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BUSINESS / Economy
May 7, 2014

Ex-pension fund overseer urges cut in Japan stocks

The government pension fund should cut domestic stocks to diversify risk, said Seki Obata, who was dropped from the organization's investment committee last month.
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2014

Chinese cities' four modernizations

So far, China has largely taken a 'Field of Dreams' approach to urbanization: 'Build it, and they will come.' Now the effectiveness of these investments will depend on how skillfully they are adapted to each locality's distinct resources, needs and aspirations.
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2014

Phones may not have the right to remain silent

The U.S. Supreme Court has just heard arguments over whether police should be allowed to search a person's smartphone without a warrant to find evidence relevant to the crime for which he or she is being arrested.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
May 4, 2014

Jewelry innovator Shiraki puts ethics at the heart of beauty

Natsuko Shiraki, a jewelry designer and CEO of Tokyo-based jeweler Hasuna Co., vividly remembers the shocking experience in southern India that changed her life.
WORLD
May 4, 2014

A glance at the history of Polish immigration to U.K.

Poles are now the second-largest foreign-born group of people in the U.K., with numbers at a record high following Poland's accession to the EU 10 years ago. But the history of Poles in Britain goes back much further.
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2014

Pacific partners should push back against TPP until U.S. shows respect for financial reforms

Despite President Barack Obama's charm offensive in the region, Pacific nations should beware of the U.S. government's position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership until American negotiators show more respect for the regulation of financial services.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
May 4, 2014

Kikokushijo: returnees to a country not yet ready for them

Though the number of returnee students has tripled since 1977, and despite the recent government push to develop 'global human resources,' the existence of this group of globally educated young people has been largely ignored by policymakers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 3, 2014

Japan inked: Should the country reclaim its tattoo culture?

Tattooing is the most misunderstood form of art in contemporary Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 3, 2014

A homage to the 'Queen of Anatahan'

In November 1952, 1,000 Japanese thronged the pier at Yokohama to greet the arrival of the liner Chitose Maru. When one alighting passenger gazed down at them from the gangway, the crowd broke into a cheer. There was something about the kimono-clad woman from Okinawa that mesmerized people. Especially...
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2014

Freedom of expression under fire in America

If you can lose your job in the U.S. as Mozilla's CEO did — because those in charge found his politics repugnant — there are only two options available to those of us who need to earn a living: Keep our opinions to ourselves, or lie about them.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2014

Ending Asia's zero-sum games

Perhaps if Asia's leaders viewed East Asia's rapid economic transformation, geopolitical dynamics and historical animosities like a recenlty arrived space alien, they would see what they need to do to halt the dangerous trends.
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2014

Palestinian accord elicits refrain of hope and gloom

Scenes in Gaza tell of much hope and rejoicing over the unity accord between Fatah and Hamas, but it is a refrain of past agreements that have failed.
JAPAN / Media
Apr 30, 2014

Advisers assess Japan Times performance after INYT tie-up

Now that The Japan Times is being distributed together with the International New York Times, the advisory board members agreed that there should be a newsroom shift toward even more coverage of Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2014

Manga about work at Fukushima No. 1 stirs locals' ire

Cartoon characters who suffered nosebleeds after a visit to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant are turning into a headache for manga publisher Shogakukan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 30, 2014

A powerful look at 'exotic' and 'primitive' artworks

The "Power of Images" exhibition at the National Art Centre Tokyo is nothing less than an assault on the senses — a barrage of exotic and vivid anthropological oddities from the collection of the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 29, 2014

Kerr qualified to coach Knicks but may pass on chance

When Steve Kerr was a star senior guard at the University of Arizona in 1988, students at a game at rival Arizona State shouted, "PLO, PLO," and "Go back to Beirut" at Kerr.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 29, 2014

Cells cloned from diabetic make insulin

And now there are three: In the wake of announcements from laboratories in Oregon and California that they had created human embryos by cloning cells of living people, a lab in New York announced on Monday that it had done that and more.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2014

Why Hamas joining Fatah is good for Mideast peace

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's personal investment in the Mideast peace process exerts enough leverage to make the Israelis and Palestinians pretend to talk — but not enough to make them agree to something they otherwise don't really want. The Fatah-Hamas rapprochement may be a good thing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NATURE'S PANTRY
Apr 29, 2014

A natural miso and soy factory that is always full of beans

Although rice is certainly the king of Japanese food, soybeans are the queen. Small makers of miso, soy sauce and tofu dot the landscape of Japan, but blink once and you will notice that the local shops are closing up as supermarket culture takes over daily life.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2014

Alarm bells ringing in Asia

The deteriorating situation in Ukraine and rising tensions between Russia and the U.S. threaten to bury President Barack Obama's floundering 'pivot' toward Asia.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Apr 29, 2014

China's income inequality surpasses U.S., posing risk for Xi

The income gap between the rich and poor in China has surpassed that of the U.S. and is among the widest in the world, a report says, adding to the challenges for President Xi Jinping as growth slows.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 26, 2014

'Granta' opens a window into Japanese literature

With such a piddling amount of Japanese fiction finding its way into English translation each year, you learn to make the most of what you can get. So when this year's Tokyo International Literary Festival marked the launch of not one, but two compendia of Japan-related writing, it felt like an embarrassment of riches. In addition to the latest issue of 'Monkey Business,' the annual journal edited by veteran translators Motoyuki Shibata and Ted Goossen, the festival welcomed the arrival of a Japan-themed issue of the British quarterly, 'Granta,' released simultaneously in English and Japanese.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Apr 25, 2014

Interconnectivity exposes global shipping fleet to hacking threat

The next hacker playground: the open seas — and the oil tankers and container vessels that ship 90 percent of the goods moved around the planet.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2014

America's Afghanistan albatross

Pakistani interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs can be made to stop only if the Obama administration finally makes that a condition for continuing its generous aid to cash-strapped Pakistan — a remote prospect.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 24, 2014

'Soko Nomi Nite Hikari Kagayaku (The Light Shines Only There)'

Japan's image overseas might have a funhouse aspect, but even many outlanders who live here only get a selective view of the place, since their Japanese colleagues and friends mostly come from the educated, middle-class stratum of society and live more or less stable, law-abiding lives.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Apr 23, 2014

In a world of pretense, are Japanese just more honest about lying?

The net sum of lying may be similar in Japan and America, but in their acceptance of life exigencies, the Japanese may be more realistic, more charitable and forgiving about the role that deception plays in our social relations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 23, 2014

French to the fore on SPAC's 2014 festival menu

It is often said that "variety is the spice of life," but in the multifarious world of theater it is more a staple than a special condiment. That said, "variety" is the keyword chosen by Satoshi Miyagi, artistic director of the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC), to capture the upcoming and especially...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 23, 2014

PUK's children's puppet shows suspend disbelief for all ages

Parents around the capital seeking entertainment options for young children over the next several weeks could do a lot worse than check out Puppet Theater PUK, where old and new stories will come to life in the hands of seasoned puppeteers.
WORLD
Apr 22, 2014

Failed gamble in New World still relevant to Scots

A few years before giving up its independence, Scotland took a bold gamble to secure a brighter future, founding a colony on the isthmus of Panama to corner trade between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2014

Beyond good and evil in Ukraine

The U.S. fools no one with its high-minded condemnations of Russan President Vladimir Putin's designs on Ukraine when its own sense of international political morality is also defined by cold calculations of national interest.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.