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Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Oct 22, 2013

Russia eyeing NSA-like surveillance

Less than three months after granting asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, Russia is preparing to implement the kind of electronic surveillance that Snowden uncovered in the U.S.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 22, 2013

Japan's 'helplessness' crisis

The biggest crisis in Japan's democracy today is that people know the prime minister is telling lies — intentionally or not — but they've given up even imagining alternative ways of politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2013

Asia's (re)invitation to Obama

Mr. President, congratulations on handling the domestic crisis of the government shutdown and debt ceiling. The problem will recur, but most see you as a winner for holding your ground. Now, about that trip you canceled to Asia.
LIFE
Oct 22, 2013

Apathy is the real enemy in NSA affair

One of the most disturbing aspects of the public response to Edward Snowden's revelations about the scale of governmental surveillance is how little public disquiet there appears to be about it. A recent YouGov poll, for example, asked respondents whether the British security services have too many or...
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 22, 2013

Sojitz to invest in Brazil grain firm

Trading house Sojitz Corp. will invest in a Brazilian grain harvester and collector to tap food demand in Asia.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2013

All-English science contest gives young researchers way to connect

When University of Tokyo student Mugiko Komatsuda appeared on stage at a science contest in Tokyo last week, she dazzled the crowd with her self-confidence, resonant voice and radiant smile.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2013

For the GOP to survive, the tea party must die

Tea party supporters think they are fighting for America's Republican soul. If they win, they will drive the party so far from the middle that a GOP president will become unimaginable.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2013

America's reckless financial policy

The U.S. pattern of decision making (or nondecision making) on debt deadlines has already created additional risk and will surely be reflected in upward pressure on interest rates.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 21, 2013

Thatcher-esque disparities a reality under Abe

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe evokes the late Margaret Thatcher as he repeats 'there is no alternative' to his platform of economic change. One of the byproducts: prospects for a Thatcher-type division of wealth.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 20, 2013

You may find mei mystifying

It's almost Halloween again, so before I set out my カボチャ提灯 (kabocha chōchin, jack-o'-lantern), I thought the time is right to take up the topic of 迷信 (meishin, superstition). The first character is 迷, meaning lost or puzzled, made by combining the phonetic 米 (alternatively read mai,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 20, 2013

School aims to give biracial kids a place to 'be themselves'

Melissa Tomlinson doesn't have very happy memories of elementary school. As an 8-year-old, she "never had a chance to eat lunch normally — the other kids put something in it, or they mixed the milk and soup and orange together and told me to eat it."
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2013

Banish the notion of a military solution in Syria

Some people now warn of a 'Lebanonization' of Syria — its partition into quasi-independent regions — which could call the entire post-World War I Middle Eastern state system.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 20, 2013

Femen to take topless protests to United Kingdom

They started out in Ukraine, established a thriving headquarters in Paris and last year succeeded in ambushing a startled Vladimir Putin during a visit to a German trade fair. Now the controversial activists of Femen, notorious for their topless protests on issues such as prostitution, abortion and the...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 20, 2013

Georgian PM's clout unlikely to fade after polls

Georgia's billionaire prime minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili, looks surprised at the suggestion that he might be a touch sensitive to criticism.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 20, 2013

The face of journalism's savior?

By the time Pierre Omidyar was 31, he was, in his own words, not just regular rich but "ridiculous rich." With enough money to make an impact in pretty much any sphere he chooses, the eBay billionaire last week made a splash in an area that is increasingly attracting the attention of tech titans: news....
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 20, 2013

Wildlife victory: shark fin falls from favor in China

Once a rare delicacy served to honored guests, shark fin soup had become so popular among China's fast-growing elite in recent years that it was pushing some shark species close to extinction.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 19, 2013

Tanishige to become rare player-manager for Dragons

Kind of a surprise was the announcement last week that Motonobu Tanishige was named the new manager of the Chunichi Dragons.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 19, 2013

Sado Island: Iconic birds, gold mines, magic caves and art

"The people in our town, they died without ever seeing the ocean."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 19, 2013

Countryside campaigner for us all

In the mid-1970s, Souichi Yamashita, a farmer in northern Kyushu who also writes books about rural Japan, got to know a young man named Yutaka Une.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 19, 2013

On the beat with a cultural detective

The recent success of Barry Lancet, first time author and resident of Japan for over 25 years, reads like a bar-stool fantasy for any wanna-be writer, and Lancet's definitely enjoying the dream-like reality. With the TV rights optioned by Hollywood, positive reviews surging in across the globe, six countries...

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo