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COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 26, 2015

Protecting a tolerant society

How people who champion tolerance should deal with intolerant people who violently attempt to force certain values on others is one of the thorniest challenges for a pluralistic democracy.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 23, 2015

Netanyahu accepts Boehner's invite to address U.S. Congress in March on Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday he will address the U.S. Congress during a March visit likely to drive home differences with the Obama administration over whether to impose additional sanctions on Tehran.
COMMENTARY
Jan 19, 2015

New Sri Lankan president has delicate balancing act

Sri Lankans have sprung a surprise with their commitment to democracy. They have thrown out a strongman president who had brought an end to a three-decade-long civil war and restored high economic growth.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2015

Japan’s Muslims dismayed by latest Charlie cover but united against violence

Japan's Muslim community speaks out on magazine Charlie Hebdo's defiant decision to place a Prophet Muhammad cartoon on the cover of its latest issue after last week's massacre.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 5, 2015

Why Japan should embrace Angelina Jolie's 'Unbroken'

The attacks on Angelina Jolie's just-released film 'Unbroken' — which is much less about Japanese brutality against an American POW than the resilience of the human spirit — appear part of a revisionist recrudescence under the Abe administration.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2014

Wanted: brides for millions of Chinese men

A fast-growing underclass is sure to pose an array of challenges for China. The victims are the millions of poor, mostly rural men, who cannot meet familial and social expectations that a man marry and start a family because of the country's skewed demographics.
EDITORIALS
Dec 27, 2014

2014: a year of conservative gains

The year 2014 was full of unexpected events, but none helped to jolt Japan's economy, politics or society out of a sense of being stalled.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2014

End of the Facebook Revolution

When Facebook has already blocked an announcement inviting Muscovites to attend a January rally in support of an anti-corruption activist, imagine what it would do — or, for all we know, has already done — for the U.S. government.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2014

Now boastful Japan not really in tune with what visitors want, foreign expert warns

Japan's self-professed "omotenashi" (spirit of selfless hospitality) is often misinterpreted to force predetermined services on foreign visitors, says one longtime observer.
BASKETBALL
Dec 18, 2014

FIBA chief Baumann strikes tough tone on JBA ban

FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann repeatedly stated that the Japan Basketball Association's "lack of vision" is a fundamental problem stunting the sport's development throughout the nation.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2014

More than 20,000 bras recalled in Japan over injury fears

A defect can cause underwires to protrude from holes in the fabric while the undergarments are being worn, the Japanese division of lingerie-maker Triumph International says.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 13, 2014

Abe's secrets law undermines Japan's democracy

On Dec. 10, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's new special secrets law took effect despite overwhelming public opposition.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 10, 2014

In rare move, Sony CEO Hirai personally cleared scenes in film on North Korea, emails show

The company's top executive approved a scene depicting the death of Kim Jong Un in a satirical film that may have prompted a cyberattack on Sony Pictures.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 7, 2014

'Game of drones' draws us toward apocalypse

Drone technology is relatively simple and cheap to acquire — which is why more than 70 countries, plus nonstate actors like Hezbollah, have combat drones. And that should worry Americans.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Dec 6, 2014

Obscenity arrest may be hiding dirty politics

What constitutes obscenity in Japan? The term, both legally and morally, has different meanings in Japanese, just as it does in English. In a strictly legal sense, the Japanese word for obscenity, waisetsu, refers to something that maliciously stimulates sexual desire in an inappropriate and immoral...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Dec 5, 2014

Lewis brings storied career back to track as coach

It's too early to know if Carl Lewis will one day be considered a legendary track coach.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 4, 2014

China's railway giant flexes muscles abroad

It will take more than the abrupt cancellation of a high-speed train deal with Mexico to derail China Railway Construction Corp.'s ambition to become a global force in transport projects and take on the likes of Siemens, Alstom and Bombardier.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2014

A common sense policy on conflict minerals

Funding conflict and human-rights abuses through the purchase of natural resources is not an acceptable cost of doing business.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 29, 2014

Hong Kong protesters clash with police after new clampdown

Thousands of prodemocracy activists clashed with police during running scuffles in Hong Kong's gritty Mong Kok district early Saturday in a bid to reclaim part of one of the city's largest and most volatile protest sites.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2014

Is Putin losing Ukraine by stoking a war?

Russian President Vladimir Putin risks alienating ethnic Russians living in Ukraine by fueling war there.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 15, 2014

Tokyo continues to pull people in, which pulls the rest of Japan down

Earlier this month, the government pledged for the zillionth time to "revive" Japan's "regions." Local governments are in danger of vanishing in coming decades due to depopulation, and former Liberal Democratic Party No. 2 Shigeru Ishiba was put in charge of the regional revitalization ministry, which,...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 15, 2014

Japan's 21st-century tsunami stones

A familiar sight along Tohoku's Sanriku coastline are the tsunami stones erected by past generations that alert residents to the high-water mark of previous tsunami and the perils of building any closer to the sea.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Nov 12, 2014

Proper environmental survey must be conducted at proposed Okinawa U.S. base site

The U.S. Congress should get more involved in ensuring the U.S. government does not shirk its environmental responsibilities in Henoko.
WORLD
Nov 11, 2014

U.S. veterans sue banks, claiming they should pay over Iran funds used in Iraq attacks

Wounded U.S. veterans and family members of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq sued five European banks on Monday, seeking to hold them responsible for shootings and roadside bombings because they allegedly processed Iranian money that paid for the attacks.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Nov 7, 2014

Readers' letters: carrying ID, subway 'saviors,' JA rackets, Taiji alternatives and goats

A selection of emails received in response to recent Community articles.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 27, 2014

Ukrainians vote in election likely to strengthen Poroshenko's mandate

Ukrainians voted Sunday in an election that is likely to install a pro-Western parliament and strengthen President Petro Poroshenko's mandate to end separatist conflict in the east, but may fuel tension with Russia.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 25, 2014

Understanding the complex web of life

"Biodiversity provides the foundation on which all life depends, including human societies," writes Nik Sekhran in the opening pages of "Biodiversity for Sustainable Development," a captivating book released earlier this month by the United Nations Development Programme.
OLYMPICS / ROBERT WHITING'S 1964 OLYMPICS RETROSPECTIVE
Oct 24, 2014

Negative impact of 1964 Olympics profound

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics had a profound impact on the capital city and the nation. In the final installment of a five-part series running this month, best-selling author Robert Whiting, who lived in Japan at the time, focuses on the environmental and human impact that resulted from hosting the event....

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami