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Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
May 3, 2017

Abe declares 2020 as goal for new Constitution

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he hopes to see a revised Constitution take effect in 2020, revealing the clearest goal yet of his long-held ambition to amend the national charter.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2017

Oval Office won't change Trump

There won't be calls to let Trump be Trump. His inauguration speech showed he's already Trump — and always will be.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 2, 2017

Protectionism will make America 1953 again

A revival of protectionism will hurt America more than it will help it.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2016

Pentagon chief says satisfied with Japanese contribution to alliance

The United States is satisfied with Japan's contribution to the alliance between the two countries, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Monday, looking to ease concern in the region about the direction President-elect Donald Trump may take.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 30, 2016

'Japanese Girls Never Die': They want to have more than just fun

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he wants to build a society in which "all women can shine." But as Daigo Matsui graphically shows in his new film "Japanese Girls Never Die," women in Japan are still living in a male-dominated society that, in everything from unequal pay to blatant sexual harassment,...
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 31, 2016

Australia tells new lawmakers to take cautious view of Chinese investment

Australia has urged legislators to take a more cautious approach in backing China's pursuit of "legitimate interests" and stay alert to the motives guiding its investments, in a briefing book published by the nonpartisan parliamentary library.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 9, 2016

How rights and liberties may be downsized under the LDP

During a recent TV program, the vice president of the Liberal Democratic Party, Masahiko Komura, insisted "there is zero possibility" that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would revise war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution even if the ruling coalition wins a two-thirds majority in the upcoming Upper...
EDITORIALS
Mar 29, 2016

Security legislation takes effect

Japan's postwar defense posture underwent a major change this week as new security legislation took effect, but how the government plans to implement the laws remains unclear.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2016

Parsing the Sunnylands Declaration 'principles'

The Sunnylands Declaration is full of false hopes and disengenousness.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 8, 2016

Words about sentences: the Japanese vocab of crime and punishment

Navigating the terms and kanji involved in the penal process in Japan can be a trial in itself.
Reader Mail
Nov 13, 2015

Tilting at windmills in South China Sea

The analysis and recommendations in Ralph Cossa's column "Weighing Japan's options in the South China Sea" in the Nov. 10 edition miss the mark.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2015

Japan, U.S. push for mention of South China Sea in defense forum statement

Despite Chinese objections, the United States and Japan are pushing to get concerns about the South China Sea included in a statement to be issued after regional defense talks.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2015

China's island-building taking a toll on the South China Sea

China's activities are endangering fish stocks, threatening marine biodiversity and creating a long-term threat to some of the world's most spectacular sea life.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 7, 2015

China accuses Manila, Tokyo of joining forces over South China Sea

Japan and the Philippines teamed up at a regional security forum this week to attack China over the disputed South China Sea, China's Foreign Ministry said, as details emerged of sometimes testy exchanges during the talks in Malaysia.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 6, 2015

Japan may give planes to Manila for South China Sea patrols

Japan wants to give planes to the Philippines that Manila could use for patrols in the South China Sea, sources said, a move that would deepen Tokyo's security ties with the Southeast Asian nation most at odds with Beijing over the disputed waterway.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 15, 2015

Philippines reinforcing rusting ship on Spratly reef in face of Chinese expansion

The Philippine navy is quietly reinforcing the hull and deck of a rusting ship it ran aground on a disputed South China Sea reef in 1999 to stop it from breaking apart, determined to hold the shoal as Beijing creates a string of man-made islands nearby.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jun 26, 2015

China annihilates ancient coral ecosystems in its island-building: scientists

Concern is mounting among some scientists that China's reclamation work in the disputed Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea has done severe harm to one of the most important coral reef systems in Southeast Asia.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 20, 2015

China shows idyllic side to life on disputed reef

A Chinese website has published photographs from one of the reefs under China's control in the disputed South China Sea showing female sailors posing on ocean break walls, vegetable gardens being watered and even pigs in a pen.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 17, 2015

Beijing relays more details on South China Sea facilities

The Chinese government on Wednesday rolled out more details of the building work it is undertaking in the disputed South China Sea, listing lighthouses, communications stations and other facilities for civilian and emergency use.
EDITORIALS
Jun 4, 2015

Russia cracks down again on NGOs

Russian President Vladimir Putin's latest crackdown on NGOs is just one more attempt to silence any opposition to his rule.
EDITORIALS
May 15, 2015

Defense bills remain problematic

The Abe administration's legislative package to expand the SDF's role finally reaches the Diet — but still remains poorly explained.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 8, 2015

U.S. military in Jordan training first batch of Syrians on how to combat Islamic State

The United States has begun a long-awaited program to train Syrian fighters to go into combat against Islamic State, the Pentagon said on Thursday, deepening America's role in Syria's civil war after eight months of airstrikes against the Sunni militants.
EDITORIALS
Apr 28, 2015

New regime for security alliance

The latest revision to the guidelines on Japan-U.S. defense cooperation potentially expands the scope of the Self-Defense Forces' joint operation with the U.S. military on a global scale in ways that transcend the original architecture of the postwar security treaty between the two countries.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 10, 2015

Abe's new policy on foreign aid risks playing with fire

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government is playing with fire in declaring that Japan may give non-lethal assistance to foreign military forces.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2014

Creative diplomacy required to resolve territorial disputes

The coastal states around the South and East China Seas will have to agree to divide, share or pool their sovereignty in the interests of security and to permit the peaceful exploitation of the resources.
JAPAN / Politics / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Aug 24, 2014

Nippon Ishin, Yui no To take second shot at dethroning LDP

With their recent “political remarriage,” Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) and Yui no To (Unity Party) enter the union more experienced, and perhaps more wiser, than the first time around
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Jul 9, 2014

Under Abe, Japan reconnects with the world of harm

It would be tragic if the process Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has set in motion destroys one of the truly great things about Japan: the fact that so little of its economy and society is devoted to harming other people.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes