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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 11, 2017

Foreign workers: Should they stay or should they go?

As the rest of the world debated the ramifications of U.S. President Donald Trump's travel ban on persons from seven Muslim-majority countries last week, Japan was notably silent.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 11, 2017

'Japanese Robot Culture: Performance, Imagination and Modernity': Yuji Sone examines the enduring love of robots

It is an experience many in Japan now know: a visit to a SoftBank mobile phone vendor that ends in an attempt to converse with a small, white machine called Pepper.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 11, 2017

Dealing with Taiwan's nightmares past and present

On Feb. 28, Taiwan will commemorate the 70th anniversary of what is known as the 2.28 Incident, when Taiwanese rioted against mainlanders from the Kuomintang (KMT) who had taken over control of the island when the Japanese departed in 1945 following their defeat in World War II.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Feb 11, 2017

'Into a Black Sun: Vietnam 1964-65': Takeshi Kaiko turns his reporting experience into fiction

Journalist Takeshi Kaiko covered the Vietnam War for the Asahi Shimbun, later fictionalizing his experiences in this novel about a Japanese journalist in Saigon and the Vietnamese jungle.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2017

Cobra Gold set to shift order in Southeast Asia

The U.S. is signaling rekindled interest in Thailand, with the aim of keeping it out of China's camp.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2017

Trump's tough talk on Iran doomed to backfire

Donald Trump's antagonism against Iran will ultimately hamper his ability to confront Islamic State and other jihadis — his No. 1 enemy.
SOCCER
Feb 10, 2017

British Parliament rebukes F.A.

England's Football Association lost a confidence vote among U.K. lawmakers, who put soccer's governing body on notice and said they're prepared to impose reforms.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 10, 2017

Business leaders critical of Abe's overtures to Trump

Senior business leaders, former diplomats and government advisers, and national security experts Friday warned that while Japan's relationship with the United States is the foundation for regional security, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's attempts to forge a close relationship with U.S. President Donald...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 10, 2017

U.S., Chinese military planes in 'unsafe' encounter over disputed South China Sea

A U.S. Navy reconnaissance aircraft and a Chinese military plane were involved in an "unsafe" encounter earlier this week in international airspace over the disputed South China Sea, the U.S. Pacific Command said Friday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 10, 2017

European nations worry about spread of deadly diseases from overseas

Europe is facing a growing risk of new disease outbreaks — which may prove difficult to quickly detect and stop — as rising temperatures make the region more vulnerable to illnesses brought in by travelers and trade, a leading health expert has warned.
BUSINESS
Feb 10, 2017

China's exports and imports rose in January and trade gap with U.S. eased, preliminary data show

China reported better-than-expected trade data for January as demand picked up both at home and abroad, an encouraging start to 2017 for the world's largest trading nation even as Asia's exporters brace for a rise in U.S. protectionism.
Reader Mail
Feb 10, 2017

Pacific War book review falls short

While I am grateful to The Japan Times for reviewing my book, "International Relations and the Origins of the Pacific War" in the Feb. 5 edition, I take exception to some of the criticisms leveled against my book by the reviewer, particularly toward the unequivocal comment that my chronological narrative...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 10, 2017

When Putin asked about Obama-era nuke treaty, Trump was stumped, then denounced it: sources

In his first call as president with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump denounced a treaty that caps U.S. and Russian deployment of nuclear warheads as a bad deal for the United States, according to two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official with knowledge of the call.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 9, 2017

Can golf diplomacy help Abe score win-win on trade and defense?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is betting a round of golf with President Donald Trump will help protect Japan's crucial auto industry and strengthen defense ties with the U.S.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 9, 2017

Smoking ban in public facilities would infringe on constitutional rights, say LDP lawmakers

Members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party lash out at the health ministry's proposed smoking ban for public facilities, complicating the nationwide effort to stamp out secondhand smoke.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 9, 2017

What Japan should know about the Abe-Trump summit

Ultimately Japan will need to choose between over-committing to Trump for the sake of maintaining good relations, or tolerating Trump's anger and all that may come with it.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 9, 2017

More than 1,000 feared killed in Myanmar crackdown on Rohingya, U.N. officials say

More than 1,000 Rohingya Muslims may have been killed in a Myanmar army crackdown, according to two senior United Nations officials dealing with refugees fleeing the violence, suggesting the death toll has been a far greater than previously reported.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2017

Rural Japan's folk traditions fading as residents age

Traditions die hard in the small mountain town of Kanegasaki, whose history includes a series of battles nearly 1,000 years ago that drove an ancestor of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to leave the area for southern Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EMBASSY AVENUE
Feb 9, 2017

Late Thai king honored in Buddhist service

The 100-day Merit-making Grand Ceremony dedicated to His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand was conducted Saturday at The Royal Grand Hall of Buddhism at the Nenbutsushu Sampozan Muryojuji Head Temple in Kato, Hyogo Prefecture.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2017

Trump shows how social media can hurt democracy

Social media is amplifying the sway of the powerful.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2017

'Green Room': Saulnier runs a red light on violence

The opening aerial shot of "Green Room" soars over the wavy green mass of an Oregon cornfield, before finding a swath through it where a van has swerved off the highway. Inside the van, so shabby you can practically smell the stale beer and B.O., four members of a rough-living punk band, The Ain't Rights,...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past