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Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 14, 2017

The bottom line in publicly shaming celebrities

Anyone interested in Japanese television is familiar with the term "yarase," which refers to on-air situations staged to look natural and spontaneous.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Oct 10, 2017

Nagano counselors trial online consultations for troubled teens via Line messaging app

Counselors in Nagano Prefecture were seen typing nonstop in September between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m., as they replied to high volumes of consultation requests received via the Line messaging app.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 8, 2017

Freeing Japanese from English trauma

Recently, I have seen two trends going on regarding English communication skills in Japan. One is the heightened interest in developing English skills among young children. The other is the high expectation for auto-translation, particularly for English-Japanese.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 29, 2017

North Korea's Ri Yong Ho: A 'polished, rational' foreign minister

The man who called Donald Trump "President Evil" last week at the U.N. General Assembly is actually a genteel intellectual who studies the memoirs of former U.S. presidents and has taste for fine whiskey, according to ten people who know him.
Japan Times
SUMO
Sep 25, 2017

JSA offering foreign fans rare glimpse of special sumo rituals

The Japan Sumo Association will hold an Ozumo Beyond 2020 Basho at Ryogoku Kokugikan on Oct. 4 for the second straight year.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 16, 2017

Is curiosity a casualty of the post-truth era?

Ignorance feeds curiosity. Curiosity cures ignorance.
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 2017

End Russian election meddling

If Russia insists on taking active measures to subvert the political systems of other countries, it must face consequences.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices
Sep 6, 2017

The other eclipse: Nazism recasts its shadow in Japan and the U.S.

It seems Nazis are the new black. It took two days for U.S. President Donald Trump to belatedly denounce American neo-Nazis and other white supremacists. In Japan, Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, voicing admiration for German Nazis ("paleo-Nazis"?), suggested that Adolf Hitler, "who killed millions of...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 2, 2017

No one else wants Okinawa's U.S. bases

On Aug. 15, the 72nd anniversary of the Japanese surrender, there was a symposium in Tokyo about changing the Constitution. One of the panelists, documentarian Tatsuya Mori, pointed out that earlier that day Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had given remarks at an annual memorial event, and at no point did...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Sep 1, 2017

North Korea sentences South Korean reporters to death in absentia over review of book on hermit state

A North Korean court sentenced two South Korean journalists and their publishers to death for "seriously insulting the dignity" of the country by reviewing and interviewing the British authors of a book about life in the North, its state media said on Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2017

North Korean leader says more to come as U.N. condemns missile launch over Japan

Pyongyang said the missile launched over Japan on Tuesday was an intermediate-range Hwasong-12 and meant to counter U.S.-South Korean war games.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 26, 2017

Koike tests possibilities and perils of populism in Japan

Abe occupies Koike's ideological comfort zone, so she needs to cannibalize his base to get any traction. It is thus imperative that she presents an alternative policy agenda to highlight their differences and tap into simmering dissatisfaction with the status quo.
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Aug 23, 2017

Podolski's Japan adventure in danger of turning sour

Things are not going well for Lukas Podolski.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 8, 2017

Diplomacy to defuse India, China border crisis slams into a wall, sources say

India's diplomatic efforts to end a seven-week military standoff with China have hit a roadblock, people briefed on the talks said, prompting Chinese state-run media to trumpet rhetoric of "unavoidable countermeasures" on the unmarked border.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 5, 2017

Beleaguered Abe on the ropes as support weakens

The public has seen the true face of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and doesn't like what it sees.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2017

For China's billionaires, all that is gold does not glitter

China's newly minted big money men project larger-than-life personalities, but their good fortune can be rescinded at a moment's notice if they displease the reigning commissars.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 2, 2017

Vietnam intensifies crackdown on dissidents, emboldened by U.S. de-emphasis of rights, abandonment of TPP

A crackdown on communist Vietnam's increasingly vocal dissidents has become the biggest in years, and activists say that authorities have been emboldened by the Trump administration's lack of emphasis on human rights.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 29, 2017

Death: We all have to go sometime

"In Japan today, talking about death is taboo," Kobe University medical professor Yoshiyuki Kizawa told the Asahi Shimbun earlier this month.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 25, 2017

Trump gives Boy Scouts at jamboree a taste of Washington politics

After another challenging day in Washington, President Donald Trump flew to West Virginia to a field full of 40,000 chanting and cheering Boy Scouts, telling them he was happy to leave Washington behind.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 23, 2017

Survey finds Abe's support rating fell to 26 percent ahead of Diet grilling on Kake Gakuen scandal

A poll conducted just days before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is to be grilled in the Diet over a suspected scandal finds his support rating has dropped 10 points to 26 percent, the lowest since he took office in 2012
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2017

Celebrity couple's fight goes viral after spurned wife takes battle online

Actress Kazuyo Matsui's very public battle against her actor husband Eiichiro Funakoshi, whom she has accused of adultery, takes on a new life with a YouTube posting in English
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 19, 2017

Inada faces flak over renewed claims of SDF-related cover-up

The Defense Ministry was hit again Wednesday by another apparent data cover-up scandal involving Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, prompting opposition lawmakers to further step up their calls for her immediate resignation.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jul 19, 2017

Views from Osaka: How worried are you about the possibility of attack by North Korea?

People in Kansai's commercial capital were asked if they feel concerned about the prospect of missile attacks by North Korea on Japan — and whether there are more important worries in their lives right now.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 8, 2017

Tokyo poll offers Abe an opportunity to take a long, hard look in the mirror

We have witnessed Abe's peak and he is now a diminished leader, with the aura of invincibility he projected since December 2012 now gone.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Jul 6, 2017

Twice shows just how resilient K-pop can be

Last week, Korean pop group Twice made its "official" debut in Japan, featuring the release of a Japanese-language best-of compilation and a showcase at Tokyo Gymnasium on July 2. In between, the members appeared on the popular weekly TV show "Music Station" and posed in front of Tokyo Tower, which displayed...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 5, 2017

North Korea apparently used Chinese timber truck for to carry ICBM, evading sanctions

To transport and erect the ballistic missile launched on Tuesday, North Korea apparently used a Chinese timber-hauling truck, highlighting the challenge of enforcing sanctions to curb the North's weapons program.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 4, 2017

North Korean claim of successful ICBM test likely to raise alarm in Tokyo — and Anchorage

North says it “can strike any place in the world” after missile fired on u2018lofted' trajectory splashes down in Sea of Japan
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2017

The problem with Oliver Stone and other friends of Vladimir Putin

U.S. film director Oliver Stone. Stone's four-part interview with Russia's president has been criticized for being a homage more than a questioning.
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Jun 17, 2017

Kansai takes measured view on missile drills

Over the past two months, hardly a week has passed without news of another North Korean missile launch. It's become routine: An early morning South Korean media report, based on government sources, says that "an object has been launched," forcing politicians, bureaucrats, and journalists in Tokyo out...

Longform

Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?