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BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2013

GOP shifts budget focus from cuts to tax reform

With another fight over the national debt brewing this summer, congressional Republicans are de-emphasizing their demand for politically painful cuts to retirement programs and focusing on a more popular prize: a thorough rewrite of the U.S. tax code.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Apr 13, 2013

How keeping it real took Matt Damon to the top

In 1987, when Bruce Springsteen wrote the song "Ain't Got You," he was the biggest rock star in the world. He had vast estates in New Jersey and Beverly Hills, and he had not long returned from a honeymoon at Gianni Versace's villa in Lake Como. "Ain't Got You" was Springsteen's attempt to make a self-aware...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 6, 2013

One man's crusade against America's war on drugs

Once consigned to the fringes of libertarianism, the argument for the legalization of drugs has received an unlikely boost in America in recent months with the release of a documentary titled "The House I Live In." Coinciding with the decision by the states of Colorado and Washington to legalise marijuana,...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 4, 2013

U.K. immigration critical to success of anti-EU party

For the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), defeat has never looked this much like victory.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 3, 2013

As U.S. wallows in debt, bright ideas to save country billions go to waste

After President Barack Obama set up a national online suggestion box in 2009 asking federal workers for new ways to cut the budget, 86,000 ideas came in. Some, inevitably, were a little odd.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Apr 1, 2013

Have U.S. political parties lost their purpose?

The Democrats and Republicans may be worlds apart on most things, but at their headquarters just two blocks away from each other on Capitol Hill, each is confronting the same question: Have political parties lost their purpose?
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Mar 27, 2013

Track legends moved by interaction with athletes in Tohoku

Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis came to Japan hoping to boost the spirits of young athletes from the Tohoku region, but the track legend says it was he who came away inspired in the end.
JAPAN / Media / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 17, 2013

Rhapsody in scrubs; Foreign hometowns; CM of the week: De Niro for BeeTV

The doctor shows just keep coming, but the two-part "Kyokuhoku Rhapsody" (NHK-G, Tues.-Wed., 10 p.m.) borrows a current issue from the headlines to make its dramatic point.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2013

Japan urged to send out global SOS over No. 1 plant

Two years after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, the herculean task of decommissioning the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant is the subject of growing international involvement.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2013

Leon Panetta: a legacy of the conventional wisdom

Leon Panetta's failure to accommodate a rapidly changing world will be his most important, and disappointing, legacy as U.S. secretary of defense.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Feb 20, 2013

Indians allege army in war of rape, killing

Tens of thousands of Indian troops are deployed to these remote borderlands, their mission to fight a decades-long armed separatist rebellion.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Feb 19, 2013

Millions of dogs and cats coddled, 200,000 gassed each year in pet-mad Japan

Cast in bronze, Hachiko sits in a position of prominence befitting a storied daimyo or prime minister, right next to the busiest intersection in Japan, if not the world.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 3, 2013

Hidetoshi Masunaga: making revolution through the Constitution

On Dec. 14, 2012, two days before the Lower House election in which the Democratic Party of Japan headed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was eclipsed as the conservative Liberal Democratic Party swept back to power in a landslide, a one-page advert with a huge banner headline appeared in a vernacular...
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2013

Cabinet OKs record ¥92.6 trillion budget

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet on Tuesday approved a record-high ¥92.6 trillion initial general-account budget for fiscal 2013, aiming to shore up the economy through large-scale public works projects.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 29, 2013

Leave restricted drugs at home

CT has a prescription for Adderall (methamphetamine), which is illegal in Japan, and has recently been hired to work on a U.S. base here.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2013

Naming slain captives raises privacy issues

The victims' right to privacy was pitted against the public's right to know as the media pressed for the names of the Algerian hostage crisis victims to be disclosed while the government and JGC Corp. remained tight-lipped, but Tokyo finally caved Friday, revealing the identities of the firm's 10 slain...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 24, 2013

'Pi' among 'unfilmable' books conquered at last on the screen

There are certain novels they say just can't be filmed, but guess what? Most of them have been. "Dune"? "Naked Lunch"? "The Virgin Suicides"? "The 120 Days of Sodom"? "Ulysses"? All done — "Ulysses" twice, even.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2013

New Washington lineup will await Abe visit

When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe travels to the U.S. next month for a meeting with President Barack Obama, he will find new secretaries of state and defense.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 19, 2013

Hamada hits DPJ deflation inaction

Koichi Hamada, one of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's special advisers, on Friday condemned past governments led by the Democratic Party of Japan for not pressing the Bank of Japan to conduct enough monetary easing steps to fight the country's prolonged deflation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2013

Sign of the Financial Times: Will it sell independence?

Too many years ago, this young reporter was about to move from one of Britain's biggest newspaper groups to a paper with a daily sale of fewer than 200,000 copies. A hard-bitten veteran, who had spent years reporting for the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph pleaded with me over farewell drinks not...
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2013

Osaka pushes incendiary tsunami debris plan

Despite fears of radioactive contamination, Osaka Prefecture is finalizing plans to begin incinerating 36,000 tons of tsunami debris from Iwate Prefecture next month.
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.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 4, 2013

Cleaning 'angels' reinforce positive image of Japanese workers

Train cleaning crews are the new heroes of Japanese commerce.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji