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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 24, 2013

Gay marriage in Japan? Only over the reactionary LDP's cadaver

Tokyo Disneyland is an odd place to make a political statement, but the theme park now hosts same-sex wedding ceremonies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 24, 2013

Shocking exposé of Britain's police spies

Overexcitable publishers like to bandy around words such as "explosive" and "shocking" when trying to flog their books, even though generally you could substitute them for ones such as "mildly interesting."
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 24, 2013

A look back at when Tokyo was awarded 1964 Olympics

It's been more than 50 years since Tokyo was awarded the 1964 Summer Olympics, and it was done before several landmark events that shaped the second half of the 20th century.
JAPAN / History / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 23, 2013

Was Fellers friend of Japan or master manipulator?

A Nagoya University professor is working on a book about the life of the late U.S. Brig. Gen. Bonner Fellers, who played a major role in absolving Emperor Hirohito (known posthumously as Emperor Showa) of responsibility for Japan’s wartime aggression across Asia.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 23, 2013

As promoters follow users, not sites, ads can pop up in distressing ways

Ads for knockoff Louis Vuitton bags pop up on the luxury retailer's official Facebook page. A Toyota advertisement shows up on a news article about a car crash. Or an ad for Dove promoting women's "real beauty" shows up on a Facebook page glorifying domestic violence.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 23, 2013

The sky becomes less of a limit for cabin attendants (unless you're a man)

All Nippon Airways just announced a new hiring policy for cabin attendants (CA). Starting next year, new CAs will be full-time regular employees of the company. Since 1995, CAs at the company were hired as contract workers who could opt to become regular employees after three years. The reason for the...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 22, 2013

Multilateral accord presents pitfall if alliances are missing

South Korean President Park Geun-hye's call for multilateral dialogue in Northeast Asia is premature without a framework for military cooperation with Japan, South Korea and the U.S.
Reader Mail
Aug 21, 2013

What's important to the elite?

As William Pesek makes very clear in his Aug. 14/15 article "Fukushima replaces economy as Abe's legacy issue," it is truly mind-boggling that Japan's most senior leaders don't seem to be able to acknowledge the worst crisis in their nation's history since the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Aug 19, 2013

Abe and his ministers give anti-foreigner rallies tacit green light

To the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe:
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Aug 19, 2013

‘Halfies’ and hapa the norm elsewhere

Hapa haole celebrated in Hawaii
Reader Mail
Aug 17, 2013

A distraction from a tragedy

In his Aug. 11 Big In Japan column, "'Haiku killings' recall infamous horror story," Mark Schreiber does a great job of summarizing the recent beating and arson deaths in the mountain hamlet of Mitake, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Given my plodding translation skills, it certainly would have taken me a long...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 16, 2013

Deadly postwar bomb blast almost forgotten

On Sept. 5, 1945, weeks after World War II had ended, an unexploded bomb went off on the coast of the Otani district in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, killing seven children.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2013

'Happy go lucky' Australia now adrift in Asia

Australians used to call themselves 'the lucky country,' but today's mineral wealth seems to have created a nation prone to flip-flop foreign policies and crazy economic strategies.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2013

A political maelstrom in the South China Sea

However arbiters decide in the Philippines' complaint against China over conflicting claims in the South China Sea, it appears that China will simply refuse to abide by it.
Reader Mail
Aug 14, 2013

One master as bad as another

In the Aug. 5 Hotline to Nagatacho article, "For the sake of Japan's future, stop glorifying past crimes at Yasukuni," J.F. Van Wagtendonk applauds the yearly remembrance ceremony of the Dutch while condemning visitations by Japanese politicians to Yasukuni Shrine, which, he reminds us, houses the spirits...
EDITORIALS
Aug 12, 2013

End inheritance discrimination

Japan's Supreme Court is urged to hand down a ruling that will lead to ending the discrimination against illegitimate children when inheritances are bequeathed.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Aug 12, 2013

No fluffing up China's slump

The rest of the world has came to know about the start of an economic slump in China from none other than President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Aug 12, 2013

Ainu fight for return of plundered ancestral remains

Shigeru Kayano, one of the most well-known and respected Ainu figures of modern times, writes in his autobiography "Our Land Was a Forest" about the loathing he felt as a young man for the shamo (Japanese) researchers who used to visit his village and family home.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Aug 12, 2013

Radiation fears forced me to postpone Japan visit by U.S. students

Dear Minister of Education Hakubun Shimomura,
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 10, 2013

Koda's baby gaffe may find different reception now

Five years ago, singer Kumi Koda caused an uproar when she joked on a late-night radio show about how a woman's amniotic fluid (yōsui) becomes "spoiled" as she gets older. The subtext of the comment was the advantage of having babies at a younger age, but those quick to ridicule Koda's lack of gynecological...
Reader Mail
Aug 10, 2013

A suspicious display of beauty

The photo accompanying the Aug. 6 article by The Washington Post, titled "Opening of Iwaki beaches offer semblance of normalcy," belies any notion of a typical summer day at Nakoso Beach. The two lovely young ladies look as though they're having a lovely afternoon, but in the background the beach looks...
Reader Mail
Aug 10, 2013

No official religion in Thailand

I wish to set the record straight on some inaccuracies in Pavin Chachavalpongpun's July 24/25 article, "Southern Thai separatists touch trust milestone." The writer cites the supposed rise of Buddhist chauvism as one of the reasons for the rekindled conflict in the Southern Border Provinces (SBPs) of...
Reader Mail
Aug 10, 2013

Women leaders in the church

Regarding Peter McDonough's Aug. 4/5 article, "The real mission for Pope Francis": While McDonough seems to want a politically correct Catholic Church, I prefer a church that is doctrinally, morally and Biblically correct. Reforms are fine provided that they never breach that wall.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 9, 2013

Film helps heal A-bombing, and family, wounds

In a poignant scene in the award-winning 2010 documentary "Atomic Mom," filmmaker M.T. Silvia tells the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Hiroshima atomic bombing victim, as she presents 1,000 paper cranes to Silvia's mother, Pauline, a former U.S. Navy biologist involved in radiation testing on animals in the...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years