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COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2013

Can Bezos provide what good journalism needs?

A veteran journalist never imagined that American newspaper reporters and editors would become the economically threatened steelworkers of the 21st century.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 10, 2013

In science terms, Japan has no need at all to kill whales

Final arguments from the defence and prosecution were heard in mid-July, and the world court is now considering its judgment. At issue is Japan's right to conduct its seasonal "scientific" whaling program in Antarctic waters. But the case has involved arguments about how to define science itself.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 10, 2013

Koda's baby gaffe may find different reception now

Five years ago, singer Kumi Koda caused an uproar when she joked on a late-night radio show about how a woman's amniotic fluid (yōsui) becomes "spoiled" as she gets older. The subtext of the comment was the advantage of having babies at a younger age, but those quick to ridicule Koda's lack of gynecological...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2013

The dead get their day as zombies go mainstream

My first zombie movie was "Night of the Living Dead," viewed at a midnight screening at the old Harvard Square Cinema, attended by a small coterie of late-night freaks and stoners. With its relentless dread and entrail-chomping ghouls, it was a film beyond the pale of normal, daytime moviegoers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Aug 5, 2013

The aging issue of Chiba New Town

The Chiba New Town development project was begun in the late 1960s by the Chiba prefectural government, and a decade later, joined by the Land Development Corporation, the government housing organ that would morph into the Urban Renaissance (UR) Agency in 2004. It is located in the northern part of the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / OUR MAN IN TOKYO
Aug 5, 2013

Young Ethiopia envoy brings new ideas, energy

Ethiopian Ambassador Markos Tekle Rike, 34, says he has always felt a special connection between his country and Japan, although he did not have any personal interest in this country before he arrived here 2½ years ago.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2013

The new cultural counter-revolution in China

The Chinese Communist Party's promotion these days of Confucianism and Western classical music illustrates the profound transformation this country has made again.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2013

23 residents sue to keep Setagaya off plates, claiming violation of their privacy

Residents of Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, are suing the central government to stop the introduction of license plates that they claim will violate their privacy and are being forced on them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUJI ROCK 2013
Jul 31, 2013

A year of tough choices at Fuji

Wandering around on the opening day of this year's Fuji Rock, I got the impression that numbers were down on previous years. Of course, anyone who has ever been stuck in the event's seemingly never-ending lines for the portable toilets — or who's been shut out from seeing their favorite band as the...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 31, 2013

New rocket hopes to take off with launch from the skies

Start with the largest aircraft ever built, with a wingspan longer than a football field and a split fuselage fitted with six Boeing 747 jet engines — enough thrust to get 585,000 kg off the ground, about 190,000 kg more than a fully loaded 747. Sling a 36-meter, three-stage rocket below the aircraft,...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 31, 2013

Can low-nicotine smokes end addiction?

Beverly Anusionwu, a smoker for three decades who favors Maverick menthols, was enticed to the small lab inside the University of Pittsburgh's psychology department by an ad promising free cigarettes and a few bucks for her time.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Jul 29, 2013

Haiku brought together Polish-Japanese couple

They say that languages bring people closer together and bridge distances. So, too, does the Internet.
EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2013

Question of objectivity

A Kyoto university's announcement that research on blood-pressure drug Diovan was manipulated raises concerns about the drugmaker's objectivity.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 28, 2013

Breakneck NSA growth fueled by insatiable demand for its product

Twelve years later, the cranes and earthmovers around the National Security Agency are still at work, tearing up pavement and uprooting trees to make room for a larger workforce and more powerful computers. Already bigger than the Pentagon in square meters, the NSA's footprint will grow by an additional...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jul 27, 2013

Examining nexus of sports, international relations

Editor's note: Whiting was a guest speaker and panelist at the inaugural gathering of the International Sports Relations Foundation in Seoul recently. This is a new organization founded by Moon Dae-sung, a Republic of Korea's National Assembly member and 2004 Athens Olympics taekwondo gold medalist,...
JAPAN / History
Jul 27, 2013

A drop in the ocean: the sea-dumping of chemical weapons in Okinawa

Accounts by U.S. veterans in the accompanying feature of tons of chemical weapons being dumped off Okinawa in autumn 1969 are the first time such revelations have been made public — but in fact they tally entirely with the Pentagon's standard operating procedures at that time.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 27, 2013

Exclusive: Red Hat's lethal Okinawa smokescreen

In July 1969, a leak of chemical weapons on Okinawa sickened more than 20 U.S. soldiers and laid bare one of the Pentagon's biggest Cold War secrets: the storage of toxic munitions outside of continental United States.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2013

Japan bucks trend: Captive dolphin biz big

Despite an international trend taking the opposite tack, the number of aquariums in Japan is growing and sales of dolphins continue to flourish, results of an independent study have revealed.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2013

Don't let Wal-Mart bring Southern wages north

Wal-Mart operates as if its goal is to erase the differences in U.S. wage levels between the South and North by making every store it opens 'the South.
WORLD
Jul 23, 2013

Hundreds of al-Qaida-linked extremists freed in bloody Iraq jailbreak

Hundreds of extremists are feared to be on the run in Iraq after al-Qaida's affiliate in the country launched a major assault on the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, offering a fresh boost to the group's resurgent fortunes in Iraq and in Syria.
BUSINESS / BALANCING INTERESTS
Jul 22, 2013

Japan may be latecomer but TPP trade party has just begun

Japan only has three days in Malaysia for the TPP negotiations, but experts say it has a solid chance to lead the revamp of trade in the Asia-Pacific region.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 22, 2013

Police stonewalling over death of U.S. teen in Shinjuku prolongs family's ordeal

The family of Scott Kang had hoped that the release the autopsy report would shed some light on the U.S. teenager's death in Shinjuku in 2010 and bring them nearer to obtaining closure. Instead, it has reopened old wounds and raised fresh questions about the original police investigation.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?