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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 22, 2018

Ask voters if they want more driverless cars

The ugly optics of the Uber self-driving car accident in Tempe highlight bigger ethical problems with the technology.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / Deep Dive
Mar 20, 2018

Children of condemned Aum guru Shoko Asahara reviled by society as criminals

In the early hours of May 16, 1995, police raided the Aum Shinrikyo cult's facilities in Kamikuishiki, Yamanashi Prefecture. At 9:45 a.m., cult founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, was arrested and taken into custody.
LIFE / Language / NEWS IN NIHONGO
Mar 19, 2018

Protests outside Diet continue over Moritomo Gakuen scandal

A rally is held in front of the Diet to protest the approval of falsified documents concerning school operator Moritomo Gakuen.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Mar 19, 2018

Aichi finds wartime elementary school teaching materials

Teaching materials for third-year students who attended Kokumin Gakko (equivalent to a modern-day elementary school) in Aichi Prefecture during the Pacific War have been discovered in Aisai, Aichi Prefecture.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Mar 18, 2018

Go west to enjoy a family hanami party

At last, winter's grip is loosening and spring in Japan is on its way. Soon cherry blossoms will explode across the archipelago, and parks around the country will be full of smiles and picnic tarps. That's right: it's hanami (cherry-blossom viewing) season again — my favorite time of the year.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Mar 18, 2018

Fukushima professor develops rubber that can make and store power from light and vibration

Kunio Shimada, a professor of fluid mechanics and energy engineering at Fukushima University, has developed a special rubber that can generate electricity from solar and kinetic energy and save the power generated.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Mar 17, 2018

Reactions to GoPro sushi train video reflect gaps in etiquette between East and West

Every piece of content on the internet can be divisive these days, even the innocuous stuff. This truism was on full display over the past week and a half thanks to a now-removed YouTube video set in a Tokyo sushi restaurant, which charmed many Western viewers and angered a few Japanese.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / View from Osaka
Mar 17, 2018

Moritomo scandal threatens Osaka leaders too

"A man once thoroughly endued with these three qualities of lying, impudence, and ingratitude will, I believe, scarce want any other titles to preferment and grandeur." — Henry Fielding, from a satirical article on the traits of successful politicians, 1740
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 15, 2018

Brooklyn sale by Kushner family firm, at 60% premium, linked to NTT — one-third owned by Japan's government

Two months after Jared Kushner joined the White House as a senior adviser, his family firm sold a stake in a Brooklyn building to a unit of a company whose largest shareholder is the government of Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 14, 2018

Only Putin could be behind U.K. poison attack: 'incurable' toxin's exiled co-developer

A Russian chemist who helped develop the Soviet-era nerve agent used to poison a former Russian double agent in southern England said only the Russian government could have carried out the attack with such a deadly and advanced toxin.
LIFE / Language / NEWS IN NIHONGO
Mar 12, 2018

Huis Ten Bosch debuts aquatic pod hotel

Huis Ten Bosch in Nagasaki Prefecture has introduced its new traveling pod hotel room, designed to float at sea, to the media.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Mar 12, 2018

Aichi farm machinery firm taps foreign talent in the region to drive overseas sales

Kohshin Engineering Co., which produces and sells agricultural equipment for poultry farming, has successfully expanded its overseas sales by hiring foreign employees.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 10, 2018

Seeking solace in Tohoku's poets of old

On Oct. 11, 2011, seven months to the day after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami struck the Tohoku region, I stood beside the sole surviving pine tree from a 350-year-old forest of approximately 70,000 similar trees on the coastline of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture. In the months following the...
Reader Mail
Mar 9, 2018

Trump tariffs risk repeat of 1920s trade war

The article "Trump: 'Trade wars are good, and easy to win' " (March 3) shows how driven the myopic U.S. president is to fulfill a campaign promise by imposing steep tariffs on steel and aluminum. History shows, however, that such radically unconservative protectionism risks igniting the same sort of...
Reader Mail
Mar 9, 2018

King's message still resonates

The article "Japan still has much to learn from Martin Luther King's nonviolent struggle" in the Jan. 15 edition) made me ponder Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolence.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 8, 2018

Trump asked witnesses what they discussed with special counsel Robert Mueller: NYT

The U.S. special counsel in the Russian election meddling investigation has learned of two conversations in which President Donald Trump asked witnesses about matters discussed with investigators, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 8, 2018

Myanmar police witness testifies arrested Reuters reporter's home was searched 'for news'

Police in Myanmar searched the family home of Reuters reporter Wa Lone looking for material "related to news" the night after he and a colleague were arrested on suspicion of violating the Official Secrets Act, an officer told a court on Wednesday.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 7, 2018

Allow different surnames for married couples

Japan is the sole country in which husband and wife are legally obliged to use the same surname. This should change.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 7, 2018

Clint Eastwood's Japan critics are always there to make his day

"Everybody knocks out a flop every now and then," quipped Clint Eastwood during a recent interview to promote his latest movie, "The 15:17 to Paris."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Mar 7, 2018

Foreign tourists push up Okinawa lobster prices, putting delicacy out of reach for many local residents

Chinese tourists, who tend to have a big appetite for shellfish, have increasingly pushed up prices for Ise-ebi (Japanese spiny lobster) in Okinawa fish markets to the point that many local residents can no longer afford the delicacy.
JAPAN / YEN FOR LIVING
Mar 7, 2018

Shrine murder highlights huge amount of cash — most of it off-book — raked in by Japan's religious sites

In December, the former gūji (head priest) of Tokyo's famous Tomioka Hachimangu Shrine allegedly murdered his sister before committing suicide. Later, it was reported by various media that the suspect, Shigenaga Tomioka, had taken over the position from his father in 1995, but apparently the father...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Mar 6, 2018

Did ¥550 million from Japan fill Kim's coffers?

It's likely that illicit money transfers were made from Japan to North Korea. But the FSA and the Finance Ministry are keeping mum on the incident.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Mar 6, 2018

Solemn Peace Park belies trove of buried A-bomb artifacts

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, located in Naka Ward, was full of international visitors during the New Year's holiday. Some were from America and Europe, others were Chinese speakers and women from Islamic nations could also be seen. People stood in line to pray before the Cenotaph for the A-bomb...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 5, 2018

Japanese firms must adapt to new national security economy

Economic statecraft for political purposes is the new coin of the realm, and Japan needs to adapt.
LIFE / Language / NEWS IN NIHONGO
Mar 5, 2018

Environment Ministry revises pet disaster aid policy

The government has released new guidelines on the issue of what to do with pets during a disaster.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 5, 2018

BOJ chief faces tougher second term as reality of monetary easing program sinks in

Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda will face more severe challenges from the central bank's radical strategy for stoking 2 percent inflation and plans to unwind it.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Mar 5, 2018

Chubu Electric tests mobile payment app as prelude to blockchain-based energy marketplace

Chubu Electric Power Co. has developed a mobile payment app for virtual currencies, and has started testing it in-house with employees using it to purchase coffee.
WORLD
Mar 4, 2018

Polish group sues Argentine paper under new Holocaust law

A Polish campaign group is suing an Argentinian newspaper it says breached a new law that makes it a criminal offense to suggest Poland was complicit in the Holocaust.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 3, 2018

LDP action plan to call for strong push to revise Constitution: draft

The Liberal Democratic Party's 2018 action plan calls for holding Japan's first referendum on revising the Constitution and raising public debate on the issue.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes