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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2016

Abenomics proves contagious

China's Xi Jinping and India's Narendra Modi need to stop the hollow rhetoric and get on with the hard task of economic reform.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 10, 2016

Obama 'committed to Pacific trade deal,' even as opposition spreads

U.S. President Barack Obama is fully committed to pushing for Congress to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal despite anti-trade sentiment gaining steam on the presidential election campaign trail, National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 9, 2016

Odious politicians could learn from 'Escobar: Paradise Lost'

As Donald Trump closes in on the U.S. presidency, it's worth remembering that the demagogic real-estate mogul is far from the most odious individual to have pursued a career in politics. Take Pablo Escobar, for instance: The notorious drug kingpin briefly served as a congressman in his native Colombia...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 9, 2016

Trump's luxury hotels in Indonesia could face backlash over his anti-Muslim remarks

Few villagers living near a half-built golf course in Indonesia's West Java province know the name Donald Trump, and fewer still are aware that one of his firms will be managing a six-star hotel and luxury resort in their backyard.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 9, 2016

Amid South China Sea spat, long-range U.S. bombers could be rotated through Australia: report

In a move that is likely to anger Beijing, Washington is reportedly holding high-level talks with Canberra on the rotational deployment of long-range bombers to Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. has reported.
JAPAN / REVISITING 3/11
Mar 8, 2016

Five years on, joint disaster training a legacy of U.S. military's Operation Tomodachi

In the wake of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, a range of U.S. troops and civilian rescue workers joined the relief effort. The scale of the disaster led to unprecedented logistical challenges on both sides and calls for more joint training specifically for disaster relief.
EDITORIALS
Mar 8, 2016

China's sweeping military reform

Given the huge size of its armed forces and military spending, China needs to be transparent about its defense policy.
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.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2016

How South Korea is failing half of its population

Park Geun-hye's failure to act on this $13 billion problem hurts growth in Asia's fourth biggest economy.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 8, 2016

Disbelief turns to panic as foreign diplomats voice alarm to U.S. officials about Trump

Foreign diplomats are expressing alarm to U.S. government officials about what they say are inflammatory and insulting public statements by Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, according to senior U.S. officials.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2016

How China's rich shape national policymaking

China's richest people account for close to 4 percent of the members of the body that officially acts as the national legislature. They want to influence policymaking.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2016

Marco Rubio is the Republican war candidate

Candidate Donald Trump is more ostentatiously irresponsible, but President Marco Rubio would be far more dangerous.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2016

Trump, Clinton meet 'Beijing put'

The People's Bank of China didn't take to Twitter to troll Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. It used an old-school reserve ratio cut to spite those critical of Beijing's currency policies.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2016

U.S. must continue to promote democracy in Southeast Asia

Because of its focus on containing China, the U.S. appears reluctant about pressing the Thai military to step aside for the sake of democracy.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 7, 2016

New Trump tower funded by rich Chinese who invest cash for visas

Throughout his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has attacked China and warned about the dangers of deficient immigrant screening.
EDITORIALS
Mar 6, 2016

A GOP-size hole in top U.S. court

The Republican Party is shirking its constitutional duty by refusing to consider any nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court put forward by President Obama.
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Mar 5, 2016

Our new school's on song despite cabals

Almost exactly five years ago, on March 11, 2011, an earthquake followed by a devastating tsunami wreaked havoc in the northeastern Tohoku region. Here where I live amid the faraway mountains of Nagano Prefecture, all of us connected with the C.W. Nicol Afan Woodland Trust wondered what we could do to...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 5, 2016

Japan's counterterrorism efforts falling short

The Foreign Ministry invited ridicule toward the end of 2015 after it advertised job openings for part-time counterterrorism analysts. While the expansion of the exploited precariat of non-regular workers to nearly 40 percent of the workforce is lamentable in itself, who would have thought some of them...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 2, 2016

Japan closely watches Super Tuesday results for signs of things to come

As Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton step closer to claiming their parties' nominations, Japanese experts begin to pay closer attention to the race.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2016

Syrian truce offers an opportunity to end war

If the U.S. can swallow the bitter reality that this truce leaves the Assad regime in charge of the territory it now controls, then the Syrian civil war could eventually be shrunk to a war of everybody else against the Islamists.
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
WORLD / Society
Feb 29, 2016

Chris Rock pulls no punches as host of one of the most socially conscious Academy Awards shows

Comedian Chris Rock launched his return stint as Oscar host on Sunday by immediately and unabashedly confronting the racially charged elephant in the room — the furor over the all-white field of performers nominated for Hollywood's highest honors.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Feb 28, 2016

Japan Inc. slowly shedding LGBT taboos but bias laws still lag

Yusuke Kitamura hid his sexuality from colleagues for most of his career. It was only after joining one of Japan's oldest brokerages last year that he could tell them he was gay.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 26, 2016

DPJ, Ishin seal merger, will create new opposition party in March

The Democratic Party of Japan and Ishin no To formally agree to form a new opposition party to take on the conservative Liberal Democratic Party this summer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 24, 2016

Meryl Streep as a runaway rocker in 'Ricki and the Flash'

It has been seven long years since Jonathan Demme came out with what is popularly known as a "woman's movie" (don't say "chick flick" — there's a difference) with "Rachel Getting Married." In many ways, "Ricki and the Flash" feels like the sequel to that earlier film. Both movies examined the behavioral...
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 23, 2016

Military tensions set tone for frosty U.S.-China discussions

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for talks this week as each country accuses the other of escalating military tensions in the western Pacific.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 23, 2016

Kyoto Experiment goes from strength to strength

“It may be wrong to mix different wines, but old and new wisdom make an excellent mixture." So claims The Singer in Bertolt Brecht's 1944 play, "The Caucasian Chalk Circle."
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2016

Why aren't you able to repair your iPhone?

If Apple's executives don't ease up on their proprietary stranglehold over iPhones, lawmakers will do it for them.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 21, 2016

With new TV show, Osaka's Hashimoto plots return to public eye

After an absence of more than eight years, Toru Hashimoto, former Osaka mayor, governor and founder of the Ishin movement, returns to television as a regular commentator next month in what is expected to be the start of a regular series beginning in April.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo