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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.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 7, 2014

Let dinosaur aspirations die

British and Japanese politicians need to recognize that the power and influence of their countries are no longer what they used to be and that their governments must 'cut their cloth.'
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2014

Resetting India's foreign and security policies

The Modi government is reported considering allowing up to 49 percent 'foreign direct inviestment' in India's defense sector —without requiring technology transfers — as it manages modernization.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 7, 2014

Foreign women also face 'maternity harassment'

Non-Japanese women discuss their experiences of mata-hara, or 'maternity harassment' — discrimination in the workplace against women who are pregnant, on child-care leave or have returned to work after giving birth.
Reader Mail
Jul 5, 2014

Japan's voters seem apathetic to sexist pols

Regarding Philip Brasor's June 29 Media Mix column, "Sexist remarks seen through a clouded lens": I find it ironic and quite hypocritical that Tokyo assembly member Ayaka Shiomura, who spent most of her professional life perpetuating the marginalization of women, now plays the victim when that sexism...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 5, 2014

Is EU ready to actually change?

After six decades of relentless — if incremental — integration, might the European Union be about to go into reverse?
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2014

Watch progress on abduction issue

The government needs to watch North Korea to ensure that it follows through on a pledge to reinvestigate the fate of Japanese nationals kidnapped by North Korean agents, now that Japan has decided to lift some economic sanctions on the country.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2014

Abe wins battle to broaden defense policy

The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe authorizes a reinterpretation of war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, allowing Japan for the first time since World War II to come to the aid of an ally under attack.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 1, 2014

Critics: What defines the conditions for military force?

Japan is at a historic crossroads in amending its long-held pacifist defense posture, a move that it may never reverse, and critics charge that the Abe administration's criteria for exercising the right to collective self-defense will prove ineffective.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society / FOCUS
Jul 1, 2014

Beijing quietly tightening grip on Hong Kong

Since Britain handed back colonial Hong Kong in 1997, retired primary school teacher and Falun Gong devotee Lau Wai-hing has fully exercised the freedoms China promised this city of 7.2 million.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 28, 2014

EU, Ukraine ink trade pact; cease-fire extended by 72 hours

The European Union signed a historic free trade pact with Ukraine on Friday and warned it could impose more sanctions on Moscow unless pro-Russian rebels act to wind down the crisis in the east of the country by Monday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 25, 2014

Expanding roles for working women

The situation on gender issues may not be exactly the same in Germany and Japan, but the two countries have similar agendas; men and women must change their mentality to increase the number of female leaders, eight experts on gender issues from the two countries concluded.
Reader Mail
Jun 25, 2014

Backhanded apology accepted

Regarding the June 24 article "Lawmaker apologizes for sexist jibe": It was appropriate that Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member Akihiro Suzuki offered an apology to Your Party assembly member Ayaka Shiomura, the woman he and others heckled a few days earlier when she attempted to discuss the special...
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 25, 2014

Shiga governor race to hinge on public works, reactors

The race for the July 13 Shiga gubernatorial election will kick off Thursday with three candidates vying to replace Yukiko Kada, with the campaign expected to focus on public works spending and how to cope with nuclear reactors in neighboring Fukui Prefecture.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 24, 2014

Tokyo lawmaker calls for change as Your Party asks for voice analysis

A Tokyo assemblywoman subjected to sexist taunts by male colleagues last week said Tuesday the capital's legislative body needs to be reformed so that the voices of women can be heard.
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.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 21, 2014

Ending Japan's sexism requires men to lean in, too

Ayaka Shiomura's tears show why Shinzo Abe's talk of empowering Japan's women is still more hot air than policy.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 20, 2014

Mine-clearing in combat zones pushed for SDF

An LDP politician argues Japan can join collective-security operations after Prime Minister Abe fudges his stance on mine-sweeping, which is deemed use of force by international law.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2014

Corruption rumors sideline Beautiful Game's rewards

New squalid facts, claims and rumors are emerging every week suggesting that the game of soccer may be beautiful but some of its leading figures are too close to dark and shadowy criminal forces.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 16, 2014

Heavy fighting in northwestern Iraq as Islamists advance

Sunni insurgents seized a mainly ethnic Turkmen city in northwestern Iraq on Sunday after heavy fighting, solidifying their grip on the north after a lightning offensive that threatens to dismember Iraq.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 14, 2014

Iraq's top Shiite cleric issues call to fight jihadist rebels

Iraq's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric urged followers to take up arms against a full-blown Sunni militant insurgency to topple Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a conflict that threatens civil war and a possible break-up of the country.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jun 12, 2014

Interns abused as labor crisis grows

Wednesday was a regular work day at rusting Burberry factory Kameda Co. in Ishikawa Prefecture, but for three Chinese women, it was a day of escape.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 10, 2014

Trial of Sewol crew begins, as captain of sunken ferry called 'murderer'

The trial for 15 crew of a South Korean ferry that sank in April, killing more than 300 people, most of them children, began Tuesday on charges ranging from negligence to homicide, with the word "murderer" ringing out as the captain entered the court.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jun 10, 2014

Abe treading on lions' tails

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tendency to stumble in building allied support whenever he makes an aggressive move appears most conspicious of late with his efforts to have Japan exercise its right to collective self-defense and to reform farm policy.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building