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Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 18, 2018

Japan's only female minister, Satsuki Katayama, hit by allegation she was paid to influence tax agency

A weekly magazine alleged that Katayama was paid to use her bureaucratic standing to get a tax break for a business owner in 2015.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 27, 2018

LDP's No. 2 faction pushes Abe for constitutional referendum by next summer as leadership election approaches

The second-largest group in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has proposed a national plebiscite on the issue to generate political momentum for revising the war-renouncing Article 9.
EDITORIALS
Apr 27, 2018

Time to discuss broadcast reform from scratch

How the regulatory regime of the broadcasting business should be reformed under the industry's changing environment should be the subject of broad discussions from a variety of perspectives.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 23, 2017

Men still making houses as women try to leave home

Dogen Ogata's name is known worldwide before he knows it himself. He's 8 months old. One day last month, in all innocence, cradled in his mother's arms, he attended a session of the Kumamoto municipal assembly.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jun 9, 2017

In case you missed them: a year of responses to Community stories, part 2

The second in a series of selections of unpublished letters about Community stories from the previous year.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 27, 2016

What's next? Brexit opens up plethora of plausible scenarios

Stalemate between Britain and the European Union over what happens next following Britons' referendum vote to leave has opened up a host of possible scenarios.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 24, 2016

What's next for the EU, as Britain turns its back

Britons voted in a referendum on Thursday to leave the European Union. Following are answers to key questions on what will happen next in Britain's relations with the bloc:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Nov 16, 2015

And now for something completely unconstitutional

When did the Abe-verse become an alternate reality where past violations of the nation's basic law can, with a straight face, be used to justify further violations of the same type?
Reader Mail
Sep 25, 2015

Abe has placed himself above the nation's law

The editorial "Security policy set the wrong way" in the Sept. 19 edition is absolutely right to question Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's approach to governance. There is a reason the Constitution is very difficult to change, and yet that poses no concern to Abe or his supporters (who are dwindling day by...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 22, 2015

Abe catches heat from the weeklies in the dog days of summer

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faces such a constant stream of stumbles and irritants, it's hard to identify which of them is causing his biggest headache.
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Jul 10, 2015

Orderly 'Grexit' poses a puzzle for lawyers

A "Grexit" on Sunday? Not so fast, say the lawyers.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 21, 2015

Inside the trenches of environmental rights

With the gruesome beheadings of journalists in the Middle East, an ugly truth is now common knowledge — being a reporter can be deadly.
EDITORIALS
Mar 16, 2014

Dangers of collective self-defense

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's eagerness to drop the government's long-standing constitutional interpretation that Japan cannot exercise its right to collective self-defense is dangerous, as it could lead to military action abroad by the Self-Defense Forces.
EDITORIALS
Jul 22, 2013

Short of wholehearted support

The LDP and Komeito parties should not view their Upper House election dominance, amid low voter turnout, as carte blanche to ramrod through pet policy lines.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 15, 2013

Kochs use Web to slam critical reports

When environmental journalist David Sassoon began reporting about the billionaire Koch brothers' interests in the Canadian oil industry last year, he sought information from their privately held conglomerate, Koch Industries. The brothers, who have gained prominence in recent years as supporters of and...
Japan Times
WORLD / TICAD V SPECIAL
Jun 1, 2013

The evolution of TICAD since its inception in 1993

TICAD, or the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, has continuously evolved since the first conference in 1993.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 9, 2013

Hashimoto to sue Asahi for story on family past

Osaka Mayor and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) chief Toru Hashimoto plans to sue the weekly Shukan Asahi and daily Asahi Shimbun, claiming they violated his human rights when the magazine ran an article six months ago touching on his family background.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jan 8, 2013

From Taiji to Okinawa, readers dissect some issues of 2012

In the first of our new Community Chest letters columns, we bring together a selection of mails received in response to some of the final Community stories of 2012.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 16, 2012

Even more than meltdowns; this election is essentially about Japan's war-renouncing Constitution

This is the 15th general election I have witnessed since coming to live in Japan in 1967, and by any standards it is the most crucial one of those for this country.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 3, 2012

Strong winds linger from the microaggressions tempest

Readers' responses to Debito Arudou's May 1 Just Be Cause column, "Yes, I can use chopsticks: the everyday 'microaggressions' that grind us down," his followup June 5 JBC column, "Guestists, Haters, the Vested: Apologists take many forms," and Colin P.A. Jones' counterarticle, "Much ado, but microimportant"...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 13, 2012

Japanese laws make abortion an economic issue

The cost of abortion in Japan shows it is not considered a women's health issue.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jan 31, 2012

International vs. Japanese school: Which is top of class for mixed kids?

Some readers' thoughts on the dueling Jan. 10 Zeit Gist columns by Charles Lewis ("Local Japanese school is the obvious choice if you want your child to fit in") and Lisa Jardine ("International education a triple-A investment in your child's — and Japan's — future"):
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 1, 2011

Schizophrenic Constitution leaves foreigners' rights mired in confusion

Pop quiz: Who live in palatial homes in fashionable Tokyo neighborhoods but are subject to various forms of discrimination, have no family registry, can't vote and have limited constitutional rights?
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Nov 23, 2010

Both victims, perpetrators of sekuhara : responses

A selection of readers' responses to "Foreigners victims, perpetrators of sekuhara" (Zeit Gist, Oct. 26) by Steve Silver:
LIFE
Jan 24, 2010

Secrets and lies

Japan marked the 50th anniversary of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty on Jan. 19 amid calls for an inquiry into the dispatch of Japanese Self-Defence Forces to Iraq, which critics say was illegal. But in contrast to the fierce debates over the origins and legitimacy of the 2003 Iraq invasion in both the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 4, 2007

Taking liberties? Readers respond

The Community Page received an unprecedented number of responses to the "Taking Liberties" series that ran in this section last month. Following are some examples.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 13, 2007

'Gaijin card' checks spread as police deputize the nation

In the good old days, very few Japanese knew about Alien Registration Cards — you know, those wallet-size documents all non-Japanese residents must carry 24/7 or face arrest and incarceration.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 5, 2007

Antiwar activist Steven L. Leeper

In a sense, it is the ultimate irony: The man appointed to oversee the memorial to victims of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945 by an American B-29 aircraft is . . . an American.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 15, 2007

Citizen-journalism Web sites struggle to attract reporters

Most people would probably consider park benches an unusual target for journalistic scrutiny, but Yumiko Hayakawa was determined to get to the bottom of the matter. She interviewed over 100 people, spoke to park officials, gave out a questionnaire and took photos in parks around Tokyo.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami