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COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 27, 2013

Abe's fixations threaten newfound unified approach on North Korea

Just as U.S. President Barack Obama seeks a united front to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe threatens to go rogue.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2013

Five myths about the National Security Agency

One common denominator of NSA whistleblowers is that they feel ignored when attempting to bring illegal or unethical operations to the attention of higher-ups.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2013

Saudi Arabia backsliding on women's rights

The trumped-up case in which two leading Saudi activists for women's rights were sentenced to prison is a symptom of the kingdom's regression on human rights.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2013

Turkey's turn to fight over future

The protests in Turkey now involve an extraordinary diverse group. They are said to pit secularists against Islamists and authoritarians against democrats.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Jun 26, 2013

Drumming helps those with dementia reconnect

Standing in a room full of lined faces, Alan Yellowitz held up an orange drum shaped like a wineglass. "This one's called a djembe," he said. "It's from Ghana."
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 26, 2013

Move by Rivers once unimaginable

Duck, duck your head! Pigs are flying!
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2013

James Gandolfini and the art of 'The Sopranos'

James Gandolfini's legacy will remain a cascade of popular television programs that people who search for quality aren't embarrassed about to watch and debate.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 25, 2013

Authors take polar-opposite tacks as they try to decipher Japanese women

It's an all-too-familiar story: On the romantic front, foreign ladies living in Japan have it bad while the guys do unbelievably well. For every woman who complains about Japanese men's aloofness and lack of communication skills, there is a man who boasts about all the local chicks he's had.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 25, 2013

Tokyo: Do you think conscription — in Japan or elsewhere — is a good thing or a bad idea?

I think conscription is a bad idea because we always say people are equal and can do what they want, and I myself am all for liberty and freedom of choice. To that end, people, whoever they are, must be able to do what they want, and if they don't want to [join the military], that is quite alright.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 23, 2013

Taking the long Trans-Siberian road to Japan

In the late summer of 2009, while standing hung over on a pier at Fushiki Port in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, one of those little-visited industrial cities on the west coast of Honshu, I suddenly found myself staring into the eyes of a tiger. This came as no surprise: It seemed a quite proper way to...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 23, 2013

Jellyfish carry the sting of human overcrowding

It may not be immediately apparent what jellyfish, human population growth and our protein diet have in common. Take a closer look, though, and all three offer warning signs that dramatic changes are on the horizon for us and our planet.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 23, 2013

'Hate speech' in the media, but not the legal code

This writer, on previous occasions, has expressed irritation over the recent tendency for the vernacular media to rely heavily on English borrowings for neologisms with socially negative connotations, such as sexual harassment, stalking and domestic violence — to name three examples.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 23, 2013

French high school curriculum includes pitfalls U.S. should try to avoid with its Common Core

The rigorous French high school curriculum comes with pitfalls that the U.S. should try to avoid as it introduces a Common Core of national standards.
Reader Mail
Jun 23, 2013

Term likens 'slaves' to livestock

The author of the June 12 article "San Francisco spurned Hashimoto amid sex slave outrage" might want to reconsider his choice of words in the last paragraph. One might "round up" cattle to be inspected or branded; one does not "round up" terrified young women to "serve as sex slaves in brothels serving...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 22, 2013

Robotics about to transform our notion of what is 'human'

Bertolt Meyer is used to being viewed as not fully human. Born with a stump where his left hand should have been, he spent his childhood wearing a hook connected to an elaborate pulley and harness. "To open the hook and grasp things I had to flex my shoulders like this," he says, striking a he-man pose....
Events / Events In Tokyo
Jun 21, 2013

Irish poet to be focus of Yeats Day at Waseda

One of the first attempts to combine the literary traditions of the English and Japanese languages occurred in 1916, when Irish poet William Butler Yeats tried his hand at a noh play. The result, "At the Hawk's Well," tells the story of a mythological hero Cuchulain, but it's best known for its masked...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2013

Gene patent decision on shaky scientific ground

In its split decision over gene patents, the U.S. Supreme Court was trying to protect big pharma and the U.S. economy without offending basic principles of ethics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 20, 2013

'Let's go to the museum'

Miffy — the iconic cartoon rabbit — is Dick Bruna's most famous character to date and is the the focus of the Himeji Museum of Art's exhibition, which aims to introduce visitors to modern art in a fun way.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2013

Putting to rest five myths about personal privacy

Americans don't have to choose between privacy and terror prevention. They do have to decide how much accountability to demand of government surveillance.
WORLD
Jun 18, 2013

U.S. shad catch limited in bid to restore stocks

If things were this bad in the late 1770s, George Washington's starving Continental Army might never have made it out of Valley Forge.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2013

Southeast Asian leadership without hegemony

Whether it is the United States now, or China later, Asia is searching for a model of regional leadership that goes beyond the hegemony of any one power.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 12, 2013

Erving as responsible for NBA's success as anybody

The legendary Dr. J left a lasting impression on the NBA.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2013

Syria bleeds as West watches

The only proper response to those who fret about 'where do you stop?' if the international community intervenes in the Syrian conflict is 'when do you start
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Jun 12, 2013

Once a young phenom, Matsui now a veteran leader for upstart Eagles

The plays aren't as flashy or spectacular as they used to be, but Kazuo Matsui still makes them.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2013

U.S. intelligence is too dependent on technology

The National Security Agency, now constructing a massive data-storage facility that presumably will chew through everything we say, needs to be reined in.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 11, 2013

Five myths about the legalization of marijuana

With 16 U.S. states having decriminalized or legalized cannabis for non-medical use and eight more heading toward some kind of legalization, federal prohibition's days seem numbered.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 9, 2013

Dark sides of Toyota's drive to be No. 1

Like most corporate giants, Toyota isn't all squeaky clean. Yet in their book 'Toyota no Shotai' ('The True Colors of Toyota') published in Japanese in 2006, Hajime Yokota and Makoto Sataka catalog the Japanese media's timidity when it comes to covering the nation's top advertiser.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 9, 2013

Unraveling the mystery of male birds' missing members

How the chicken lost its penis: It sounds like a weird cousin of one of Rudyard Kipling's 'Just So Stories for Little Children' from 1902, which featured 'How the Leopard Got His Spots' and 'How the Camel Got His Hump.'

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.