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Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 30, 2014

Fight over oil puts Libya on path to partition

No one paid much attention to the 21,000-ton oil tanker Morning Glory as it churned back and forth along the north African coast earlier this month. Tankers are a common sight, carrying Libya's oil exports around the world. But on March 1 it switched off its satellite transponder and vanished from world...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 27, 2014

Abe ready for full-on military drive

With the launch next Monday of a special intraparty panel directly under his lead, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party are ready to kick off their full-fledged drive to reinterpret the Constitution to allow Japan to help defend its allies.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Mar 26, 2014

Japan's Constitution: never amended but all too often undermined

If Japan's unwritten constitution is already so flexible, why are Abe and his party so bent on amending the written one?
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2014

The rest of Ukraine promises only more trouble for Russia

Once again Russian President Vladimir Putin's rhetoric has made U.S. President Barack Obama seem out of touch protesting violation of international law, as the world knows the U.S. is the country that ignores it most.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2014

'Tank girls' lead the charge

Being a soldier in Japan after World War II was seen as a job for failed police recruits and unemployed youths from depressed rural towns.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 15, 2014

Olympics highlight the need for foreign blue-collar laborers

In a recent column, Tokyo Shimbun sportswriter Masaru Ogawa called on past and future Olympic athletes to come forward and talk about what he sees as the biggest problem facing the Tokyo 2020 Games: lack of construction workers. Next year, work on venues will start in earnest, but Japan is already burdened...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2014

A new cold war in the making?

Even if there is no war, the Crimea crisis is likely to alter fundamentally relations between Russia and the West, and lead to changes in the global power balance.
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2014

Underwater gold rush spurs fears of ocean calamity

This is the last frontier: the ocean floor, 4,000 meters beneath the waters of the central Pacific, where mining companies are now exploring for the rich deposits of ores needed to keep industry humming and smartphones switched on.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 1, 2014

Japan's reactionaries waging culture war

The contemporary culture wars that have erupted over Japanese identity and history are undermining the country's national interests and damaging its reputation.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 23, 2014

Ukraine at crossroads as Moscow's man in Kiev exits

Seen from the point of view of President Vladimir Putin, Russia's foreign policy of late had been enjoying something of a purple patch.
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2014

Preparing for heavy snowfalls

Recent heavy snowfalls from the Kanto-Koshin region to Hokkaido show the vulnerability of areas in Japan that up to now have experienced little damage from snowstorms.
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2014

An equal vote is a priority

Talks between the ruling and opposition parties on rectifying vote-value disparity, which remains so wide among Lower House constituencies as to undermine the principle of equality under the Constitution, have made little headway.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 19, 2014

Abe aide pillories U.S. on YouTube

In a video posted to YouTube, a special adviser to Shinzo Abe takes the U.S. government to task for not supporting the prime minister's decision to visit Yasukuni Shrine in December.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / ICE TIME
Feb 10, 2014

Team event good concept, but could be even better

The inaugural Olympic team skating event, which Russia won on Sunday night, appears to have been a great success. The new concept was well received by both fans and media.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 3, 2014

Uphold basic living standards

To attain a national minimum for social welfare, some urge introducing a basic income — provision of a fixed sum of money to each citizen — to replace social security, which covers only needy people.
EDITORIALS
Jan 23, 2014

Damages from a terror probe

Despite the award of ¥90.2 million in damages to 17 Muslims in Japan found to have suffered defamation of character after details of a police investigation of international terrorism were leaked onto the Internet, the plaintiffs have appealed the Tokyo District Court ruling for affirming that the probe itself was necessary.
COMMENTARY
Jan 21, 2014

Japan heading for darker days

It's still baffling why the Abe administration was in such a hurry to have the state secrets bill passed when various opinion surveys showed that the bill was opposed by about 80 percnet of respondens on the very day the Upper House voted on it.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 19, 2014

Abe: 'Numbers do not lie'

Prime Minister Abe plays up fiscal consolidation and across-the-board prosperity as he returns to his “Abenomics” script for the Liberal Democratic Party convention.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 18, 2014

Cooperation vs. competition in space

Shadows of winter clouds
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Jan 10, 2014

Kim looking like a lock for second gold medal in Sochi

With less than a month to go until the Sochi Games begin, all signs are that defending Olympic and world champion Kim Yu-na is rounding into form and will be in top shape when she enters the rink at the Iceberg Skating Palace.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Jan 8, 2014

Restore the shuttered-up New Year's of yore

First of all, I would like to wish a happy new year to all the readers of Labor Pains. While labor news has generally been a gloomy topic of late, it is my hope that this year will bring brighter things for me to write about.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT ENGLISH
Jan 2, 2014

Schools fret about assistant teachers ahead of proposed 2020 reforms

With education reform expected to place a great deal of emphasis on English, officials worry about the uneven quality of foreign assistant language teachers.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 31, 2013

Abe's quest to revive, reshape nation rides on the economy

Just six months ago, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was riding high after his party swept the Upper House election. Now things aren't looking so rosy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2013

'Hunger Games' star continues to burn bright

Jennifer Lawrence says that first and foremost, she watches her latest film, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," as a fan. She was "stunned" when she saw the end result.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell