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COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2013

Harder battle over Benghazi

Many conservatives suspect that the U.S. State Department, with the White House in a supporting role, deceived the public about the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. This conspiratorial narrative is, in all probability, false.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 30, 2013

Obama to pick Bush official to head FBI

U.S. President Barack Obama plans to nominate James Comey, a former senior official in the George W. Bush administration, to replace Robert S. Mueller III as FBI director.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2013

Art born from the disingenuous

The most radical force in art is not, as most people assume, genius, inspiration or sheer talent, it is instead a lack of technical ability. Combined with a strong desire to be an artist, this can prove to be a powerful driver of change and innovation, as revealed by "Odilon Redon: The Origins of the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
May 30, 2013

Linguistic choices can be an artistic or cultural statement for Japanese musicians

On May 14, singer-songwriter Satoru Ono released a vinyl single titled "All My Colours." Anyone who knows Ono's work would have found themselves on familiar ground with the two tracks, in their mix of 1980s U.K. indie and '90s Japanese neo-acoustic pop, delivered with a classic pop craftsman's hand....
CULTURE / Music
May 30, 2013

Is the stream less green than CDs, albums?

Technology changes everything, but it seems to change music the most. Four or five generations of recorded music technology have passed in my lifetime. As a child, I listened to Marlo Thomas's "Free to Be You and Me" on vinyl. During middle school, I bought Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock on cassette. Then...
Reader Mail
May 30, 2013

The power of ideas over time

In his May 23 letter, "Watching what the church does," Barry Ward cannot refute Jennifer Kim's comments (May 16 letter, "Catholic link to human rights"), which show the debt owed by modern human rights conventions to Judeo-Christian teaching. So, instead, Ward fumes over historical wrongs committed by...
Reader Mail
May 30, 2013

Perception of a poisoned ocean

Regarding the May 22 Kyodo article "Researchers find high cesium in some Pacific plankton": Even small amounts of radioactivity in plankton are a big problem because of bio-magnification, as it travels up the food chain as larger animals eat smaller animals.
Reader Mail
May 30, 2013

Nature will be last to weigh in

Regarding Kevin Rafferty's May 21 article, "Weep for poor Earth itself": Why weep for poor Earth? It's a planet with a 4-billion-year history despite what evangelical rightwing Christians would have us believe. Earth has weathered far worse than anything a naked, bipedal primate, known as homo sapiens,...
EDITORIALS
May 29, 2013

Mayor's spin deepens suspicions

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's attempt to spin his earlier remarks about Japan's wartime sex slave system deepens suspicions about his fitness for public office.
Japan Times
JAPAN / NURTURING PARTNERSHIPS
May 29, 2013

Coming together to move Africa forward

The Tokyo International Conference on African Development is a great opportunity for Japan to expand its business in Africa, as the resource-rich continent begins to shed its dependence on aid to emerge as an attractive consumer market and a swelling population, according to the Foreign Ministry's ambassador...
Japan Times
JAPAN / NURTURING PARTNERSHIPS
May 29, 2013

Envoy to investors: Look outside conflict box, think fast

The government should encourage Japan's private sector to invest more money and at a faster pace in Africa despite the security concerns that have plagued the continent, Ethiopian Ambassador Markos Tekle Rike said ahead of the fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, which kicks off...
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2013

Dealing with tax avoidance of super-rich firms

In both the U.K. and the U.S., a disconnect exists between those who want to curtail tax havens for the wealthy and those who want low taxes to lure investors.
BUSINESS
May 29, 2013

Toyota ups board pay amid profits

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest carmaker, plans to increase compensation and bonuses for board members as it forecasts profit and sales will climb to the highest level in six years.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 28, 2013

U.S. weapons designs 'compromised' by Chinese cyberspies

Designs for many of America's most sensitive advanced weapons systems have been compromised by Chinese hackers, according to a report prepared for the Pentagon.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 28, 2013

Tokyo's Koreatown emerged from the flow of bilateral ties

Diplomatic friction between Tokyo and Seoul over territorial and historical disputes is making headlines once again, and Tokyo's right-wing protesters know just where to go to get in the face of its Korean residents: Koreatown in Shinjuku Ward's Shin-Okubo district.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 28, 2013

Kerry pushes West Bank development plan

Hoping to use economic promise as a bridge to a peace deal between Palestinians and Israel, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced an estimated $4 billion development proposal for the West Bank on Sunday that he said could cut the 21 percent unemployment rate by two-thirds.
WORLD
May 28, 2013

Marathon winner to donate medal

The Ethiopian winner of this year's Boston Marathon said Sunday that he will donate his first-place medal to the people of Boston, telling visiting Secretary of State John Kerry that he wants to honor the dead and wounded from the bombing at the finish line.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2013

Contradictions live in Iran-India's tangled web

Natural parks in the Tohoku-Pacific coastal region devastated by the 3/11 disasters are being reorganized into the new Sanriku Restoration National Park.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 27, 2013

Sibling spy case spotlights North Korean defectors

Earlier this year, one of the most prominent North Korean defectors, Yoo Woo Sung, walked out of his apartment building in Seoul and found four South Korean government vehicles waiting for him.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 27, 2013

Delta ups ante in battle for New York fliers with $1.4 billion terminal

Delta Air Lines Inc. sharpened the jockeying for the highest-paying passengers in New York, the biggest U.S. aviation market, as it opened a $1.4 billion terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 27, 2013

Record as Newark mayor weighs heavily on Booker Senate bid

Cory Booker has become one of the most famous mayors in the nation with the help of a careful political campaign that cast him as a unique talent willing to forgo better opportunities to save this crime-ridden and poverty-plagued city.
COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
May 27, 2013

The transient rasping that captivates the poets

Do cicadas create a shrieking hell? Are they ugly? There is a striking difference between English and Japanese Wikipedia entries on these transient insects.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 27, 2013

Bond vigilantes wake investors from voodoo 'Abenomics' trance

The bond vigilantes are getting antsy about Shinzo Abe's shock-therapy program, dubbed "Abenomics."

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear