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Japan Times
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Jan 14, 2017

Kansai sizes up ways to work with a Trump administration

In 3½ weeks, Kansai's business leaders will gather in Kyoto for their annual summit. Some of the world's most recognizable firms will send their top executives to the two-day retreat. There, they will rub shoulders with local politicians, academics, and "business consultant" types who, like fortune...
EDITORIALS
Jan 14, 2017

Join U.N. nuclear arms ban talks

Japan's standing in the international community will decline if it is seen as defending the interests of the world's nuclear powers.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2017

Trump's crazed transition is making history

Judging by his post-election transition — which has been, hands down, the strangest in U.S. history — all we really know about how Donald Trump will govern is that we must expect the unexpected.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2017

Rural 'furusato nozei' beer, beef thank-yous costing urban Japan much-needed revenues

Want a free case of craft beer? If you send ¥30,000 or more of your taxes to the town of Yamanouchi in Nagano Prefecture, they'll send you 24 bottles of a locally brewed beer to say thanks.
EDITORIALS
Jan 12, 2017

Keep 'comfort women' deal alive

Tokyo and Seoul should take careful steps to prevent an escalation of diplomatic tensions and keep the comfort women agreement alive.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 12, 2017

Mali eradicates Guinea worm in global milestone against parasitic disease

Mali has eliminated Guinea worm disease bringing the world a step closer to eradicating the debilitating parasitic disease that is now only endemic in three African countries, the U.S.-based Carter Center said, citing provisional government figures.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 11, 2017

LDP team charged with drafting casino rules to have first meeting this month

The team, led by Lower House member Takeshi Iwaya, will examine a host of issues related to establishing integrated resort facilities, which include casinos and hotels.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 11, 2017

Secondhand bookshop exorcizing ghosts of the past

The first floor of the crumbling art deco building where my daughter lives in Riga, Latvia, houses a well-patronized secondhand English bookstore. I've bought several titles there. It led me to wondering why a business of this kind, a social space for readers, can thrive in the tiny Latvian capital,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 11, 2017

Views from Nagoya: What are your resolutions and/or hopes for 2017?

Stephen Carr asked people in Sakae, the entertainment district of Nagoya, what their resolutions and/or hopes were for 2017.
EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2017

Trump meddling in Toyota's affairs

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's tweet criticizing Toyota Motor Corp.'s plan to build a new car plant in Mexico for exports to the North American market — threatening a heavy border tax if the top Japanese automaker goes ahead with the plan — is an unacceptable act of intervention in private-sector...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 11, 2017

Trump taps skeptic Kennedy to launch review of vaccines

Vaccination skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he will oversee a presidential panel to review vaccine safety and science at the request of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, in a move likely to reignite debate over now-debunked research that tied childhood immunizations to autism.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 10, 2017

Xi to lead delegation of China's wealthiest executives to Davos

President Xi Jinping will become the first Chinese head of state to address the World Economic Forum, leading an entourage of business executives to Switzerland next week as the country seeks a larger role in shaping the global economic order.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jan 10, 2017

Kerry apologizes for past firings of gay U.S. State Dept. staff

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday apologized to hundreds of State Department employees who were fired after the start of the Cold War for being gay in what is known as the "lavender scare."
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 7, 2017

Heavy metal in Japan: Love of craft runs deep

Although 2017 is the Year of the Fire Rooster, fire is not the only element destined to influence the next 12 months. Each of the 12 Chinese zodiac years is governed by one of five elements: wood, fire, earth, water and metal, resulting in 2017 taking the element of fire. According to the Five Elements...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 7, 2017

'Falling into the Dragon's Mouth': a poetic tale of overcoming school bullies

In her third verse novel, Japan-based writer Holly Thompson tackles the topical issue of bullying. Her protagonist, likable American sixth-grader Jason Parker, struggles to fit in at his Japanese elementary school after moving from America to a seaside community on the Shonan coast in Kanagawa Prefecture....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 6, 2017

Japan recalls envoys over new 'comfort women' statue in Busan

The Japanese ambassador to South Korea is recalled over a new statue representing the wartime “comfort women” near the Japanese Consul in Busan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 6, 2017

Richie Hawtin: Pairing Japan's best sake with techno

Richie Hawtin needs no introduction to anyone familiar with electronic music. For 25 years, this Berlin-based, English-Canadian DJ has been at the forefront of techno and he continues to play at major music and art events around the planet.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 6, 2017

Death of doctor in Fukushima disaster zone hospital throws patients’ futures into question

The only hospital to brave Fukushima's radiation woes loses its only full-time doctor, throwing its patients' fates into doubt.
Reader Mail
Jan 6, 2017

Abe's important message of peace

In his Counterpoint column headlined "Is Abe the wrong messenger for Pearl Harbor?" in the Dec. 25 edition, Jeff Kingston makes many factual errors, and his assertions, based on misunderstandings, are very arbitrary.
JAPAN / GEARING UP FOR THE GAMES
Jan 5, 2017

Advanced tech used by Paralympic athletes could throw perception of disabilities into question

On Dec. 10, some 40 elementary school children showed up for a running workshop at Shin-Toyosu Brillia Running Stadium, a brand new indoor track facility opened the day before in Tokyo's waterfront Toyosu district.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 4, 2017

'Nerve': For the watchers

Japanese millennials aren't interested in cars, sex or marriage according to economists and business magazines such as Toyo Keizai. Yawn — so, what else is new? Every night I go to sleep hoping to wake up to a world where people go on proper dates and then grow old together and hold hands in cafes...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2017

Putin's Russia: the enigma continues

In the end Vladimir Putin will be gone and Russia will return to a different kind of greatness.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 3, 2017

Japan representative to Taiwan says bilateral ties are at their 'best'

Ties between Japan and Taiwan are at their best, Japan's representative on the island said at the unveiling of a new name for Japan's representative office that has riled China.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 3, 2017

Trump tweets Chicago must seek federal help if no progress is made in cutting murder rate

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said in a Twitter message Monday that Chicago's mayor must ask for U.S. government help if the city fails to reduce its homicide rate, which hit a 20-year high last year.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 3, 2017

How ties to an 'equestrian princess' landed Samsung at the center of the Park scandal in South Korea

Samsung Electronics' sponsorship of the equestrian daughter of a longtime friend of President Park Geun-hye has helped to land South Korea's top company in the center of the country's influence-peddling scandal.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb