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COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2015

Automation doesn't always improve productivity

Common sense says a business that invests in automation will be more productive, but the statistics tell a different story.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2015

Escaping the refugee crisis

The best way to help refugees would be for affluent countries to provide much more support for the poorer countries that are sheltering the vast majority of them.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Sep 2, 2015

Olympics logo scandal highlights power of the Internet critic

As news broke Tuesday that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics organizing committee would scrap its official logo after weeks of plagiarism allegations surrounding the designer Kenjiro Sano, users of the popular 2channel gossip website posted a flurry of messages congratulating themselves.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 2, 2015

China's leaders welcome chance to distract attention with war parade

The noise of tanks and thousands of marching feet may be intended to stiffen the confidence of Chinese citizens, but Tokyo's reaction may be more subdued.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 2, 2015

'Violent outbreaks' feared after 13 yakuza brass split

A century after its founding, the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest and most notorious crime syndicate, appears to have expelled 13 of its approximately 70 affiliated gang leaders Tuesday, creating local fears of related gang violence.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 2, 2015

Olympian effort needed to save Tokyo's, Asia's heritage

The Hotel Okura is just the latest victim of Tokyo's penchant for tearing down its storied past to make way for a generic future.
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2015

Yet another opposition shake-up

The breakup of Ishin no To opens up a new chapter in the saga of the opposition camp, which has remained splintered since the DPJ fell from power in 2012.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 1, 2015

Hashimoto continues to wrestle for support

The breakup of Ishin no To and the announcement by Toru Hashimoto that he plans to launch a new party once again exposes the deep rift between his Osaka followers and his detractors.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 1, 2015

Ex-U.S. Secret Service agent admits $800,000 bitcoin theft during Silk Road drug probe

A former U.S. Secret Service agent pleaded guilty on Monday to diverting to his personal account over $800,000 worth of bitcoins during an investigation into online drug marketplace Silk Road.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Sep 1, 2015

EU asylum rules strained as refugee throngs ride the rails to Vienna, points west

Trains carrying hundreds of migrants started arriving in Vienna on Monday after Austrian authorities appeared to give up trying to apply European Union rules by filtering out refugees who had already claimed asylum in Hungary.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 31, 2015

Ukraine's parliament backs draft law giving east special status

Ukraine's parliament on Monday voted for constitutional changes to give its eastern regions a special status that it hopes will blunt their separatist drive, but divisions among pro-Western lawmakers suggested the road to making them law will be rough.
LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
Aug 31, 2015

Let's discuss Mt. Gox and virtual currency

This week's featured article
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 31, 2015

Iowa poll puts Clinton support rate under 50% for first time; rival Sanders closing gap

U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders narrowed the gap with leading Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in a recent opinion poll in the political bellwether state of Iowa as support for the front-runner fell below 50 percent for the first time this year.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Aug 30, 2015

Should SEALDs student activists worry about not getting hired?

Japanese labor law effectively allows companies to discriminate against prospective employees based on their beliefs.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 29, 2015

Trump's 'yellow peril' jibes break with GOP script

In his recent Rolling Stone essay, Matt Taibbi immortalizes the race for the Republican Party presidential nomination, as a freaky spectacle that is "like watching 17 platypuses try to mount the queen of England. You can't tear your eyes away from it."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2015

Tokyo native looks to put innovation, not money, into creative sports open to all

While Japan looks forward to hosting the world's biggest and glitziest sports event five years from now, a Tokyo man is promoting a series of innovative, quirky sports that are played simply for the fun of it.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 28, 2015

Father of Virginia TV reporter slain on air vows to fight for gun control

The father of a Virginia journalist killed in an on-air shooting said Thursday he would become a crusader for gun control, but analysts said there was little likelihood of legislation on the federal level any time soon, despite changes in some states.
BUSINESS
Aug 28, 2015

Troubles in Russia, China slow Kremlin's pivot to Asia

A growing economic crisis in Russia and a growth slowdown in China that has rattled world markets means about $113 billion worth of joint projects ranging from gas pipelines to power grids have been stalled or delayed.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 27, 2015

'Evil, mental illness not mutually exclusive': Gunman gets 3,318 years for cinema massacre

Condemning movie massacre gunman James Holmes to 12 life sentences and the maximum 3,318 years in prison for his rampage in a midnight screening of a Batman film, a Colorado judge said on Wednesday that evil and mental illness are not mutually exclusive.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Aug 26, 2015

Anti-Abe feeling grows in SDF

Sentiment against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is rising in the SDF over fears that his pending security legislation will increase the risk of going to war.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Aug 26, 2015

Abe's historically selective WWII speech gets borderline failing grade

I couldn't help asking myself what grade Prime Minister Abe would have got had he made his presentation in one of my Japanese studies classes. The answer, I regret to say, is C- or D+.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 26, 2015

Backpacking women take back the mountains

If you've read Cheryl Strayed's memoir, "Wild: Lost and Found on the Pacific Crest Trail," you'll be familiar with her particular tone: a combination of lyrical feminism and gritty self-help manual. Her book chronicles the three months she spent hiking the United States' Pacific Crest Trail (fondly known...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2015

New nuclear fuel bank a welcome development

The new Kazakh fuel bank is a significant step toward achieving a world free of nuclear weapons.
EDITORIALS
Aug 25, 2015

Defense Ministry internal document

The Abe administration needs to provide sufficient explanations on the SDF's activities and operations related to the bills to the Diet to prevent the SDF from making decisions while keeping the Diet and the public in the dark.
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Aug 25, 2015

As tensions rise, North Korea's Kim relies on old playbook in quest to control nation's fate

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's military standoff against South Korea, with his threats to annihilate the government in Seoul, was not just about the loudspeakers blasting propaganda and K-pop tunes over the demilitarized zone.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 25, 2015

Rout seen as encouraging Japan banks' flight to U.S. treasuries

Japanese banks were already returning to U.S. Treasuries before a plunge in global markets made Federal Reserve rate increases an even more distant prospect.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 24, 2015

Politicizing of international justice and flight MH17

International politics are getting in the way of truly impartial, independent and credible international investigation into the crash of flight MH17.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?