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LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 6, 2013

Plan to introduce TOEFL to universities has its merits

The media and kyōiku senmonka (教育専門家, pundits on education) have been voicing the pros and cons of the idea put forward by the Jiminto (自民党, the Liberal Democratic Party) to make TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language) mandatory for entrance exams at all Japanese universities.
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2013

Selective rights, illegal wars

One cannot help thinking these days that the legal, political and even moral blind spots that exist in the United States must always somehow involve Muslims.
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2013

Sovereignty celebration hit by protests

The government holds its first formal celebration of the day the San Francisco Peace Treaty ended the allied Occupation, angering residents in Okinawa, which stayed under U.S. control until 1972.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 28, 2013

An avian flu outbreak in Japan could kill 'Abenomics'

No one has ever fully explained why, in 2002-3, the virulent pathogen known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) ran rampant in mainland China (5,328 cases, 349 deaths) but only infected four people in South Korea, with no fatalities, and none in Japan.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 26, 2013

Two inmates hanged for yakuza slayings

Two inmates are executed for conspiring to gun down two rival yakuza at a restaurant in Chiba in 2005.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 26, 2013

Parties lining up celebrities for Upper House race

Former prosecutor Masaru Wakasa, 56, a frequent commentator on news programs and talk shows who once worked in the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office, said Thursday he will run in this summer's Upper House election as a Liberal Democratic Party candidate.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Apr 25, 2013

A postmortem on how promoters let a Blur gig in Japan slip away

The Tokyo Rocks festival, which had been scheduled for May 11 and 12, was an ambitious attempt to bring big-name overseas artists such as Blur, Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine together with a range of Japanese acts. On March 31, it was announced it had been canceled.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 24, 2013

U.S. drops case against ricin suspect, investigates new Mississippi man

U.S. authorities drop the charges against a Mississippi man accused of sending letters poisoned with ricin to President Barack Obama and a senator.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2013

Why well-informed people are also close-minded

A U.S. study finds that if you know a lot about politics, efforts to undermine or dislodge your political beliefs with facts might well upset you and therefore backfire.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 17, 2013

Top French officials disclose personal wealth

The wealthiest member of France's Socialist government, French people learned Monday, is Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who inherited a $7.8 million fortune from his family's trade in art and antiques. But Michele Delaunay, minister for the aged, also disclosed a comfortable stash: $7 million, mostly...
Japan Times
BASEBALL
Apr 15, 2013

Baseball, softball join forces in hopes of returning to Olympics

The international federations that govern baseball and softball stood united Sunday afternoon with one goal in mind: getting their sports back on the Olympic program.
WORLD
Apr 10, 2013

U.S. newspaper revenue drop slows

For the beleaguered newspaper industry, the good news may be that the bad news isn't getting worse.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2013

PAC-3 batteries deployed as North Korea threatens missile launch

The Defense Ministry has deployed Patriot PAC-3 antimissile air defense units to three Self-Defense Forces installations, in Tokyo and Chiba, to defend against possible North Korean missile strikes, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Apr 5, 2013

Leno to leave 'Tonight Show' in spring 2014

For the second time in about four years, Jay Leno is stepping down from NBC's iconic late-night franchise "The Tonight Show." This time, he'll exit in spring 2014 to make way for "Late Night" star Jimmy Fallon.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 2, 2013

A tale of two knives, a Kiwi legend, a gang and a girl

The story reads like a New Zealand news editor's wish list: Celebrity, dangerous weapons, bizarre behavior, death threats, Brazilian street gangs and a mysterious love interest.
BASKETBALL
Mar 31, 2013

Miyazaki Shining Suns in limbo

The cash-strapped Miyazaki Shining Suns have made it known they want to fold the team or defect to the NBDL (the re-launched JBL2) next season, the Miyazaki Nichinichi Shimbun reported Saturday.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 30, 2013

What sculpture reveals about sex and the Romans

Nothing is more likely to inspire us to see for ourselves than a warning about the effects of looking. Take the media interest this month when it was revealed that the British Museum's exhibition, "Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum," is to include a "parental guidance" notice. The reason? An...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 29, 2013

'Crawlspace'

Good news for sci-fi/horror geeks with big and generous hearts who have nothing to do on a spring Sunday but to check out this "Alien"-meets-"28 Days Later"-meets-"Species"-and-they-decide-to-move-in-together-to-save-on-rent kind of movie. And not so good news for the rest of us.
LIFE / Digital
Mar 27, 2013

Facebook, Google spreading 'their' Net

On March 18, amid great hoopla, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering was awarded to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf, Louis Pouzin and Marc Andreessen.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2013

No. 1 fuel pool power to be restored: Tepco

Critical cooling systems for four pools containing thousands of nuclear fuel assemblies at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant shut down due to a loss of power overnight Monday, highlighting the vulnerability of the ad hoc equipment set up after the meltdowns two years ago.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2013

Shirakawa exits after 'turbulent' BOJ term

Departing Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa expresses regret for not being able to end a decades-long struggle with deflation during his 'turbulent' five years in office, but adds that he believes a recovery is possible.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 19, 2013

GIs suing Tepco for $2 billion

Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s bill for its Fukushima nuclear disaster may swell as more U.S. service members pursue claims that the utility lied about radiation levels they faced while assisting in relief efforts in fallout zones after the March 11, 2011, megaquake and tsunami disaster.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 18, 2013

Man who shot '47 Percent' video reveals identity

Until last week, Scott Prouty's only bout with fame came when he dived into a canal in Florida and saved a woman from drowning. Like many Americans, the Boston area native held down working-class jobs, ran into some financial trouble and remained generally anonymous.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb