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Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 11, 2017

Opposition camp fears Abe may call snap election in October

Speculation grows that a vulnerable Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will call a Lower House election in October to keep the opposition camp in disarray while new parties emerge.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2017

Impeach me, please!

If U.S. President Donald Trump must flirt with impeachment to retain his command of the media, so be it.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 7, 2017

J-pop duo Scott & Rivers on writing Japanese lyrics

When American musician Scott Murphy first came to Japan in 2001, he could only say a few phrases in Japanese.
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Aug 7, 2017

Introducing よく, the adverbial form of よい and いい

How do you say, 'Wash your hands properly' in Japanese?
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 4, 2017

Abe softens stance on deadline for constitutional reform proposals, deferring to LDP

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's attempt to pressure his party into revising its constitutional revision proposals by the end of the year appears to have backfired, and he is now willing to let the party itself dictate the timing instead.
Reader Mail
Aug 4, 2017

Abysmal handling of documents

The July 10 editorial titled "Poor handling of government documents" interested me because of my own government experience. The law indeed has flaws, but why is the Diet unable to fix it?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2017

Lessons in losing international influence

What's happening now in the U.S. and U.K. shows how poor leadership can be devastating to a country's international standing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage / Backstage Pass
Aug 3, 2017

Giving Cio-Cio San a better ending

Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" tells the story of a young Japanese girl named Cio-Cio San ("chō-chō" is the Japanese word for "butterfly") marrying and getting dumped by an American naval officer named Pinkerton. First performed in Italy in 1904, the opera is one of the most popular in the world...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 2, 2017

Pakistan's creation — a mistake?

The repercussions of the August 1947 partition of India continue to shake the subcontinent today.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Aug 2, 2017

Hope after the horror revealed in letters from postwar Hiroshima

Sixty years on, letters that formed the basis of Austrian writer Jungk's acclaimed account of life after the A-bomb are set to be published.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2017

It's high noon on the roof the world

The two nuclear powers have to come to terms with the fact that no one will come out a winner if they resort to military action.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2017

Government promises won't kill the combustion engine

The campaign to convince consumers that the combustion era is ending and electric is taking over is working about as well as anti-smoking campaigns did before cigarettes were banned in most public spaces and became prohibitively expensive for many smokers.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 29, 2017

Spare a thought for the secretaries

Few recent scandals have been as entertaining as Lower House lawmaker Mayuko Toyota's verbal and physical attack on her secretary as revealed in a recording leaked to the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho. With the recording coming to light in the week before the Tokyo assembly elections, Toyota decided...
EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2017

Renho exit not enough for DP to defuse crisis

With Renho on the way out, the Democratic Party has to reassess and redefine its basic direction. Otherwise, its very survival may be in doubt.
Reader Mail
Jul 28, 2017

Japan, Taiwan and Okinotorishima

I applaud The Japan Times' courage in publishing Mark Valencia's opinion piece "Hypocrisy in the South China Sea" in the July 22 edition. Indeed, I dare venture such hypocrisy and thereby lack of moral high ground is why no one has felt able to push for the enforcement of The Hague ruling.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 28, 2017

Sources say Russia used Facebook accounts in attempt to spy on Macron campaign

Russian intelligence agents attempted to spy on Emmanuel Macron's election campaign earlier this year by creating phony Facebook personas, according to a U.S. congressman and two other people briefed on the effort.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2017

Takatoshi Ito, who sold Kuroda on inflation targets, now contender for top job

During countless shared lunches and impromptu meetings, Takatoshi Ito made a detailed and persuasive case that sold Haruhiko Kuroda on the inflation targeting regime he's pursued relentlessly as governor of the central bank. That was back in 1999, when Kuroda ran Japan's currency policy at the Finance...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 25, 2017

Former defense chief Ishiba overtakes Abe as top choice for prime minister in poll

Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba overtook scandal-hit Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as the best person to lead Japan, an opinion poll showed Tuesday.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 25, 2017

Abe is stumbling but no challenger exists

Voters are ready for a viable alternative to the LDP, but the leading opposition party is failing to deliver.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2017

Putin's no good, but where's the alternative?

No Russian political leader is offering a vision ambitious and inspiring enough to compete with Putin. Perhaps that's why he finds it so easy to suppress dissent and hold on to power.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 22, 2017

Public questions Japan's duck and cover drills

On July 7, during a public assembly in Takahama, Fukui Prefecture, Shunichi Tanaka, head of Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority, was asked how his organization would respond to a North Korean missile attack. Tanaka replied that it would make more sense for North Korea to hit Tokyo with a missile than...
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 21, 2017

Inada resists calls to resign over alleged SDF activity log cover-up

Defense chief Tomomi Inada denies participating in the alleged GSDF log coverup, clinging to her position ahead of a Cabinet reshuffle in which she is widely expected to exit.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2017

Trump's climate decision won't matter

U.S. President Donald Trump probably pulled America out of the Paris climate accord to bolster his sagging popularity ratings, but the rest of the world may benefit as well.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jul 19, 2017

To find the joys of 'real Japan,' get on your bike

Japanese society and culture seem intrinsically suited to bicycles, which require a degree of safety of environment and intimacy that are alien to many thunderously car-based, brash and crime-ridden Western societies.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2017

Trust is falling in Western democratic institutions

One clue to understanding the loss of trust in the professional integrity of the Western media is their unrelenting efforts to demonize Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?