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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 31, 2014

The Fukushima disaster: Three years on, who's fooling whom?

Japan's new Basic Energy Plan sees nuclear power as an important base load energy source. But whatever 'base load' means politically, the public is lulled — fooled — into a sense that, despite Fukushima, nuclear will remain a logistically viable long-term option.
WORLD
Mar 30, 2014

Governments hacking media: Google experts

Twenty-one of the world's 25 leading news organizations have been the target of likely government-sponsored hacking attacks, according to research by two Google security engineers.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 30, 2014

Afghanistan at crossroads as Karzai era ends

Amid the dust and traffic of today's Kabul, three things remain almost as they were a decade or so ago. In winter, and when the wind clears the smog that is a side effect of years of economic boom, the blue sky above the snowcapped peaks that ring the city is as impressive as ever. Then there is the...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2014

Failed 'resets' with Russia allow for a cold peace

The ideological antagonism of the Cold War may be gone, but Russia now defines itself as an alternative civilizational and social model. A cold peace is possible.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Mar 30, 2014

Osaka embraces English Reformation

While Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's controversial political antics have increasingly drawn criticism, little attention has been paid to how his leadership has prompted the most progressive reforms of English-language education in the nation.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 28, 2014

Inose admits using Tokushukai cash for election; prosecutors file charges

In a sudden reversal, former Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose admitted Friday that the ¥50 million loan he received from the Tokushukai hospital group was intended to get him through the 2012 gubernatorial election.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2014

How Spain can avoid a nasty split like Crimea

There is no case for forcibly keeping territories under a country's rule if the majority doesn't want it.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2014

What does the West now want?

The U.S. has acquired a dangerous militarist outlook on world affairs in which problems are defined primarily in military terms. In the case of Ukraine, such a view could lead to catastrophe.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 27, 2014

Autism begins in the womb: study

Autism may begin when certain brain cells fail to properly mature within the womb, according to new research by U.S. scientists.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 27, 2014

'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'

Ah, Hollywood — who else could take a lean, two-page short story and turn it into a bloated $90-million mega-production?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 26, 2014

Chasing a Phantom of success

Based on "Le Fantôme de l'Opéra," a 1911 novel by the French author of detective fiction, Gaston Leroux, and transformed into a musical composed, co-written and produced by Englishman Andrew Lloyd Webber (now Baron Lloyd-Webber), "The Phantom of the Opera" was first produced in London in 1986 and went...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 23, 2014

Gravitational waves carry clues on big bang

The sighting came from a small telescope on the roof of a laboratory sitting on the ice sheet three-quarters of a mile (1.3 kilometers) from the geographic South Pole.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Mar 23, 2014

Hiroshima International School and Think Global School students mix it up in Multiculturalism 101

With the weak economy resulting in fewer families coming to Japan, international schools here are exploring new ways to attract students.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 22, 2014

Born in Japan, made in America

Although born in Japan, Mariko Nagai, author of the just-published novel-in-verse "Dust of Eden," was raised mostly in Belgium and the United States.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 22, 2014

The Art Lover's Guide to Japanese Museums

JAPAN / History
Mar 22, 2014

The sloughing of Japan's corporate skin goes on

"Man is born free and is everywhere in chains."
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2014

Nuclear-tipped pursuit of an old Eurasian fantasy

Russia's political elites seem far from willing to undertake a makeover in the image of the West. Indeed, their cultural attempt at self-definition compels them to close alliances with China and other Asian countries.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / NET NEWS WATCH
Mar 20, 2014

Did Japan's hallowed cherry trees actually originate in South Korea?

Did Japan’s hallowed cherry trees actually originate South Korea?
LIFE / Digital
Mar 20, 2014

Apathy over Internet snooping is a recipe for disaster

As someone who is supposed to know about these things, I'm sometimes asked to give talks about computing to non-technical audiences. The one thing I have learned from doing this is that if you want people to understand technological ideas then you have to speak to them in terms that resonate with their...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 20, 2014

Giant robots officially fly the flag for cool Japan

With its mountains of public debt, a nuclear meltdown to mop up and the 2020 Olympics bill, you'd think the last thing the Japanese government would be spending taxpayer money on is a study on robots in science fiction.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2014

'Tank girls' lead the charge

Being a soldier in Japan after World War II was seen as a job for failed police recruits and unemployed youths from depressed rural towns.
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Mar 18, 2014

Worlds better held before Olympics as a qualifier

Is a post-Olympic worlds really worthwhile?
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 18, 2014

In Ukraine, Putin eyes a return to glory

As tensions between Russia and the West grew more heated with Vladimir Putin's rapid move Monday to recognize Crimea as an independent state, his actions and motives remain opaque to U.S. and European officials.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Mar 18, 2014

Jackson certain to win in New York like everywhere else

Kobe Bryant for five championships played for Phil Jackson. In his seven seasons playing for coaches other than Jackson he got none.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2014

Is it any wonder students turn to porn to pay college costs?

Writers for American high-end publications are busy slamming and shaming the Duke University freshman who became an adult film actress to pay for the horrendous costs of going to college.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Mar 18, 2014

Feed their tummies and minds with a back-to-school bentō

April marks the start of the school year in Japan. If you're a parent, this may mean that you're faced with the task of making bentō (boxed lunches) for the first time. While bentō are virtually a national institution that come in many formats and are enjoyed by almost everyone, making them for small...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2014

West has the moral authority to criticize Putin

Vladimir Putin, like Nikita Khrushchev in the 1950s, is a hard-eyed realist, more than willing to trade an evanescent moral authority for the reality of actual authority. His bet is that the West is made of words when it comes to its criticism of Russian intervention in Ukraine.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2014

Women taking charge to save the environment

Worldwide there is growing awareness that women must contribute to the identification of environmental problems as well as plan activities geared toward the sustainable development of their communities.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2014

U.S. senator's criticism of bitcoin is misguided for playing down investors' love of the game

It isn't clear why bitcoin deflation matters to the U.S. economy. Goods and services aren't priced in bitcoins. The buyer who 'spends' bitcoins at a restaurant or store is just exchanging them for dollars, which do the buying.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 15, 2014

Portrait of the assassin as a young man

Sometime in the 1970s, as more Americans began to rally against the Vietnam War, an unknown cynic parodied the U.S. Army's promotional recruitment tagline with the slogan, "Join the Army! Travel to unusual places. Meet interesting people, and kill them."

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight