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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Jul 9, 2014

Under Abe, Japan reconnects with the world of harm

It would be tragic if the process Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has set in motion destroys one of the truly great things about Japan: the fact that so little of its economy and society is devoted to harming other people.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jul 7, 2014

Letters: adoption from Japan, book bores, returnees, workers' rights and fleeing U.S. guns

Some letters in response to recent articles in the Community section about a wide range of subjects.
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2014

Not a solution for mental patients

The health and welfare ministry's plan to renovate some wards of mental hospitals into residences to reduce the official number of long-term in-patients will only prolong the 'former' patients' isolation from society.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Jun 29, 2014

Cartoonist Ernst captured 'fish-out-of-water' gaijin as they floundered

Having often been told by the Japanese that he would 'never understand' their culture because he was not one of them, American cartoonist Tim Ernst decided to embrace this notion and deploy it creatively.
Events / KANSAI: WHO & WHAT
Jun 27, 2014

Foreigners invited to Yukata Day in Nishinomiya

The Nishinomiya City International Association in Hyogo Prefecture will hold a Yukata Day from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on July 5 in which foreigners can learn how to wear the summer kimono and enjoy a tea ceremony afterward.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 26, 2014

Broader foreign aid urged

Japan should expand its use of overseas development assistance by targeting new regions and projects and consider funding noncombat operations led by foreign military forces, a panel said Thursday in a report to Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Jun 22, 2014

All-consuming school clubs worry foreign parents

School club activities — something that most Japanese parents accept as a normal and desirable rite of passage in their child's development — can leave foreign parents quaking in their boots at what lies ahead.
Reader Mail
Jun 21, 2014

Everybody must take on bullying

Reading Walt Gardner's June 1 article, "Bullying weakens Japanese, U.S. schools," made me feel really sad — not only because bullying of students in Japan, no matter who they are, seems to be rife at the moment but also because it is a problem that just does not seem to go away.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2014

Americans should be worried about polarization

Americans should worry about a new Pew report on political polarization not because there's too much genuine ideological competition, but because our most energetic citizens appear to be dividing every more coherently into factions that can't stand each other.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Jun 18, 2014

Still dreaming of a Japan with juries — and without U.S. bases

At 84, Chihiro Isa hopes to see two things in his lifetime: the jury system reinstated in Japan and U.S. forces gone from Okinawa.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 15, 2014

Oh, the places we'll go in 2020 — unless, of course, we won't

In 2020 the Tokyo Olympics will be here! And all our troubles will be gone. Unless, of course, they won't. Because, sometimes, they don't.
EDITORIALS
Jun 13, 2014

Iraq collapsing

Islamic militants have overrun northern Iraq, taking control of the country's second-largest city and sparking fears of the collapse of the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 10, 2014

Syria's Assad announces wide-ranging prisoner amnesty

Syrian President Bashar Assad announced an unprecedented prisoner amnesty Monday, less than a week after his re-election, the most wide-ranging since the revolt against him began.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 7, 2014

U.S. nonintervention casts a vote for Assad

The question is not whether Bashar Assad's Syrian regime is better than Islamist extremism, but how the world can forsake Syrians to suffer oppression by both.
EDITORIALS
Jun 4, 2014

Aging public facilities

Aging public facilities present a growing problem for cash-strapped local and prefectural governments.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 2, 2014

Japan urged to make its cosmetics 'cruelty-free'

While Japanese consumers clamor for items that will make their skin smoother or their hair shinier, relatively few people are aware of the horror behind the products in their cosmetics cases.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jun 2, 2014

Letters: What did ASIJ know of Moyer sex abuse and why was nothing done?

Readers want to know why children's accounts of abuse by American School in Japan teacher Jack Moyer were not acted upon much earlier.
Japan Times
CULTURE
May 31, 2014

Essential summer festivals 2014

A summer without festivals simply wouldn’t be a proper summer in Japan, so now that the humidity has returned, it’s time to slop on an extra layer of sunscreen and line up some outdoor activities.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 27, 2014

Ishibashi won't return for second season as Saitama coach

The Saitama Broncos will not renew head coach Takatoshi "Big Bashi" Ishibashi's contract after a disastrous 5-47 season.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 27, 2014

Gaijin band scene welcomes music fans of all kinds

A large multicultural crowd gathered at Club Edge in Tokyo's Roppongi district in March, socializing and laughing boisterously before watching three bands. They remained pretty boisterous throughout the performances.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 19, 2014

From Fukushima to Syria, CWAJ supports scholars

The College Women's Association of Japan awards a variety of annual scholarships in higher education, backing, among others, women from abroad studying in Japan and Japanese women getting an education overseas.
JAPAN
May 17, 2014

Why Kansai's corporate captains are trumpeting TPP

Several years ago, at the Kansai Economic Seminar, an annual snoozefest of pompous platitudes and pretentious, paternalistic pontificating by the old men who run Kansai's major corporations, one senior leader called for entering the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
May 17, 2014

Huge expectations for India's Modi, some wariness

About a year ago Narendra Modi sat down with some of India's best and brightest to mount what one election strategist called a "shock and awe" campaign.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 12, 2014

After ASIJ admission that teacher abused kids, ex-students demand inquiry

Alumni from the American School in Japan are demanding an independent inquiry into whether school officials covered up knowledge of sexual abuse committed by teacher Jack Moyer.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
May 11, 2014

Returnees' experiences drive a will to give something back

The returnees profiled here highlight the potential that can be unlocked within individuals lucky enough to have the chance to live overseas and, crucially, receive the right support on their return to Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2014

Let regions of Ukraine vote

Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea and threat to Ukraine are causing damage he perhaps did not anticipate: U.S. disorientation, profound division in Europe and a real risk of war. Ukraine's regions should vote.
Japan Times
WORLD / EU SPECIAL 2014
May 9, 2014

EU enjoys close ties with Japan

Today is Europe Day, marking the day in 1950 when then French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman laid out a vision for post-war Europe that was to form the basis of the integrated Europe we know today.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 7, 2014

U.S. to send team in response to Nigeria schoolgirls' mass kidnapping

The United States has offered to send an American team of experts to Nigeria to support the government's response to the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by an Islamist militant group, President Barack Obama's administration said on Tuesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
May 5, 2014

Caroline Kennedy, dive with me in Okinawa and it'll change your mind

I entreat you, Ambassador Kennedy, to help protect the marvelous coral reef ecosystem at Oura Bay in northeast Okinawa from certain destruction under the U.S.-Japan plan for military expansion.

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