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COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2015

Asia urgently needs greater mobility for skilled workers

It is imperative that ASEAN lays out an ambitious road map toward freer movement for the region's high-skilled citizens.
COMMUNITY / Issues
Sep 27, 2015

Legal change will make temp purgatory permanent for many Japanese workers

Eight years ago, a TV drama about temporary workers generated a great deal of excitement around Japan. In "Haken no Hinkaku" ("Dignity of a Temp"), model-actress-singer Ryoko Shinohara played Haruko Omae, a "super-temp" who masterfully tackled the myriad troubles that arose in her ¥3,000-an-hour job....
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 23, 2015

As Malaysian leader struggles in graft scandal, his party plays the race card

When thousands of Malay Muslims marched through Kuala Lumpur last week to support his scandal-racked government, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak kept his distance.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 23, 2015

San Francisco unanimously adopts measure to build 'comfort women' memorial

San Francisco decided to build a memorial to commemorate the “comfort women,” despite protests from Toru Hashimoto, mayor of its sister city of Osaka.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Sep 23, 2015

U.S.-China hacking deal likely to skip industrial espionage for now

Disputes over what is acceptable behavior in cyberspace threaten to overshadow the agenda when Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama meet in Washington late this week.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 22, 2015

Onaga takes base argument to U.N. human rights panel

Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga tells a United Nations human rights body that the central government has closed its ears to local voices in the battle over U.S. military bases.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Sep 21, 2015

Medical services in Tokyo area in danger of collapsing

Key players in Kanto-area medical services are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet — and the higher consumption tax is the prime culprit.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Sep 20, 2015

'Don't sell your soul for a Japanese man'

Having overcome isolation and a loss of self-confidence in Japan, one American mother now finds herself doling out advice to women seeking Asian men.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Sep 20, 2015

Treatment of Mount Fuji horses and WWII mea culpas: readers' responses

Some readers' responses to recent Community articles.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 17, 2015

Tokyo conference urges Japan to make most of new global attention

While the world watches Japan's on-again, off-again economic recovery, a forum of roughly 200 corporate decision-makers and former government officials has discussed how to turn that attention to the nation's advantage.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2015

Japan pledges open info-sharing at IAEA on Fukushima No. 1

Japan's nuclear energy promotion chief vowed in Vienna on Monday to continue work to decommission the reactors and contain the water crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in a transparent manner.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2015

China's island-building taking a toll on the South China Sea

China's activities are endangering fish stocks, threatening marine biodiversity and creating a long-term threat to some of the world's most spectacular sea life.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Sep 7, 2015

Every European parish should host a refugee family, pope says

Pope Francis called on Sunday on every European church parish and religious community to take in one refugee family in a gesture of solidarity, which he said would start in the tiny Vatican state where he lives.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Sep 6, 2015

Why Japan's right keeps leaving the left in the dust

The left keeps losing, and much of it is its own damned fault.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 5, 2015

Briefly maligned, bilingual rappers gain visibility

English words and phrases have been a part of the Japanese MC's arsenal since hip-hop culture began making inroads here in the early to mid-1980s.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Aug 30, 2015

Should SEALDs student activists worry about not getting hired?

Japanese labor law effectively allows companies to discriminate against prospective employees based on their beliefs.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 30, 2015

I've often thought about your doppelganger, but have you?

Have you considered that maybe your double lives in Japan? And that you might meet them someday?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Aug 26, 2015

A lady's lot at Little League in Japan: lunches, liquids and lavatories

At one top kids' baseball program in Tokyo, gender roles are strictly prescribed and moms exist to serve.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Aug 26, 2015

Abe's historically selective WWII speech gets borderline failing grade

I couldn't help asking myself what grade Prime Minister Abe would have got had he made his presentation in one of my Japanese studies classes. The answer, I regret to say, is C- or D+.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Aug 23, 2015

'Are you serious, God? An Asian dude? Really?'

When I approached Tara Kamiya — a 38-year-old housewife, mother of three biracial kids and self-professed workforce dodger — about being interviewed for this story, explaining to her the goal not only of this series (about black women and their Japanese guys) but of Black Eye as a whole, she was...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 22, 2015

Black teen killed by St. Louis police shot in back: autopsy

A black teenager shot and killed by white St. Louis police officers this week died from a single gunshot that entered his back and struck his heart, a medical examiner said on Friday, which appears to contradict the police account of the shooting.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 14, 2015

Islamic State's perverse militarization of 'hijra'

Before 'hijra' became militarized, it was used to hold the present accountable to the past. In this richer, if more elusive, sense, hijra far exceeds — indeed, confounds — Islamic State's remit.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2015

Thailand and China build ties of convenience

The Thai military regime, isolated by the West, finds that China is more than willing to fill the void.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 11, 2015

Link nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation efforts

Given the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty's failure to make progress toward nuclear disarmament, a convention to ban the use of nuclear weapons is needed.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 11, 2015

Ferguson in state of emergency after gunfire mars protests; hospitalized shooter charged

Authorities declared a state of emergency in Ferguson, Missouri, on Monday in an effort to quell a repeat of the violence that erupted during demonstrations overnight to mark the police shooting of an unarmed black man one year ago.
JAPAN / History / 70 YEARS AFTER THE WAR'S END
Aug 7, 2015

Nagasaki's 'providential' nightmare shaped by religious, ethnic undercurrents

August is high season for tourism in Nagasaki. One morning last week at the Nagasaki Peace Park, the venue for an annual televised ceremony to commemorate the Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombing of the city, throngs of tourists wearing name tags hanging from their necks were shuffling in and out of buses, snapping pictures in front of the iconic Peace Statue.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 2, 2015

Moriumius project brings young life and learning back to the Tohoku disaster zone

A unique educational project aims to revitalize the Miyagi town of Ogatsu, which lost around 80 percent of its buildings and 10 percent of its 4,300 population to the 3/11 disasters.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 30, 2015

Abortion gripe spurs Senate Republicans to try to divert Planned Parenthood funds

Senate Republicans seeking to cut all funding to reproductive health group Planned Parenthood over the alleged sale of aborted fetal tissue offered on Wednesday to divert the money to other providers of women's health.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight