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Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 9, 2013

Moscow mayor election could shift political landscape

In a mayoral election that tested the Kremlin's strategy against its opposition, and that brought some of the divisions within the Kremlin itself close to the surface, charismatic anti-corruption Moscow mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny made a far stronger showing than expected Sunday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 5, 2013

Clinton's Syria stance may be key in 2016 race

Hillary Rodham Clinton was a senator from New York the last time the U.S. Congress was asked to authorize military action in the Middle East. Friends believe her 2002 vote giving President George W. Bush the power to invade Iraq may have cost her the presidency in 2008.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2013

Is America now becoming an international outlaw?

When Barack Obama succeeded George W. Bush as U.S. president, the world heaved a collective sigh of relief. How ironic then that Obama risks making the U.S. the biggest international outlaw of our times.
EDITORIALS
Sep 3, 2013

America's unfinished business

There is no mistaking the progress that has been made in the United States in the half century since Dr. Martin Luther King gave his 'I have a dream' speech. But there remains a long way to go.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2013

A danger in trying to transform Mideast

Big bets in foreign policy should have at least a reasonable prospect of success, but that is not the case in today's Middle East.
Japan Times
JAPAN / INTERPRETATION & TRANSLATION
Sep 2, 2013

Focusing on people, not just words

English interpreters in Japan may often be regarded as those who convert English into Japanese or vice versa. However, Mutsumi Katayama, who has worked for more than 20 years as a freelance professional interpreter, focuses more attention on interpersonal communication.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2013

Why Bo Xilai stole the show instead of the CCP

Bo Xilai may be heading to jail, but he retains some chance of political rehabilitation should things change dramatically in China.
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2013

Reforming the Upper House

The Upper House should be reformed in a manner that will allow it to help produce laws that promote nonpartisan public interests.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 31, 2013

Tepco's follies, reactor restarts and awkward plutonium stockpiles

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) is deservedly slagged as the Keystone Cops of nuclear power, and conjures up images of Homer Simpson, the iconic nuclear safety inspector in "The Simpsons." Perhaps it ought to adopt as its mascot Ocnus, the Greek god who personifies futility.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 30, 2013

Taylor's gambling no laughing matter

If Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, did the equivalent job in the National Football League he would not have been allowed to run up alleged gambling debts of £100,000 to a bookmaker.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2013

Fukushima spill snags reactor restart quest

The Fukushima No. 1 power plant's continued pollution of the Pacific is fueling growing domestic and international concern about radiation hazards, clouding plans by utilities and the government to quickly restart a dozen reactors.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 2013

Art fiction that keeps our thinking adept

What is the connection between Kampala in Uganda, Fukushima in Japan and New Orleans in America? Tsuyoshi Ozawa links these seemingly disparate places in his ongoing series "Vegetable Weapons". The shape of a gun is formed out of local vegetables and photographed, before it's taken apart and the same...
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 28, 2013

Gaffe-shy Hashimoto keeps media at bay

With a critical local election looming, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) co-leader and Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto declares that a fundraising event and strategy session Friday will be closed to the media.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2013

CCP's plan for pro-democracy voices: repression

A semisecret directive from the senior members of the Chinese Communist Party tells us how President Xi Jinping plans to manage pro-democracy voices in China: by shutting them down.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2013

Power is fragmenting, but what is the true cost?

Political parties are succumbing to the rise of uncompromising single-issue pressure groups, and the corresponding decline of supporters who want common values expressed.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 26, 2013

Abe begins collecting feedback on tax hike before decision

A government panel kicked off a seven-day discussion Monday on whether the sales tax should be hiked next April amid concerns it could derail Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's radical efforts to end decades of deflation.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2013

The perfect excuse for politicians not to govern

It's not just that the Republican tactic of shutting down the government is a bomb that may eventually go off. It's also a perfect excuse for everyone not to govern.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 25, 2013

When does one's native language stop being native?

A 71-year-old man in Gifu Prefecture made headlines recently when he attempted to initiate a lawsuit against broadcaster NHK. Through its excessive use of foreign derived words, the man claimed, NHK had caused him 精神的苦痛 (seishinteki kutsū, psychological pain). He demanded ¥1.41 million...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2013

Cancer metaphor unmasks Egypt's liberalism

A Lebanese scholar admits being taken by surprise at the tide of Egyptian 'liberalism' now calling for the excision of the Muslim Brotherhood as if it were a cancer.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2013

Critics split on Kennedy's new role as U.S. envoy

Caroline Kennedy's appointment as the first female U.S. ambassador to Japan divides American experts on the bilateral security relationship.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2013

Deflating the hype on big data

Big data holds the promise of harnessing huge amounts of information to help us better understand the world. But the hype is causing contrarians to fall into hyberbole.
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.
Reader Mail
Aug 21, 2013

Common perception on history

These days Tokyo's views and attitudes toward the aggression committed by Japanese forces during World War II are much talked about not only in neighboring countries but also among common Japanese. Lately I had the opportunity to talk about our former history classes in school with friends from different...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2013

Allies wage behind-the-scenes effort in Fed job push

Lawrence Summers, one of the top candidates to lead the U.S. Federal Reserve, was being beaten up, and his friends from his White House years wanted to help him.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 20, 2013

Frugal German election contrasts sharply with U.S.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's calendar this past week looked like this: unpack from an Italian vacation, catch up with advisers and kick off a campaign with a small-town rally for an election that will be held in just five weeks.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2013

Larry Summers and a tale of two Harvard professors

It is hard to imagine any private bankers being so callous and socially unconscionable as Larry Summers, a leading candidate to be the next chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2013

Global threat of nuclear deterrence

lmost half a century after the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was signed, the world is still perched precariously on the edge of the nuclear precipice.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 17, 2013

Unmissable response to George Orwell's 1946 essay 'Why I Write'

A slender, beautifully bound blue hardback showed up on my desk. Its pages were creamy, its typeface clear in a formal, old-fashioned way. Each page number was picked out in scarlet. It was a book to put Kindle out of business, so covetable that, I almost thought, it scarcely mattered what it contained....
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 17, 2013

Hope for amnesty bill as Thai protests return

The Thai government finds itself beset by renewed street protests as an amnesty bill, for those involved in political violence since 2006, is debated in Parliament.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2013

Southern All Stars' latest hit delves into foreign relations

A chart-topping song by the Southern All Stars is stirring talk over its political content as Japan experiences heightened tensions with both China and South Korea over historical and territorial disputes.

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