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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 11, 2017

Secondhand bookshop exorcizing ghosts of the past

The first floor of the crumbling art deco building where my daughter lives in Riga, Latvia, houses a well-patronized secondhand English bookstore. I've bought several titles there. It led me to wondering why a business of this kind, a social space for readers, can thrive in the tiny Latvian capital,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 11, 2017

Views from Nagoya: What are your resolutions and/or hopes for 2017?

Stephen Carr asked people in Sakae, the entertainment district of Nagoya, what their resolutions and/or hopes were for 2017.
EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2017

Trump meddling in Toyota's affairs

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's tweet criticizing Toyota Motor Corp.'s plan to build a new car plant in Mexico for exports to the North American market — threatening a heavy border tax if the top Japanese automaker goes ahead with the plan — is an unacceptable act of intervention in private-sector...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 11, 2017

The messy march of folly to Brexit and beyond

Barbara Tuchman published her masterpiece, "The March of Folly," in 1984. It explored what the American writer and historian called "one of the most compelling paradoxes of history: the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests." Today she might have explored the march of folly...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2017

Japanese women see aspirational qualities in 'de facto first lady' Ivanka Trump

Miyu Toyonaga was thrilled when she discovered who had visited her Instagram account last April. It was Ivanka Trump, her fashion icon, and she had liked a photo of Toyonaga with a leather clutch purse from Ivanka's namesake brand.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 11, 2017

NRG, JX Nippon open $1 billion clean coal power project in Texas

U.S. power generator NRG Energy Inc. and Japanese energy producer JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp. have finished the world's largest system to capture carbon dioxide produced from burning coal at a power plant.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 11, 2017

Trump taps skeptic Kennedy to launch review of vaccines

Vaccination skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he will oversee a presidential panel to review vaccine safety and science at the request of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, in a move likely to reignite debate over now-debunked research that tied childhood immunizations to autism.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 11, 2017

Obama pushes U.S. values and prods Trump in final, emotional address

With a final call of his campaign mantra "Yes We Can," President Barack Obama urged Americans on Tuesday to stand up for U.S. values and reject discrimination as the United States transitions to the presidency of Republican Donald Trump.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 11, 2017

Kerry snipes at Trump's tweets, picks' lack of accountability, warns of 'authoritarian populism'

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday warned of the dangers of authoritarian populism and offered a thinly veiled critique of Donald Trump's prolific use of Twitter, saying it allowed the president-elect to avoid accountability.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 11, 2017

SoftBank's Son cedes to Murdoch as top India home, property portals merge

Indian real estate websites PropTiger.com and Housing.com are merging to create the country's top portal for residential listings and property services, as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. boosts its investment in the growing sector while Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Group Corp. scales back.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 10, 2017

Trump pulled out of project in ex-Soviet Georgia to avoid conflict of interest: ex-partner

The Trump Organization pulled out of a $250 million real estate project in ex-Soviet Georgia to avoid a potential conflict with Donald Trump's role as president, Trump's former business partner in the project said.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Jan 10, 2017

U.S. carrier's deployment to turbulent Asia could be test of Trump's China, North Korea policies

Will the symbols of American and Chinese naval might meet in the waters of the disputed South China Sea soon? Probably not.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2017

The line between free speech and fake news

Fake news poses a threat to democratic institutions.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2017

Learning to bow: Japan reluctantly opens door to foreign housemaids

In a Japanese-style apartment, Maria Del Bago learns how to properly bow, clean traditional tatami floor-matting and decipher instructions for a high-tech toilet.
LIFE / Language
Jan 9, 2017

Feel young again with the 'yokozuna' products of last year

Back in 1971, a newly launched newspaper covering retailing and distribution, named the 日経流通新聞 (Nikkei Ryūtsū Shimbun, subsequently named Nikkei Marketing Journal), was looking for a promotional idea. It came up with a real winner by mimicking a 相撲番付 (sumō banzuke, a stylized hierarchical...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2017

China shouldn't burn its 40-ton ivory stockpile

Despite the visceral appeal, 30 years of burning hasn't appreciably reduced elephant kills or ivory consumption. In fact, it likely raises its value on the black market.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jan 9, 2017

Gifu college to restore Nagoya's treasured 1935 Benz fire engine

Nagoya has contracted Nakanihon Automotive College in Sakahogi, Gifu Prefecture, to repair a Mercedes-Benz firetruck from 1935 in its possession.
BASEBALL
Jan 9, 2017

Former MLB great Ramirez reaches agreement with Kochi

Former MLB star Manny Ramirez is on his way to Japanese baseball after Monday's announcement that the 44-year-old slugger had reached an agreement with the Kochi Fighting Dogs of the independent four-team Shikoku Island League Plus.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 9, 2017

Tillerson ethics plan foreshadows knotty Trump Cabinet confirmations

Rex Tillerson's disclosure that he stands to receive a $180 million cash payout from Exxon Mobil Corp. if he becomes the next U.S. secretary of state offers a preview of the thorny ethical questions that may be raised this week over a presidential Cabinet stacked with wealthy tycoons.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 9, 2017

Trump's defense pick Mattis to forfeit unvested options if confirmed

Retired U.S. Marine Gen. James Mattis will step down from his board position at General Dynamics Corp. and give up unvested equity awards if confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump's defense secretary, according to a letter submitted to the Defense Department's ethics lawyer.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 9, 2017

Sri Lanka puts down protests at planned China-led investment zone

Sri Lankan police used tear gas and water cannons on Saturday to disperse hundreds of stone-throwing demonstrators protesting a planned investment zone supported by China.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 8, 2017

Mugi Kadowaki's manga musical tackles love in the time of AI

As an actress, Mugi Kadowaki has been asked to step outside of her comfort zone more than once. Maybe that is how she has found herself currently starring in her first-ever musical.
EDITORIALS
Jan 8, 2017

Energy policy needs overhaul

Japan's energy policy is at a crossroads. The government's basic energy plan revised in 2014 — after the March 2011 triple meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima No. 1 plant led to the shutdown of most of the nation's nuclear power reactors — continued the heavy reliance on nuclear power and...
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 8, 2017

Myanmar faces danger from IS militants, Malaysian police say

Myanmar faces a growing danger of attacks by foreign supporters of the Islamic State group recruited from Southeast Asian networks in support of persecuted Muslim Rohingyas, Malaysia's top counterterrorism official has said.

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