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COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2011

A visit to Libya's front line of democracy

Last week I flew to Benghazi to meet Libya's Transitional National Council (TNC), a visit coordinated with European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton and NATO allies. What I saw reminded me of my country 20 years ago, just after Poland's first free elections.
JAPAN
May 13, 2011

Review Futenma: Senators

Three influential U.S. senators called Thursday for a fundamental re-examination of the 2006 agreement between Tokyo and Washington to relocate 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam after a replacement facility for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is built in Okinawa.
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2011

BOJ policymakers reject plan to expand asset buying

Bank of Japan policymakers Thursday rejected a proposal by a deputy governor to expand its asset-buying program by ¥5 trillion to cope with last month's historic disaster.
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2011

Debt rating threat may hasten tax hike push

The threat of a cut to Japan's credit rating adds pressure on Prime Minister Naoto Kan to raise taxes as he wrestles with financing quake rebuilding without adding to the world's biggest public debt burden.
BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2011

Ares, Nomura in $2.5 billion loan assets deal

Ares Capital Management LLC has purchased about $2.5 billion in loan assets from Nomura Holdings Inc., according to two sources familiar with the deal.
COMMENTARY
Apr 22, 2011

Latest word from Mahathir

Before the prime ministry of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, not that many people had ever heard of Malaysia, outside of adjacent Singapore, which shared a common border as well as an intense mutual antipathy that entertained the rest of Southeast Asia for decades.
BUSINESS
Apr 15, 2011

Nuke plant escalation fails to dent rebound expectations

An escalation in Japan's nuclear crisis has failed to dissuade analysts from forecasting an economic rebound starting next quarter, an outlook that hinges on a recovery in business and household confidence.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2011

Farmers struggle amid tsunami aftermath

SENDAI — Clearing out the piles of mud and rubble that have ruined his expensive farm machinery and covered the first floor of his house, Kiichi Endo let out a short sigh thinking of the years it will take before he can grow crops again on soil damaged by seawater.
BUSINESS
Apr 7, 2011

Toyota to restart more domestic plants

NAGOYA (Kyodo) Toyota Motor Corp. is considering reopening more plants for car assembly on April 18 or later as parts supply, which has been largely held back since the March 11 disaster, is expected to improve, sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2011

Shirakawa snubs '30s-style JGB-buying for rebuilding

Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa is under fire for refusing to consider 1930s-style purchases of government bonds to fund reconstruction from the nation's largest earthquake on record.
BUSINESS
Mar 19, 2011

Yen declines as G7 starts intervention

The yen fell from historic highs Friday after the Group of Seven major industrialized nations promised coordinated intervention in currency markets to support catastrophe-stunned Japan's recovery.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 17, 2011

Nikkei turmoil threatens economy

The failure to contain radiation risk from the crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, and the resulting turmoil in stocks, threaten to worsen damage to the economy from last week's earthquake and tsunami.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 15, 2011

HIV/AIDS awareness often too late

More than two decades after the first case of AIDS in a Japanese patient was officially reported by the health ministry's National AIDS Surveillance Committee in 1985, HIV/AIDS seems to have become a disease of the past. With much less media coverage, people have become complacent about the issue, experts...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 8, 2011

Domestic child abuse in spotlight

The Fukuoka District Court in January sentenced a 34-year-old mother to six years in prison for causing bodily injury resulting in her daughter's death, casting the spotlight anew on child abuse.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 8, 2011

Byzantine temp rules need permanent fix

Back in the days when I was a corporate drone in Tokyo, I had a wonderful secretary who had the good fortune to get pregnant. Bad news for me, though, since I had to endure a series of temps, some good, some bad, and one who marinated herself in enough perfume to make everyone ill. But what I found most...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 27, 2011

Skipping the ads gets harder as shows become infomercials

In the late 1990s, I did piece work for a public relations company, translating achievement reports into English for its non-Japanese clients. The reports outlined how and where the company had secured mentions of its clients' products in various media, and included equivalent advertising value amounts...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Feb 16, 2011

Sloan went out on his own terms after 22 years

NEW YORK — Apparently, there was a pact all along . . . Jerry Sloan came in around the same time with Hosni Mubarak, and damned if he isn't going out with him.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2011

Medvedev trip wins over Kunashiri locals

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, Russia (Kyodo) Just over three months ago, President Dmitry Medvedev paid a brief visit to Kunashiri Island, becoming the first Kremlin leader to visit one of four isles off Hokkaido controlled by Moscow and long claimed by Japan.
EDITORIALS
Jan 31, 2011

Shoring up the 'basic' pension

The government is trying to reform both the social welfare system and the tax system as Japan's financial condition deteriorate. Before discussing overall changes, it must strengthen the "basic" portion of pensions.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 18, 2011

U.S. NPO seeks 'social entrepreneurs'

A U.S.-based nonprofit organization that has helped "social entrepreneurs" around the world opened a Japanese office this month, its first branch in East Asia, with the goal of creating a similar community in a country where the concept itself is little understood.
COMMENTARY
Jan 5, 2011

Lost religious liberty worldwide

WASHINGTON — Many of us take religious liberty for granted. Unfortunately, this most fundamental freedom is not protected in many countries around the world.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person