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COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 3, 2015

A few more pennies won't perk up Japan's economy

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe needs to tap into the audacity he's displayed elsewhere if he is to enact the reforms necessary to turn Japan's economy around.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 3, 2015

Curiosity overcomes animosity as Chinese tourists flock to Japan

While shuffling his family aboard the 16-deck Quantum of the Seas in Shanghai, Yu Zhihong admitted he has often told his kids that Japan is no good.
WORLD
Aug 2, 2015

Extraordinary measures used to fight militant Islam in 'stans'

Authorities in Central Asia's former Soviet "stans" are taking draconian measures to stamp out militant Islam, but their harsh methods and the absence of democratic politics risk provoking a backlash that could bring even greater instability.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 1, 2015

A political turning point for Japan's youth

July 15, 2015, will go down in Japanese history. As what, though? The day democracy's decline became irreversible? Or the day democracy's decline was reversed?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 1, 2015

New translation of the world's oldest novel

'The Tale of Genji," written by Murasaki Shikibu around 1,000 A.D., is regarded by many as the world's first novel and is arguably the most influential work of Japanese literature ever written, inspiring countless other works of drama, fiction and fine art.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2015

The dangerous rise of Buddhist chauvinism

Buddhist chauvinism now threatens the democratic process in both Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 31, 2015

China's Xi swats 'blood-sucking mosquitoes' as graft push goes small

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has likened his nationwide corruption purge to hunting tigers and swatting flies, is sending Communist Party graft-busters after an even more annoying pest: mosquitoes.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2015

A veil of secrecy masks stepped-up cyberattacks in Asia, experts say

Once a month, cybersecurity lawyer Paul Haswell gets a call from an Asian company with the same question: We've been hacked. Who do we need to tell?
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 29, 2015

U.S. Congress' egocentric strategem in the TPP talks

With the passage of the Trade Promotion Authority Act, the U.S. will become increasingly self-centered in pursuit of its national interests in international trade negotiations, including the TPP.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 27, 2015

FT challenges Nikkei's values

The Financial Times is everything that Nikkei is not. It is questionable whether international and Japanese news values will fit easily together.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 25, 2015

Shizuka Kamei and Shintaro Ishihara have the security debate the Diet should have had

When Shintaro Ishihara retired from politics after failing to get re-elected last December, it seemed we wouldn't have the right-wing firebrand to kick around any more, but last week there he was in Shukan Asahi talking to former Liberal Democratic Party comrade Shizuka Kamei about various topics, including...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 25, 2015

Will 'neurotic' Japan go postcapitalist?

Is Japan on the threshold of postcapitalism? If it is, as Morris Berman suggests in "Neurotic Beauty: An Outsiders Look at Japan," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe doesn't seem to have received the memo.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2015

The Greek tragedy continues

While the latest bailout package provides a lifeline for the Greeks, it does not provide the means for them to get back safely on land.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 24, 2015

Nikkei snaps up London's Financial Times for $1.3 billion

Japanese media group Nikkei has agreed to buy the Financial Times from Britain's Pearson for $1.3 billion, putting one of the world's premier business newspapers in the hands of a company influential at home but little known outside Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 23, 2015

Kerry makes case for Iran nuke deal in heated, closed-door Capitol briefings

Secretary of State John Kerry and other administration officials escalated their campaign to win support for the Iran nuclear deal, traveling to the Capitol for a pair of closed-door briefings.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2015

20th women's conference looks to make history

Gender equality in the workforce is not a simple thing to achieve.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2015

What Europe should learn from Asia's crisis

Asia's experience is proof that denial and ill-timed austerity fix nothing. Greece must modernize its economy.
WORLD
Jul 20, 2015

Obama sends Iran deal to wary Congress; Netanyahu urges rejection

President Barack Obama's administration sent a nuclear agreement with Tehran to Congress on Sunday and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged U.S. lawmakers to reject a deal he said would only feed an "Iranian terror machine."
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2015

Netanyahu reaping a bitter harvest

The bad blood between Netanyahu and the West is exposing Israel to a risk no less significant than that posed by Iran: the danger of international isolation.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 20, 2015

In graft crackdown, China's Xi touts ideals of revolutionary forebears

China's military must learn from the glorious, uncorrupt example of its revolutionary forebears and thoroughly banish the deep-rooted, pernicious influence of the army's worst corruption scandal in decades, President Xi Jinping has told officers.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 19, 2015

How Nintendo squandered its Wii triumph

Nintendo's lost half-decade is a microcosm of 2015 Japan: teeming with innovative energy yet held back by a culture that tends to squander rather than harness it.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2015

Student group's pandemics study wins Japan Times award

A student group addressing the growing threat of pandemic diseases in the age of globalization received the grand prize for this summer's presentations in The Japan Times Youth Project.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2015

After the Iran nuclear deal

Although the U.S. and Iran share common interests in the Middle East, a grand realignment of American alliances in the region is unlikely.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2015

Does Hillary know what's best for Americans?

Hillary Clinton is convinced that she could do a better job of running companies than their owners can.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2015

The hardest word to say ...

The Serbs and their neighbors will never really be reconciled until the Serbs are ready to acknowledge the scale of their crime at Srebrenica 20 years ago.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 14, 2015

Education key in getting young people to vote

If Japan wants its young people to vote, it needs to educate them about their civic rights and responsibilities.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jul 14, 2015

Nuclear deal seen boosting Iran's economy, not regional aggression

An expected influx of cash from an easing of sanctions after a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers looks likely to be directed mainly at reviving a moribund economy rather than increasing Iranian assertiveness.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 13, 2015

Famed director Miyazaki calls Abe's move to revise Constitution 'despicable'

Famed director Hayao Miyazaki made a rare public appearance Monday in Tokyo, but the one-hour news conference may not have satisfied fans of his magical animation: The subject wasn't movies but politics.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 10, 2015

Beware the perils of a 'Little Britain' and a 'Little Japan'

If Japan does not join the AIIB, it will inevitably give the impression that it has turned its back on the rest of Asia.

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