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Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2011

Australians recall POW ordeals

Former Australian prisoner of war Alfred Ellwood can vividly recall being interrogated and at times tortured by the Imperial Japanese Army's notorious military police after he was captured in East Timor, an experience that scarred him most of his life.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 16, 2011

'Cut'

A director who makes a film that loudly complains about the sad state of current cinema is setting himself up as a critics' punching bag ("You, sir, are part of the problem ..."). Also, if he inserts his list of 100 all-time best films into his climax he is asking for some impolite comments about his...
Reader Mail
Dec 15, 2011

Whale hunt sure to put off donors

Regarding the Dec. 10 front-page AP article "¥2.3 billion for Tohoku diverted to whale hunt": I truly regret ever donating money for restoring individuals' lives in the quake/tsunami devastated areas of the Tohoku region. It is shocking to learn that the fisheries agency is so detached from reality...
EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2011

Bills passed, and passed over

During a 51-day extraordinary session, which ended Dec. 9, the Diet passed the third fiscal 2011 supplementary budget and a bill for raising the income tax for 25 years, both aimed at funding reconstruction from the March 11 disasters and the Fukushima nuclear fiasco. The Liberal Democratic Party and...
COMMENTARY
Dec 9, 2011

Russia's cooperation options for design of a trade scheme

Nowadays the trend toward trade and investment liberalization is developing under restraints of the opposite — protectionist — tendency strengthened by the shaky and unpredictable world situation, which in turn was created by the global financial and economic crisis.
EDITORIALS
Dec 9, 2011

A test for Mr. Putin

Real men in Russia never get nervous. Or if they do, they do not show it. And if there is anything that he wants his public to believe, it is that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is a real man. Still, the results of Sunday's parliamentary election must worry him.
COMMENTARY
Dec 7, 2011

Blame the welfare state for U.S. and Europe's ills

We Americans fool ourselves if we ignore the parallels between Europe's problems and our own. It's reassuring to think them separate, and the fixation on the euro — Europe's common currency — buttresses that mind-set. But Europe's turmoil is more than a currency crisis and was inevitable, in some...
COMMENTARY
Dec 6, 2011

Who will tell the 'have nots' to forgo a better life?

Quietly, without much notice, the world's population crept past the 7 billion mark on Oct. 31, according to the United Nations. The majority of people live on one continent, Asia, with two countries, China and India, accounting for almost 37 percent of the total.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2011

Gingrich, Romney, Obama share perspectives

According to the polls and the pundits, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are the two front-runners for the Republican nomination for president. That means both of them will spend the next few weeks trying to show that they are more competent, conservative and generally Reagan-like than the other.
EDITORIALS
Dec 5, 2011

Mr. Obama's successful Asia tour

Every foreign tour by a head of state is a carefully sculpted and scripted affair. Every mark is measured in advance, every backdrop screened, every word weighed. Success is expected and the message carefully massaged so that there is rarely an alternative interpretation available.
COMMENTARY / World / 50 years of ASEAN
Dec 5, 2011

China: soft or crash landing?

Economists who believe that China can come to the rescue of an increasingly troubled global economy are now in a decided minority, with questions increasingly being asked whether China can save itself: Will China's economy achieve a soft landing, a hard landing or even suffer a crash landing?
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 5, 2011

Unknown consequences if Japan joins TPP

Japan couldn't make up its mind, so it was up to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. On Nov. 13 he made it official: Japan would join multilateral negotiations aimed at forging a free-trading Kan-Taiheiyo Keizai Renkei Kyotei (環太平洋経済連携協定, Trans-Pacific Partnership, TPP).
EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 2011

Populist storm in Osaka

The charisma of former Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto lifted Osaka Ishin no Kai (meaning literally "Association for Osaka Reformation"), a local party led by him, to overwhelming victories in two elections Sunday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Dec 1, 2011

Restless Arab region presents curatorial challenge

In mid-February, Mori Art Museum Associate Curator Kenichi Kondo noticed an article on the Nafas website, which specializes in art news from the Middle East. Egyptian media artist Ahmed Basiony, it said, had gone to Tahrir Square in Cairo to join the protests against president Hosni Mubarak. He had been...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 29, 2011

Thanksgiving: food, family, but hold the 'chong chew' turkey

We are flying what seems like dangerously low over Boston Harbor. From my window seat, I see waves crash into rocks, spraying foam, and colorful boats with flapping sails. After touching down safely in the city, the pilot wishes us all a happy Thanksgiving.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Nov 29, 2011

Jose Alvares finds Portugal-Japan links

Jose Alvares has tried to "reconnect" the Portuguese and Japanese cultures over the last 43 years he has spent in Japan.
COMMENTARY
Nov 28, 2011

How to ramrod an American congressman

A widespread perception that members of the U.S. Congress respond increasingly to special interests has received additional support from a person who knows something about it.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2011

Australia's change of tack on uranium exports will help to refashion Asia-Pacific strategy

The decision by the Australian government to revoke its ban on uranium exports to India has underlined the rapidly changing strategic reality in the Asian strategic landscape.
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2011

Watanabe instrumental in forging cozy political-news media relationship

Tsuneo Watanabe, chairman and chief editor of the Yomiuri Shimbun who doubles as chairman of the Yomiuri Giants baseball team, is one of the most influential figures in Japan as he reigns not only over the nation's biggest media empire but also acts as a political fixer.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2011

Keeping the eurozone intact

As the economist Mario Monti's new government takes office in Italy, much is at stake — for the country, for Europe and for the global economy.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 19, 2011

Blatter's remark on racism utterly unacceptable

It was not a slip of the tongue. He was not, as he claimed, misunderstood. Sepp Blatter, who sadly is still the president of FIFA, does not make such mistakes. Despite coming out with the ramblings of an idiot, Blatter is intelligent, a former lawyer who re-invented football politics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 11, 2011

"Emerging Master 1: Makoto Aida "Be it Art or not Art"

Tokyo Wonder Site begins its "Emerging Master" series with Makoto Aida — the artist who famously goaded Disney lawyers with crazed and sexualized depictions of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and who has garnered controversy as much as acclaim. But with his anti-establishment career and a number of challenges...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 11, 2011

'Contagion' / 'Moneyball'

Cinema imagines the apocalypse on a regular basis, touching on everything from Mayan calendar-related polar shifts to the ever-popular walking dead. Few films, however, dare to deal with scenarios that could actually happen; that's what makes Steven Soderbergh's "Contagion," which looks at a deadly global...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 7, 2011

Occupy Tokyo lacks focus but still demands change

"Tokyo wo senkyo seyo! (東京を占拠せよ! Occupy Tokyo!")
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2011

Wrong timing by the Euro-skeptics

For Britain's Euro-skeptics, the current eurozone crisis has an air of inevitability and opportunity. The crisis validates their view of the single currency as a straitjacket forcing disparate economies into an unworkable union.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2011

Taxation alone won't save Japan from its public debts

Jun Azumi has joined the chorus of those promising the imminent prospect of a rise in Japan's consumption tax. As finance minister, one would think — hope, perhaps pray — that Azumi should know what he is talking about.
Reader Mail
Nov 3, 2011

Nonsense from a poison pen

As much as I admire Debito Arudou for his efforts to point out flaws in the Japanese society and politics, he let himself get carried away this time.

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