Search - media

 
 
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Dec 9, 2015

Sexual harassment at bōnenkai, inept handling, a suicide

Hokkaido Shimbun case shows how far Japan still has to go to safeguard women's rights in the workplace.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 3, 2015

Decades after Nigeria's war, new Biafra movement grows

Nearly half a century after a civil war in which a million people died, 27-year-old Okoli Ikedi is part of a new protest movement in southeastern Nigeria calling for an independent state of Biafra.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 30, 2015

City assembly member in hot water over discriminatory tweets about same-sex marriage

Municipal assembly leaders in Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture, issue a warning to a 71-year-old assemblyman over discriminatory remarks about gay marriage.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Nov 25, 2015

In an age of global terrorism, what should we tell the children?

As parents, should we shelter and protect our children from the horrors of terrorism, or does that promote the very ignorance it thrives on?
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Nov 24, 2015

'No-future' Brussels youth believed lured to jihad by Rambo appeal, not religion

Khalid Ben Larbi lived a hedonistic lifestyle similar to other European youths and rarely went to the mosque in Molenbeek, the mainly Muslim Moroccan immigrant area where he and three of the suspected Paris attackers grew up in Brussels.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 17, 2015

Few clues about radicalization in hunt for 'ghostlike' alleged mastermind of Paris attacks

French investigators think they know who masterminded the deadliest terrorist assault in peacetime France: Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 20-something Belgian who joined the ranks of the Islamic State group a few years ago.
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2015

Japan's Islamic centers report no threats, feel Islam is misunderstood here

Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris and numerous others by the Islamic State group have forced Muslim communities around the world, including in Japan, to repeat a familiar phrase: Islam isn't the problem.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 16, 2015

TPP no done deal; hurdles include interpretation, legislative approval, U.S. election

The full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement was released this month. The document is a wide-ranging accord between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 29, 2015

Trailing, Trump gets testy as candidates wade into GOP debate

Republican outsider front-runners Ben Carson and Donald Trump came under fire at the outset of the party's third presidential debate Wednesday night, as the moderators and some of their opponents pushed for details of their tax and budget proposals and raised questions about their inexperience in government....
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Oct 20, 2015

Hanyu off to solid start with win at Autumn Classic

It was great to see Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu back on the ice last weekend for the Autumn Classic International in Barrie, Ontario. Hanyu won the event handily over a field of relatively unknown skaters.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2015

South China Sea: what 12 nautical miles really means

If the U.S. government goes forward with its plans to conduct freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, it should be prepared for its intentions to be misread or distorted.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 10, 2015

Getting back to Japan's old-fashioned erotic values

The good news is that for two years in succession Tokyo has staged shunga (erotic woodblock print) exhibitions — one at Toyo Bunko in 2014 and the ongoing show at Eisei Bunko — and there doesn't appear to have been a marked surge in moral decadence or signs of civilization crumbling.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 8, 2015

Tide turns for LDP factions in reshuffle

Wednesday's Cabinet reshuffle has caused a commotion among intraparty factions of the ruling LDP, with the faction led by Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida hit hardest.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Oct 2, 2015

Difficult to buy a gun in China, but not explosives

A series of deadly bomb blasts in China this week has shown how easy it is to acquire explosives in the country, revealing a major gap in its huge security apparatus as the economy slows and anger grows over issues like graft and poor public services.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 26, 2015

As dust from security bills fight settles, Japan opposition — not Abe — facing crisis

Despite putting up a strong united front, it is the opposition that are struggling even though polls showed a majority of voters opposed the controversial security legislation.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2015

Crimea's happy now, but for the persecution

Most of Crimea's inhabitants are happy, but for a minority the move to Russian control over the peninsula has been miserable.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2015

Thai military delivers oppression, not happiness

The longer Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha and his cronies rule, the less likely Thailand is going to enjoy stable democracy.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 21, 2015

Four funerals and a wedding: Xi mends political bridges

Chinese President Xi Jinping's attendance at the funeral earlier this year of a one-time propaganda minister was a surprise; Deng Liqun, who died aged 99, was never a top-ranked official and had been a political enemy of Xi's father.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 19, 2015

Money matters when it comes to security

Media coverage of the Liberal Democratic Party's plans to bolster Japan's military position in the world has largely focused on the constitutionality of the two bills that allow the Self-Defense Forces to come to the aid of allies overseas. Those who oppose these bills have used this constitutional question...
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 16, 2015

Government cries foul over use of term 'forcible voting' as security bills debate heats up

As the political battle over two contentious government-sponsored security bills at the Diet enters its final stage, a propaganda war broke out Wednesday between the government and opposition parties.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 12, 2015

It still takes a village to keep our kids safe

The murders of 13-year-old Natsumi Hirata and 12-year-old Ryoto Hoshino in Osaka last month sparked a heated conversation in the media about the state of parenting in Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 3, 2015

Refugee scene of horror: 12 Syrians drown, including toddler found on Turkey resort beach

An image of a drowned toddler washed up on the beach in one of Turkey's prime tourist resorts swept across social media on Wednesday after at least 12 presumed Syrian refugees died trying to reach the Greek island of Kos.
JAPAN / History
Aug 15, 2015

Dependence day: Japan's lopsided relationship with Washington

Of all the post-World War II changes in Japan, the most momentous is that it never regained the status of a genuinely independent country.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 14, 2015

The rise and fall of Arab revolutionary discourse

The Arab Spring has shifted from an innocent, unifying, empowering and popular movement into a complicated, cunning, disuniting, disempowering and elitist one, where the people do not matter in the least.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / 70 YEARS AFTER THE WAR'S END
Aug 14, 2015

Abe's nationalism reflected in conservative political movement, but polls show voter dissent

The hot political season is back as the nation observes Aug. 15, which is always an emotional date as it marks Japan's surrender in World War II — and this year is the 70th anniversary of that fateful event.
WORLD
Aug 11, 2015

After alleged road rage incident, relative of Assad is arrested following rare protest

Syrian authorities have arrested a relative of President Bashar Assad, the state news agency said Monday, two days after protesters called for the man's punishment over his suspected killing of an army officer in a traffic dispute.
WORLD
Aug 10, 2015

Protesters in Syria's Latakia seek punishment for Assad relative: human rights watchdog

Dozens of Syrians staged a rare protest in the coastal city of Latakia, bastion of President Bashar Assad, calling for the punishment of a member of his family they accuse of killing an army officer over a traffic dispute, monitors said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 6, 2015

Bryce Dallas Howard kicks her high heels up in 'Jurassic World'

Typical: You spend $150 million on your effects-heavy summer blockbuster, and all people want to talk about is a character's choice of footwear. When "Jurassic World," the long-gestating sequel to the original "Jurassic Park" trilogy, opened internationally in June, the film's producers probably weren't...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2015

Can Singapore save democracy?

The conditions exist for Singapore to move from being a showcase of efficient authoritarianism to an exemplar of that much-invoked but nearly extinct thing: democracy.

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?