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JAPAN
Apr 25, 2014

TOEIC, TOEFL axed as route to U.K. visa

Two of the most popular English-language proficiency tests in Japan can no longer be used to obtain student visas to Britain due to fraud in the test-taking process.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2014

Costs keep mounting for idled reactors

Since March 2011, the government has focused on the cost of cleaning up after Fukushima, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Now, the bill is coming due for another unbudgeted consequence of that calamity — shutting down the nation's 48 remaining nuclear reactors for costly safety reviews that...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Apr 25, 2014

Phelps finishes second behind Lochte in 100m butterfly

Michael Phelps suffered a narrow loss to old rival Ryan Lochte in his comeback to competitive swimming on Thursday, but still showed enough to suggest he will be a force to be reckoned with.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2014

Barack Obama: America's adolescent president

U.S. President Barack Obama talks like an arrested-development adolescent, using teenage tropes such as invoking straw men, truncating arguments and showing righteous indignation when confronted with disagreement.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 25, 2014

Serendipity aids Egypt's toil to recover stolen heritage

When French Egyptologist Olivier Perdu saw a fragment of a pharaonic statue on display in a Brussels gallery last year, he assumed it was a twin of an ancient masterpiece he had examined in Egypt a quarter of a century earlier.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2014

Obama assures Abe on Senkakus

President Barack Obama says Thursday that he wants to see a dispute between China and Japan over islands in the East China Sea resolved peacefully, while affirming that the mutual security treaty with Japan applies to the islands.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2014

Skin divers turn to tourism to stem the tide

At the Sea People restaurant in Shima, a coastal hamlet in Mie Prefecture, sea diver Machiyo Yamashita wants a piece of a tourism industry dominated by the cities that sapped her town's vitality by luring away its youth.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2014

China holding three workers, Marubeni says

Three employees at one of Marubeni Corp.'s grain trading units in China have been detained by authorities, the trading house said Thursday, a move sources said was prompted by allegations it evaded taxes on soybean imports.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 23, 2014

China won't swallow 'bitter pill' of ceding sovereign rights: military official

China will not "swallow the bitter pill" of ceding its sovereign rights to others, a senior military official told foreign naval leaders Wednesday, as the country takes an increasingly assertive approach to guarding its maritime territory.
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 23, 2014

Strong start sees new-look Vissel avoid past mistakes

Past disappointments may have persuaded Vissel Kobe fans to temper their expectations when the club unveiled its latest signings over the offseason, but Saturday's table-topping win over Kashima Antlers has surely prompted a rethink.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 23, 2014

Bambitious excited about future after debut season

Nobody realistically expected the Bambitious Nara to win 35 or 40 games in their inaugural season. After all, an expansion team must endure a lot of growing pains as a first-year franchise during a challenging 52-game schedule.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 23, 2014

Bambitious excited about future after debut season

Nobody realistically expected the Bambitious Nara to win 35 or 40 games in their inaugural season. After all, an expansion team must endure a lot of growing pains as a first-year franchise during a challenging 52-game schedule.
BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2014

Banker's bribe trial scrutinized

A former Deutsche Bank AG salesman's admission in a Japanese court that he bribed a pension fund executive with lavish entertainment could attract the attention of prosecutors in other countries.
BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2014

Japan may pressure U.S. via Canada pork talks

Japan, the world's largest pork importer, may accelerate tariff talks with Canada to increase pressure on the United States to ease demands for cuts in agricultural protection, the nation's biggest hog farmers group said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 23, 2014

French to the fore on SPAC's 2014 festival menu

It is often said that "variety is the spice of life," but in the multifarious world of theater it is more a staple than a special condiment. That said, "variety" is the keyword chosen by Satoshi Miyagi, artistic director of the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC), to capture the upcoming and especially...
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2014

Resuscitating Japan-China ties

It's high time leaders of Japan and China stopped fanning the flames of narrow-minded nationalism and started talking to each other in an effort to put bilateral relations back on track.
Reader Mail
Apr 23, 2014

Building 'sister-government' ties

This year our city, Hadano (Kanagawa Prefecture), celebrates 50 years of friendship with Pasadena, Texas. Pasadena's official good will mission group visited Hadano this month in memory of our sister-city history. Exchange programs involving students, teachers, citizens, music groups, sports and so on...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 23, 2014

Top U.S. court upholds Michigan ban on college affirmative action

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday further undermined the use of racial preferences in higher education by upholding a voter-approved Michigan law that banned the practice in decisions on which students to admit to state universities.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2014

Defensive realignment with U.S. a balancing act for Abe

For Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, exercising the right to collective self-defense will help Japan become what he calls a "normal" country on a more equal footing with the United States.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 22, 2014

Drones alone won't destroy al-Qaida in Yemen

An intense two days of airstrikes on al-Qaida in Yemen may have killed or wounded some of its commanders, but drones alone are unlikely to eradicate the threat the group poses to Yemenis and the West.
MORE SPORTS / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Apr 22, 2014

Ex-NFL star Johnson happy for new shot with CFL

Don't you just love serendipitous dovetailing?

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan