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Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2018

Aging Japan: Akita Prefecture provides glimpse of country's graying future

On a recent weekday morning, a group of men in their 70s and 80s gathered for baseball practice just down the road from a junior high school where students were arriving to start the day.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 7, 2018

Rose-tinted views of elderly workers' plight

The media has been conscientious in its coverage of the need for foreign workers in Japan. A May 20 NHK Special was particularly thorough in its portrayal of Mimasaka, Okayama Prefecture, which is encouraging Vietnamese laborers to move to the city. Several news outlets have covered Mimasaka's statue...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2018

Open-plan offices are making us less social

Being in a wall-less aquarium makes workers want to communicate electronically rather than face-to-face.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 2, 2018

Japan's driving schools, squeezed by demographic change, target foreign residents to stay afloat

According to the National Police Agency's latest statistics, as many as 82.26 million people held driver's licenses in Japan in 2017. Of those drivers, 18.18 million — or 22.1 percent — were 65 or older.
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2018

Fill the gap in nursing care workers

Action must be taken now to ensure the supply of nursing care workers meets the rapidly rising demand.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jun 23, 2018

Struggling to stay on top of fake social media posts in a disaster

Shortly after the Kansai region was rattled by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake on June 18, photos of the damage started popping up on social media. Tweets showed a bookstore that looked as if it had been turned upside-down, a damaged electronic sign at a train station and shattered glass in front of a ticket...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 20, 2018

Cities face dramatically higher heat and flood risks by 2050, researchers say

In just 30 years, cities around the world will face dramatically higher risks from extreme heat, coastal flooding, power blackouts and shortages of food and water unless climate-changing emissions are curbed, urban researchers warned Tuesday.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 19, 2018

Reversing Japan's demographic nosedive

Many steps can be taken to boost the shrinking population.
EDITORIALS
Jun 19, 2018

Brace for quakes that can hit at any time, anywhere

The Osaka quake should serve as yet another wake-up call for city administrators across the nation to review their preparedness for disasters.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / The Big Questions
Jun 17, 2018

Unforeseen detour leads back to Japan, dream job

Somehow, Japan just seems to keep pulling Salem al-Marri back into its orbit. As the recently appointed country manager for the United Arab Emirates' flagship airline, Emirates, al-Marri is making himself at home in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 16, 2018

Ken Watanabe: Japan's flag-bearer in the world of entertainment

Ahead of the opening of 'The King and I' in London on June 21, the award-winning actor calls on young Japanese to step outside their comfort zone.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 16, 2018

Should the elderly be stopped from driving?

On June 10, a car crashed into a supermarket in Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture, injuring 14 people. At first the incident sounded like yet another elderly person losing control of a vehicle and causing destruction, but then it transpires that the driver was a 55-year-old man.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 16, 2018

Japan's never-ending struggle to keep poverty at bay

The first coverage of poverty in Japan's weekly business magazines may be traced back the spring of 2009, when Weekly Diamond, in its March 21 cover story, purported to expose "The poverty you don't know." The timing of the issue came six months after the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers brokerage the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2018

Web service allows Japan's harassment victims to send anonymous warnings to alleged perpetrators

In the wake of high-profile sexual harassment cases involving a top Finance Ministry bureaucrat and a mayor in west Tokyo, a website was launched last week to allow victims of harassment to send anonymous warnings to the perpetrators.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 2, 2018

Memory athletes could be on the right track to a longer life

To memory athlete Akira Haraguchi reciting pi is like chanting the Buddhist mantra and meditating: 'Everything that circles around carries the spirit of the Buddha. I think pi is the ultimate example of that.'
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 1, 2018

'Smart crops' replacing rice as Asian wealth and health grow

Lunchtime in Taipei's Ximending district is a test of wills and patience as tourists and locals jostle at restaurants and street stalls to choose from steamed and fried dumplings, flat and thin noodles, stuffed pancakes, grilled foods and desserts.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2018

The Spider-Man of Paris is just one of many

Countries can benefit by accepting hard-working migrants who have shown their mettle by surviving their perilous journeys.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 30, 2018

From a POW camp to esteemed music halls nationwide: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 marks 100 years in Japan

It's rare that a concert has so much impact that people still talk about it 100 years later. However, that's certainly the case for a performance a century ago by some German prisoners of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in Tokushima Prefecture. It was the masterpiece's first performance in a country...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2018

How scientists succumb to corruption and cook results

It starts with a dash of temptation. Stir in some rationalization and deception. The final and key ingredient is: stupid systems with perverse incentives.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2018

The coming wave of climate displacement

Two agreements under discussion at the United Nations offer a rare opportunity to protect global migrants from the biggest source of displacement today.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
May 25, 2018

Bitcoin for otaku: Tokyo startup to launch cryptocurrency to serve communities

Cryptocurrencies may be making worldwide headlines as high volatility assets that have seen dazzling stretches of growth and stunning falls, but the CEO of Tokyo Otaku Mode Inc. believes they have a different kind of potential.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
May 23, 2018

Readers' views: katakana name frustration, U.S. gun violence and Europe as a Japan study-abroad option

A selection of responses from readers to recent stories on the Community pages.
BUSINESS / Tech / Deep Dive
May 20, 2018

Drone deliveries ready to soar in Japan but lingering issues likely to keep post office in business

A drone carrying a package sails through the air, touching down to make a delivery right on a customer's doorstep.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan