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JAPAN / Politics
Mar 5, 2013

Rift-plagued Nippon Ishin eyes 200 for poll

Although more than 200 people nationwide have expressed interest in running as Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) candidates in the July Upper House election, internal tensions have once again raised questions about the party's stability.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 4, 2013

Tense times in Japan's relationships with its neighbors

It's a dangerous, unpredictable world. Twice in January Chinese warships in the East China Sea challenged Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces patrols in a manner deemed threatening. And on Feb. 12 came North Korea's nuclear test.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Mar 2, 2013

Kawai out as coach of Hamamatsu

In the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world of pro basketball, Ryuji Kawai's 60-30 record in 90 games as head coach wasn't good enough.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2013

Greek budget surplus could end up playing into the hands of the anti-austerity opposition

Greece reported recently that it has reached a primary budget surplus, the Holy Grail of austerity, meaning that once you exclude interest payments on the country's massive debts, the country is finally taking in more revenue than it spends.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2013

Federal court: the wrong venue for a drone review

It would be a very bad idea to assign federal judges to the task of monitoring, mediating and approving the killer instincts of the U.S. government.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2013

Bidding farewell to Hillary Clinton, for now ...

As Hillary Clinton prepares to step down as U.S. Secretary of State, millions of Americans would like to see her write another political act — as president.
Reader Mail
Jan 26, 2013

When 'patriotism' is a liability

I don't have an opinion about the legitimacy of NHK dismissing French employee Emmanuelle Bodin after she fled the country following the March 11, 2011, earthquake and subsequent nuclear plant disaster. (She is now suing the broadcaster over her dismissal.) But I do have an opinion about how the dismissal...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 16, 2013

Rewriting history is unwise

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has appointed a Cabinet that, according to press reports, contains a number of ministers who want to rewrite the history of the 20th century. They, including the new minister of education, are reported as demanding the rescinding of the statement made in 1995 by former Prime...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 8, 2013

Xenophobia finds fertile soil in web anonymity

As diplomatic strains with China and South Korea worsen over territorial disputes, more and more Japanese are using the relative anonymity of cyberspace to vent their political spleens online.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Dec 31, 2012

Supreme copout: twisted justification for guns

Suppose a Seung-Hui Cho, Jared Lee Loughner, James Eagan Holmes or an Adam Lanza shot and killed or seriously wounded any of the families of John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Would any of them have given different opinions in their 2008 and 2010 decisions?...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2012

A time to reflect on pressing economic challenges

Sir John Templeton was a legend in his own lifetime who made billions of dollars from the sensible and wise way he invested money. In these difficult times it is apposite to quote Rule No. 12 of Templeton's legendary golden rules for investment success: "Begin with a prayer," he advised.
EDITORIALS
Dec 19, 2012

Mr. Berlusconi's attempt to return

That didn't take long. Only a year after being forced from office in the wake of economic collapse and prostitution scandals, and after vowing that his days as a national leader were over, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said that he will run for office again next year.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 17, 2012

For Tokyo, Osaka voters, election revolved around economy

The multitude of parties and issues on the table Sunday made it difficult for voters to make up their minds, according to those who spoke with The Japan Times on the streets of Tokyo and Osaka.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 12, 2012

'Republic of Samsung' viewed warily at home

FOCUS
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 9, 2012

World still waits for Japan to stop being apathetic about whaling

It was hardly the result the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) hoped for, or expected.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 30, 2012

Behind the no-nuclear option

The triple-meltdown crisis that began last year at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant jarred the public out of its complacent attitude toward nuclear power and every other assurance made by the government and Japan Inc.
COMMENTARY
Oct 17, 2012

Give nuclear power a larger role

Roughly a year and a half after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the Japanese government at a Cabinet meeting on Sept. 19 adopted its basic policy on new energy and environment strategies crafted as a response to the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant accident. The government had initially intended...
Reader Mail
Oct 4, 2012

Retroactive boundary changes

It is remarkable to see the investment now being made by the Chinese government to influence even international public opinion regarding its claim to the Senkaku Islands. The recent purchase of a two-page full color advertisement in the opening section of the Los Angeles Times illustrates my point.
COMMENTARY
Sep 29, 2012

Two missed opportunities for Japan in island disputes

Since I have been requested to express my views on the territorial issues concerning the Takeshima islets and Senkaku Islands on several occasions recently, I thought it opportune to compile them into one coherent argument.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 23, 2012

Japan's nuclear phaseout: Is it all smoke and mirrors?

On Sept. 14, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's administration announced that Japan would end nuclear-power generation by 2040. Five days later his Cabinet failed to endorse the new policy; but on the same day, Sept. 19, Trade Minister Yukio Edano insisted that the government would still act "based on"...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 9, 2012

Putin's siege-mentality Russia now firmly in the grip of a 'cold civil war'

There is an old Soviet-era Russian joke about two rival groups of archeologists who cannot agree on the age of a mummy discovered in Central Asia. At their wits' end, they call in the NKVD — the name of the dreaded KGB in Stalin's time — to settle the dispute.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2012

Noda unswayed by talks with rally leaders

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda should listen to the voices of the people and abolish all atomic reactors as soon as possible, organizers of the weekly antinuclear rallies told the nation's leader in a face-to-face meeting Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 3, 2012

Pushing Seoul-Tokyo forward

There is an old Russian proverb that applies to current Japan-South Korea (ROK) relations: "Forget the past and lose an eye; dwell on the past and lose both eyes!"

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami