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COMMENTARY / World
Jun 7, 2012

The real deal on austerity and debt

Many, if not all, of the world's most pressing macroeconomic problems relate to the massive overhang of all forms of debt. In Europe, a toxic combination of public, bank and external debt in the periphery threatens to unhinge the eurozone.
COMMENTARY
Jun 7, 2012

U.S.-India ties lose momentum

Was the U.S.-India strategic partnership oversold to the extent that it has failed to yield tangible benefits for the United States? Even as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has just held detailed discussions in New Delhi, an increasing number of analysts in Washington have already concluded that the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 7, 2012

"Roses by Pierre-Joseph Redoute"

Pierre-Joseph Redoute (1759-1840) was a botanist and an official court artist to Queen Marie Antoinette of France. He worked through both the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror and, despite the political turmoil of the era, he was successful enough to become one of the most famous botanical painters...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 7, 2012

Nagasawa quiets down for 'Seven'

Some musicians simply ooze self-confidence. They walk into the room like they own it, flashing a smile that instantly melts a thousand hearts. But Tomoyuki Nagasawa is not one of those musicians.
COMMENTARY
Jun 6, 2012

Europe faces a grim choice

Europe is at the abyss — again. Its turmoil is rattling global stock markets and stoking fear and bewilderment. The obvious question is, what's the solution? The answer is, there is no solution. Europe faces choices, some bad and others worse.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2012

LDP's dangerous proposals for amending antiwar article

The Liberal Democratic Party published its new draft constitutional amendment proposal in late April. The draft reflects a number of significant changes above and beyond those advanced in the proposal unveiled by the LDP in 2005. The proposal includes a complete overhaul of Article 9, the war-renouncing...
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jun 5, 2012

Today's blip: PS3 'Ni no Kuni' trailer in English

The long-awaited English trailer for 'Ni no Kuni' is out. The English version of the Ghibli-flavored game is set for an early 2013 release.
COMMENTARY
Jun 5, 2012

Fighting peace for Taiwan

Four months after the presidential elections in Taiwan, there is a big difference when comparing the aftereffects of the elections in 2008 to those in 2012.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 5, 2012

Much ado, but micro-important

A few weeks ago, as a panelist at a symposium on Japan's accession to the Hague Convention on international child abduction, I found it hard to disguise my ire. One of the speakers was a lawyer opposed to Japan joining the convention, and who refused to even use "abduction" to discuss what she called...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 5, 2012

Rumors, lies fill void left by police in Furlong case

It is one of the more ugly tasks in journalism: trying to extract a quote from a bereaved family after a violent death. By the time I called Nicola Furlong's mother on May 25, she had learned that her 21-year-old daughter had been sexually assaulted and probably throttled by a stranger in a city 10,000...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 5, 2012

Blackston taught kids days before murder, may have toured with AI

Although no official statement has been made by the artist or her representatives, evidence points to links between high-profile Japanese pop star AI (Ai Carina Uemura) and at least one, if not both, of the suspects being questioned over the rape and murder of Nicola Furlong.
EDITORIALS
Jun 5, 2012

The Houla massacre

The situation in Syria continues to worsen. While accurate information is difficult to acquire, all indications are that the country hovers on the brink of a civil war. The most recent atrocity is a massacre in the town of Houla that left at least 108 people dead. On Saturday, 89 deaths were reported...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2012

Nintendo unveils Wii U game pad

Nintendo Co., the world's largest maker of video game players, has unveiled its new Wii U game pad, which it says enhances Wii game console by adding functions including messaging among players and game downloads.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2012

What counts as a Catholic within a secular state

The dispute over the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new regulations mandating that employers provide contraception coverage has been framed by opponents of the rules as a fight over religious liberty. And so it is.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jun 4, 2012

The risks of democracy: When markets resolve what politics cannot

The European sovereign debt problem that began with Greece has entered a new phase. In addition to the ruling party's defeat in polls Greece held May 6, Nicholas Sarkozy, who helped champion fiscal austerity as the cure for the crisis, was replaced as French president by Francois Hollande, a Socialist...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 4, 2012

A hot genpatsu-free summer threatens

Two things make a battered Japan cringe: genpatsu (原発, nuclear power) and fukeiki (不景気, economic stagnation). The nation has suffered deeply from both. As spring fades into a potentially sweltering, potentially stagnant summer, there arises an agonizing dilemma: Can the latter be avoided, or...
COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2012

Persecution goes on against Chen's kith and kin

Beijing has scored points in its handling of the case of Chen Guangcheng, first by agreeing to guarantee his safety by relocating him and his family to another city where he can study law and then, after the blind activist changed his mind and decided to go abroad, by publicly saying that he has the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2012

Final ride for the Putin showboat?

Vladimir Putin's new presidential term is just beginning, but it increasingly looks like the beginning of the end.
Reader Mail
Jun 3, 2012

Myopic appreciation of history

I find Karen Forde's May 24 letter, "Monuments don't change history" — about the sex slave plaque in New Jersey — to be more than a little myopic. Forde says that since the United States had nothing to do with the "comfort women" of World War II, there shouldn't be any monuments on American soil...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 3, 2012

Homophobic joke goes awry for Beat

On the May 12 edition of the TBS current affairs variety show "Newscaster" comedian "Beat" Takeshi Kitano made a joke about homosexual unions during a discussion of U.S. President Barack Obama's recent comment in support of same-sex marriage. Kitano's mission as the program's resident chief commentator...
Reader Mail
Jun 3, 2012

Talk about a drag on the economy

Regarding the May 31 Kyodo article "Aging population a drag on economy: Shirakawa": Isn't Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa forgetting something? The very same aging demographic whom he bemoans for being a "drag" on the economy built a world-class economy during the 1960s and 1970s!
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 2, 2012

Japan's great outdoors becomes Oregonian's office-cum-playground

Gliding through powder across Mount Hakkoda in Aomori Prefecture or scanning the surfers at Shonan Beach in Kanagawa Prefecture, Gardner Robinson's life and work merge so completely that on the clock and on the slopes are one and the same.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 2, 2012

A 100-mile race — it keeps you runnin'

Paul Walsh has just finished running 156 km. For fun. Around the bottom of Mount Fuji.
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2012

Yuan-yen trade starts as China seeks to globalize currency

China started direct trading of the yen and the yuan Friday in Tokyo and Shanghai, another step in its efforts to expand the global use of its currency and reduce reliance on the dollar.

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