Search - world

 
 
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 7, 2014

New SDF unit shores up thinly protected cyberborders

Japan has embarked on an effort to improve cybersecurity as an ever-increasing number of sophisticated computer viruses threaten to endanger national security.
EDITORIALS
Apr 7, 2014

Taiwan's 'sunflowers' bloom

A student-led occupation of the Taiwanese government's legislature to protest a cross-strait trade agreement — which is the centerpiece of President Ma Ying-jeou's political and economic agenda — enters its third week.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2014

Recep Erdogan's pyrrhic victory

The triumph of Turkey's beleaguered Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party in last week's local elections is unlikely to ameliorate the country's internal conflicts, much less revive its tarnished international standing.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2014

Language of Indian politics

Even those Indians who are assumed will automatically vote their caste in the current election have choices and will make a number of fairly sophisticated mental trade-offs.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2014

Voters do not deserve blame for low turnout

There was a time in America when political activitists used to say that a candidate whose main strategy was to talk about how rotten the other side was wasn't worth a vote. Can the today's voters who share that sentiment be blamed for not voting on Nov. 4?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Apr 6, 2014

California gurus find success via celebrities

Even in California, where people come to convince themselves of just about anything, it is not common for a celebrity couple on the verge of divorce to declare undying love and say they are closer now than ever.
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 6, 2014

Kashiwa outclasses Cerezo's stars

Kashiwa Reysol gave Cerezo Osaka's much-vaunted strike force a lesson in clinical finishing with a 2-1 win over the preseason J. League title favorites on Sunday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Apr 6, 2014

Read up on ways that can help us learn English

Public libraries are important community resources across Japan, but while English is taught from fifth grade, those hoping to find a ready stash of English-language reading material may be disappointed.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2014

Kerry sees efforts thwarted by the Middle East

It appears as if the latest U.S. attempt to make the Palestinians and Israelis embrace reason toward a peace deal is failing. God bless U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for trying.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 5, 2014

Taking a walk down felony lane

As part of the commemoration of the 140th anniversary of the Metropolitan Police Department, monthly magazine Bungei Shunju polled some 50,000 active-duty policemen on the 100 most significant crimes, incidents and disasters since 1874. The magazine received approximately 45,000 responses, and published...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 5, 2014

The Art of The Wind Rises

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 5, 2014

Lessons of Fukushima: Reactor restarts are unwise

Kyle Cleveland, my colleague at Temple University Japan, recently published a report in the online Asia-Pacific Journal, "Mobilizing Nuclear Bias: The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis and the Politics of Uncertainty" that has drawn widespread media attention. Based on numerous interviews with government officials,...
EDITORIALS
Apr 5, 2014

Steps to fight Net child porn

Police in April started increaseing cooperation with Internet service providers to help contain the distribution of child pornography in and from Japan, which has long been criticized for not taking strict enough measures,
EDITORIALS
Apr 5, 2014

Japan trails in new drug trials

Japan ranks far behind other countries in conducting clinical trials for new drugs. The problem is not the size of Japan's population.
COMMENTARY
Apr 5, 2014

The futility of torture to obtain information

Fom the most unexpected source — the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee — we now have the conclusion that torture, or 'enhanced interrogation techniques,' did not help the American government find Osama bin Laden in May 2011.
Reader Mail
Apr 5, 2014

A hyped story never trumps truthful report

Regarding Michael Hoffman’s March 30 Big in Japan column titled “The truth is, we have gotten too used to lying” [which concerns the media frenzy over the suspicion that Dr. Haruko Obokata manipulated data in her research papers describing a new, simple method for producing pluripotent cells]:...
BUSINESS
Apr 4, 2014

Toyota's N. America chief bullish on fuel cell sedan advances

Toyota Motor Corp.'s North American chief, preparing to sell Camry-sized hydrogen sedans next year, said he's "bullish" about advances in the company's fuel cell system and wants more U.S. supply of the Japan-built cars.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 4, 2014

Abe may reduce tax benefits for women

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's reflation campaign last year helped draw the most women to work since 1991. He now plans to add a stick to that carrot, scaling back tax benefits for spouses with limited earnings.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 4, 2014

South Korea extending ballistic missile range to counter North's threat

South Korea has test-fired a new ballistic missile with a range of 500 kilometers (310 miles) and will try to extend the range to 800 kilometers so it can strike any site in North Korea, Seoul said Friday, days after Pyongyang fired a midrange missile.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 4, 2014

Review: The Soldier's Tale at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Recital Hall

Igor Stravinsky's "The Soldier's Tale" remains as thought-provoking a piece today as it was in 1918, when it was created just after World War I.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 4, 2014

'Special K' could treat depression

The party drug ketamine could one day be used to help some people suffering from severe depression, according to British scientists who gave infusions of the narcotic, nicknamed "Special K," to patients.
LIFE / Digital
Apr 4, 2014

Obama's promise to prevent NSA spying rings hollow

Last week in the Hague, Barack Obama seemed to have suddenly remembered the oath he swore on his inauguration as president — that stuff about preserving, protecting and defending the constitution of the United States. At any rate, he announced that the NSA would end the "bulk collection" of telephone...
EDITORIALS
Apr 4, 2014

Opportunity to rethink whaling

The government should take the International Court of Justice's ruling against Japan's Antarctic whaling activities as a cue to work out ways to balance declining consumer demand for whale meat with the desire of some to preserve the nation's whaling tradition.
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2014

Scotland: a nation, not a region

For Scotland, independence — the question in September's referendum — is about democracy not nationalism. It's about righting the wrongs of a country living its life as a region.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2014

The New Yorker is bad for cartooning

Writer-cartoonist says The New Yorker magazine prints a lot of awful cartoons, yet uses its reputation in order to elevate terrible work as the profession's platinum standard.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Apr 4, 2014

U.S. Senate panel votes to declassify report on CIA interrogations

The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee voted Thursday to declassify its long-awaited report on the CIA's use of brutal interrogation methods that critics say amount to torture.

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