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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2016

Predicting a crime you have not yet committed

Scientists have demonstrated that a computer can outperform human judges in predicting who will commit a violent crime. Whether to use this in real life raises many ethical issues.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 11, 2016

Winemakers plant seeds of tourism in Japan's disaster zone

Making wine is difficult anywhere in Japan, but try doing it in a part of the country that has been rocked by an earthquake and tsunami, and spurned because of a nuclear disaster.
EDITORIALS
Mar 11, 2016

Upgrading anti-disaster measures

It's imperative that officials at the national and local level check regularly whether anti-disaster measures are adequate and up-to-date.
Japan Times
JAPAN / 5-YEAR MEMORIAL OF GREAT EAST JAPAN EARTHQUAKE
Mar 11, 2016

Symposium examines disaster risk reduction

March 11 marks five years since the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, and one year since the Third U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction was held in Sendai, the center of the disaster-hit Tohoku region.
Japan Times
JAPAN / 5-YEAR MEMORIAL OF GREAT EAST JAPAN EARTHQUAKE
Mar 11, 2016

Seismic isolation systems help mitigate earthquake damage

Seismic isolation is an excellent technology to help make structures more resistant to earthquakes by installing equipment to isolate a building from the ground and keep tremors from reaching the building. Seismic isolation systems reduce shaking by placing rubber, lead or other substances between structures...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 10, 2016

Questioning assumptions about disaster risk

In our technology-dependent world, risk is a great equalizer and does not always distinguish between rich and poor.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Mar 9, 2016

Minamisoma mayor sees future for Fukushima 'nonnuclear' city in energy independence

Turning to the use of solar and wind power in tandem with energy-saving measures, Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai is aiming for his city to be energy self-reliant by 2030.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 9, 2016

30 years after Chernobyl, food still radioactive, Greenpeace tests show

Economic crises in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have brought reduced testing in areas contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Greenpeace says, and people continue to eat and drink foods with dangerously high radiation levels.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2016

How China's rich shape national policymaking

China's richest people account for close to 4 percent of the members of the body that officially acts as the national legislature. They want to influence policymaking.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Mar 5, 2016

Tohoku is literally still waiting to move on

Earlier this month, the NHK travel series, "Tsurube Toasts Families," in which rakugo (traditional comic storyteller) performer Shofukutei Tsurube and a guest visit a town and talk to residents on an impromptu basis, went to some new communities in the area destroyed by the Great East Japan Earthquake...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 2, 2016

Upon re-entry back home after expat life, brace yourself for turbulence

Survey of Japanese returnees suggests two divergent emotional journeys for those heading back home after a stretch abroad.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2016

Syrian truce offers an opportunity to end war

If the U.S. can swallow the bitter reality that this truce leaves the Assad regime in charge of the territory it now controls, then the Syrian civil war could eventually be shrunk to a war of everybody else against the Islamists.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2016

In Yemen, a humanitarian pause urgently needed

A humanitarian pause is badly needed in war-torn Yemen, where a majority of the population in urgent need of medical care.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Feb 29, 2016

'Landmark' ruling sent Japan's foreign residents back to welfare limbo

Widely misunderstood 2014 case reaffirmed the decades-old stopgap that means noncitizens can receive support but can't appeal if their application is rejected.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Feb 28, 2016

Japan Inc. slowly shedding LGBT taboos but bias laws still lag

Yusuke Kitamura hid his sexuality from colleagues for most of his career. It was only after joining one of Japan's oldest brokerages last year that he could tell them he was gay.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 27, 2016

Participation in society should be barrier-free

When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe formed a task force last year to promote greater citizen involvement in whatever it is he is trying to accomplish, many people objected to the name of the group. "Ichioku Sokatsuyaku" reminded them of a slogan used before and during World War II that demanded national solidarity...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 27, 2016

Kansas mass shooter got court order over domestic violence just before rampage

The man suspected of killing three people at the Kansas lawn-mower factory where he worked was served 90 minutes before his shooting spree with a court order to stay away from a woman who said he had abused her, authorities said on Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Feb 23, 2016

Forced labor allegations and abuses continue to dog Japan's foreign trainee program

Tang Xili came to Japan in 2013, hoping to earn enough in three years to build a new home for her daughter. Instead, she ended up in a labor union shelter after leaving an employer she says owes her about ¥3.5 million in unpaid wages.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 20, 2016

Deja vu as Shukan Shincho turns back the clock

The title of the Japanese government's White Paper on the Economy for the 31st year of Showa (1956) was "The 'postwar' era is over." That same year, a delegation from the World Bank headed by Alfred Watkins spent five months studying the feasibility of extending a loan for an expressway linking the cities...
EDITORIALS
Feb 18, 2016

Early cancer detection is critical

Regular health checks are key to detecting cancerous conditions in their early stages when they are easiest to treat.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 18, 2016

Sharp considering excluding Foxconn backers from vote

Sharp Corp.'s lawyers are recommending that two board members be excluded from a final vote on competing bailout plans, possibly tipping the balance in favor of a proposal from Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2016

At last, scientists show Neanderthals some love

That modern humans ridiculed Neanderthals so maliciously for so long says more about our shortcomings than theirs.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 15, 2016

The pope should push property rights for all

When Pope Francis talks about protecting immigrants, he should also stress the importance of documenting property rights within countries.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 13, 2016

Art Place Japan: The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale and the Vision to Reconnect Art and Nature

In an era of relentless urbanization, global travel and weightless images, the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale has pioneered a ground-breaking model of place-based art curation that aims to cast a little edifying rural grit into the oyster of contemporary urban affluence. Centred on a declining, depopulating...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 13, 2016

Japan is losing its drive to get behind the wheel

Even domestic automakers seem to be concentrating on expanding overseas as the market at home looks bleak.
EDITORIALS
Feb 13, 2016

Teens stepping up to the plate

Japanese teens are increasingly taking an active interest in politics.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2016

What's the best anti-Trump strategy now?

The scale of Donald Trump's victory in New Hampshire should settle both his rivals and the pundits.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 7, 2016

Loan rejection may have been early warning of Taiwan building's collapse

Before their apartment tower collapsed in a Taiwan earthquake over the weekend, a young couple living on the 14th floor had already been given a clue that the building was unsafe.

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