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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jun 10, 2015

China's big biotech bet starts to pay off

Years of pouring money into its laboratories, wooing scientists home from overseas and urging researchers to publish and patent is starting to give China a competitive edge in biotechnology, a strategic field it sees as ripe for "indigenous innovation."
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 10, 2015

Chided by Abe, Japan Inc. starts boosting investment at home

Pressured by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to share some of their record profits, and by increasingly obsolescent equipment, Japan's companies are starting to boost their investment spending.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 9, 2015

OPEC decision reflects new oil market reality

OPEC's decision on Friday not to cut production was entirely predictable and the only practical option open to its members.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 9, 2015

Aim for green infrastructure expansion in Asia

Infrastructure projects in Asia must be accompanied by protective safeguards to avoid damaging the environment, climate and communities — and slowing economic growth.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 9, 2015

Sumitomo Mitsui overtakes Morgan Stanley as top yen-bond manager

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. is on track to be the biggest manager of yen-bond sales for the first time, suggesting its 2009 acquisition of Citigroup Inc.'s operations in the business is bearing fruit.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2015

Corruption, environment, governance issues must be addressed before Japan weighs AIIB entry: Abe

Leaders of the Group of Seven industrial nations discussed a new Chinese-led Asian investment bank at their summit on Sunday, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe underlining the need to address issues like corruption, his spokesman said.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 7, 2015

Poor planning drains China's potential for hydropower

China could be wasting enough hydroelectricity to power Britain and Germany for a year, depriving its smog-bound eastern regions of huge volumes of clean energy as a result of poor planning and weak grid infrastructure.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 6, 2015

War and peace on Okinawa's Iejima Island

Beside their coastlines, there are other insistent geographical features that identify islands. In Okinawa, there is the great escarpment of Tindahanata on Yonaguni-jima Island, while Ishigaki Island has the strangely occult form of Mount Maapee, shaped like a sorcerer's hat.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 5, 2015

American School in Japan admits covering up teacher's sex abuse for decades

In a long-awaited disclosure, a well-known international school in Tokyo admits to concealing decades of sexual abuse by a former teacher and apologizes.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2015

Mass death sentences now a part of life in Egypt

With its mass death sentences, Egypt's military regime is joining the ranks of Adolf Hitler's Nazis and Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2015

Nepal faces monumental quake-debris problem

Facing a monumental task in dealing with the debris from its devastating earthquake, Nepal would greatly benefit from the expertise that Japan gained from its Tohoku cleanup.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 5, 2015

Investors must take climate change into account: study

Most investors need to make a significant behavioral shift and start factoring climate change into their portfolio risk management, a study on its impact on financial market returns found on Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 4, 2015

Curator Okwui Enwezor tackles grim realities at Venice Biennale, while Japan sticks to tired festival formula

Ugly, joyless, aggressive, didactic, morose, self-righteous, unpleasant; these are just some of the words used in the press to describe the recently opened 56th Venice Biennale in Italy.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 4, 2015

Study reveals famous California redwood is 777 years young

A new study to determine the age of iconic old-growth redwoods in California's Muir Woods has revealed that one of the tallest and most famous trees in the forest is much younger than many assumed given its massive size, scientists said on Tuesday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 4, 2015

Mysterious deep-sea oarfish washes up in California

A dead oarfish, a mysterious and serpent-like creature that swims deep below the ocean's surface, has washed up on a Southern California island and a university biologist will study the remains, officials said on Wednesday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 4, 2015

Secret of Greenland's vanishing lakes found

Scientists were baffled last year after meltwater lakes atop Greenland's ice sheet suddenly drained out at rates rivaling Niagara Falls.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 2, 2015

Cabinet backs plan for 26% cut to greenhouse gas emissions

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approves a plan to reduce greenhouse gases by 26 percent by 2030, a goal already criticized by environmental groups as too timid and statistically unsound.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 1, 2015

Hedge fund activists are Japan's best friend

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should leverage the uptick in foreign investment to reignite his economic reform program.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 1, 2015

Abe and history: What's next?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe needs to dramatically and definitively address the 'comfort women' issue head on.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 1, 2015

E-textbooks to open digital can of worms

As the world goes digital, many schools are trying to introduce digital materials into the classroom to encourage studying and meet the needs of students' increasingly diverse needs.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 1, 2015

BOJ bond holdings' profits top Zuckerberg's net wealth

The Bank of Japan made more on its bond holdings on paper in the past year than Mark Zuckerberg is worth.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
May 31, 2015

Karuizawa boarding school touts international diversity, hard truths

One tiny experience in your life may floor you and open the door to an entirely new world. Though rare, it sometimes happens when one stumbles upon a totally different culture.
EDITORIALS
May 31, 2015

Japan's aquariums must evolve

The vote by Japanese zoos and aquarium to remain in the industry's world body means dolphin-keepers will have to rethink how they obtain their animals.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
May 30, 2015

Life inside a juvenile correction center

Young offenders are encouraged to acknowledge the crimes they have committed before learning how to survive in the outside world after their release.
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2015

Aiming for more than medals

The Sports Agency, due to be created in October, needs to do much more than push up Japan's medal count at the Tokyo Olympics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 29, 2015

Def Tech celebrates 10 years and taps into a Hawaiian vibe on 'Howzit!?'

Def Tech's Yuki "Micro" Nishimiya and Shenan "Shen" Brown greet me with an "Aloha" as I walk into their small office in Harajuku to discuss their 10th anniversary and new album, "Howzit!?"

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