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Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
May 22, 2013

Apple used 'complex web' to avoid taxes, Senate inquiry finds

Apple used a "complex web" of offshore entities — with no employees or physical offices — that allowed it to pay little or no taxes on tens of billions it earned overseas, according to a Senate investigation unveiled Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2013

How modern nationalism gave birth to terrorism

If we want to understand what drove the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, to terrorism, the answer almost certainly does not lie in Dagestan, where the brothers lived before moving to the United States, or in the two wars fought in Chechnya in the last 20 years. Instead,...
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2013

Substitute question marks for exclamation marks

A terrible tragedy is unfolding in (fill in the name of your favorite trouble spot). Something must be done. This (choose from sending troops, air strikes, enforcing a no fly zone, arming rebels) is something. Therefore it must be done.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
May 21, 2013

X Japan waxes lyrical at Madame Tussauds debut

This Monday, members of the seminal metal band X Japan were in Odaiba rubbing shoulders with the likes of Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga and AKB48's Yuko Oshima. The catch? They were all made out of wax.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
May 21, 2013

Fear and incarceration, from Kampala to Nagoya

"I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, where two men lay. I couldn't tell if they were dead or alive. They had been...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 21, 2013

Ambivalent Japan turns on its 'insular' youth

Japan's decision to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade negotiations shows that at least some in government have accepted the fact that 'opening up' Japan is in the nation's best long-term interests.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
May 21, 2013

Precedent backs (nearly) equal pay for equal work

In 2012, Japan had 51.73 million workers, of which 33.3 million were regular employees, or seishain, according to the latest survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Contingent, or nonpermanent, workers (including part-timers, haken dispatch and shokutaku semiregular employees) numbered 18.43 million, over 35.5 percent of the workforce.
JAPAN
May 21, 2013

Skytree's first anniversary marred by foul signals

Tokyo Skytree will celebrate its first anniversary Wednesday but has not yet completed its prime mission of reliably broadcasting to households in the capital and its suburbs.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 21, 2013

Fukushima No. 1 can't keep its head above tainted water

More than two years into the triple-meltdown crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, workers continue to wage a desperate battle to keep the stricken reactors cool while trying to contain the 400 tons of radioactive water produced by the process each day.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
May 21, 2013

Postal symbol

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 21, 2013

Thein Sein stresses 'special place' for military

The military that ran Myanmar for decades will continue to play a major role in the country, the former general who has presided over the transformation of a nation that only three years ago was considered one of the world's most repressive said Sunday.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 21, 2013

Goldman Sachs to invest big in renewable energy

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Monday that it plans to invest as much as ¥50 billion in renewable energy projects in Japan in the next five years, tapping demand for electricity produced from solar and wind-power generators.
EDITORIALS
May 21, 2013

Window on China's defense policy

China's critics are usually disappointed by its annual white paper on national defense. Beijing's eighth white paper since 1998 is notable for its view of U.S. policy.
BUSINESS / Economy / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 20, 2013

Utility, ubiquity playing key roles in corrupting policymakers' thinking

Two mind-sets seem to be catching on in Japan these days. They worry me. One is the notion that something has to be useful to be of value. The other is that anything is justifiable on the grounds that everybody else is doing it.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 20, 2013

What the Bloomberg terminal scandal reveals about the media and its money-making ways

The chatter across the world of financial journalism over the last few days has been the story of Bloomberg reporters accessing information about subscribers of the firm's financial data service that those customers thought should remain secret. The episode contains some important lessons for how the...
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 20, 2013

For a more 'friendly' Japan

A Shiga University professor has some reservations about a government industrial council's proposals to make Japan 'the world's most business-friendly environment.'
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2013

Creating roadblocks to cuts in nuclear arms

U.S. congressional dysfunction on defense rears its head when a subcommittee chair threatens to withhold funds for implementing the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2013

Wishing for China's trade, fearing its prowess

The Southeast Asian region has been caught in a dilemma — wanting to benefit from China's economic rise but fearing its intensifying military prowess.
Reader Mail
May 19, 2013

Where do these guys come from?

Regarding the May 15 front-page article "Hashimoto takes flak for sex slave rationale" and related media stories: Why would a system of government-sponsored brothels be considered inappropriate, not to mention criminal, in this day and age?
Reader Mail
May 19, 2013

Nonsecular take on a rebellion

Regarding the Washington Post article by Jackson Diehl, which ran in The Japan Times on May 8 under the headline "Putin's hand in radicalizing a secular rebellion": The writer would appear to have little knowledge of Chechnya or Russia; nor does he seem to understand the meaning of the word "secularism."...
Reader Mail
May 19, 2013

Turning logic upside-down

Regarding the May 12 editorial, "Who's to blame in Bangladesh?": Globalization will inevitably proceed no matter what we want, but why must we hastily remove the boundaries that restrict the movement of money when borders prevent us from saving millions of people from abuse by their governments.
JAPAN / Politics
May 18, 2013

The main question: Why did Hashimoto open his mouth?

Since news broke that Osaka maverick politician Toru Hashimoto said Japan's wartime sex slave system was necessary and U.S. soldiers in Okinawa should use more prostitutes, the question is why did he say this?
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
May 18, 2013

Abe powers Giants past Lions

It takes a lot to stop the Yomiuri Giants once they get on a roll.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 18, 2013

Neocriminology: identifying a murderer's brain

In 1987, Adrian Raine, who describes himself as a neurocriminologist, moved from Britain to America. His emigration was prompted by two things. The first was a sense of banging his head against a wall. Raine, who grew up in England, and is now a professor at the University of Philadelphia, was a researcher...
JAPAN
May 17, 2013

Hashimoto stays in the hot seat

International condemnation of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's comment that the wartime sex slavery system was necessary continues, with the U.S. calling his remarks outrageous and offensive.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 17, 2013

Overstayers need speed, lawyer says

Since debuting in October as Japan's first law office catering to foreign nationals, Tokyo Public Law Office Mita Branch — Foreigners and International Service in Minato Ward has been deluged with appointments.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years