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COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2013

Myanmar-North Korea link

With investments by Japanese, American and European companies on the rise, it is worth asking how much the once-pariah state of Burma has really changed since the days of military rule.
COMMENTARY
Nov 11, 2013

Discredited theory grips EU

Last week the notorious "troika" representing the three major lenders to severely indebted European Union nations — officials from the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank — once again descended upon Athens to consider new Greek proposals for dealing...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 11, 2013

Ethanol from cellulose falls short of expectations

In Emmetsburg, Iowa, America's largest maker of ethanol for motor fuel is putting the final touches on a manufacturing plant that will rely not on corn, but on the stalks and cobs left behind.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2013

Weakness in intelligence rankles Germans

Germany's exposure to the NSA's prying eyes is a blunt reminder of its past aggression and humiliation long after the country has cleaned up its act. And this rankles Germans.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 7, 2013

Franz Ferdinand gets it right on latest album

When I speak to Paul Thomson, drummer with Scottish art-poppers Franz Ferdinand, it is just over 36 hours since James Blake's second album, "Overgrown," was announced as the surprise winner of this year's Mercury Prize, the award for the best record to come out of the U.K. and Ireland in the past year....
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 4, 2013

High-flying Eagles reign supreme after eight-year rise to top

To say simply that Senichi Hoshino put Masahiro Tanaka in the game during the ninth inning of the Japan Series finale somehow does the moment a disservice.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Nov 2, 2013

Hybrid furniture and the working horse

Right from the outset when we started planning what is now our magnificent Afan Nature Centre that opened three years ago here in the Nagano Prefecture hills outside Kurohime, I insisted it should be built in wood — and that all the wood must be Japanese.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Nov 2, 2013

Can Japanese really be such cold sushi in the sack?

Sex in Japan is a knotty issue — even if you're not a fan of tying up your lover with rope, also known as shibari. No matter how you write about it, it raises ire. If you point out that Japan has a vibrant sex industry in which every sexual act other than vaginal penetration can be legally bought and...
SOCCER / J. League
Nov 1, 2013

Reysol's Cleo seeking Nabisco Cup final tonic after ACL exit

Kashiwa Reysol may have missed out on Asian Champions League glory this season, but on-loan striker Cleo is confident of redemption in Saturday's Nabisco Cup final against Urawa Reds.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 29, 2013

SDP woos Koizumi to lend clout to anti-nuclear drive

Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi raises hopes he will stage a comeback as an anti-nuclear crusader.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / NOTES ON A SCORECARD
Oct 29, 2013

Controversy over Washington Redskins leading analysts to hypocrisy

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Notes On A Scorecard.
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2013

Pushing for nuclear disarmament

For the first time Japan has joined other nations in signing a U.N. statement calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons, despite Japan's reliance on the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2013

Turkey navigates a less exciting path to reform

Throughout his tenure, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been condemned parties for pursuing too much reform, and by Turkey's minorities for doing too little.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 27, 2013

The method behind the brashness

Osaka
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 26, 2013

Get Koizumi: Nuclear village goes on offensive

This is a first for Japan: A political figure who not only undergoes a change of mind in public, but tries to make a difference after giving up the political power to do so.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 24, 2013

U.S. keeps Pakistani officials in loop on drone strikes

Despite repeatedly denouncing the CIA's drone campaign, top officials in Pakistan's government have for years secretly endorsed the program and routinely received classified briefings on strikes and casualty counts, according to top-secret CIA documents and Pakistani diplomatic memos obtained by The...
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 24, 2013

German leader calls Obama about alleged cellphone tapping

Furious German officials said Wednesday that U.S. intelligence agencies may have been monitoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone, creating a fresh diplomatic headache for President Barack Obama after a week in which other close allies condemned his administration over allegations of other...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Oct 23, 2013

Japan: no safe country for foreign women

When I first moved to Japan, I tolerated the staring, following and the persistent pickup artists, but after being assaulted twice in public, they have taken on darker undertones.
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2013

Abe's quest for a nuclear base

Surely the headline for the Oct. 19 article "Fukushima 2020: Will Japan be able to keep the nuclear situation under control?" is rhetorical, as the instigator of the nuclear coverup, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is about to pass his "Whatever-I-Feel-Like-Making-Secret-Is-Secret Act," for which he will...
Japan Times
TENNIS / MATCH POINT
Oct 23, 2013

Laver considers Federer best player ever

Australian tennis legend Rod Laver was a special guest at the recent Shanghai Rolex Masters tournament. Making his first trip to China, the only man to win the Grand Slam — which he did twice — spoke to a select group of reporters during the event.
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

Far from declining, America is on the rise again

In the 1970s and late '80s, expectations of America's waning power were followed by periods of geopolitical resurgence. There's every reason to believe that cycle is recurring today.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2013

Nuclear arms wake-up call

Nuclear policymaking in Asia, as elsewhere, is trapped in the Cold War mindset in which too much reliance is placed on the utility of nuclear deterrence and not enough on the risks.
EDITORIALS
Oct 20, 2013

Improving disaster responses

Although it was known early on that a powerful typhoon would strike Tokyo's Izu-Oshima Island, disaster plans stalled and the storm left 49 people dead or missing.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 19, 2013

Top-two primary systems could counter American extremist tendencies

The latest game of political chicken that drove Washington to a government shutdown and the very edge of the debt ceiling gave new life to the omnipresent complaint of elder statesmen and centrist wise guys: If only congressional districts weren't so gerrymandered in the decennial redistricting process,...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2013

Civilizing academia's marketplace of ideas

History professor Niall Ferguson goes after liberal economist Paul Krugman, calling him the intellectual equivalent of a robber baron for the way he 'abuses his power' in the blogosphere.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?