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JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Oct 20, 2013

Experts play down fish radiation fear

Given the flood of radioactive water gushing into the Pacific from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 complex, how safe, or dangerous, are fish caught off northeast Japan?
EDITORIALS
Oct 19, 2013

Remedies for rigged research

It still isn't clear who manipulated clinical research data in favor of Novartis Pharma's blood-pressure drug Diovan, casting a cloud on the credibility of Japan's medical universities.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2013

Japan P.M. sends offering to war-linked shrine

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has dedicated a "masakaki" decorated wooden stick offering used in Shinto rituals to Yasukuni Shrine, but did not visit the war-related shrine for the major autumn ceremony that began Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Oct 17, 2013

Pre-emption of mercurial hazards

Some might call it the epitaph for Japan's worst environmental tragedy. Delegates from about 140 countries meet in Kumamoto to adopt the Minamata Convention on regulating the use of mercury.
EDITORIALS
Oct 16, 2013

Raising fees for nursing care services

The government plans to raise the out-of-pocket share paid by 'high-income' earners for services received under the elderly nursing care insurance system from 10 to 20 percent.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 13, 2013

Abe set to overturn legacies of Koizumi and Nakasone

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is reviving the old Liberal Democratic Party, having undone moves by former Prime Ministers Yasuhiro Nakasone and Junichiro Koizumi toward smaller government.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 13, 2013

Chinese prison bars U.S. doctor from dissident

Moved by the plight and failing health of a Chinese dissident imprisoned for a few lines of poetry, a retired American doctor traveled from her quiet life in suburban Washington to the gates of his eastern China prison on Saturday and asked she be allowed to give him a medical evaluation.
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2013

Medical experts seek to dial back over-prescription for schizophrenia

Doctors in Japan have long prescribed a cocktail of several types of drugs to people with mental illnesses, often leading to various side effects.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 10, 2013

Republican options tapering to 'surrender'

As the government shutdown and the threat of a federal debt default begin to merge into a singular Washington crisis, the only way out for House Speaker John Boehner may be something he disparaged earlier this week as "unconditional surrender."
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 8, 2013

At 77, he flips burgers to earn his old hourly wage in a week

It seems like another life. At the height of his corporate career, Tom Palome was pulling in a salary in the low six-figures and flying first class on business trips to Europe.
LIFE / Digital
Oct 8, 2013

Big data has made privacy obsolete

Watching the legal system deal with the Internet is like watching somebody trying to drive a car by looking only in the rear-view mirror. The results are amusing and predictable but not really interesting. On the other hand, watching the efforts of regulators — whether British ones such as Ofcom, or...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Oct 7, 2013

The Special Dismissal Zone: where legal protections no longer apply

The government's Special Employment Zone wheeze has already been dubbed the Special Dismissal Zone, or kaiko tokku, by the media.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 6, 2013

Deep political divisions at root of U.S. shutdown

The government shutdown did not happen by accident. It is the latest manifestation — an extreme one by any measure — of divisions long in the making and now deeply embedded in the country's politics.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Oct 2, 2013

Households to take hit from tax hike

The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people's financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 2, 2013

GOP disappoints big-business backers

In 2010 and again in 2012, companies on Main Street and Wall Street did just about everything they could to help Republicans win elected office in Washington.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 2, 2013

U.S. shutdown damages political system, but Republicans seen at greater risk

There will be plenty of collateral damage from the government shutdown that began early Tuesday — from federal workers to ordinary citizens — but the most serious effects are likely to be felt inside a Republican Party that appears divided and in need of leadership.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2013

The 'why' of violence against women

Cultural attitudes regarding rape must change if we are to create a safer future for the next generation of women and girls.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 30, 2013

Cultural and legal hurdles block path to child adoptions in Japan

While more than 7,000 couples applied to adopt or become foster parents every year between 2006 and 2010, only 309 children were adopted in fiscal 2010, according to government figures.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Sep 30, 2013

Triumph of Tokyo Olympic bid sends wrong signal to Japan's resurgent right

International events undermine Japan's democracy. Shame on the International Olympic Committee for being a party to it.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Sep 29, 2013

Tattoos make inroads with 50 and older crowd

Thirty years ago, a good girl didn't walk into an establishment plastered with images of dragons and flames, hike her shirt up over one shoulder and let her body be injected with ink. Especially not if she was, like Darlene Nash, a 57-year-old grandmother.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 29, 2013

American Dream fading for many in wake of financial crisis

Four years into an economic recovery in which most of the benefits have flowed to the top earners, a majority believes that the American Dream is becoming markedly more elusive, according to the results of a Washington Post-Miller Center poll exploring Americans' changing definition of success and their...
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 27, 2013

Report raises fear about toxic algae fed by pollution

They call it the green slime, a toxic ooze of algae that covered lakes and other bodies of water across the United States this summer, closing beaches and killing scores of dolphins, manatees, birds and fish, a report says.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2013

Abe, U.N. chief Ban vow cooperation over Syria, North Korea

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have agreed to cooperate on eliminating Syria's chemical weapons and on tackling North Korea's nuclear threat and humanitarian issues, a Japanese official said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 25, 2013

Seiji Ozawa ends summer on high note

Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe reportedly once said “God is in the details.” Conductor Seiji Ozawa would literally agree. He meets The Japan Times at a cafe he frequents in Tokyo's Seijo district.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2013

Brazilians demand long-term change in slums

Brazilian demonstraters want the government to invest in public transportation, better schools and hospitals instead of hosting mega-events such as the 2014 World Cup.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2013

Medical heroes who labor in Syria

Good, moderate, responsible people on the ground in Syria should not be forgotten. These doctors and nurses embody an unyielding sense of hope and perseverance.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 24, 2013

Americans, Briton 'among Nairobi mall attackers'

Kenya's foreign minister says 'two or three Americans' and 'one Brit' were among the al-Qaida-linked militants who took part in the deadly terrorist attack on an upscale Nairobi shopping mall.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past