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Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 14, 2015

Media total up the targets for terrorist attacks

The 67-second video on YouTube opens with a black slate that reads, "A Message to Japan." The video then shows a kneeling journalist, Kenji Goto, clad in an orange outfit.
EDITORIALS
Feb 13, 2015

Negative savings rates loom

The first-ever annual drop in Japan's household savings rate into negative territory might have been the result of people's rush to buy goods before the consumption tax hike last April. Yet, the long-term downtrend in the savings rate is forecast to continue.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2015

Author Sono calls for racial segregation in op-ed piece

A prominent author and former government adviser calls for Japan to adopt a system to force immigrants to live separately from Japanese in zones based on race.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 12, 2015

Belle and Sebastian lean toward politics and away from twee on newest album

Belle and Sebastian are headed back to Japan, but are not quite as you remember them. For nearly 20 years the Glasgow indie darlings have been pigeonholed as producers of twee, lovelorn songs for corduroy-clad outcasts, but with their newly released ninth album, that stereotype is in danger of looking...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Feb 11, 2015

A search for meaning in the arc of Goto’s life and the horror of his death

The frenzy of the hostage crisis and the visceral terror of the Islamic State group's executions have for a moment ushered Syria into Japanese youth's sphere of concern.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 11, 2015

No-frills dramatist casts Japan in a different light

The title of Yudai Kamisato's new work "+51 Aviacíon, San Borja" references his grandmother's address in Lima and the international telephone dialling code of Peru — but that only hints at the unusually cosmopolitan background of this 32-year-old Japanese playwright and director who also has relatives...
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 10, 2015

Lawsuits claim Ferguson, other Missouri town engaging in debtors' prison scheme

Ferguson, Missouri, and a second St. Louis suburb are being accused in separate lawsuits of operating a "debtors' prison scheme," illegally jailing poor people who are unable to pay traffic tickets or fines tied to other minor offenses.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 7, 2015

Jogging may be healthier than running

Vigorous running — faster than 11 km an hour, more than 2.4 hours a week, more than three times a week — could be almost as harmful as sitting around doing nothing, according to a new cardiology study that's likely to stoke the debate over how much exercise is too much.
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2015

Better life for dementia sufferers

The government, which recently adopted a new strategy for measures against dementia, needs to follow through on the idea of ensuring a better quality of life for patients by heeding the wishes of sufferers and their families.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 4, 2015

Growing younger in a super-aged society

Old age. It used to be a subject people tried to avoid, but now, as Japan hurtles toward a super-aged society where almost 15 percent of the populace is over 75 years old, the general feeling is that we had better deal with it.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 4, 2015

Hacker who framed computer users with cyberthreats jailed for eight years

Yusuke Katayama, a former information technology professional, used his expertise to make online threats 'while dodging arrest himself,' the presiding judge said.
COMMUNITY / Voices
Feb 2, 2015

Tokyo: Does anyone else share responsibility for the death of Kenji Goto?

After the killing of a second Japanese hostage, Kenji Goto, by the Islamic State group, Mark Buckton asked people whether others share some culpability in his death. Some interviewees declined to have their pictures and surnames published.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 2, 2015

In Thailand's red-shirt heartlands, army keeps lid on dissent

In the northeastern Thai city of Khon Kaen, Pongpit Onlamai, a prominent anti-junta "red shirt" member, points to a man seated in the corner of the cafe fidgeting with his phone.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2015

As islanders face off with administration over bases, a new battle for Okinawa

Okinawa Prefecture looks and feels almost like a different country. And a growing number of islanders say it should be just that.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2015

Islamic State hostage Kenji Goto mourned by family and friends

A video posted online early Sunday morning that shows what appears to be the beheaded corpse of Islamic State group hostage Kenji Goto has left his family and friends speechless and in anguish.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2015

Japan's Muslims dismiss Islamic State as un-Islamic

Muslim residents express their condolences over the execution of Kenji Goto and say they are angry about the Islamic State group's actions.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Feb 1, 2015

Bringing a 'cesspool to sushiland' life to the stage

"Coming to Japan was the best decision I've ever made," says Stefhen Bryan, loud and enthusiastically, contrasting with the frown he was making a moment earlier at the miso-flavored ramen he'd ordered and just tasted. "Should've gotten the salt-flavored."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 31, 2015

Goverment's pension manga displays some pretty old values

On Jan. 12, people who will turn 20 this year attended ceremonies marking Coming-of-Age Day at auditoriums run by local governments. Some wore outrageous getups as final statements of youthful folly before "entering society" and some exercised their entitlement by getting drunk and acting out, but most...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 31, 2015

AirAsia captain left seat before jet lost control, investigation sources say

The captain of the AirAsia jet that crashed into the sea in December was out of his seat conducting an unorthodox procedure when his co-pilot apparently lost control, and by the time he returned it was too late to save the plane, two people familiar with the investigation said.
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2015

Unreasonable welfare cuts

The health and welfare ministry's decision to lower the upper limits of housing allowances alloocated to most of those people receiving livelihood protection assistance reflects the Abe administration's unreasonable attitude toward the weakest members of society.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2015

Hostage crisis puts work of aid groups on nation's public agenda

Groups with a stake in the Islamic State hostage crisis include aid teams who at times have struggled to keep the Syrian refugee crisis on the agenda back home.
WORLD
Jan 26, 2015

Past horrors haunt a Polish town

Bogumila recalls how as a small girl growing up in the Polish town of Oswiecim she saw prisoners beaten by Nazi guards and watched with her mother the distant glow of the crematorium fires of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
EDITORIALS
Jan 23, 2015

Auschwitz's lessons for Japan

The 70th anniversary, on Tuesday, of the Soviet Army's liberation of Nazi Germany's Auschwitz concentration camp should serve as a chance for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to reflect on Japan's wartime behavior in the Asia-Pacific region.
Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2015
Jan 21, 2015

Transitioning from spectator to participant at Davos meeting

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum is underway in Davos-Klosters in Switzerland from Jan. 21. The theme of this year's meeting is "The New Global Context" for decision making.
Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2015
Jan 21, 2015

Spreading culture through cuisine

"One of the easiest and most effective ways to understand a culture is through its food," said Yoshiko Nishihama, owner of Zurich's Nishi Shop, a store specializing in Japanese imports and an affiliated company of Japan Restaurant Bimi in Zurich. "That's why, as representatives of Japan, we take our...
EDITORIALS
Jan 19, 2015

Building peace in the Arab world

Four years after the Arab Spring of hoped-for democratization, Japan needs to extend steady support for efforts to build peace in the Arab world and tolerance of diversified views and opinions.
COMMENTARY
Jan 19, 2015

Charlie and the anti-Muslim media factory

If European Muslims are expected to identify with their citizenships and other secular identities, then their fellow Europeans should not categorize them by their religious identity.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jan 19, 2015

Writer's critical take on Jolie's 'Unbroken' raises readers' hackles

Some emails and online comments in response to Nicolas Gattig's recent Foreign Agenda column, 'Japan may shun 'Unbroken' because it's old hat.'

Longform

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