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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.'
EDITORIALS
Jan 17, 2015

Now what after coming of age?

This year's increase in the number of 20-year-olds celebrating Coming-of-Age Day was welcome. But the upswing is only temporary and there are questions about whether young people are ready to take up the adult challenges in Japan's rapidly aging society.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2015

Toranomon Hills complex conducts Tokyo disaster drill

A major commercial complex in Tokyo opened its doors to hypothetical disaster victims Friday to test its staff's ability to handle a citywide emergency.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 16, 2015

The worldwide reality of religious persecution

While good judgment tells us not to express every thought we have, as moral agents responsible for our actions, we must be free to assess the world and express ourselves in vibrant public debate. Attacks on this freedom is spreading from Third World dictatorships to First World democracies.
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2015

Japan's rising economy results in fewer suicides, but recession might reverse that

The slide into recession last year wasn't just a blow to "Abenomics," as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's fiscal policies are known.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 11, 2015

Fear and retribution rule amid Xi's crackdown on corruption in China

Chen Zhenggao, a member of the Communist Party's elite Central Committee, clearly has enemies.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jan 11, 2015

We need to talk about Japan — in English

What commentators who write about Japan in English are doing is not necessarily criticism and could instead be a genuine attempt to understand.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 10, 2015

Cataloging the creatures of the unknown

"Yokai dwell in the contact zone between fact and fiction, between belief and doubt ... Yokai begin where language ends," says Michael Dylan Foster in the introduction to "The Book of Yokai," summing up what words often fail to conjure. His book takes readers on a journey into the inexplicable, mysterious,...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2015

We are all Charlie, too late

The hope must be that the assassinations of cartoonists and journalists at the weekly Charlie Hebdo will waken political and media leaders to understand that press freedoms have been badly eroded worldwide.
WORLD
Jan 9, 2015

Paris attack reminds Arab cartoonists of dangers at home

After Egyptian cartoonist Andeel took to social media to condemn the slaughter of colleagues in Paris, he received expressions of sympathy — often not for the victims but for the suspected Islamist gunmen.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 9, 2015

Panic grips France's Muslim community as mosques suffer reprisals

French Muslims are braced for a backlash after terrorists shouting Islamist slogans killed 12 people Wednesday in Paris.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 8, 2015

World leaders condemn attack on Paris magazine; Obama vows to help find killers

World leaders expressed outrage over the attack on a French magazine office in Paris that killed at least 12 people, with several countries calling emergency meetings of anti-terrorism officials to review security.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Jan 7, 2015

Never mind the facts — logic alone demolishes 'comfort women' deniers' case

Never mind all the living and documentary proof — the idea that 'comfort women' were somehow exempt from wartime coercion and organization is absurd.
WORLD
Jan 6, 2015

Growing number of foreigners signing up to fight Islamic State in Mideast

While illegally crossing the border between Iraq and Syria, Peter Douglas, a Canadian, was adamant that his incursion was for humanitarian reasons — to help the people of Syria.
JAPAN / 70 YEARS OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY
Jan 4, 2015

Patriotic few battle addiction to peace

The Japanese school system's treatment of modern history is so slipshod that having a rational debate on the need for war is nearly impossible, young nationalists say.
EDITORIALS
Jan 4, 2015

Revitalizing rural parts of Japan

There seems to be a basic discrepancy between the Abe administration's direction in its employment policy and what its regional revitalization program is aiming for.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight