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JAPAN
Apr 11, 2016

Government to use donation system to help young people settle in rural Japan

The internal affairs ministry plans to collect donations for people willing to move from cities to rural areas through the existing furusato nozei system, which provides tax breaks for donations to hometowns and other municipalities.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 11, 2016

China Internet regulator says Web censorship not a trade barrier

China's online censorship system protects national security and does not discriminate against foreign companies, the country's Internet regulator said, after the United States labeled the blocking of websites by Beijing a trade barrier.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 8, 2016

Masuzoe denies overspending after JCP reveals soaring cost of overseas trips

Tokyo Gov. Yoichi Masuzoe on Friday said he is doing his utmost to trim the cost of his overseas trips, following the revelation that each one costs taxpayers ¥26.6 million on average.
EDITORIALS
Apr 7, 2016

Zuma adds to South Africa's woes

An economic recovery will be impossible for South Africa as long as it has a leader who is viewed as tainted and unreliable.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Mar 31, 2016

How modularization felled Japan's electronics titans

Toshiba, Sharp, Sony, Hitachi and Panasonic — these companies were the pride of Japan for decades after their electronics took the world by storm.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2016

Virgin America's vision of decency can't compete

Virgin America is finding out the hard way that Americans prefer lower airline fares to good service.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 25, 2016

Commodity rout cuts ¥970 billion from Japan's major trading houses

The nation's biggest trading companies, stalwarts of the economy, expect to book combined writedowns of at least ¥970 billion ($8.6 billion) as ill-timed investments in commodities ranging from shale gas to copper mines erode profitability.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 23, 2016

Former Toronto mayor Rob Ford dies after bout with rare cancer at 46

Rob Ford, who catapulted into the international spotlight after admitting he smoked crack cocaine while mayor of Toronto, has died. He was 46.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2016

French innkeepers share 'minpaku' woes with Japan hoteliers

Operators of hotels and inns wary of the government's plan to deregulate vacation rentals are saying in unison: Look at what happened in France.
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 18, 2016

Abramovich's wealth not enough for Chelsea now

When you have grown up in the Communist regime of the former Soviet Union, started your business career importing rubber ducks and becoming the 12th-richest person in Russia thanks to owning an oil company, then being accused of "failing to demonstrate even a minimum amount of manners and education"...
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 12, 2016

Knowledge is power: Navigating the household electricity market after deregulation

The country's household and small business electricity market will be deregulated from April 1, allowing individuals to choose their electricity provider. Optimists, especially renewable energy advocates and small entrepreneurs, hope the development will break the stranglehold that the country's 10 regional...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 11, 2016

Needs of post-3/11 Tohoku stay in focus for filmmakers

The dramatic imagery that emerged from the disasters of the March 11 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, documented so extensively by mainstream and social media, is hard to forget. However, there were and still are many stories to be told about the people who were left to pick up the pieces of their lives...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Mar 9, 2016

Five years on, Fukushima evacuees voice lingering anger, fear and distrust

Some of the thousands of uprooted Fukushima residents speak out about the ordeal that began five years ago and continues to exact a toll to this day.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2016

Stop thinking 'reformers vs. conservatives' in Iran

The rest of the world may be confused, but for Tehran's business community and cafe-loving urbanites, it's pretty clear who won Iran's recent parliamentary election: They did.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 5, 2016

National pride obscures harsh truth about Sharp deal

An object of pride for Japanese consumers during the 2000s was the so-called Kameyama flat-screen television set manufactured by Sharp. Named after the factory in Mie Prefecture where it was assembled, the LCD-TV came with a sticker attesting to its provenance, and many people who bought the model never...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 4, 2016

A phone booth for contacting the dead; renewal after the tsunami; CM of the week: Brother

Starting March 5 and airing every night for the next week, NHK will present a series of hour-long specials dedicated to the fifth anniversary of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. Suffice to say that only NHK could produce the kind of detailed and comprehensive reports the anniversary...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2016

Margin-starved Japanese banks following carmakers to Mexico

In a quest to reduce their reliance on one of the world's least profitable banking markets, Japanese lenders are setting their sights on a much more lucrative one: Mexico.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 3, 2016

Toyota taps non-Japanese to help oversee structural overhaul

Toyota Motor Corp. is handing non-Japanese executives major promotions in the third overhaul of its complex business structure in six years, as President Akio Toyoda seeks ways to make the world's largest automaker more nimble.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 2, 2016

Carl's Jr. betting on quality as it re-enters the Japanese market

With its return to Japan Friday after 19 years, U.S.-based hamburger chain Carl's Jr. says it is confident it can penetrate the market amid increasing demand for better burgers.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 1, 2016

Sharp's alive, and that's too bad

Letting the electronics maker and other troubled companies die is a necessary part of reanimating Japan.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2016

What the FBI versus Apple flap is really about

The Apple-FBI encryption flap is really all about Edward Snowden and the NSA.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Feb 22, 2016

Money trail shows China middlemen at heart of North Korea’s illicit cash-flow network

A trail of money stretching from a Panamanian shipping agent to an octogenarian Singaporean to a Chinese bank provides a window on why U.S. efforts to tighten sanctions on North Korea may be harder to achieve than in the case of Iran.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 19, 2016

Asian countries eye stronger maritime surveillance capabilities

The market for spy planes and surveillance platforms is buoyant in Southeast Asia, where countries are facing off against China — and each other — in the resource-rich South China Sea, industry insiders at the Singapore Airshow said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 16, 2016

Takashi Murakami collects more than just his thoughts

"Takashi Murakami's Superflat Collection" is an exhibition of other people's work, amassed as the result of one man's phenomenally successful artistic career. It's evidence that Murakami must have done something right, or wrong, depending on your view of culture. He's sometimes portrayed as a kind of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Feb 16, 2016

The Uwaga Pies

The YouTube duo known as The Uwaga Pies — Krzysztof Gonciarz, from Poland, and Kasia Mecinski, from America — use their channel to give English-speakers a peek into Japan.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2016

Tokyo's Ota Ward approves first short-term, Airbnb-style home rentals

An online travel service provider gets government accreditation to start renting out private homes on the model popularized by Airbnb.

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