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COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2018

China's 'Belt and Road' could be a debt trap

Clearly, the 'Belt and Road' initiative has run into serious problems. Some countries are finding the burden of debt financing too arduous.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 14, 2018

Mami Kosemura says it with flowers

Where Flemish still-life painters combined fruit, vegetables and flowers that could not normally be picked in the same season, and portrayed them together in an imaginary, but highly realistic pictorial space, Kosemura uses contemporary tools to achieve the same with photographic detail.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2018

Two pioneers in the new politics

Britain's Boris Johnson and America's Alex Jones work to create and further the themes and dramas of contemporary populism.
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Aug 4, 2018

There's nothing new about Japan's online backlash against tourists

The internet loves a clapback, so when writer Melissa Martin shared a few snappy responses from a monk named Daniel Kimura to less-than-positive reviews of a temple doubling as lodging on Mount Koya, Twitter embraced it. The tweet garnered more than 17,000 retweets and 38,000 likes, with many digitally...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY
Jul 31, 2018

Time to empower Japan's chief medical officer

Japan needs a Cabinet-level official who can inform national efforts to create best practices for addressing key health concerns.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2018

Protectionism proves that evidence is unpersuasive

Trying to produce prosperity with protectionism is as easy as extracting sunbeams from cucumbers.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 9, 2018

Stop the stupid trade game of chicken!

Washington and Beijing need to come to their senses before they ruin global trade system that has taken decades to build and maintain.
BUSINESS
Jul 4, 2018

China tries to rally Europe in anti-U.S. alliance on trade but finds resistance

China is putting pressure on the European Union to issue a strong joint statement against U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policies at a summit later this month but is facing resistance, European officials said.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 25, 2018

At 180,000 entries, Jim Breen's freeware Japanese dictionary is still growing

Even if they haven't visited Jim Breen's site directly, every Japanese learner will have come across his dictionary material in some form.
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Jun 24, 2018

Kansai entities team up on U.N. development goals as Japan angles for World Expo

When the Group of 20 summit takes place in Osaka a year from now, the bulk of media reporting and commentary will no doubt emphasize what the presidents and prime ministers say about the international financial or geopolitical crisis of the moment, and what dramas are taking place among world leaders...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 22, 2018

Conservative U.S. commentator Charles Krauthammer, a Fox fixture, dies at 68

Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Krauthammer, who gave up a psychiatric career to become one of the leading conservative political commentators in the U.S. media, died on Thursday at the age of 68, the Washington Post and Fox News said.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 18, 2018

China's Huawei rebuts Canberra's security concerns amid Sino-Australian tensions

Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies refuted Australian claims it poses a security risk, calling the criticism "ill-informed" in an open letter on Monday that threatens to inflame already heightened Sino-Canberra tensions.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jun 13, 2018

In wake of summit, Trump says world has avoided 'nuclear catastrophe,' but experts say real work starts now

In the wake of the pageantry surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump's historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, questions over the substance of a vaguely written denuclearization deal lingered as some experts and former officials anticipated how the White House might beef up the bare-bones...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 8, 2018

Shodoshima: Movie history with a side of olives

The Seto Inland Sea's Shodoshima island, with its scenic vistas, beaches, cultivated olives and movie history, is a slice of the Mediterranean in Japan.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 7, 2018

For Abe, Japanese abductees bigger issue than missiles in Trump-Kim summit

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has plenty to worry about ahead of Donald Trump's meeting with Kim Jong Un next week, including the prospect of a deal that undermines Japan's six-decade security alliance with the U.S. and leaves the island nation vulnerable to attack.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 6, 2018

Macron says calls with Trump and others are like sausages — it's better for people not to know what's inside

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday his phone calls with U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders are like sausages — it's better not to reveal the contents.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 6, 2018

U.S. sends B-52 bombers 'in vicinity' of South China Sea amid row over militarization of islets

The U.S. military sent two B-52 heavy bombers for a "routine mission" in the contested South China Sea on Tuesday, just days after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis lambasted Beijing's continued militarization of its outposts in the strategic waterway.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 5, 2018

'Paddington Bear' exhibition tells the story of the most English of Peruvian bears

Ten years after the HMT Empire Windrush brought Britain's first major influx of West Indian immigrants to the United Kingdom, and 10 years before Conservative MP Enoch Powell made his famously inflammatory speech predicting "rivers of blood" if Britain allowed mass migration, a fictional Peruvian orphan...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 4, 2018

U.S. allies push Trump for change of heart as trade war looms

U.S. President Donald Trump is headed for a showdown with America's allies at a Group of Seven summit this week in Quebec, with the European Union and Canada threatening retaliatory measures unless he reverses course on new steel and aluminum levies.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2018

'Fake news' laws are a fake solution

In the waning days of Malaysia's recent election campaign, then-opposition leader Mahathir Mohamad was investigated under the country's anti-fake news law.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 26, 2018

Commenting on the debate over hate speech on government websites

On May 2, the Cabinet Office removed the posts on its Government Monitor System (GMS) website, a place where citizens offered comments on government policy. The system was established in 1962 to solicit opinions from the public about government policy, but until 2012 it was a snail mail operation. Thereafter,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 25, 2018

Tesla boss Elon Musk bashes media, proposes credibility check and gains Twitter fans

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk gained the support Thursday of more than half a million people on Twitter for plans to create a website evaluating journalists' credibility, spurred by his frustration over media reports about the electric carmaker.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2018

The art of unraveling a potential deal

At a time when even U.S. allies are finding it difficult to rely on an unpredictable and capricious Trump administration, Kim's strategy will likely seek to safeguard his nuclear 'crown jewels' for the time being.
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2018

The return of the old capitalism?

Compared with those of the 19th century, many of today's economic advances and upheavals seem mild.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 19, 2018

Trump nominates Pacific Command chief Harry Harris to be South Korean ambassador

The White House formally nominated Pacific Command chief Adm. Harry Harris on Friday to fill the long-vacant post of ambassador to South Korea, as the U.S. gears up for the planned first-ever talks between a sitting American president and a North Korean leader on June 12 in Singapore.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 16, 2018

North Korean ruling party newspaper rips Japan as 'desperate' amid detente, urges end to 'hostile policy'

North Korea's ruling party newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, has lashed out at attempts by Tokyo to urge Washington to address its nuclear and missile programs at a planned U.S.-North Korea summit, calling the moves "desperate efforts" by a "trouble-maker creating only complexities" on Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / WORKS BY JAPANESE WOMEN
May 12, 2018

Where would we be without the words of Japanese women?

Often overlooked, female writers in Japan, such as Ichiyo Higuchi and Raicho Hiratsuka, have a staying power that surpasses their male contemporaries. To help amplify these female voices, over the next few months we'll be highlighting some of the lesser read in translation but equally deserving Japanese female writers.
CULTURE / Books / RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS ABOUT JAPAN
May 12, 2018

'Ask A North Korean' gets its answers from the source

Daniel Tudor's 'Ask A North Korean' is testimony that ordinary North Koreans have more in common with the rest of us than many would have you believe.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami