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JAPAN / Politics
Mar 30, 2013

Ishihara confirms stroke but denies retirement speculation

Shintaro Ishihara pledges to remain coleader of Nippon Ishin no Kai, denying speculation he might quit and resign from politics over his poor health.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2013

Wanted: adult U.S. leadership

If the U.S. executive branch and Congress can't agree on a relatively simple thing like the budget, how can they hope to lead on important matters?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 30, 2013

Awakening the echoes — loud ones

I sit at a table, drinking with an old friend with whom I share a lot, and not just bar tabs. We have both gulped away most of our adult lives in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 29, 2013

Documenting the Vogels as they give the gift of art

As far as art collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel were concerned, Megumi Sasaki was more than a filmmaker who turned their lives into an award-winning documentary ("Herb & Dorothy," 2009): She's a close friend and a daughter. Having never had (or apparently even desired) children, the Vogels were by all...
EDITORIALS
Mar 28, 2013

More rulings against vote disparity

Six courts declare apportionment for the Dec. 16 Lower House election unconstitutional, signaling more judicial irritation with vote-value disparity.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2013

India's five thoughts on China's new leadership

Only the fifth of five principles that China's new leaders have offered for Sino-Indian relations seems tricky: the accommodation of 'core concerns.'
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2013

Pope Francis should look east to end poverty

Philippine President Benigno Aquino faces a huge roadblock in his push to end the poverty weighing on his 106 million people: the Catholic Church.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Mar 28, 2013

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Find out what it means to indie's new talent

It's 6 a.m. and the tiny studio is crammed full of people and reeks of sweat. An ear-splitting punk trio do their best to blast the ceiling off and a woman wrapped in nothing but a bit of Duct tape careers around the room, shrieking into a microphone.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2013

Lessons from the Iraq War are there for the heeding

Do Obama policymakers really know the economic consequences of beginning military operations in Iran or supplying weapons to Syria's opposition
PRESS / Corporate Trends
Mar 25, 2013

The Japan Times, New York Times announce publishing agreement for Japan

TOKYO — The Japan Times and The New York Times Company today announce a publishing agreement that will see the International New York Times packaged with The Japan Times in the Japan market. The combined product, which will be distributed Monday through Saturday, will be known as The Japan Times /...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 25, 2013

Beijing sees lessons in Soviet past

Chinese Communist Party officials and intellectuals say President Xi Jinping's fixation on the Soviet Union may prove crucial to China's future direction.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2013

Did success have a prayer in Iraq?

It is possible the invasion of Iraq was a mistake that might have still been executed much more effectively for a much better outcome after 10 years.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2013

Reports of pope's past silences deflate bubble

Reports that he stood silent during Argentina's 'dirty war' and on sex abuse allegations against priests have toned down the welcome for Pope Francis.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2013

Asia and a post-U.S. Mideast

Dependence on imported oil motivated the U.S. military presence in the Mideast after 1945. With energy self-sufficiency in sight, will the U.S. pull back
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 22, 2013

Tokyo art blossoms in spring

It seems that this year everything is coming together for the Tokyo art world, literally.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 22, 2013

Rise of Jesuit to papacy surprises cerebral order's membership

Pope Francis belongs to the Jesuits, a religious order whose members take an unusual — and at the moment seemingly ironic — vow: not to strive for a higher office.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 22, 2013

Surviving Progress

What is progress? The powers that be espouse an almost religious belief in ever-increasing wealth, productivity and technological advances. But what if these things come at the expense of the long-term habitability of the planet? Unlimited economic progress is impossible on a planet of finite resources....
BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2013

Cyprus turns down 'unjust' fiscal bailout

Lawmakers in Cyprus on Tuesday rejected a bailout plan that would have rescued the country's banks but forced savers to chip in for the cost, throwing down a gauntlet to the rest of Europe over the financial fate of the tiny island nation.
Japan Times
CARTOONS / DAHL'S JAPAN
Mar 21, 2013

Weather Politics

WORLD
Mar 20, 2013

Pope often quiet on sex abuse cases as archbishop

The Rev. Julio Cesar Grassi was a celebrity in the archdiocese of Buenos Aires. The young, dynamic, media-savvy priest networked with wealthy Argentines to fund an array of schools, orphanages and job training programs for poor and abandoned youths, winning praise from Argentine politicians and his superior,...
EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2013

Court case raises questions

The Tokyo High Court upholds lower court convictions of three former aides of former DPJ chief Ichiro Ozawa for falsifying political funding reports.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 18, 2013

Karzai embarks on a high-stakes quest for Afghan sovereignty

As Afghanistan's second presidential election loomed in early 2009, President Hamid Karzai described his once-genial relationship with the U.S. as a "gentle wrestling match" that he hoped to win.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 18, 2013

Man who shot '47 Percent' video reveals identity

Until last week, Scott Prouty's only bout with fame came when he dived into a canal in Florida and saved a woman from drowning. Like many Americans, the Boston area native held down working-class jobs, ran into some financial trouble and remained generally anonymous.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2013

Bangkok governor re-elected despite his failings

Incumbent Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, of the national opposition Democrat Party, is re-elected despite his failings the past four years.
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2013

Can Xi clear out billionaire glut in Beijing?

Now that Xi Jinping officially holds the reins in Beijing, the world is asking this question: Can China's new leader revamp an economy that may become the world's largest during his 10-year term? Here's an even better one: Will Beijing let him?
CULTURE / Books
Mar 17, 2013

Memorable thriller melds spy, detective fiction

THE JACKAL'S SHARE, by Chris Morgan Jones. Mantle, 2013, 320 pp., $26.95 (hardcover)
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Mar 16, 2013

'We are abandoning all the checks and balances'

Evgeny Morozov is a Belarus-born technology writer who has held positions at Stanford and Georgetown universities in the United States. His first book, "The Net Delusion," argued that "Western do-gooders may have missed how [the Internet] ... entrenches dictators, threatens dissidents, and makes it harder...

Longform

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Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years