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COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2012

A summer reading list for eurozone leaders

In August, Europeans head for the beach. The continent shuts down on the assumption that nothing of consequence will happen until everyone returns, suitably tanned, in September.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2012

Aichi boss woos Hashimoto with policy platform

In a move expected to accelerate tieup talks with his ally, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, Aichi Gov. Hideaki Omura's political group Chukyo Ishin no Kai has announced a like-minded policy platform for the next Lower House election.
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2012

Tokyo seeks ICJ ruling on Takeshima

Tokyo will go all out to persuade Seoul to take a sovereignty row to the International Court of Justice after South Korean President Lee Myung Bak's unprecedented visit to disputed islets in the Sea of Japan, government sources said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2012

U.S. religious liberty feeling the weight of so many faiths

In the United States, Muslim women trying to maintain modesty should get female-only hours at the public pool, right?
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Aug 17, 2012

Tokyo, Beijing want tiff ended fast

Tokyo and Beijing are exchanging tough words over the arrest of 14 Hong Kong protesters and journalists who landed Wednesday on the disputed Senkaku Islands, repeating their harsh rhetoric over who owns the rocky outcroppings in the East China Sea.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2012

Key crisis contact heads for London

As deputy Cabinet secretary for public affairs, Noriyuki Shikata instantly realized his workload would skyrocket when the Great East Japan Earthquake struck, but admits being taken aback by the flood of requests that started pouring in from overseas media.
COMMENTARY
Aug 14, 2012

China betting on wrong side in Syrian conflict

On the weekend before last, the United Nations General Assembly voted, 133 to 12, for a resolution that condemned the violence in Syria and called for a "political transition that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people."
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2012

California dreamin' on such a debt-filled day

While central governments' fiscal problems plague many economies, a parallel crisis is enveloping many subnational governments around the world.
Reader Mail
Aug 12, 2012

Tyranny of the global unelected

Shinji Fukukawa posits a very dangerous definition of a politician in his Aug. 9 article, "Populism is destroying globalism." According to Fukukawa, "Politicians are primarily required to present a vision of their country's future course and call for tough policy choices for the sake of security and...
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Aug 11, 2012

Legislation's OK just start of long, rough road ahead

The countdown to raising the sales tax officially began Friday with the Diet passing the necessary legislation, but the move is just the start of a long road that still lies ahead.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 10, 2012

Ibaraki art museum hopes to revive area with exhibition on Walt Disney's life

Since opening in 1997, the Tenshin Memorial Museum of Art, located in the city of Kitaibaraki, Ibaraki Prefecture, has focused its exhibitions on nihonga (Japanese style) paintings, because that was the style made internationally famous by Tenshin Okakura, the early 20th-century critic and educator for...
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2012

Noda forges on as temperatures rise

Tokyo is in the dead of summer and if anything, things are only getting hotter in the political hub of Nagata-cho.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2012

Female parley slaps male dominance

Men need to shed their deeply ingrained leadership mentality and tap female innovation, especially in Japan, where women could be the key to regaining competitiveness and igniting the rapid economic growth being experienced in many other parts of Asia.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2012

Sharp needs Hon Hai ties, if only for Apple

Taiwan billionaire Terry Gou built a manufacturing empire that assembles iPhones and iPads. His Foxconn Technology Group may be key to ensuring Sharp Corp.'s survival and a stable supply of components for Apple Inc.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 5, 2012

Strong work ethic is no path to better standard of living

Last week I spoke to a non-Japanese economics researcher employed by a Japanese university. He said he was working on a study that compared Spain's current fiscal crisis to Japan's economic situation as a means of determining if the former would suffer the same long-term problems as the latter. I mentioned...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 5, 2012

Easy-money stream scheme risks a torrent of wrath

A watercourse runs between our Afan Trust woods and a national forest up here in the northern Nagano Prefecture hills — passing, for just a few hundred meters, through our property as well.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2012

Why Japan should amend its war-renouncing Article 9

The pressure is mounting to either amend Article 9, the war-renouncing provision of Japan's Constitution, or to increasingly disregard it and so make it irrelevant. In April the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) published its proposal for amending the Constitution, and the dangers it posed for Article 9...
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2012

Kids' safety key worry in Fukushima

A year and half after the start of the nuclear crisis, many who attended the government's latest public hearing on energy policy in Fukushima on Wednesday still expressed concern about the impact of radiation on their children.
COMMENTARY
Aug 3, 2012

Pushing Seoul-Tokyo forward

There is an old Russian proverb that applies to current Japan-South Korea (ROK) relations: "Forget the past and lose an eye; dwell on the past and lose both eyes!"
Reader Mail
Aug 2, 2012

Japan still has a long way to go

Although I am strongly against the retention of the death penalty in Japan — and thus favor its immediate abolition — I disagree with former Justice Minister Seiken Sugiura's remarks that abolishing it would represent a step toward Japan's becoming "a mature, democratic nation," as he was quoted...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 2, 2012

Fuji Rock gets a blast of sunshine, and a wave of Cool Britannia from Radiohead, Noel Gallagher, The Stone Roses

Chances are that anyone who regularly makes it out to the valleys of Naeba, Niigata Prefecture, for the annual Fuji Rock Festival will tell you that it's not for the weather. If there's one thing every year that punters will cross their fingers and hope for more than quality performances from their favored...
Reader Mail
Jul 29, 2012

The will to take on bullying

Jason Pierre's July 26 letter, "Adults accountable for bullying," appears to be criticism of bureaucracy and a call for lawful action. I agree that setting up a ministry task force won't change anything; it will once again take the problem away from the people.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 29, 2012

In our time of global aggression we could learn from the 'Land of Sorry'

Back in 1991, I was offered a tenured position at a university in Kyoto. Needless to say, this was a big step for me and my family, who were all looking forward to settling into Kyoto life.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 22, 2012

Strength in numbers for protesters, but just how many are there?

Ever since last summer, when antinuclear demonstrations materialized in response to the Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown, there's been an ongoing argument about just how many people show up for these protests. Conventional wisdom says the organizers exaggerate the numbers while the major media underestimate...

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