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Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 17, 2014

Time Warner win would make Murdoch U.S. media king

Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. made an audacious offer for Time Warner Inc. that, if it succeeds, would transform the American media landscape and cement the 83-year-old's status as the most powerful magnate in U.S. media and entertainment.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Jul 16, 2014

Unpacking koto: retain, discard and repeat as necessary

Unpacking koto — the intangible baggage — in Japan has proven to be the challenge of a lifetime, replete with enough drama and trauma to keep me knee deep in 'think pieces' till I keel over.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2014

Speech rules turn college into no-thought zone

In the U.S., vague bans on 'offensive' language and other 'politically correct' measures that most people think of when they imagine college speech codes are increasingly being joined by quarantine policies that restrict all student speech, regardless of its content.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 16, 2014

Europe rewards edgy dramatists

Tim Etchells, artistic director of Forced Entertainment, the English company whose "The Coming Storm" was a highlight of last year's Festival/Tokyo, told me then that they now play abroad more than at home — mainly because festival organizers pay their costs. In contrast, producers are loathe to take...
EDITORIALS
Jul 15, 2014

The blowback from Shiga

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should realize that the defeat of the Liberal Democratic Party-backed candidate in the Shiga gubernatorial election Sunday is part of the price his administration pays for pushing to widen the scope of Japan's military role without seeking a mandate from voters.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2014

Does Hamas want to get Palestinians killed?

Is Hamas trying to get Israel to kill as many Palestinians as possible? Dead Palestinians represent a crucial propaganda victory for the nihilists of Hamas.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 14, 2014

Boko Haram-style attacks puncture peace in south Nigeria

As long as violence perpetrated by Islamist militants was more or less contained in Nigeria's remote northeast, the attitude of many citizens and expatriates in the prosperous south was a shrug of the shoulders.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 13, 2014

Russia threatens Ukraine after man dies in cross-border shelling

Russia on Sunday threatened Ukraine with "irreversible consequences" after a man was killed by a shell fired across the border from Ukraine, describing the incident in warlike terms as aggression that must be met with a response.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2014

Old silk town embraces farm reforms in test of revival scheme

Tomiyoshi Kurogoushi sighs as he looks over the terraced rice fields in the mountains of west Japan that were tended by generations of his family. Most are now covered in weeds and silver grass.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jul 11, 2014

Restorer in tsunami-hit Sendai reunites photos with owners

If a stray photo has an owner, Kaori Nose will try to reunite them.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 10, 2014

Kiev warns pro-Russian separatists of plan to retake territory in east

Ukrainian government forces on Wednesday warned separatists in the eastern town of Donetsk that a plan was now in place to take back the territory they occupy, but defiant rebels reported a steady flow of new recruits who were ready to fight.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Jul 9, 2014

Three ways to jump-start English abilities in time for 2020

There will likely be a raft of further efforts to encourage English learning in the run-up to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, but here are three simple ideas that could help boost English levels right now.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 9, 2014

Lessons of suicidal Cowra breakout remain unlearned

At around 2 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 5, 1944, 1,104 Japanese soldiers and sailors armed only with knives, forks and a few baseball bats poured out of their huts at the Cowra prisoner-of-war camp 300 km west of Sydney in the Australian state of New South Wales. Charging through a hail of machine-gun fire,...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 8, 2014

Crimea euphoria fading for Russians

When she was asked to give up a day's pay to help Crimea, Russian hospital therapist Tatyana could not hide her anger. Why should she subsidize others when struggling to make ends meet herself?
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Jul 7, 2014

Future leader shows promise with African aid work, British schooling, and Japan politics in sight

When Doga Makiura arrived in Rwanda in 2012, the 18-year-old was amazed to find not the stains of the 1994 genocide, but a tidy airport, impressive high-rises and welcoming people.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2014

Mei Shigenobu's words continue the fight for her mother's cause

On her 8th birthday, Mei Shigenobu's mother sat her daughter down and told her that she was the leader of the Japanese Red Army Faction, a group of revolutionary Marxists fighting to violently overthrow global capitalism. It was part of a very unconventional childhood.
EDITORIALS
Jul 3, 2014

Questions about nuclear safety

Even as opinion polls indicate that most people would like to see Japan shed its dependence on nuclear power, the Abe administration appears to be trying to turn the clock back to before 2011.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jul 2, 2014

Complexes continue to color Japan's ambivalent ties to the outside world

A sense of isolation gave rise to Japan's 'cult of uniqueness,' which still dominates Japan's self-image today, constantly vacillating between superiority and inferiority when dealing with foreigners.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 2, 2014

Babylon still trembles at Jamaica's cult classic

Flashback: It's midnight at the Orson Welles Cinema, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1980. Perry Henzell's breakthrough Jamaican film "The Harder They Come" has been playing here every weekend for nearly a decade now, but tonight it's still a full house. As the lights go down, the audience sparks up, and within...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 1, 2014

Critics: What defines the conditions for military force?

Japan is at a historic crossroads in amending its long-held pacifist defense posture, a move that it may never reverse, and critics charge that the Abe administration's criteria for exercising the right to collective self-defense will prove ineffective.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO BAR ADVENTURE
Jul 1, 2014

Cupid aims his arrow at loveless Tokyo drinkers

While bars often use tactics such as offering healthy low-calorie food items or fruity cocktails on the menu to attract female customers, Aisekiya in Akabane resorts to an extreme that most sane businesses would not risk: Women can drink as much as they want — without paying a single yen. But the izakaya...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jun 30, 2014

China suffers karoshi, as white-collar workers die from overwork

Chinese banking regulator Li Jianhua literally worked himself to death. After 26 years of "always putting the cause of the party and the people" first, his employer said this month, the 48-year-old official died rushing to finish a report before the sun came up.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 27, 2014

Manga seek digital ground as print magazines languish

It wasn't too long ago that you couldn't ride a train or bus without seeing many of your fellow passengers engrossed in manga magazines.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jun 26, 2014

UFC returning to Saitama on Sept. 20

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is bringing its brand of mixed-martial arts back to Japan with not only one of the most highly anticipated heavyweight bouts in recent memory, but also what may be among the most important UFC debuts by a Japanese fighter in some time.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Jun 25, 2014

The naked American at Narita airport

Leaving Narita, stripped of your African accoutrement and any other identifiers that speak to your nationality and sensibilities, you advance through an array of unfamiliar sights and sounds, just as brown and naked as the day you were born.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jun 25, 2014

Is Japan a haven for expats with psychological problems? Readers discuss

Readers clash on the merits of William Bradbury's recent Foreign Agenda article, 'Japan: a haven for the psychologically troubled.'
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 23, 2014

Can Japan show the West how to live peacefully with Islam?

Uniting a colorful mix of expats, removed from the context of sectarian strife and the historical Western interference still haunting many Muslim countries, could the Japanese brand of Islam be a showcase for its peaceful essence?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 22, 2014

Native Americans tame tornadoes with rituals

Just over a year ago, tribal elder Gordon Yellowman watched on the TV news as a giant tornado roared toward the homes of his Cheyenne-Arapaho people in Oklahoma.

Longform

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