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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 10, 2015

'Taiko' pioneer Eitetsu Hayashi to mark 45 years of drumming to his own beat

It's the image that comes to most people when they think of a traditional taiko (Japanese drum) performance: A man standing in front of a giant drum, back to the crowd and furiously banging away to create a powerful rhythm.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 10, 2015

Australian police charge five over plot to attack government buildings

Australian police have charged a 20-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy with conspiracy to attack government buildings after they were arrested during raids by counterterrorism police in Sydney on Thursday morning.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2015

China, India can drive a renewable revolution

Forget climate change — it just makes economic sense for China and India to embrace renewable energy sources.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2015

Smog from Beijing may reach northern Japan

The ongoing pollution "red alert" in Beijing may affect northern Japan, a model of weather patterns suggests, although pollutants will be well within safe limits when they arrive.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2015

Japan needs to seek out regional allies, view U.S. as 'second resort,' says head of think tank

Japan needs to stop relying on the U.S. for its defense and form a security alliance with other Asian nations if it is to become a respectable global leader in the decades to come, according to the founder and president of Washington-based think tank Economic Strategy Institute.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health / ANALYSIS
Dec 9, 2015

'Monster' El Nino could usher in decade of more and stronger events

In Buffalo, New York, it hasn't snowed yet this year. A Duluth, Minnesota, newspaper reported that the temperature was 40 degrees above zero, not below. And in Miami, beachgoers are staying indoors during what's already the third-wettest December in local history. What's going on with the weather?
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 7, 2015

Forest protection efforts need to be refocused

If the climate negotiators meeting in Paris are truly interested in halting forest loss and bringing climate change under control, they must address the underlying causes of these problems.
ENVIRONMENT
Dec 7, 2015

We may still lack the technology to halt climate change

Legions of diplomats are huddled right now in Paris trying to hash out a historic climate accord. Legions of entrepreneurs and investors aren't waiting on a treaty.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 7, 2015

Japan pushes new policies to reboot startup sector

When asked to name globally recognized Japanese firms founded within the last decade, many people would be hard-pressed to list any.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 7, 2015

City land grab sowing seeds of China's next property boom

In the Chaoyang district of northeast Beijing, a nondescript wall covered in patriotic posters protects one of the city's most valuable treasures: a dirt field containing nothing but a few scattered trees.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 7, 2015

Smog rolls back into northern China after brief respite

Acrid-smelling smog rolled back into Beijing, shrouding the city of 20 million people in a gray haze four days after northern China reported the worst pollution in a year.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 5, 2015

All set for our woods' own horse power

Over the past three years, the C.W. Nicol Afan Woodland Trust has been bringing down people and horses from Tono and Morioka in Iwate Prefecture to help us take out trees we've been thinning from our woods here in northern Nagano Prefecture — and lately, too, from the adjoining national forest we've...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 5, 2015

Exploiting student workers, interns is easy

Although times are slowly changing, companies still hold a decidedly upper hand when it comes to violating the basic rights of student workers.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 5, 2015

FBI investigating California massacre as 'act of terrorism'

The FBI is investigating the fatal shooting of 14 people in California by a married couple as an "act of terrorism," officials said Friday, noting the wife was believed to have pledged allegiance to a leader of the militant Islamic State group.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 4, 2015

El Nino monthly indicator reaches level not seen since 1997

A key monthly indicator for El Nino has reached a level not seen since 1997, when the weather pattern caused heavy rains and flooding in parts of South America and severe drought hit crops in Indonesia, according to the U.S. weather agency.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 4, 2015

Forget 'smart' new cities; India needs old ones to be less dumb

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has grand designs to build 100 futuristic "smart" cities in India, but as this week's devastating flooding in Chennai shows, fixing today's accident-prone metropolises appears to be the more pressing task.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHARITY DRIVE 2015
Dec 3, 2015

Priest's aid effort provide education in rural Cambodia

A Japanese nonprofit organization committed to helping disadvantaged Cambodian children receive an education celebrated the completion of its 19th school there in February.
BUSINESS
Dec 3, 2015

Japan preparing to test-fly MHI-built stealth jet

Japan is closing in on becoming the fourth nation to test fly its own stealth jet, a move that could further antagonize neighboring Asian countries that oppose Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's bid to strengthen the role of the Self-Defense Forces.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2015

In Maldives, politics, greed trump climate change

Few places are as threatened by climate change as the Maldives, but the current regime, which took over in a coup, is more interested in selling oil-drilling licenses than in saving the nation.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2015

Deep changes urged in Japan's male-centered work culture

A government advisory panel on gender equality calls on the nation to change the male-oriented work culture based on the outdated family model in which men work long hours while women take care of the home.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 1, 2015

A lotta hot air: Loquacious leaders make for a long day at climate summit

Clearly His Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco is unaccustomed to being told to stop talking.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb