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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 30, 2016

Sayaka Murata and the art of neutrality

When 36-year-old Sayaka Murata recently won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for literature, the media latched onto the author's background rather than the novel itself. Murata continues to work part-time as a convenience store clerk, and gains inspiration for characters and plots from her work environment....
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 29, 2016

A brutal majority in Kashmir and elsewhere

The rise of a rabid majoritarianism is part of a larger rejection of politics based on reason and dialogue.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 11, 2016

Exit polls show Japan's young voters wanted to go with the flow by voting for coalition

Media exit polls show that a majority of those in their 20s or younger voted for the Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner, Komeito, in Sunday's Upper House election. Observers said the result doesn't necessarily reflect their active support for the ruling coalition but rather their wish to...
JAPAN / Politics / DECISION 2016
Jul 8, 2016

Teachers say Japan's young voters need to have political awareness nurtured in schools

Three 18-year-old high school students at Shinagawa Joshi Gakuin in Tokyo said they were excited to cast their ballots in Sunday's Upper House election, being among the nation's first teenagers to join the electorate.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2016

Is Chancellor Angela Merkel on the brink?

The internal EU and German domestic debates are testing Merkel's leadership as never before.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 21, 2016

The second life of Kakuei Tanaka

In July 1976, the month when 218 million Americans were feting their nation's 200th birthday, dramatic events were taking place on other continents also. On July 4 — America's Independence Day — an Israeli commando force staged a dramatic raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing all but four of...
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2016

Trumpism suffers a loss in London

Trumpism, or the politics of hate and fear, suffered a major defeat last week with the election of a Muslim as mayor of London.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 28, 2016

Canadians gear up to handle any influx of Americans if Trump wins presidency

Americans have said it many times before when eyeing a White House prospect they view as unpalatable: "If that guy is elected president, I'm moving to Canada!"
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 28, 2016

Ousted Thai leader Thaksin's influence shows signs of waning

Sitting in her busy Bangkok noodle shop, Bunruen Klinnak professes "love" for Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a 2006 military coup and later fled abroad.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Jan 20, 2016

Hatoyama dreams of a Japan anchored within a united Asia

Former leader apologizes for his failures as PM and shares his views on Fukushima, Tokyo 2020 and his hopes for Okinawa, Japan and the wider region.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Dec 9, 2015

Young Abe: focused student, proud Mustang owner

Long before Abenomics or his first stint as prime minister, long before he'd risen through the ranks of the Japanese government, there was once a reserved 24-year-old young man who drove through the streets of Los Angeles in search of cultural illumination. It was 1978, and Shinzo Abe was a student at...
EDITORIALS
Nov 29, 2015

Macri's moment has come

With Argentina's legislature still controlled by the Peronists, new President Mauricio Macri faces an uphill battle to implement the reforms necessary to turn the country's economy around.
EDITORIALS
Nov 25, 2015

Ramifications of Osaka elections

Osaka Ishin no Kai's big win in Sunday's elections had national repercussions, but it still needs to work with the opposition to get anything done at the local level.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 31, 2015

Changing the culture of long working hours key to increasing Japan's female workforce

The plight of Japan's working women has improved dramatically over the past two decades. Maternity leave has become the norm, slots at nurseries have increased by more than 340,000 and the percentage of female executives or women serving as department chiefs at companies has tripled.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jul 21, 2015

Campaign group SEALDs hooking Japan's youth with jazzy placards, fliers

The sticky, humid night did not stop thousands of infuriated Japanese from gathering outside the Diet on July 15. Many held eye-catching placards that displayed messages such as, “Give peace a chance” and “Our future, our choice” to protest the approval of two security bills at the special committee...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 27, 2015

Visualizing Japan's 'ugly' online desires with cultural critic Hiroki Azuma

In 2009, critic and philosopher Hiroki Azuma had a dream. It was a recurring dream (as befitting of someone well-versed in the psychoanalysis of Freud and Jacques Lacan), and riddled with complexities. In his own words, which open the introductory chapter of "General Will 2.0: Rousseau, Freud, Google,"...
EDITORIALS
Jun 12, 2015

Erdogan rebuked — for now

Last weekend's elections in Turkey dealt President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a stunning setback and herald a period of instability in Turkish politics.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2015

Turkey's Kurds poised to play a pivotal role

Last weekend's elections in Turkey have given the Kurds an opportunity to make a much larger impact than ever before and dealt President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a setback from which he is unlikely to recover.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 3, 2015

Why U.S. billionaires may be unable to buy 2016 election

Florida Senator Marco Rubio has one; Texas Senator Ted Cruz has one; even former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, considered a long-shot for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, has a billionaire in his corner. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has two.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 18, 2015

Osaka referendum causes turbulence for LDP, Komeito

Many in Japan's political world are asking themselves what the effect of Sunday's referendum in Osaka will be, and whether it will indeed mark the end of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's political career.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 26, 2015

LDP fails to live up to its name

The Abe administration and the Liberal Democratic Party have gone too far in their abuse of power.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / LOCAL POLLS '15
Apr 20, 2015

Naturalized Kabukicho denizen hopes to teach China lesson in democracy

Komaki Lee gained fame as a pioneering 'Kabukicho guide' who showed foreign visitors the ins and outs of the capital's seedy nightlife entertainment district in Shinjuku Ward. Now he's going into politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2015

Risks to democrats who nod to blurred truth

Democratic societies are faced with the temptation to close one's eyes and ears to inconvenient truths. For example, we do not want to admit that Russian President Vladimir Putin has long since crossed the line into war with regard to Ukraine.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 23, 2014

Hashimoto quits Ishin leadership

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto resigns as co-leader of Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party) to focus on local elections in the spring, a move likely to further weaken the party's clout at the national level.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 23, 2014

Hashimoto to resign as co-leader of Ishin no To

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto reportedly plans to resign as co-leader of Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party) to focus on local elections in the spring, a move likely to further weaken the party's clout at the national level.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 23, 2014

UKIP victory sets stage for EU upheaval

Some 16,867 voters in southeast England ushered in a season of European political tumult that in an extreme scenario could lead to Britain exiting the European Union, Greece quitting the euro or Catalonia seceding from Spain.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 13, 2014

China not ready to write off the Shinawatras

Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatras' recent trip to China and Japan should remind the Thai junta that no country will put all its eggs in one basket.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 21, 2014

With crash probe, China turns up heat on ex-security chief Zhou

Little is known about the exact circumstances in which Wang Shuhua was killed. What has been reported, in the Chinese media, is that she died in a road accident sometime in 2000, shortly after she was divorced from her husband. And that at least one vehicle with a military license plate may have been...

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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