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COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2014

Is Modi too big a man for India?

The biggest problem with the rise of political superhero Narendra Modi is that it follows the 'Big Man' model, which is flawed many times over in the case of diverse India.
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2014

Is it right to describe Israel as an apartheid state?

Although a de facto apartheid already exists in the West Bank, one of reasons to avoid using the term apartheid is that it doesn't start conversations. It ends them.
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2014

Phones may not have the right to remain silent

The U.S. Supreme Court has just heard arguments over whether police should be allowed to search a person's smartphone without a warrant to find evidence relevant to the crime for which he or she is being arrested.
WORLD
May 4, 2014

A glance at the history of Polish immigration to U.K.

Poles are now the second-largest foreign-born group of people in the U.K., with numbers at a record high following Poland's accession to the EU 10 years ago. But the history of Poles in Britain goes back much further.
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2014

The U.S. balancing act in Asia

U.S. President Barack Obama sailed rough waters during his recent trip through four Asian countries, trying to reaffirm Washington's security commitments in the region without antagonizing Beijing.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
May 3, 2014

Does pacifism need an update?

With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe increasingly bent on altering the pacifist Constitution, backers and foes of his revisionist agenda held gatherings on Constitution Day on Saturday to make their voices heard.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 3, 2014

Japan inked: Should the country reclaim its tattoo culture?

Tattooing is the most misunderstood form of art in contemporary Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 3, 2014

Ako: trailing the ghosts of Japan's greatest vendetta

By noon of March 14, 1701, Edo was abuzz with rumors about what had happened earlier, in the "Great Pine Corridor" of the shogun's castle. Officials posted wooden signs around the city stating that Asano Naganori, lord of Ako Domain, had attacked and wounded his former tutor, Kira Yoshihisa.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 3, 2014

Obama's pivot to Asia: Rebalance and reassure

Summits are all about symbolism and optics and on that score U.S. President Barack Obama's swing through Asia was a qualified success. Another few nails were hammered into the coffin of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with officials now edging toward a face saving TPP-Lite, but Americans paid little...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
May 3, 2014

Oysters offer pearls of wisdom within

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, our C.W. Nicol Afan Woodland Trust, based in Kurohime, Nagano Prefecture, has been helping to relocate an elementary school in Miyagi Prefecture that was destroyed by the huge tsunami that followed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 3, 2014

A homage to the 'Queen of Anatahan'

In November 1952, 1,000 Japanese thronged the pier at Yokohama to greet the arrival of the liner Chitose Maru. When one alighting passenger gazed down at them from the gangway, the crowd broke into a cheer. There was something about the kimono-clad woman from Okinawa that mesmerized people. Especially...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
May 3, 2014

Akira

"Kanedaaaa!" "Tetsuoooo!" For a generation of teenagers growing up in the 1990s (this writer included), Katsuhiro Otomo's "Akira" was our gateway drug to the imaginative excesses of Japanese pop culture. With its immaculately rendered visions of high-tech chaos, psychokinetic battles, revolutionary sects...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
May 3, 2014

Neanderthals not incompetent dimwits: study

No offense, but your ancestors probably were no brighter than a Neanderthal.
SOCCER / J. League
May 3, 2014

Kudo goal gives Reysol triumph over Antlers

Masato Kudo scored on the stroke of halftime as Kashiwa Reysol scalped J. League leaders Kashima Antlers 1-0 on Saturday to pick up their third straight win.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 3, 2014

'Reverse DH' adds intrigue to interleague play

The 10th season of interleague play in Japanese pro baseball begins in two weeks with a new twist. For the first time, a "reverse designated hitter" rule will be in place. Instead of the DH being used in games where the Pacific League club is the home team, it will be in effect in Central League parks....
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
May 3, 2014

Jupiter moon's layers bring chance of life

As club sandwiches go, this undoubtedly is the biggest one in the solar system.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 3, 2014

Afghan poll may be headed for runoff

The two leading candidates in the race to become Afghanistan's next president rallied supporters and urged election officials to come clean on fraud on April 27 as the country readied for an expected grueling runoff in June.
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2014

Nightclub beats rap on dancing

In a prod toward a modern legal view of sexual morals, an Osaka nightclub owner beats a charge, based on a 1948 law, of allowing patrons in his club to dance without a special permit for dancing.
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2014

China starts, loses unprovoked Twitter war

China loses an unprovoked war on Twitter after a semi-retired Twitter account of mostly Sinophiles suggests that a solemnly worded Twitter message fron the People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party's official mouthpiece, is a parody.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 3, 2014

Obama, Merkel vow broader Russian sanctions if Ukraine election derailed

U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Russia on Friday it will face additional sanctions against key sectors of its economy if Moscow disrupts Ukraine's plan to hold elections on May 25.
WORLD
May 2, 2014

Saudi Arabia finds 26 more cases of MERS; Egypt reports first

Saudi Arabia said on Thursday the total number of cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, an often deadly new disease, had nearly doubled in the kingdom in April with 26 more infections reported on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 2, 2014

Soviet echoes in Red Square rally

Russia staged a huge May Day parade on Moscow's Red Square for the first time since the Soviet era on Thursday, with workers holding banners proclaiming support for President Vladimir Putin after the seizure of territory from Ukraine.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
May 2, 2014

Senna remembered on 20th anniversary of his death

Thousands of fans joined Formula One drivers past and present on Thursday in marking the 20th anniversary of the death of Ayrton Senna at the Italian circuit where the triple champion crashed 20 years ago.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2014

N. Korea won't disarm nukes so stop pushing it

Why shouldn't the U.S. and South Korea grudgingly accept the North's nuclear weapons status and focus on what they might actually be able to change: Pyongyang's belligerent behavior?
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2014

Freedom of expression under fire in America

If you can lose your job in the U.S. as Mozilla's CEO did — because those in charge found his politics repugnant — there are only two options available to those of us who need to earn a living: Keep our opinions to ourselves, or lie about them.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2014

Can Russia fix its mess in Ukraine?

Russian President Vladimir Putin can neither resolve the crisis in east Ukraine nor admit his powerlessness to end what he started. Kiev needs to find a way to negotiate with the local elite and law enforcers, providing convincing guarantees of safety.
LIFE / Digital
May 2, 2014

The robots are taking over, and it won't be pretty

Not often do you hear a "Newsnight" presenter using an arcane mathematical term, but last week was an exception. The culprit was David Grossman, who made an excellent film for "Newsnight" about the threat to employment from advanced robotics. In the course of this, he made the standard pilgrimage to...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
May 2, 2014

Japan a key battleground for BBC's expansion in Asia

Judging from the activity on the floor at February's BBC Worldwide Showcase in Liverpool, England, television is most definitely not dead. Over 700 buyers and distributors descended on the BT Convention Centre to investigate what was new ("The Game," "The Musketeers") and what was returning from the...
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2014

Third Obama disappointment seems imminent

In the trivial case of the Sino-Japanese dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu isles, there was no cause for President Barack Obama's recent warning to China that the U.S. considers the islands as falling under protection of its Security Treaty signed with Japan in the aftermath of the Second World War. A polite reference to the matter as one for peaceful settlement would have sufficed.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person