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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Jul 27, 2014

Osaka bets big on TOEFL to boost English levels

The Osaka Prefecture Board of Education is pushing through a raft of initiatives to shake up English-language education, chief among them the introduction of TOEFL at top-performing high schools, which will be taught by an elite group of teachers earning approximately ¥8 million a year.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 24, 2014

In Osaka, plan to merge wards faces stiff winds

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto and his Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) political group formally approved a plan Wednesday evening to consolidate the city's 24 wards into five semiautonomous zones with their own elected leaders and assemblies rather than appointed officials.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 23, 2014

To appear or not to appear on Japanese TV . . .

If you're in Japan long enough, you're bound to get the opportunity to appear on Japanese TV. But you might want to think twice before you make the leap to 'TV gaijin.'
WORLD
Jul 20, 2014

Ukraine, rebels argue over access to downed airliner site; Europeans give Putin 'last chance'

Ukraine on Saturday accused Russia and pro-Moscow rebels of destroying evidence to cover up their guilt in the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner that has accelerated a showdown between the Kremlin and Western powers.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2014

Flight MH17 and the role of Ukraine's rebels

The Ukraine crisis is an emotional, dirty, ad-hoc war and a major accident waiting to happen. The only solution is for professionals to intervene, separate the sides and oversee their disarmament.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jul 17, 2014

Merger talks going slowly

Japan Basketball Association officials said that they would actively keep discussing how to overcome the differences between the nation's top two leagues in order to establish a new professional hoops circuit in two years.
Reader Mail
Jul 16, 2014

Biggest responsibility for adults

I read with interest Hitomi Nagahashi's July 10 letter, "English for third graders lagging." I agree completely with Nagahashi's statements that "English education is not just about words and grammar" and that English education "at an earlier age is key to globalizing Japan."
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 15, 2014

Russia officers aiding rebels, Ukraine says

Ukraine accused Russian army officers on Monday of fighting alongside separatists in the east of the country and said Moscow was once more building up its troops on the joint border.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices
Jul 14, 2014

Osaka: Do you approve of the recent reinterpretation of constitutional limits on military action?

On July 2, the Cabinet approved a new interpretation of the Constitution that effectively broadens the range of situations in which the Self-Defense Forces are permitted to act militarily. Danny Gong asked interviewees in Osaka what they thought about this change.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 12, 2014

Abe's constitutional putsch and U.S. security cooperation

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's putsch involves bypassing constitutional procedures to revise the Constitution because he lacks sufficient support to win two-thirds approval in both houses of the Diet and a majority in a national referendum. Instead, Abe achieved by diktat what he could not gain democratically,...
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2014

Nippon Ishin, Yui no To form second-largest opposition bloc in Lower House

The Diet's fragmented opposition forces took a step toward consolidation as Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) and Yui no To announced they will operate as a unified party in the Lower House this autumn.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2014

Shale oil to push U.S. past Russia, Saudi Arabia

Four years into the shale revolution, the U.S. is on track to pass Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world's largest producer of crude oil, most analysts agree. When that happens and by how much, though, has produced disparate estimates that depend on uncertain factors ranging from progress in drilling...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 9, 2014

Yahoo cyberattacks reveal gaping holes in Japan Inc.'s hacking shield

Shortly after the alert sounded at 9:10 p.m., Yahoo Japan Corp.'s risk team knew it had a problem. More than 20 million usernames and passwords belonging to its customers were being dumped into a file, primed to be stolen.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2014

Thomas Piketty with Chinese characteristics

As property prices have risen faster than wages and profits in manufacturing, China's top 1 percent income earners are accumulating wealth significantly faster than their counterparts in the rest of the world — and far faster than the average Chinese.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2014

Whitewashing the Iraq war

As Iraq stands on the verge of a complete breakdown into sectarian states, a former leading Iraq war advocate is popping up in the U.S. media, and he's in no mood to accept any responsibility for the protracted tragedy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2014

At some point, U.S. progressives must stand

You would think that, at a certain point, liberals in the U.S. with any dignity would get sick of being used and abused by Democratic Party candidates. Don't expect the dysfunctional relationship between liberals and Democrats to get any better for 2017.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2014

Time to say goodbye to the business cycle?

The many failures of economics before, during and after the recent financial crisis have left an intellectual vacuum. It seems that governments' past success in stabilizing the economy in the short run encouraged too much debt and instability in the long term.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 1, 2014

Emperor penguin populations to slide as climate change reduces icy breeding grounds: study

Global warming will cut Antarctica's 600,000-strong population of emperor penguins by at least a fifth by 2100 as the sea ice on which they breed becomes less secure, a study said on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 30, 2014

Ishin-Komeito ties fray in Osaka

Relations between Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) and New Komeito continue to deteriorate, with party heads Toru Hashimoto and Ichiro Matsui preparing to challenge two Osaka-based New Komeito leaders in the next Lower House election.
COMMENTARY / World / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jun 30, 2014

A breed apart: liberal hawks who buoyed Bush

Those tough American liberal hawks who climbed aboard George W. Bush's war wagon into Iraq a decade ago were a breed apart.
EDITORIALS
Jun 30, 2014

The new squeeze on Argentina

Hopefully Argentina and the creditors who've held out on agreeing to a decade-old deal to restructure Argentine debt will redouble efforts to reach a settlement in the next month before a real default occurs.
JAPAN / JAPAN TIMES FORUM ON FEMALE SCIENCE MAJORS
Jun 30, 2014

Majoring in science may expand opportunities for women

Moderator: Let's discuss the challenge of hiring more female science majors and solutions to that issue. Let me first ask you what kind of skills are you seeking in women? I wonder if the marketing skills of female science majors, instead of just their capabilities in research and development, could...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 28, 2014

Tooling up for war: Can Japan benefit from lifting the arms export ban?

The Paris-based Eurosatory is one of the world's biggest defense and security industry trade shows, drawing specialists from nearly 90 countries to view the latest in military hardware. Among the tanks, drones, military helicopters and police riot vehicles that were exhibited last month, 13 Japanese...
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 23, 2014

Car industry struggles to solve air bag fiasco

As automakers hype self-driving cars, the industry's struggle to fix Takata's exploding, shrapnel-spraying air bags shows how much can still go wrong with the most established technologies.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 23, 2014

Ironies of Iraq without end despite the best-laid plans

For President Barack Obama to stay true to his vision, judgment and instinct, he must ride out the extremely uncomfortable unpopularity of openly conceding that the Iraq war — of which he is now the prime custodian — never made sense.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jun 23, 2014

ASIJ abuse scandal stirs dark memories among readers

Some letters in response to Jon Mitchell's The Foreign Element articles about sexual abuse by late American School in Japan teacher Jack Moyer.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan