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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 1, 2020

NSC change prepares Japan for new global realities

Japan is moving toward a wiser decision-making process when it comes to key security questions.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 1, 2020

The Battle of Okinawa: Could more civilians have been saved?

The true lesson of the Battle of Okinawa may be that civilian deaths in war can and should be kept to the absolute minimum.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2020

The 2021 Olympic Games will be the greatest ever

The 2021 Olympic Games should be a celebration of a world that overcomes petty nationalisms, rather than one that reinforces them.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2020

One battle Boris Johnson is clearly winning

The COVID-19 crisis gives the U.K. prime minister a huge bounce.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 29, 2020

Tax incentives needed to promote recurrent education

There are no countries in the world that do not wish for eternal prosperity. Nothing can ensure such prosperity except education of their people. Many people may take that to mean school education for children and youth. However, what will be far more important going forward will be recurrent education,...
CULTURE / Books / RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS ABOUT JAPAN
Mar 28, 2020

'Grit, Grace, and Gold' review: The Olympics are postponed, but this book's a winner

On the surface, sports and haiku are an incongruous mix but, as Nagamura notes in the introduction, 'Writing good haiku involves the same attention to grace, balance, strength, bravery, restraint and observation that propels athletes to their peak.'
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2020

Is the pandemic a moment of promise or peril?

We are about to make a historical step — hopefully forward — as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2020

Fossil-fuel giant Russia tiptoes toward low-carbon future

Fossil fuel-rich Russia has for the first time set out a greener economic path for the coming three decades, in a long-term, low-carbon development plan released this week.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 26, 2020

'Mishima: The Last Debate': Careful revival of a battle of wits

It was the title match of the decade: the rumble in the academic jungle. On May 13, 1969, literary titan Yukio Mishima strutted onstage in front of a 1,000-strong audience at the University of Tokyo to debate with representatives of the All Campus Joint Struggle Committee, otherwise known as Zenkyoto....
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 25, 2020

Toward a 2021 Tokyo Olympics

By postponing the games, Abe has put Japan — and himself — at the center of the post-pandemic recovery effort.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2020

U.S.-China media war on truth and trust

China now has a global propaganda machine that can deliver the government's message on its terms.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2020

Singer and welfare facility founder Mariko Miyagi dies

Singer Mariko Miyagi, who founded Nemunoki Gakuen, a welfare facility for children with physical disabilities, died of malignant lymphoma at a Tokyo hospital Saturday. She was 93.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Mar 23, 2020

U.S. raids unlikely to crack Mexican capo's drug empire

A major bust by U.S. drug authorities targeting Mexico's fastest-growing gang will likely do little to stem the rise of the ultraviolent Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and its shadowy leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias 'El Mencho.'
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Mar 21, 2020

Family dynamic shifts as schools remain closed nationwide

Japanese dads are coming under scrutiny — again. Ever since Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi officially made ikumen (men who take an active role in child-rearing) fashionable by publicly taking two weeks off for paternity leave, fathers who let their spouses shoulder all the burden of child care...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / Children's Literature in Japan
Mar 21, 2020

Momoko Ishii: Shaping Japanese children's literature for the modern era

Dedicated to children's literature since her youth, Momoko Ishii authored and translated dozens of books, and her tireless advocacy changed the way postwar society valued children's literature for decades to come.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2020

Coronavirus will change how we shop, travel and work for years

Every economic shock leaves a legacy. The deadly coronavirus will be no different.
Reader Mail
Mar 20, 2020

Paradise found? It's possible.

The article "Paradise lost: Japan longs for simpler times in trying days" in the March 8 issue made me think twice about what we work for. Indeed, we work to live, not live to work. I know this principle well. However, as long as a disparity between haves and have-nots remains, people in need are forced...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 19, 2020

Hotels in Japan roll out unusual bids to woo tourists in COVID-19 crisis

With tightening border controls and social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic limiting nonessential travel, hotels in Japan have been offering unconventional plans to attract guests.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2020

Donald Trump and the great man theory of politics

Trump views foreign leaders who wield dominant power and authority as people who can help him solve international problems.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2020

Canceling your trip due to coronavirus? Airbnb refuses scores of refunds

Josh Ostroff had a difficult choice to make: Cancel a trip to Japan in March that he'd been promising his 10-year-old son for three years, or ignore travel warnings and put his family's health at risk amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 17, 2020

You don't have to be Asian to wear a face mask in an epidemic

The social ritual of wearing face masks may play a role in sustaining humane sentiments of solidarity, decency and cooperativeness in such crises.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2020

Nine years after Fukushima, Japan can't quit its coal habit

A return to coal has left Japan with long-term climate goals that are unambitious — and increasingly, the subject of international censure.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2020

Egos and U.S. fracking trigger Russia-Saudi oil price war

The fight between Russia and Saudi Arabia looks like a personal struggle between the leaders of the two countries as well as a broadside at the U.S. fracking industry.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 14, 2020

'Underground': The thematic keystone to Haruki Murakami's oeuvre

In the 20 years that have passed since the publication of Haruki Murakami's nonfiction 'Underground,' it remains both an outlier and a springboard for the career that would follow.
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2020

How to keep calm in a pandemic: Education, information and communication

Fears over the pandemic can be managed and experts are calling for policymakers to be more transparent to help the public cope with distress.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 12, 2020

Dinosaur prints from mysterious middle Jurassic Period found in Scotland

On a crag of rock called Brother's Point on Scotland's Isle of Skye, scientists have identified two bustling footprint sites that reveal an abundance of dinosaurs that thrived 170 million years ago including an early member of a celebrated group.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Mar 12, 2020

Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu draws on his own past of otherness to foster inclusion today

A professor and counselor, Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu believes that telling your own story under the right circumstances can be part of a healing process.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 11, 2020

Fighting COVID-19: It's the story, stupid

The Japanese government is failing to effectively combat infections and unable to win the confidence of publics at home and abroad.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 9, 2020

The March 1945 firebombing of Tokyo and the immorality of war

The U.S. attack on Tokyo on the night of March 9-10, 1945, reinforces the reality that it usually is the civilians who suffer the most from the horrors of war.

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