonder sometimes if Japan is, then, a conspiracy to make you unhappy? Or, if not exactly unhappy, how about uncomfortable, exasperated or confused?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 15, 2015

The Abe government versus the Emperor on history issues

Shinzo Abe and the Foreign Ministry have been mincing words when it comes to Japan's war responsibility, in stark contrast with Emperor Akihito's forthright statements of remorse and apology.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 31, 2015

What if the 2008 crisis comes around again?

The obstacles to effective remedies for a major economic crisis would be formidable, but more political than economic.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2015

Behavioral science's take on the Iran debate

'Loss aversion,' the ideal that people dislike losses a lot more than they like equivalent gains, can badly confuse political debate — such as that on the Iran nuclear deal.
EDITORIALS
Jul 30, 2015

Upper House vote reform falls short

The recent changes to the Upper House districts fall far short of addressing in a meaningful way the disparity in vote values.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 29, 2015

With possible 'Grexit,' Merkel fears 'blowing up Europe' for third time

"If you break it, you own it," former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell warned President George W. Bush before his invasion of Iraq.
EDITORIALS
Jun 2, 2015

Abe can't duck history issue

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe must realize that his perception of Japan's wars in the 1930s and 1940s is an issue that cannot be skirted if ties with China and South Korea are to be improved.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2015

School kids weak at filtering data to produce own conclusions: study

The nation's primary and junior high school students lack the skills to sift through and link information from multiple sources to solve problems, even though they can easily understand spoon-fed, pre-filtered information, a government study has found.
EDITORIALS
Mar 21, 2015

Appalling surgical negligence

Gunma University Hospital's final report on the death of eight patients following laparoscopic liver surgery gives an appalling picture of what happened at the institution.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 27, 2015

Video artist Duncan Campbell sees between the lines

When Irish artist Duncan Campbell won the Turner Prize last December, it was met with both high praise and criticism, as often happens with the notoriously controversial event. But perhaps such a difference in perception is appropriate.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2014

What global warming? Pass me a blanket

Unfortunately for proponents of climate change, people subconsciously use the current local temperature as a clue to whether global temperatures are increasing.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 23, 2014

To appear or not to appear on Japanese TV . . .

If you're in Japan long enough, you're bound to get the opportunity to appear on Japanese TV. But you might want to think twice before you make the leap to 'TV gaijin.'
Japan Times
SOCCER
Jul 22, 2014

Ronaldo expects extraordinary success for Real Madrid in upcoming season

Cristiano Ronaldo says his injury problems are behind him. Now the Portuguese superstar intends to get back to the business of winning everything in sight with soccer superpower Real Madrid.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 19, 2014

If chimps inherit their intelligence, does that prove humans do, too?

Some people are smarter than others. And though animal intelligence is far less well studied, it turns out that within a particular population, say of chimpanzees, some animals are smarter than others, too — and these differences are heritable. To put it another way, some chimps' mothers are smarter...
WORLD / Politics
Feb 22, 2014

Noam Chomsky: Truth to power

Often dubbed one of the world's most important intellectuals and its leading public dissident, Noam Chomsky was for years among the top 10 most quoted academics on the planet, edged out only by William Shakespeare, Karl Marx, Aristotle.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2014

China makes sure Putin knows who his friends are

The scale of a Chinese reporter's pained obsequiousness in front of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi last week was a visible reminder of just how important Russia has become to Chinese policymakers, and how few risks the Chinese media will take in covering the country.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN WEB WATCH
Jan 16, 2014

Japan's mobile apps provide an 'A' for every 'Q'

Question and answer sites have for a decade been one of the most popular user-contributed services on the Web — and Japan is no exception. On the traditional Web, the market has been occupied by a few big players, but the recent popularity of smartphones has attracted new startups to the mobile Web...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 10, 2014

Teachers must nurture critical thinking, confidence in English for a shot at 2020 goals

Until English teachers start developing critical thinking skills in the classroom and emphasizing confidence over competence, students will never be able to converse with native English speakers 'at a viable level of proficiency.'

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.