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COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2015

New nuclear fuel bank a welcome development

The new Kazakh fuel bank is a significant step toward achieving a world free of nuclear weapons.
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 24, 2015

Aichi meets challenge of surge in non-Japanese students

Schools in Japan are struggling to meet the needs of children with non-Japanese parents who come from a diverse range of countries.
EDITORIALS
Aug 23, 2015

Tianjin's disaster is CCP's failure

The horrific blasts this month in Tianjin are a tragic illustration of Chinese rulers' lack of checks and accountability.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2015

In Africa, good fences make for safe species

An innovative conservation project in Kenya using electric fences is both protecting endangered species from poachers and agricultural crops from foraging animals.
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Aug 23, 2015

Top-heavy, nuke-clinging Kepco faces liberated electricity market

News that 7-Eleven stores in the Kansai region will trade Kansai Electric Power Co.'s electricity in favor of cheaper electricity from Tokyo Electric Power Co. has locals wondering if Kepco's six-decade monopoly over Kansai's electricity supply might be ending.
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2015

Much potential in new courses

The education ministry should strive to follow the new study outline for primary and secondary education, which stresses active learning to nurture independent thinking.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 21, 2015

Effort afoot to freeze animal reproductive cells at Yokohama zoo

From humboldt penguins to black jaguars, sperm and eggs from dozens of zoo animals are being frozen and stored at the Zoorasia Yokohama Zoological Gardens until they can be used for artificial insemination.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 21, 2015

Winds fanning raging, deadly Pacific Northwest forest conflagrations

Crews battling a flurry of wildfires raging unchecked in the Pacific Northwest braced on Thursday for high winds forecast in the region a day after three firefighters were killed and four others were injured in Washington state.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 20, 2015

Invasive plants pose billion-dollar threat to economies around the world

Many of the world's plants are turning "alien," spread by people into new areas where they choke out native vegetation in a worsening trend that causes billions of dollars in damage, scientists said on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2015

Brazil's Olympic dig unearths a royal toothbrush

As Rio de Janeiro prepares to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, archaeology is enjoying a revival, thanks in part to an unlikely convergence of bureaucracy and sensibility.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 18, 2015

Western U.S. wildfires going unchecked, stretching resources thin

Dozens of large wildfires roared largely unchecked across several Western states on Monday, stretching resources thin for agencies struggling to contain the flames amid a heat wave gripping the drought-parched region.
Japan Times
JAPAN / FUKUSHIMA FILE
Aug 17, 2015

NPO backs global certification for Minamiaizu's sustainable forests

In the town of Minamiaizu in southwestern Fukushima Prefecture, local efforts are gathering steam to promote its rich forestry resources to the world by obtaining global certification for quality woodlands.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 17, 2015

Papua search for crashed, aging turboprop plane gets underway

Search and rescue teams prepared to scour mountainous, heavily forested terrain on Monday in Indonesia's eastern region of Papua where a passenger plane with 54 people on board crashed, officials said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Aug 15, 2015

AKB48 turns to an American studio

AKB48’s  commercial success in Japan is often derided as a sign of the culture’s patriarchal infantilization of women, and the girl group’s inability to appeal to Western audiences a sign of Japan’s increasingly isolated ideas about femininity, sexuality and pop music. Put simply: outside of...
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 14, 2015

Fifteen U.S. states seek to block EPA carbon rule

Fifteen state attorneys general petitioned a federal court in Washington on Thursday to block new U.S. rules to curb carbon emissions from power plants, in the first of several expected legal challenges to the Obama administration measure.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2015

Fear of a currency war grows

The Chinese central bank's major devaluation of the yuan this week has large parts of Asia now worried about the prospects of a currency war.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 13, 2015

Who's behind the 96 million 'shade balls' rolled into LA's reservoirs?

Shade balls?
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2015

Record-low bad debts make up for disappearing loan profit

Plunging interest rates are helping reduce Japanese banks' bad debt to record-low levels of almost a fifth of their highs 13 years ago.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 13, 2015

Golden arches lack luster as McDonald's Japan reports ¥26.2 billion loss in year to June

McDonald's Japan on Wednesday reported a record net loss of ¥26.2 billion for the first six months of the year, highlighting its continued struggles after a string of widely reported quality concerns.
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Aug 12, 2015

Mood turns against Halilhodzic after East Asian Cup debacle

If a scoreless draw with Singapore in Japan's opening World Cup qualifier in May marked the end of manager Vahid Halilhodzic's honeymoon period, last week's East Asian Cup has had critics wishing for a divorce already.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 11, 2015

'Shimura Fukumi: Nature and Inheritance to Next Generation'

Aug. 8-Sept. 23
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 11, 2015

Mitsubishi UFJ to boost Taiwan staff as cross-strait trade grows

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. is seeking to expand its workforce in Taiwan as it pursues business from companies benefiting from increasing trade between the island and mainland China.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2015

Heed Pope Francis' call to protect the Amazon

When world leaders meet at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris later this year to craft a response to the challenges of global warming, they should put in place policies to protect tropical forests and the people who make them their home.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2015

Good times over for Japan teachers fund, now seeking to avoid losses

Japan's investment fund for teachers has switched its focus to avoiding losses, predicting the best days are over for both stocks and bonds.

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