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EDITORIALS
Feb 19, 2014

Data highlights fragility of recovery

The uptick in Japanese consumer spending in the fourth quarter of 2013 should be regarded as a result of the rush to make purchases before the consumption tax rises from 5 to 8 percent, beginning in April, rather than as an optimistic sign of economic recovery.
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 19, 2014

Crazy honey badgers don't care what you think, period

Somewhere in South Africa's Kruger National Park, Brian Jones and Stoffel continue their battle for supremacy.
EDITORIALS
Feb 18, 2014

Reunions at last, for Koreans

February has been a good month for Northeast Asian diplomacy in light of the Chinese and Taiwanese governments' meeting officially for the first time since 1949 and the South and North Korean governments' holding their highest-level discussions in seven years. Pyongyang gave the go-ahead for long-postponed family reunions this week.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Feb 16, 2014

Prepping for university straight from the crib

Aiko has just finished bouncing like a rabbit toward a white line. She has already identified photographs of fruit and will soon be told a story about a panda, after which she'll have to draw a picture and offer an ending. How she does with these activities could determine where she attends university,...
EDITORIALS
Feb 16, 2014

In the spirits of growth

Suntory Holdings Ltd.'s deal to buy Beam Inc. of the U.S. is the latest indication that heretofore risk-averse Japanese firms are becoming more aggressive in expanding overseas operations through mergers and acquisitions.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 15, 2014

Culture and nature vie over ancient hinoki

If you're looking for a fine piece of wood, you'd be hard put to improve on a slab of hinoki (Hinoki cypress, Chamaecyparis obtusa) from the Kiso Valley straddling Nagano and Gifu prefectures.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 15, 2014

A tale of two Abes: PM's rosy view jars with life of toil seen in poison case

Did the frozen-food poisoner have some obscure notion of 'justice' in mind? Might it have been his way of saying to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, 'Japan is not back; Japan won't be back until working for a living does not entail the sacrifice of all human dignity
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2014

Wind lobby raps environment reports

Japan's effort to obtain more power from wind turbines is being held up by requirements that force developers to conduct environmental impact assessments, undermining government support for the industry, according to a lobby group.
EDITORIALS
Feb 12, 2014

Abe's Russia initiative

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should realize that his revisionist perception of Japan's war in the 1930s and '40s is putting Japan in a weak position diplomatically, especially with regard to its negotiations with Russia to resolve a northern territorial issue.
EDITORIALS
Feb 12, 2014

Prioritizing medical research

The Abe administration is seeking to establish a new system for the nation's medical research in which the government takes the lead role in pushing large-scale projects in the development of new drugs and medical technology.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2014

Big money backs wrong man in India

There is a great, virtual storm blowing through India today to make Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, seem like the nation's natural and inevitable leader.
EDITORIALS
Feb 10, 2014

Obstacles to green energy expansion

The review of the feed-in tariff system should not be perfunctory. The government should make serious efforts to remove obstacles to the expansion of renewable energy sources.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Feb 10, 2014

Tokyo model community melds fashion and compassion

Male model Dean Newcombe runs what surely must be the most photogenic all-volunteer organization around. And although some of the volunteers are indeed fashion models, the 'model' in Intrepid Model Adventures refers to role models as well as the catwalk variety.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 9, 2014

Tokyo voters split by priority shift to welfare

Media outlets at home and abroad are playing up the Tokyo gubernatorial election as an effective public referendum on whether Japan should ditch its atomic plants, focusing on the battle between anti-nuclear candidate Morihiro Hosokawa and ex-health minister Yoichi Masuzoe, who is backed by pro-nuclear...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2014

China's credit boom raises flags on risk levels

The growth of credit in China at a breakneck pace, including the spike in local-government debt by 70 percent since 2009, is raising serious concerns about the level of risk in China's financial system.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 5, 2014

Amendment not needed for collective defense: Abe

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reiterates his administration's position that the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution on its own gives Japan the right to collective self-defense.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2014

Chronic fatigue plagues nursing staff nationwide

Over 70 percent of nursing staff suffer from chronic fatigue, and 75.2 percent thought about quitting their job, according to a nationwide survey of workers in the nursing field.
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2014

New horizon in stem-cell research

A team of scientists led by 30-year-old Dr. Haruko Obokata has challenged the established theory in biology that it is impossible to reprogram specialized cells to become stem cells without tampering with cell nuclei.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Feb 3, 2014

The housing conundrum: To own or not to own

The population is not increasing and there's a shrinking pool of potential buyers for the home you bought 20 years ago, or 10 years ago, or even yesterday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 2, 2014

Give foreign nurses in Japan a boost by treating accord as long-term remedy for labor shortages

If there is any seriousness in overcoming the nursing shortage in Japan, the welfare of foreign nurses should be prioritized, including allowing further visa extensions.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 1, 2014

Japan: Why kill whales off Antarctica?

The Japanese whaling fleet — this year just a factory ship, three catchers and what is being called a "surveillance" vessel — left Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture in secret on Dec. 9, 2013 bound for the Southern Ocean and its annual hunt that will keep it away from home through March.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Feb 1, 2014

War against stalkers broadens its aims

If you would, dear reader, please take a moment of your time today and let Prime Minister Shinzo Abe know that you'd like him to treat Japan's stalking problem seriously. Let him know that you'd like the Diet to make real laws that would protect the women who are subject to harassment, humiliation, injury...
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Feb 1, 2014

The Tattoo Murder Case

Still reeling from the effects of war, Tokyo, in 1948, was ripe with intrigue, not to mention men and women capable of plotting monstrous crimes. Akimitsu Takagi's crime mystery "The Tattoo Murder Case" was first published that year and his gritty scenes of the city are described with the authenticity...

Longform

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