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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jan 25, 2014

History and humor lap Hamamatsucho's shores

Tokyo hosts plenty of pint-size public sculptures, but none so "wee" as the brazen boy standing on the platform between lines 3 and 4 at Hamamatsucho Station in Minato Ward. Just back from a trip to Brussels, I am stunned to glimpse there a bronze replica of the Belgian capital's most cheeky landmark,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 20, 2014

Lego could help girls build their future careers

Writer Rachel Cooke believes that if more girls were encouraged to play with building toys such as Lego, then there may be more female architects and engineers.
COMMENTARY
Jan 19, 2014

Criminal envoy or rogue state?

If Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade's alleged offenses in New York City were criminally outside the norm, Washington should have worked with India to file charges in the U.S. or in India. If Delhi proved noncooperative, Khobragade could have been expelled persona non grata.
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Jan 19, 2014

Best thing for Senkakus: Never let push come to shove

On Jan. 12, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera observed the annual drill held by the Ground Self-Defense Force's elite 1st Airborne Brigade in Narashino, Chiba Prefecture.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 18, 2014

After Aum, post-9/11 lull, weeklies rediscover faith

March 20 will mark the 19th anniversary of the toxic nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway system by members of the Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) doomsday cult. That attack, which shook Japanese society to its very foundations, resulted in 13 deaths and thousands of injuries. Thirteen high-ranking Aum...
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Jan 17, 2014

Outrage follows decision to leave Nagasu off U.S. team

"To sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards out of men."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 15, 2014

This special Horse Year kabuki's a real winner

Most kabuki plays have at their core a dramatic historical episode. Around this, there's generally a colorful, oft-times melodramatic and action-packed confection of intrigues, loyalties, romances, self-sacrifice and villainy founded on varying degrees of fact — or simply fashioned as pure fiction....
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 14, 2014

Masuzoe jumps into race, touts value of open policy debate

Former health minister Yoichi Masuzoe, entering the Feb. 9 Tokyo gubernatorial election, says he welcomes all challengers, including ex-Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2014

Boosting the global economy

Although we have avoided the worst-case depressioin scenario over the past five years, thanks to the efforts of global policymakers, the world economy is not yet flying on all engines and is likely to remain underpowered this year as well, says the IMF managing director.
Reader Mail
Jan 11, 2014

How one treats Yasukuni is key

The politicians who persist in visiting Yasukuni Shrine say they visit it to pay their respects to the war dead who sacrificed their lives for the benefit of the nation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jan 9, 2014

Anime/manga experts hopeful for year ahead

Aside from Hayao Miyazaki's sudden departure from filmmaking in September, the anime world saw some potentially hopeful developments in 2013.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2014

Time to relegate 'moral laws' to history's dustbin

Nothing lasts forever — especially in the U.S. with its 50 percent divorce rate — and it's clear that same-sex marriage will eventually be the law of the land.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2014

Abandoned homes a growing menace

Shinichi Ueda points to a two-story house standing on 7-meter-tall concrete blocks, flanked by other elevated dwellings. Built on a slope, the wooden structure — part of a 1,000-unit-plus residential area developed in the late 1970s in the suburban city of Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture — has been...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2014

India's sex laws contradict tradition of tolerance

It is surprising that India's Bharatiya Janata Party would privilege the social morality of Victorian England above both precolonial indigenous social practices and the constitutional morality of independent India.
COMMENTARY
Jan 5, 2014

The rational ignorance of the American voter

If the political knowledge of American voters is measured relative to government's expanding scope, ignorance is increasing rapidly: There is so much more to be uninformed about.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 4, 2014

Slippery slope to Yasukuni, Nago oiled by lucre

As with the Yasukuni story, most of the commentary on Okinawa base relocation deal focused on its contentious nature, but also like the Yasukuni story, the main impetus behind the actions reported was economic.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jan 2, 2014

Political power struggle behind South Sudan crisis

U.S. and African officials seeking to mediate an end to South Sudan's bloodshed are, in effect, trying to repair rifts in the very liberation movement that they supported for years.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2013

Thai opposition prepares a silent coup d'état

The sense that Thailand has seen extreme partisan politics played out in the streets before would be mildly reassuring were it not for a nagging fear that this decent and prosperous society may be set to destroy its democracy.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 30, 2013

Once Tories' answer to EU fears, enlargement is now their problem

With the U.K. Independence Party breathing down the Tories' necks, EU enlargement is no longer the British government's answer in Europe, but its No. 1 problem.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 29, 2013

British fears of migrant influx mirrored in Sofia

There are no anti-immigrant militia forces roaming the streets of Britain, but Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev sees clear parallels with the U.K. — indeed, in states across Europe — and he is deeply worried.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 28, 2013

In memoriam: Those we lost in 2013

2013 saw the loss of a number of personalities who stood at the top of their respective fields. As the year quietly draws to a close, we reflect on those we lost, their contribution to the world and their ongoing legacy.
COMMENTARY
Dec 27, 2013

Why is work a zero free-speech zone?

If a reality TV show star, or any American for that matter, can be fired for expressing him- or herself when at work — or not at work — then the right to free speech is a meaningless abstraction that applies only to the tiny fraction of super-rich Americans who don't have to worry about getting fired.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2013

U.S. 'sledgehammer' justice sidelines the judge

'Sledgehammer' justice waged against nonviolent repeat offenders in the U.S. is said to have removed the role of judges and to have turned prosecutors into sentencers.
Japan Times
WORLD / YEAR IN REVIEW 2013
Dec 25, 2013

A look back at the year's top 10 world news stories

Japan Times editors selected these world stories as the most important of 2013.

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