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Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Oct 5, 2013

Online drug bazaar's alleged boss paired eBay-style site with heroin, murder plot

The Silk Road website, before being shut this week by the U.S., was a cyber-bazaar of the criminal underworld that connected buyers and sellers of heroin, cocaine and hacking services. It combined eBay-style customer reviews and shipping tips with an open disregard for the law.
JAPAN / LIGHTING THE OLYMPIC FLAME
Sep 23, 2013

Games planners target airport access

Upgrading Tokyo's dense infrastructure for the 2020 Games may be tricky, but a new subway line and an expansion for Haneda airport are on the drawing board.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2013

The good side of Singapore icon Lee Kuan Yew

Singapore icon Lee Kuan Yew, who just turned 90, is known to have despised Western journalists. One American, however, has never been denied an interview if Lee was available.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2013

Hiring more women seen as answer to economic malaise

Imagine our current discussions about women and the workplace — Can women have it all? How do women lean in? — taking place in a country with one of the worst gender-equality ratios in the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2013

Shooting down five myths about cruise missiles

U.S. cruise missiles are no magical solution to the horror taking place in Syria.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 6, 2013

Syria bio-weapon threat worries neighbors

Last month's alleged chemical attack near Damascus has refocused attention on Syria's 30-year-old biological weapons research and raised concerns about whether its regime could activate an effort to make a weapon.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 1, 2013

Mexican drug cartel activity in U.S. 'exaggerated'

When Sen. John McCain spoke during an Armed Services Committee hearing last year on security issues in the Western Hemisphere, he relayed a stark warning about the spread of Mexican drug cartels in the United States. "The cartels," the Arizona Republican said, "now maintain a presence in over 1,000 cities."...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 31, 2013

Naoto Kan speaks out

Naoto Kan took his first steps in the world of politics around 40 years ago as a pugnacious citizen-activist, admonishing those with power as only those without it can. He likes to say he's the same man now, but of course there's an irony in that. After all, in the intervening years he acquired about...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2013

Polar bear's death is a warning

Does the death of a single polar bear, which starved on the Arctic tundra, carry a warning for all human beings
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2013

Power is fragmenting, but what is the true cost?

Political parties are succumbing to the rise of uncompromising single-issue pressure groups, and the corresponding decline of supporters who want common values expressed.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Aug 26, 2013

Denials of defoliant at former U.S. base site in Okinawa fly in the face of science

The inescapable fact is that the U.S. military, on Kadena Air Base, disposed of materials in drums containing 2,4,5-T , a wartime defoliant, and TCDD, the most toxic component of the dioxin family, known to be associated with the manufacture of such herbicides.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 24, 2013

It only takes one 'Barefoot' step to cross the line into censorship

If you want people to pay attention to a point you're making, try to bring the subject of children into the debate. Right now, the media is discussing a decision made by the board of education of Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, to limit student access to the manga "Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen)," first published...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Aug 22, 2013

North Korean gulag survivors tell U.N. investigators of rights abuses

One by one they came, taking seats next to a United Nations flag and stating their names for the record. Some kept calm. Some wept. One, as he spoke, used his left hand to clamp his trembling right hand to the table.
WORLD
Aug 19, 2013

Efforts to close 'Second Guantanamo' in Afghanistan prove problematic

Of all the challenges the U.S. faces as it winds down the Afghanistan war, the most difficult might be closing the prison nicknamed "The Second Guantanamo."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 31, 2013

Aso's Nazi-inspired quip rubs Seoul the wrong way

Outspoken Finance Minister Taro Aso causes another international stir by urging Japanese politicians bent on revising the Constitution to learn from the way Germany under the Nazis amended the Weimar charter.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jul 25, 2013

Ishizaki planning to continue playing career in Europe

Contrary to some speculative chatter in recent days that guard Takumi Ishizaki is on the verge of retirement, the word out of Germany is that the Fukui Prefecture native has his sights set on extending his overseas career.
Reader Mail
Jul 20, 2013

'Cool Japan' meme a nonstarter

The Chubu Connection article published in The Japan Times on July 12, titled "Students dealt real-life problems to broaden outlook," describes Tatsuo Hirase, head of the business promotion office of the Chubu branch of Mitsui and Co., leading a two-day marketing seminar at Aichi Prefectural University....
WORLD / FOCUS
Jul 18, 2013

Germans direct NSA ire at Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel grew up in a society where the government kept a Big Brother eye on its citizens. Now, critics say, she has assented to similar practices — this time coming from the U.S., not East Germany's fearsome secret police.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 14, 2013

Imminent birth puts spotlight on monarch

Aging monarchs in the Netherlands and Belgium stepped down this year to make room for the next generation of Europe's crowned heads. But in Britain, the impending birth of a royal baby will have heirs stacking up like planes at London's super-clogged Heathrow Airport.
JAPAN / Politics / GAME OF NUMBERS
Jul 10, 2013

Pro-nuke LDP's candidate quiet on Ehime reactor restart bid

On the far western edge of Shikoku, Ehime's Sada Misaki Peninsula juts out into the Seto Inland Sea. It's a long sliver of land home to several species of hawk and several varieties of the prefecture's famous "mikan" oranges.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 27, 2013

Snowden's stay in H.K. filled with intrigue

The message was blunt and was delivered Friday night by a shadowy emissary who didn't identify himself but knew enough to locate Edward Snowden's secret caretaker: The 30-year-old American accused of leaking some of his country's most sensitive secrets should leave Hong Kong, the messenger said, and...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 23, 2013

Jellyfish carry the sting of human overcrowding

It may not be immediately apparent what jellyfish, human population growth and our protein diet have in common. Take a closer look, though, and all three offer warning signs that dramatic changes are on the horizon for us and our planet.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2013

Surveillance controversy illuminated by history

The American public at large is more accepting of the government's involvement in their lives than a 29-year-old former NSA contractor appears to believe.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2013

Syria bleeds as West watches

The only proper response to those who fret about 'where do you stop?' if the international community intervenes in the Syrian conflict is 'when do you start
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2013

Japan may announce humanitarian aid for Syrian rebels at G-8 summit

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could announce Tokyo's intention to provide humanitarian assistance to Syrian rebels at next week's Group of Eight summit in Britain, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday.

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